Search results
11 – 20 of 92Certain elements of Hayek’s work are prominent precursors to the modern field of complex adaptive systems, including his ideas on spontaneous order, his focus on market processes…
Abstract
Certain elements of Hayek’s work are prominent precursors to the modern field of complex adaptive systems, including his ideas on spontaneous order, his focus on market processes, his contrast between designing and gardening, and his own framing of complex systems. Conceptually, he was well ahead of his time, prescient in his formulation of novel ways to think about economies and societies. Technically, the fact that he did not mathematically formalize most of the notions he developed makes his insights hard to incorporate unambiguously into models. However, because so much of his work is divorced from the simplistic models proffered by early mathematical economics, it stands as fertile ground for complex systems researchers today. I suggest that Austrian economists can create a progressive research program by building models of these Hayekian ideas, and thereby gain traction within the economics profession. Instead of mathematical models the suite of techniques and tools known as agent-based computing seems particularly well-suited to addressing traditional Austrian topics like money, business cycles, coordination, market processes, and so on, while staying faithful to the methodological individualism and bottom-up perspective that underpin the entire school of thought.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible contributions of blockchain technology to creating new governance structures that facilitate social cooperation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible contributions of blockchain technology to creating new governance structures that facilitate social cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis with key ideas in new institutional economics and political theory is used in this paper.
Findings
Blockchain technology provides a new tool through which political entrepreneurs can credibly alienate some of their power within a system of rules that they have established.
Originality/value
This paper links discussion of blockchain entrepreneurship in commercial markets to research into private governance.
Details
Keywords
Goran Calic, Anton Shevchenko, Maryam Ghasemaghaei, Nick Bontis and Zeynep Ozmen Tokcan
The purpose of this paper is to connect the literatures on sustainability, innovation and paradox to suggest that sustainability constraints – simultaneously addressing commercial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to connect the literatures on sustainability, innovation and paradox to suggest that sustainability constraints – simultaneously addressing commercial and sustainability goals – will increase organizational innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from the literatures on paradox, innovation and sustainability, the authors develop theory about how managers can deliberately enhance the generation and implementation of creative ideas within their organizations.
Findings
The authors build on the existing literature that suggests sustainability considerations should be strategically and deeply integrated elements of business activity by developing arguments about how such integration improves organizational performance. The authors argue sustainability considerations, by creating unique forms of constraints, improve organizational success by enhancing creative idea generation and implementation.
Practical implications
Even strategic leaders espousing to only maximize economic efficiency face the challenge of effectively managing sustainability constraints. The discrepancy between what they should do and the problems they face means strategic leaders often have fewer tools to manage and reflect on their own decision-making than is available in the management literature. This paper presents arguments from diverse research that describes potential decision processes and their outcomes.
Social implications
This paper highlights an important shift in how sustainability constraints are fundamental drivers of long-term organizational performance.
Originality/value
Extant literature treats the simultaneous attention to sustainability concerns and commercial success as difficult accomplishments of clever strategic leaders. Instead, the authors propose that simultaneous attention to sustainability and commercial imperatives is fundamental to long-term organizational success, because it is a powerful determinant of new products, services and business models.
Details
Keywords
Leandra Koetsier, Monique Jacobs, Jutka Halberstadt, Marian Sijben, Nick Zonneveld and Mirella Minkman
The development of a national model has led municipalities in the Netherlands to implement integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity. To monitor how this approach is…
Abstract
Purpose
The development of a national model has led municipalities in the Netherlands to implement integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity. To monitor how this approach is being implemented locally, an appropriate tool is required. This study presents a “Tool to monitor the local implementation of Integrated Care for Childhood Overweight and obesity” (TICCO).
Design/methodology/approach
A three-step study was conducted in order to adapt and refine a generic integrated care questionnaire into a tool that suits the specific characteristics and context of integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity. The three consecutive steps comprised the following: a focus group session that assessed the relevance and comprehensiveness of the original integrated care instrument; a pilot questionnaire for end users that evaluated the feasibility of the preliminary tool and a pilot questionnaire that determined the feasibility and potential limitations of this adapted tool.
Findings
The adaptation process resulted in a 47-element digital tool for professionals actively involved in providing integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity. The results highlighted differences pertaining to how individual respondents judged each of the elements. These variations were found across both municipalities and different domains of integrated care.
Originality/value
This article presents an adapted tool that seeks to both support local discussion in the interpretation of individual TICCO scores and identify potential areas for improvement in local integrated care for childhood overweight and obesity.
Details
Keywords
The adoption of lean operational practices and independently the uptake of business practices related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility continues to grow. Past…
Abstract
Purpose
The adoption of lean operational practices and independently the uptake of business practices related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility continues to grow. Past research has hinted at relationships between these two areas – suggesting that “lean is green” (e.g. Florida, 1996). The lean mantra of waste reduction and “doing more with less” is immediately apparent as delivering environmental benefits and has formed the basis of past research (e.g. Hughes, 2012). Almost all research linking lean operations or lean supply chains to sustainability issues have focused exclusively on environmental impact. The purpose of this paper is to explore the broader sustainability benefits of lean operations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a longitudinal multi-year (up to four years observation), multi-case analysis (n=5).
Findings
The paper reports that lean operations meet a wide range of sustainability outcomes beyond environmental benefits (including supply monitoring, transparency, workforce treatment, and community engagement). The paper specifies the internal and external policies, procedures, tools, and strategies for implementation of lean and sustainable operations management (OM). This is encapsulated in the development of a stage-based theoretical model of lean-sustainability. Further, it is proposed that lean implementation and sustainability performance are in fact interlinked.
Originality/value
Past research on the role of lean operations in improving sustainably has focused almost exclusively on environmental benefits accruing from toolkit/workplace level waste reduction. This paper demonstrates that lean provides more than a toolkit (a philosophy and strategic direction) and that this meets a wide range of sustainable outcomes. This finding makes major contributions to conceptualising how lean operations influence sustainability outcomes. The paper develops the first integrative stage-based model of lean and sustainable OM.
Details
Keywords
Nick Swayne, Benjamin Selznick, Seán McCarthy and Kimberly A. Fisher
When it comes to undergraduate education, the terms “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” are often used interchangeably with respect to curricular practices and their associated…
Abstract
Purpose
When it comes to undergraduate education, the terms “innovation” and “entrepreneurship” are often used interchangeably with respect to curricular practices and their associated learning and developmental outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to chart a course through the vast and growing multidisciplinary literature covering both topics to argue that innovation and entrepreneurship are not only different concepts, but they also play out in postsecondary institutional contexts in different and important ways.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on these differences, the authors propose that developing innovators must precede teaching future entrepreneurs and that the home of innovation education is not necessarily in the business school at all. Ideally, the authors believe innovation should be taught separately from any one disciplinary context. To illustrate the concept, the authors point to an existing program where professors and students from different disciplines work together on actual problems provided by external clients from both the public and private sectors.
Findings
Based on the authors’ rationale and approach, the authors propose an agenda that would allow for a deep analysis of the interaction between organizational behaviors and student outcomes, providing insight into effective practices and strategies for mobilizing institutional efforts aimed at teaching innovation and better aligning innovation with entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
The authors provide a clear rationale for separating innovation and entrepreneurship pedagogy in higher education, terms that have been conflated in literature and in practice for nearly a century. The authors do this in an original way by pairing a theoretical framework with a short case study of an education program that has developed innovation pedagogy at the undergraduate level.
Details