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1 – 10 of 425Érico Daniel Ricardi Guerreiro, Reginaldo Fidelis and Rafael Henrique Palma Lima
A quantitative theoretical model is proposed to measure how productivity performance can be affected by strategic decisions related to specific competitive priorities.
Abstract
Purpose
A quantitative theoretical model is proposed to measure how productivity performance can be affected by strategic decisions related to specific competitive priorities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study proposes the Primary Transformation Model (PTM) and an equation to measure cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities.
Findings
The interdependence between productivity and competitive priorities was studied using the PTM and the proposed model indicates that strategies that improve external performance also impact internal productivity. It was also observed that the compatibility between competitive priorities depends on the initial manufacturing conditions and the implementation method adopted.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed model is theoretical and, as such, is an abstraction of reality and does not consider all possible aspects. It consists of a novel approach that still requires further empirical testing. The PTM provides insights about the trade-offs between productivity and strategic objectives, as well, contributes to the ongoing research on manufacturing strategy and can be further developed in future studies.
Practical implications
The main practical implication is to allow companies to relate their strategic decisions to their productivity performance.
Social implications
This research also contributes to societal issues by enabling firms to better align strategic objectives and operations, which ultimately allows offering products more suited to the needs of customers, thus making better use of the required resources and favoring economic growth.
Originality/value
The model proposed allows objective assessment of actions aiming at operational efficiency and effectiveness, in addition to providing insights into cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities. The model can also be used in empirical investigations on manufacturing strategy.
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Adopts the label “tenanted non‐residential property” (TNRP) rather than employ loaded terms such as “commercial” or “investment”. Deals with the perceived objectives for which…
Abstract
Adopts the label “tenanted non‐residential property” (TNRP) rather than employ loaded terms such as “commercial” or “investment”. Deals with the perceived objectives for which local authorities hold TNRP and the functional, financial and legal setting. Compares category bases for property holdings and, in particular, examines attitudes to acquisition, management, retention and disposal of TNRP. Notes the confusion between investment and indirect service objectives and the consequential expected returns. Discusses the findings of a survey of councils centring on the characteristics and management of their TNRP holdings. Concludes that objectives and management strategy for local authority‐owned TNRP remain undeveloped. Suggests that the ability to properly manage and develop a real investment portfolio may be ultra vires. Recommends, in the shorter term, if not ultra vires, dividing TNRP between those held primarily for indirect service and those held primarily as financial investments. Expects, however, in the longer term, pressures from local service needs and central government will encourage, indeed force, the progressive disposal of all non‐operational property, including TNRP. Identifies a new form of TNRP, one within the council. Seeks to clarify and effect the different strategies for operational property between the centralized corporate council landlord and decentralized service tenants, and proposes the creation of “internal leases”.
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Mst Tania Parvin, Regina Birner and Ashrafun Nahar
The purpose of this study is to empirically estimate the impact of a government microcredit program on the handloom weavers to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically estimate the impact of a government microcredit program on the handloom weavers to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 311 handloom weavers from the Sirajganj District of Bangladesh from July to December 2015 using a multistage sampling technique. The analysis was conducted using a two-stage least squares regression model incorporating instrumental variables to control for the probable endogeneity problem associated with the study.
Findings
This study finds that government microcredit had no significant impact on borrowers' investment in their business, whereas credit received from multiple sources other than government credit had a significant negative impact. Additionally, literacy level, household assets and the number of operational handloom units positively affected investment, while the number of non-operational handloom units and distance negatively affected the investment.
Research limitations/implications
This study's findings are more specific for the selected case and may not be generalizable to all kinds of SMEs.
Practical implications
The policy implications are targeted at increasing loan size based on the number of operational handloom units to improve the performance of government and other microcredit programs to facilitate the growth of SMEs in Bangladesh.
Originality/value
This study specifically focuses on estimating the financial performance of government microcredit programs for SME development within the handloom industry, which has not been sufficiently explored in the literature.
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The total capital value of the tenanted non‐residential property ofEnglish and Welsh local authorities is immense, more even than the totalholdings of the top eight, UK‐based…
Abstract
The total capital value of the tenanted non‐residential property of English and Welsh local authorities is immense, more even than the total holdings of the top eight, UK‐based, property companies. However, while property investment companies own tenanted property for financial returns, the primary reason for its ownership by local authorities is far from clear. A survey of councils revealed that while many considered much of their tenanted non‐residential property was held for investment, it rarely formed part of wider financial investment aims. Moreover, investment objectives and management strategies were not clearly stated, prioritized, effected, or measurable. These failings were true of both individual properties and overall portfolios. Where property does not primarily meet a function of a statutory local authority, it must at least be regarded as non‐operational. The opportunity for a council to create a credible investment property portfolio is markedly restricted by the absence of the statutory objective of “property investment”. If, after review, property remains unsuited for assisting any real function of local government, it should be classed as surplus. It is proposed that local authority investment property may therefore justifiably be considered surplus to the functional objectives and requirements of a statutory local authority. If also unsuitable for operational use, such property should be programmed for disposal.
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Tianyun Li, Weiguo Fang, Desheng Dash Wu and Baofeng Zhang
The paper aims to explore the optimal strategies of inventory financing when the risk-averse retailer has different objectives, in the presence of multi-risk, i.e. demand risk…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the optimal strategies of inventory financing when the risk-averse retailer has different objectives, in the presence of multi-risk, i.e. demand risk, non-operational risk and retailer's strategic default risk.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops an inventory financing model consisting of a bank and a risk-averse retailer with strategic default. This paper considers two scenarios, i.e. the capital-constrained retailer cares about its profit or firm value. In the first scenario, the bank acts as a Stackelberg leader determining its interest rate, and the retailer acts as a follower determining its pledged quantity. In the second one, the bank capital market is perfectly competitive. Lagrange multiplier method is adopted to solve the optimization.
Findings
The optimal strategies in inventory financing scheme in two scenarios are derived. Only when the initial stock is relatively high, the retailer pledges part of the initial stock. Retailer's risk aversion reduces its pledged quantity and performance. The strategic default reduces its profit. When it is relatively high, the bank refuses to offer the loan.
Practical implications
Analytical inventory and financing strategies are specified to help retailers and banks to better understand the interaction of finance and operations management and to better respond to multi-risk.
Originality/value
New results and managerial insights are derived by incorporating partially endogenous strategic default and risk aversion into inventory financing, which enriches the interfaces of operations management and finance.
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Stephen M. James and Bryan Vila
Fatigue associated with shift work is a well-established and pervasive problem in policing that affects officer performance, safety, and health. It is critical to understand the…
Abstract
Purpose
Fatigue associated with shift work is a well-established and pervasive problem in policing that affects officer performance, safety, and health. It is critical to understand the extent to which fatigue degrades officer driving performance. Drowsy driving among post-shift workers is a well-established risk factor yet no data are available about officer injuries and deaths due to drowsy driving. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of fatigue associated with work shift and prior sleep on officers’ non-operational driving using laboratory experiments to assess post-shift drowsy driving risks and the ability of a well-validated vigilance and reaction-time task to assess these risks.
Design/methodology/approach
Experienced police patrol officer volunteers (n=78) from all four shifts of a medium-sized city’s police department were tested using a within- and between-subjects design to assess the impact of fatigue on individual officers, as well as the impact of different work shifts, on post-shift driving performance. Controlled laboratory experiments were conducted during which participants drove high-fidelity driving training simulators on two occasions: immediately following five consecutive 10:40-hour patrol shifts (fatigued condition) and again 72 hours after completing the last shift in a work cycle (rested condition).
Findings
Generalized linear mixed-model analyses of driving performance showed that officers working night shifts had significantly greater lane deviation during post-shift, non-operational driving than those working day shifts (F=4.40, df=1, 150, p=0.038). The same method also showed that easy to measure psychomotor vigilance test scores for reaction time predicted both lane deviation (F=31.48, df=1, 151, p < 0.001) and collisions (F=14.10, df=1, 151, p < 0.001) during the simulated drives.
Research limitations/implications
Simulated driving tasks done by participants were generally less challenging than patrol or off-duty driving and likely underestimate the impact of fatigue on police driving post-shift or during extended shifts.
Originality/value
This is the first experimental research to assess the impact of shiftwork, fatigue, and extended shifts on police post-shift drowsy driving, a known risk factor for shift workers in general.
This paper aims to explore the nature of divestment within the context of retailer internationalisation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the nature of divestment within the context of retailer internationalisation.
Design/methodology/approach
It focuses on the activities of the Dutch food multinational retailer Royal Ahold (Ahold). Drawing on 37 in‐depth interviews with investment banks and executives, this paper provides a number of insights into Ahold's international retail divestment activities within the context of a broadly successful international investment strategy.
Findings
It offers some new insights into the multidimensional nature of international retail divestment construct in terms of the operational as well as more subtle and less visible non‐operational international retail divestments. It is concluded from this study that, rather than portraying strategic and opportunistic approaches as binary opposites, a retail firm may have varying degrees of approaches to international retail divestment, and these may not necessarily be isomorphic across different countries.
Research limitations/implications
The paper explores international retail divestment from a rather broad perspective, although it is hoped that these parameters can be used to raise a new set of more detailed priorities for future research on international retail divestment.
Practical implications
This paper raises a number of interesting issues such as whether retailers initially take divestment seriously and the degree to which this is actually possible during market entry.
Originality/value
As called for in the literature, this study examines divestment in the broadest possible fashion, thus addressing a major gap in our understanding of the whole internationalisation process.
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The purpose of the paper is to investigate issues associated with the application of international and national accounting and valuation standards to owner occupied property for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to investigate issues associated with the application of international and national accounting and valuation standards to owner occupied property for financial reporting purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
The regulatory framework and relevant literature are reviewed and analysed in order to hypothesise a theoretical framework, comprising an order of classification and tests for application by valuers to owner occupied property. The hypothesised approach is then tested in principle for the valuation of airports and specifically for the valuation of a part building and underlying land.
Findings
While the hypothesised approach requires development through the proposition of further tests, it is found to be supported in application to both a part building, being the retailing area within an international terminal, and to the operational land underlying an airport.
Research limitations/implications
The research provides a theoretical framework for the application of accounting and valuation standards to owner occupied property for financial reporting purposes and highlights limitations therein for further research.
Practical implications
The hypothesised approach provides valuers with a globally consistent theoretical framework for application to the valuation of owner occupied property for financial reporting purposes.
Social implications
As airports grow and move from government ownership, the measurement of their value for financial statements becomes progressively more important if a robust basis for stakeholder decision making and the optimal allocation of capital is to be provided
Originality/value
The paper seeks to improve property appraisal, finance and investment skills by promoting awareness of new theories, applications and related concepts and their implications to market conditions in the context of airports.
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Eric John Darling and Stephen Jonathan Whitty
The Project Management Office (PMO) phenomenon is a dynamic and regularly evolving feature of the project landscape. The functions and practices expected of the PMO differ as…
Abstract
Purpose
The Project Management Office (PMO) phenomenon is a dynamic and regularly evolving feature of the project landscape. The functions and practices expected of the PMO differ as widely as the industries and organisations, which host them. By uncovering the documented and undocumented history of the PMO and its practices the authors see how PMOs have developed to current times, how PMOs develop their ideas, how useful PMOs are, and what associated activities they partake in. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors conduct an extensive literature review of the academic and non-academic literature. The first phase involved searching academic journals and published theses. The second, deep searches with Google Scholar and Books using a variety of parameters to capture the changing nomenclature of the PMO over many years. These searches discovered lost academic literature within university libraries, examples of very early essays on the project office and numerous government reports on PMO and project office undertakings.
Findings
This research reveals how the form and use of the structure we now call the PMO has evolved and adapted over time. In recent history the PMO has evolved to be the central repository for tools and methodologies for this non-operational work. The PMO has become an asset, a commodity to be traded upon and a badge to be worn to attain certain privileges.
Research limitations/implications
This research identifies a number of deficiencies in existing literature. Particularly highlighting that many practices, methods and PMO typologies exist, frequently their custodians tout these as “best practice”. Although some research has been conducted by academics on PMOs vast gaps exist in PMO literature.
Practical implications
This research identifies a number of assumptions in practitioner literature and professional practice. Organisations both private and public are investing enormous resources in the pursuit of enhancing project management outcomes often turning to the PMO concept to resolve their problems. However there is limited evidence to suggest PMOs create a favourable return. If the authors were to use medicine as an example, prior to a scientific approach in medicine the field relied on potions and magic, however medicine changed to evidence-based practice this has lead to enhanced life prospects. An evolution in project management doctrine may enhance outcomes.
Originality/value
This review of the PMO which possesses archaeological attributes in it’s historical context adds a rich understanding to organisational knowledge by considering the history of the PMO and the dramatic shifts in its purpose over a prolonged period of time. The discussion draws out the critical PMO topics to be addressed and includes a critique of practitioner and academic knowledge.
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Over the past twenty years, the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) workforce in England has experienced significant developments as part of New Labour's modernisation agenda with the…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past twenty years, the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) workforce in England has experienced significant developments as part of New Labour's modernisation agenda with the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 and the increasing focus on prevention and community safety. Subsequent organisational changes and the introduction of new community safety services dynamically altered the role of fire fighters and introduced new roles into these organisations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues relating to an evolving fire service workforce and the tensions present in the development of new professional roles.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory qualitative critical realist case study approach was undertaken, employing semi-structured interviews and focus groups of employees across one FRS in England.
Findings
The findings of the present study identify several emerging issues from a changing fire service: in particular, the frictions between different aspects of the organisation and the tensions in the development of career “ladders” for non-operational roles.
Originality/value
To the author's knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the issues surrounding the development and evolution of professional roles in community safety aspects within the FRS in England.
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