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1 – 10 of 371Mark Scott, Jonothan Neelands, Haley Beer, Ila Bharatan, Tim Healey, Nick Henry, Si Chun Lam and Richard Tomlins
It is well known that culture is a catalyst for change, helping economies respond to societal problems and demands and that culture is where people turn to in moments of crisis…
Abstract
Purpose
It is well known that culture is a catalyst for change, helping economies respond to societal problems and demands and that culture is where people turn to in moments of crisis. In this case study around designing and implementing evaluation methodologies/frameworks for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, it is suggested that in English public policy and within publicly invested arts there is a maturation of thinking around recognising/measuring the public value of culture including its social value. The purpose of this paper is to chart the recent policy of justifying cultural expenditure with social value claims and highlight challenges for evaluating activity within Coventry UK CoC 2021 as a change in wider policy is taking place.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides creative insights into the design and implementation of the evaluation methodologies/frameworks for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021. The authors of this paper as the collective team undertaking the evaluation of Coventry's year as UK City of Culture 2021 bring first-hand experiences of challenges faced and the need for a cultural mega-event to evidence its value.
Findings
The case study aims to address the concepts of measuring value within cultural events and argues that a paradigm shift is occurring in methods and concepts for evidencing the aforementioned value.
Research limitations/implications
The case study within this paper focuses on the build-up period to the UK City of Culture 2021 year and the thinking and logic behind the creation of the evaluation/measurement framework and therefore does not include findings from the actual cultural year.
Originality/value
It is acknowledged that there are papers examining measuring and evidencing the “value” of cultural mega-events, the authors bring real-life first-hand experience of the concepts being utilised by them on the ground in the delivery and evaluation design of Coventry, UK City of Culture 2021.
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The purpose of this paper is to delve into the nature of ethnography to evaluate its potential as an applied qualitative research method in commercial ad hoc market research. A…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to delve into the nature of ethnography to evaluate its potential as an applied qualitative research method in commercial ad hoc market research. A re‐interpretation of ethnography adapted for the commercial market research environment is proposed and a conceptual framework for its implementation offered.
Design/methodology/approach
This will include examination of the different ethnographic approaches employed across social and market research fields.
Findings
An examination of several case studies reveals how ethnography can produce both tactical and strategic insights into aspects of consumer usage, behaviour, experience and culture.
Originality/value
The paper discusses how ethnographic research can potentially connect marketers, businesses and whole corporations with their consumers, in ways that other forms of market research cannot.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore a class of social information systems which are purposefully designed to address wider social objectives. Specifically, the paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a class of social information systems which are purposefully designed to address wider social objectives. Specifically, the paper investigates the embedding of ICTs into the wider networks of social policy action and explores issues associated with the integration of social information systems into complex problem domains.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of a social information system and its integration into networks of actors with an interest in the underlying social concern is presented. The system under analysis is first described in terms of the emerging characteristics used to define this class of social information system. The wider policy network in which the social information system is implemented is then described and the integration of the social information system into the wider network is discussed.
Findings
The case study illustrates that for complex social problems, there can be multiple interests embedded in an ecology of sub-networks. Each sub-network can make use of the social information system in different ways which creates difficulties in the social information system gaining sufficient legitimacy to be institutionalised into the wider policy network.
Originality/value
The paper extends understanding of social information systems by proposing that a class of social information systems are developed to pursue human benefit. Recognising the context in which these systems are integrated as an ecology of interests, shifts the focus of social information systems design from examining the requirements of a relatively homogenous community of actors to understanding how social information systems can be developed to enable information exchange within and across heterogeneous communities.
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Ralph Simm, chairman of Hoechst UK's Industry Division and chairman of Harlow Chemical Company, T. R. Oil Services and of Hoechst Fibre Industries, retired at the end of March…
Abstract
Ralph Simm, chairman of Hoechst UK's Industry Division and chairman of Harlow Chemical Company, T. R. Oil Services and of Hoechst Fibre Industries, retired at the end of March 1985. He is succeeded by David D. Green.
Monty van Wart and Joseph N. Cayer
The 1950s and 1960s were times of haphazard and yet vigorous growth in many academic and policy disciplines. The end of the World War II left the United States at the economic…
Abstract
The 1950s and 1960s were times of haphazard and yet vigorous growth in many academic and policy disciplines. The end of the World War II left the United States at the economic center of the world with commensurate technological, political, and cultural might. For many products, much of the higher technology, free-market leadership, and new social and administrative models, the world looked inordinately ‘to the United States.’ American leadership as a countervailing force to communism was particularly evident. However, foreign aid during the time, impressive though the Four Point and the Marshall Plan might have been, was as much an answer to an emergency as a strategic plan. Precursors ‘to the U.S. Agency for International Development’ (USAID) were little more than continuing resolutions. During this time comparative and development administration were coming into importance as academic domains of discourse with an inchoate sense of identity.10
The political campaigns of Una Clarke and Major Owens show an interesting display of ethnic politics. In this paper, I argue that the presence of a Caribbean population in…
Abstract
The political campaigns of Una Clarke and Major Owens show an interesting display of ethnic politics. In this paper, I argue that the presence of a Caribbean population in Brooklyn New York presents itself as a challenge to the already present African-American structure. The Caribbean politicians do not subscribe nor fully ally with the African-American politicians, and instead, seek to carve out a niche for themselves and utilize their ties to home in an effort to cajole the Caribbean populace for support. Through the purview of a political campaign in Brooklyn between an African-American incumbent and a Caribbean insurgent, I attempt to contribute to the transnationalist literature through illustrating the concept of the nation−state, which can be explained as an immigrant’s continual bond to their home country while living abroad.
Alexandra Oancă, Franco Bianchini, Juliet Simpson, Enrico Tommarchi and David Wright
Seeking to build an objective scientific approach to psychiatry, American psychiatrists, physiologists, and psychologists began to turn to the conditional reflex method of Ivan…
Abstract
Seeking to build an objective scientific approach to psychiatry, American psychiatrists, physiologists, and psychologists began to turn to the conditional reflex method of Ivan Pavlov from the late 1920s. The generation of “neurotic” animals in the laboratory was critical to the emergence of a new experimental psychiatry in the United States. To understand the development of this field of research, the chapter will draw first on Mary Morgan’s identification of the mediatory and intermediary role of models and their ability to surprise and generate new questions, and second, upon her recent work on narratives in science. It will argue that it was through discursive and descriptive techniques that traced over time the tangled and interconnected lives of experimental subjects, that such elements of unpredictability in the animal laboratory were transformed into tools of research and put to disciplinary uses, promoting the clinical relevance of this new objective approach to psychiatric medicine.
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Kaveh Asiaei, Ruzita Jusoh and Nick Bontis
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore how the effect of intellectual capital (IC) on organizational performance is indirect and mediated through performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore how the effect of intellectual capital (IC) on organizational performance is indirect and mediated through performance measurement (PM) systems.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a survey of 128 chief financial officers of Iranian publicly listed companies. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares regression, a structural modeling technique which is appropriate for highly complex predictive models.
Findings
Results from the structural model indicate that, in general, companies with a higher level of IC place a premium on the balanced use of PM systems in a diagnostic and interactive style. Furthermore, the results provide some evidence that IC is indirectly associated with organizational performance through the intervening variable of the balanced use of interactive and diagnostic PM systems.
Practical implications
This study sheds light on the issue of how senior management should use PM systems to take full advantage of intellectual assets which could lead to improved organizational performance.
Originality/value
This is the first study of its kind to synthesize a model which examines IC, PM systems, and organizational performance. Although the effect of different types of intangible assets on performance has been substantially examined in the literature, less effort has been devoted to understanding the role of PM systems in leveraging an organization’s IC.
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Kaveh Asiaei, Nick Bontis, Omid Barani, Majid Moghaddam and Jasvinder Sidhu
This study aims to explore the extent to which companies rely on sustainability management control systems (SMCS) to translate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into superior…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the extent to which companies rely on sustainability management control systems (SMCS) to translate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into superior performance building upon the premise of the natural resource orchestration perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected based on a survey data set from 118 Chief Financial Officers of publicly listed companies in Iran. The theoretical model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM, SmartPLS 3.0) as a method that enjoys minimum demands concerning normality assumptions and sample size.
Findings
The findings support the full mediation effect of SMCS on the relationship between CSR and organizational performance. This implies that CSR affects performance only through the mediating role of SMCS.
Practical implications
The central premise in the proposed theoretical framework is that the utilization of proper management control mechanisms (i.e. SMCS) can help the organization to better synchronize, measure and manage – i.e. “orchestrate” – the social, environmental and economic impacts, and this, in turn, leads to improved organizational performance.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind, building on a unique synthesis of the agency cost perspective and resource orchestration theory, to introduce the “natural resource orchestration” approach for examining the intervening role of SMCS between CSR and organizational performance.
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