Search results

It is over twenty years since March and Simon launched their attack on “classical” organisation theory. At the time their castigation of Gulick and Urwick for enunciating what Simon and March recognized as homely proverbs, myths and slogans seemed quite brilliant. The major purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, in retrospect, it was not: myths, rituals and medicine men should not be spurned, but the significance of the part they play in ordering experience and action in educational organisations should be fully explored. This is what this paper attempts to do, taking the Doyle/Newbould case for marketing, published in 1980 in this journal, as a case in point.

The theory of third order inference is a theory of how cultural beliefs influence individuals' decisions under conditions of interdependence and uncertainty. In this study, I build on prior work extending the theory to the role of third order information on social trust in public goods dilemmas. Namely, I argue that when second order information on the beliefs of those relevant to the group task are present, this information should influence decision-making over first and third order.

I test this argument in an experimental public goods game. After measuring first order social trust, participants are randomly sorted into one of four conditions – two that pair third and second order information on social trust as parallel and two that pair them as in conflict.

The results suggest that in the presence of second order information on social trust, third order information doesn't have an effect on cooperation.

The study extends the theory of third order inference to understanding the role of social trust at the first, second, and third levels in public goods dilemmas. It puts second order information in competition with third order in predicting cooperation. It suggests that resolving the uncertainty over the second order beliefs of a collective is key to preventing inefficient equilibriums when second and third order beliefs conflict.

This chapter provides an introduction to the European case study chapters in this volume on curriculum making. The chapter explores different conceptions of curriculum and curriculum making. It offers a critique of existing thinking about curriculum making as something that occurs withinreified levels within an educational system. Such thinking often construes curriculum making as occurring through linear and hierarchical chains of command from policy to practice. Drawing upon previous conceptualizations of curriculum making, the chapter develops a new approach to understanding curriculum making. This is a heuristic rather than a normative framing; it is essentially non-linear, framed around the concept of intertwined sites of activity – supra, macro, meso, micro and nano – within complex systems, with curriculum making framed as types of activity rather than institutional functions.

In the last 30 years, Japan has come from a second‐rate status to the world′s economic giant, leading the world in electronics, automobiles, steel, shipbuilding and virtually anything else to which she has set her mind. The Japanese aim was and still is to be world‐class suppliers of the major high volume items in the largest international markets. This focus on middle‐ to lower‐end volume markets made increased efficiency essential. The mentality of jimae shugi – Japan should be virtually self‐sufficient in all important product areas – is as strong as ever. How did the Japanese become such superb marketers? What is their international marketing strategy? Examines the Japanese international marketing strategy from its evolution; and analyses its strengths and weaknesses in allowing Western corporations to be able to compete more effectively against it.

Companies in all industries are searching for new sources of competitive advantage since the competition in their marketplace is becoming increasingly intensive. The resource-based view of the firm explains the sources of sustainable competitive advantages. From a resource-based view perspective, relational based assets (i.e., the assets resulting from firm contacts in the marketplace) enable competitive advantage. The relational based assets examined in this work are brand image and corporate reputation, as components of brand equity, and customer value. This paper explores how they create value. Despite the relatively large amount of literature describing the benefits of firms in having strong brand equity and delivering customer value, no research validated the linkage of brand equity components, brand image, and corporate reputation, simultaneously in the customer value–customer loyalty chain. This work presents a model of testing these relationships in consumer goods, in a business-to-business context. The results demonstrate the differential roles of brand image and corporate reputation on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. Brand image influences the perception of quality of the products and the additional services, whereas corporate reputation actions beyond brand image, estimating the customer value and customer loyalty. The effects of corporate reputation are also validated on different samples. The results demonstrate the importance of managing brand equity facets, brand image, and corporate reputation since their differential impacts on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. The results also demonstrate that companies should not limit to invest only in brand image. Maintaining and enhancing corporate reputation can have a stronger impact on customer value and customer loyalty, and can create differential competitive advantage.

This study demonstrates the analysis and findings of the field research undertaken in Japan in May 1988 on a small sample of Japanese firms with UK subsidiaries. The study examined the factors behind the marketing strengths of Japanese parent companies and the effects on their relationships with their UK subsidiaries. The research indicates that the Japanese companies saw their successes in the specific qualities and thoroughness of their management and labour, with a strong focus to committing resources to marketing, product innovation and R&D. The findings of the research with recommendations are presented.

Introduction This paper is a summary of an extensive research project which reviewed the store location literature and surveyed the practices of UK multiple retailers' location assessors. Upon this state of the art review, the authors examined the model building theory, before developing an operational model capable of predicting turnover potential for new store locations. In this instance, the paper concentrates on the survey, while endeavouring to introduce the model building concept.

The purpose of this research was to test the influence of consumer knowledge management on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty through service quality and psychological involvement.

The participants (N = 396) were recruited through a convenience sampling technique from non-profit sport clubs in Iran. Data were analyzed with the Structural Equation Modeling using Mplus 7.4.

The results revealed that the effects of service quality on psychological involvement were dependent on consumer knowledge management. Furthermore, there were the mediating effects of service quality and psychological involvement in the relationships between the consumer knowledge management and loyalty.

The research findings provide valuable insights for non-profit sport club managers seeking to better attract and retain their consumers by demonstrating the importance of investing in consumer knowledge management initiatives. Managers should thus integrate knowledge orientation into their marketing and relationship management strategies and apply the strategy into consumer knowledge within club services.

This study empirically highlights the important role of knowledge from, for and about the consumer on perceived service quality and loyalty building among the non-profit consumer base.

Transportation planning has conventionally examined mobility from the standpoint of the efficiency of transportation systems, based on trips as units of analysis, overlooking the social needs of excluded groups, such as children. Understanding children’s geographies provides insight into one of the basic social needs of children, intrinsically related to mobility: play. Disadvantages in mobility, along with other social conditions further limit children’s autonomy in their neighbourhood. This chapter proposes the term playability as a concept that intertwines both needs. A case study of neighbourhood analyses the playability needs of children from their perspective and that of the community. Findings suggest that, in a walkable, built environment, issues from criminal activity directly influence children’s playability, even more than automobile presence. Furthermore, community perspective on playability, as mostly limited to structured play in designated spaces and time, separates mobility from play and thus limits opportunities for social inclusion. A change in both, acknowledging children’s need for play and mobility, and their reciprocity, and incorporating measures to improve it, may provide a different framework for transportation and urban planning at the local level, one that seeks greater social inclusion of children.

The paper aims to contribute to the stream of research on empowerment by investigating the construct of psychological empowerment among Greek public employees. The primary objective is to further the limited amount of empirical research on the concept of empowerment as “experienced” by those working in public administration. Specifically, the study aims to extend the empowerment literature by determining the transferability of Menon's instrument in a Greek public service context; and by examining the relationship between psychological empowerment and internal service climate, defined here as employee quality perceptions of internal service encounters.

The paper is based on 330 surveys from tax officers in a mid‐sized town in Northern Greece.

Factor, reliability, correlation, and regression analyses were performed providing satisfactory results. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses faithfully reproduced the three dimensions suggested by Menon – namely perceived control, perceived competence and goal internalization – in a culturally diverse environment compared to the original study. Also, support was provided for the usefulness of the measure in the Greek tax administration. In addition, internal service climate was positively associated with psychological empowerment according to expectations.

It may be relevant for future research to replicate the present study in other types of Greek public organizations utilizing probabilistic sampling techniques. Longitudinal and/or quasi‐experimental research designs might be employed to address issues of causality. Ways of dealing with common method variance also need to be given consideration. Further, examining the predictive validity of individual and contextual antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment identified in the private sector, investigating the nature of these relationships (causational, mediational, or moderational), and incorporating organizational effectiveness indices in the proposed model should enhance our understanding of the dynamic nature of the variables analyzed.

Results demonstrate the transferability of Menon's instrument in a culturally diverse work environment. In addition, the applicability of the scale in a Greek public service context is well illustrated. The link between an under‐researched facet of organizational climate, namely internal service climate, to psychological empowerment is highlighted and discussed. To the knowledge of the researchers, no prior study has attempted to investigate these issues in Greek public organizations.