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1 – 7 of 7Noeleen Grant, Trevor Cadden, Ronan McIvor and Paul Humphreys
– The purpose of this paper is to replicate the taxonomic study of Miller and Roth and to validate its applicability in a small newly industrialised country.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to replicate the taxonomic study of Miller and Roth and to validate its applicability in a small newly industrialised country.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical survey of manufacturing companies in Ireland was conducted using a research instrument that replicated the questions asked in the original 1994 study. Data was collected using mail questionnaires posted to 874 manufacturers. A total of 199 respondents were used for this study. The study tested two central hypotheses using advanced statistical data analysis techniques, such as canonical discriminant analysis.
Findings
The results of the research identified three clustered strategic groups (Best Value, Budget and Multi Focus) which were different from those of Miller and Roth: caretakers, marketeers and innovators. The study supported the dynamic nature of manufacturing strategy, and shows how new manufacturing strategies evolve over time and differ between regions.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should replicate this study in other small newly industrialised countries. Given the recently changed nature of the economy within Ireland, a longitudinal study would provide useful insights into the dynamics of manufacturing capabilities.
Practical implications
The study provides important insights into manufacturing strategy within a small newly industrialised country. The results suggest that manufacturing strategies appear to change depending on the country of plant location. The manufacturing strategies may be attributed to the unique business environment, challenges and constraints of the country.
Originality/value
There is a scarcity of taxonomy studies in general, and there is a dearth of such studies in small newly industrialised countries such as Ireland. Through identifying a new taxonomy the study contributes to the existing literature on manufacturing strategy, and challenges the global applicability of taxonomies developed in the USA.
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Noeleen Doherty, Michael Dickmann and Timothy Mills
The paper seeks to explore the career attitudes, motivations and behaviours of young people in initial vocational education and training (IVET) in Europe.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to explore the career attitudes, motivations and behaviours of young people in initial vocational education and training (IVET) in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory web‐based survey was conducted during the European year for mobility. Drawing on existing research on the motivators of international careers, it explored young people's perceptions of barriers and incentives to mobility.
Findings
The study differentiates “natives” (those who did not go abroad) and “boundary crossers” (those who did). Cultural exposure, travel and a desire for adventure are key motivators. Counter‐intuitively, those who chose not to go abroad are significantly more positive about the potential for professional development but are significantly more concerned for personal safety. Some maturational trends are apparent.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to a “European‐wide” perspective from a sample, which had access to the web survey. Further research could usefully explore differences in attitude and mobility behaviours within and across specific European countries.
Practical implications
Factors restricting boundary‐crossing behaviour may be rooted in aspects of psychological mobility such as perceived benefits of the experience, self‐confidence and risk aversion. This has practical implications for policy makers and career development for early career foreign didactic experiences where support for placements may need to focus more on psychological mobility, an area currently under‐researched.
Originality/value
This exploratory paper provides data to examine the mobility behaviours among young people in IVET, distinguishing between “natives” and “boundary crossers”. It presents an important attempt to more fully understand the dynamics of mobility attitudes and behaviours among young people.
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Tracy Scurry, Jenny K. Rodriguez and Sarah Bailouni
The paper aims to contribute to the discussion about how SIEs articulate narratives as cognitive efforts to expand, restrict or adapt their repertoire of identities in highly…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to contribute to the discussion about how SIEs articulate narratives as cognitive efforts to expand, restrict or adapt their repertoire of identities in highly regulated environments.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from a social constructivist positioning, the paper explores situated social and relational practices using a qualitative framework that relied on primary data gathering through semi‐structured interviews. Qatar is a context of particular interest for exploring identity narratives of SIEs given the highly regulated environment and the large numbers of non‐nationals within the overall workforce. The study was conducted in an anonymous Qatari public shareholding company.
Findings
Findings suggest that narratives of self are framed in relation to structural constraints and patterns of adaptation. These reveal the interplay between identity, careers and self‐initiated expatriation at macro‐country and micro‐individual levels. As part of these themes, narratives of mobility and opportunity emerged in reference to career experiences and discussions about themselves (lives, identities, and expectations).
Originality/value
The paper contributes to our current understanding of SIEs and encourages us to consider the importance of context in shaping the SIE experience. Similarly, the scarcity of literature about SIEs in GCC countries makes this paper a timely contribution. These contributions have significant implications not only for theoretical discussions about SIEs, but also for discussions on the interplay between migration, identity and global careers.
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Kerry Chipp and Jabu Maphalala
An understanding of the competitive landscape and consumer dynamics of an emerging market, especially how a small local company learns to take on and deal with global players…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
An understanding of the competitive landscape and consumer dynamics of an emerging market, especially how a small local company learns to take on and deal with global players. Similarly, embeddedness within a market leads to increasing the competitiveness of local brands as they understand local consumers better than international ones. Local brands are also more likely to use home-based and innovative marketing strategies.
Case overview/synopsis
Bliss Chemicals, through their flagship brand, MAQ washing powder, captured market share from global multinationals during a price war. Nevertheless, their competitive landscape and their customer base are dynamic; the company cannot afford to rest on its laurels for long. The case provides insight into the marketing activities of both large and medium enterprises in an emerging market. It also demonstrates the type of marketing activation that engenders strong consumers’ response.
Complexity academic level
The case can be used in undergraduate, MBA and executive education courses on marketing, consumer behaviour, bottom of the pyramid or international marketing courses. It could also be used in business strategy courses on market entry, dealing with stronger competitors, price wars and doing business in Africa.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS 8: Marketing
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Janine Burghardt and Klaus Möller
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance of managers, and employees and can be enabled by sufficient use of management controls. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research studies from the organizational, management and accounting literature, the authors develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work.
Findings
First, the authors propose that the use of formal management controls in a system (i.e. the levers of the control framework) is more powerful than using unrelated formal controls only. Second, they suggest that the interaction of a formal control system together with informal controls working as a control package can even stretch the perception of meaningful work. Third, they argue that the intensity of the control use matters to enhance the perception of meaningful work (inverted u-shaped relationship).
Originality/value
This study presents the first conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. It provides valuable implications for practice and future research in the field of performance management.
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Chedi Bechikh Ali, Hatem Haddad and Yahya Slimani
A number of approaches and algorithms have been proposed over the years as a basis for automatic indexing. Many of these approaches suffer from precision inefficiency at low…
Abstract
Purpose
A number of approaches and algorithms have been proposed over the years as a basis for automatic indexing. Many of these approaches suffer from precision inefficiency at low recall. The choice of indexing units has a great impact on search system effectiveness. The authors dive beyond simple terms indexing to propose a framework for multi-word terms (MWT) filtering and indexing.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors rely on ranking MWT to filter them, keeping the most effective ones for the indexing process. The proposed model is based on filtering MWT according to their ability to capture the document topic and distinguish between different documents from the same collection. The authors rely on the hypothesis that the best MWT are those that achieve the greatest association degree. The experiments are carried out with English and French languages data sets.
Findings
The results indicate that this approach achieved precision enhancements at low recall, and it performed better than more advanced models based on terms dependencies.
Originality/value
Using and testing different association measures to select MWT that best describe the documents to enhance the precision in the first retrieved documents.
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