Search results

Factors explaining how Television New Zealand (TVNZ) managed its way to success in the face of a radically deregulated business environment are examined. To understand the scope of the challenge a brief history of TVNZ is outlined; the values and problems which that history had produced by the mid‐1980s are discussed; and the strategy pursued to change the legacy and the results TVNZ is achieving today are detailed. Transforming TVNZ into a modern, outward looking company required a change in organisational structure; reforming staff attitudes, structure and accounting systems; introducing total costing and zero‐based budgeting; and breaking the company into strategic business units. A more dynamic marketing policy was adopted – giving the customers exactly what they wanted; greater emphasis on product differentiation, with the adoption of “brands” for its two channels; and an aggressive advertising campaign using company videotapes and publicity in the National Business Review . TVNZ is now the undisputed market leader, with its channels ranking first and second in the popularity stakes. In conclusion, Michael Cox, Group Internal Audit Manager at TVNZ, provides a brief internal audit perspective.

We examined the relationship between employee equity compensation, incentive compensation, and firm growth using a sample of 480 privately held firms from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s database of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) winners. Using frameworks from agency and motivation theories, we argued that larger percentages of both equity- and incentivebased compensation allocated to top managers and employees would be associated with firm growth. After controlling for firm and industry effects, the results of the study showed that while the firms in the sample preferred providing incentive compensation, providing equity compensation for employees was a positively significant predictor of firm growth over a three-year period. These findings suggest that prescriptions for growth in larger firms developed from agency theory also may be applicable to entrepreneurial firms, and founder/CEOs seeking to grow their firms should consider using equity compensation to motivate their current employees and to attract new ones.

Some months ago a national organisation established to keep a watchful eye on the Nation's diet expressed concern over the eating trends of people in what to them appeared to be developing inbalances of necessary nutrient factors and the inadeuacy not so much of calories and energy values but in the nature and quality of main food factors. It was recommended that the national diet should be improved, but the authorities pointed to the National Food Survey results to show that the diet was not deficient; that the average daily intake of protein, vitamins, minerals and overall energy requirements were satisfied; all of which is true for the not‐too‐generous levels set. Even the pensioner households included in the Survey sample appear well‐fed. What causes concern is the year‐by‐year decrease in staple foods consumed—milk, red meat, bread, fresh vegetables—and the heavy reliance on refined, processed foods. In its annual reports on NFS reviews, the BFJ has almost monotonously referred to this downward trend. Individual NFS Reports do not reveal any serious deficiencies, as yet, but in the trend over the years—and herein lies the real value of the Survey and its data—few if any of the changes have been for the better; movements in food groups have tended to be downwards. If these trends continue, the time must surely come when there will be real deficiencies; that substitution within a food group cannot make good essential foods severely rationed by high prices.

The Nineteen Sixties witnessed a silent yet dramatic revolution, almost unheralded whilst in progress and only chronicled when it had passed its climax. This revolution was the growth of a form of promotional expenditure which came to be known as ‘below‐the‐line’. It was below‐the‐line in the sense that it was not expenditure on promotion in the conventional and time‐honoured form, i.e. advertising through the media of the press, cinema, television and poster. It was, in fact, expenditure on sales promotions; promotions designed to have an impact, albeit short term, on sales volume. These promotions typically have taken the form of offering either extra value for money in the form of money‐off, coupons, or free samples, or have attempted to generate excitement in the product through the vehicles of competitions, games and give‐aways.

This study tests the “Resource Balance Proposition” that is developed from the Resource-Based View (RBV) of strategy. While recent research using RBV to study new ventures has focused primarily on the identification and acquisition of resources (Alvarez & Busenitz, 2001; Lichtenstein & Brush, 2001), this investigation examines the deployment of given resources in the pursuit of growth. It argues that the effective management of the resource base is at least as important to long-term survival as securing that base in the first place. Further, it assumes that firm growth is a desirable goal (especially for young firms) but posits that growth is not without cost and highly accelerated growth is particularly costly. Therefore, the hypotheses presented in this paper propose that there is a growth trajectory that optimizes profits and net worth by striking a balance between the resource deployments necessary to fuel growth and those needed to meet current obligations. The findings from this study confirm that both too little and too much growth have detrimental effects on firm vitality. More specifically, the data show a curvilinear relationship between the absolute rate of firm growth and the levels of both profits and net worth. This finding provides significant support for the Resource Balance Proposition, which states that the allocation of firm resources must be properly balanced between current resource positions and future resource positions to maximize wealth creation.

E‐MBAs are becoming an attractive option for career professionals and organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry to build competitive advantage. As core faculty in the distance MBA program in The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Guelph, the development of the E‐MBA has provided valuable lessons for leaders to understand how e‐learning builds leadership competency and capability in hospitality and tourism organizations. The research behind the action learning leadership framework is founded on the extensive work of the author at the University of Guelph. The author has pioneered distance MBA and leadership programs using the Internet to link people, knowledge and strategy with IT to build leadership competencies and online learning communities for managing in the knowledge‐based era. Evidence of this can be seen in a “virtual tour” of the distance MBA program at the following Website: www.emba.uoguelph.ca

Entrepreneurship is essential for the growth of both individual firms and overall economies. Through the creativity entrepreneurship fosters, new products, processes, and organizations emerge. Entrepreneurship provides the necessary flexibility and dynamism for responding to new market opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, it is important to understand entrepreneurship – how it takes place, the characteristics of entrepreneurs, the factors that encourage or discourage it, and how it differs across countries. Fortunately, research on entrepreneurship is active across the social sciences. This volume presents a collection of chapters that report on recent studies across a variety of areas, and the material reflects the vibrancy of both this emerging field of study and its subject area – entrepreneurship.