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Article
Publication date: 19 July 2021

Josephine Vaughan and Michael J. Ostwald

Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house Fallingwater has been the subject of enduring scholarly debate centred on the allegedly clear parallels between its form and that of its…

Abstract

Purpose

Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house Fallingwater has been the subject of enduring scholarly debate centred on the allegedly clear parallels between its form and that of its surrounding natural setting. Despite these claims being repeated many times, no quantitative approach has ever been used to test this argument. In response, this paper uses a quantitative method, fractal analysis, to measure the relationship between the architecture of Fallingwater and of its natural surroundings.

Design/methodology/approach

Using fractal dimension analysis, a computational method that mathematically measures the characteristic visual complexity of an object, this paper mathematically measures and tests the similarity between the visual properties of Fallingwater and its natural setting. Twenty analogues of the natural surroundings of Fallingwater are measured and the results compared to those developed for the properties of eight views of the house.

Findings

Although individual results suggest various levels of visual similarity or difference, the complete set of results do not support the claim that the form of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater exhibits clear visual similarities to the surrounding landscape.

Originality/value

In addition to testing a prominent theory about Wright's building for the first time, the paper demonstrates a rare application of fractal analysis to interpreting relations between architecture and nature.

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

Patrick J. Murphy, Jack Smothers, Milorad M. Novicevic, John H. Humphreys, Foster B. Roberts and Artem Kornetskyy

This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines the case of Nashoba, a Tennessee-based social enterprise founded in 1824 by Scottish immigrant Frances Wright. The Nashoba venture intended to diminish the institution of slavery in the USA through entrepreneurial activity over its five years of operation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study methodology entailed mining primary source data from Wright’s letters; communications with her cofounders and contemporaries; and documentations of enterprise operations. The authors examined these data using social enterprise theory with a focus on personal identity and time-laden empirical aspects not captured by traditional methodologies.

Findings

The social enterprise concept of a single, self-sustaining model generating more than one denomination of value in a blended form has a deeper history than the literature acknowledges. As an entrepreneur, Wright made strategic decisions in a context of supply-side and demand-side threats to the venture. The social enterprise engaged injustice by going beyond market and state contexts to generate impact in the realms of institutions and non-excludable public goods.

Research limitations/implications

This study generates two formal implications for the development of new research questions in social enterprise studies. The first implication addresses the relation between social entrepreneurs and their constituencies. The second implication pertains to the effects of macro-level education, awareness and politics on social enterprise performance and impact. The implications herald new insights in social enterprise, such as the limits of moral conviction and the importance of social disruption.

Originality/value

This paper broadens the current understanding of how social enterprises redress unjust and unethical institutions. It also contributes new insights into social enterprise launch and growth based on shared values within communities and coordinated strategic intentions across communities.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2010

Peter Prowse and Julie Prowse

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the evidence that human resource management (HRM) could contribute to the improvement of organizational and individual…

14660

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the evidence that human resource management (HRM) could contribute to the improvement of organizational and individual performance. It aims to examine the historical development of HRM and its emergence as a distinct management discipline. The evidence indicates that HRM is the product of several different traditions that range from a concern with employee welfare to the development of workplace relationships. The paper critically re‐evaluates what human performance is and assesses its contribution to organizational effectiveness. What is particularly important is the lack of empirical literature on the contribution of HRM and business performance. This paper will call for the re‐evaluation of more contemporary criteria of how people contribute to organizational performance in private, public and the emerging non‐profit making sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology adopted in this research uses critical literature on the contribution of human resource management performance.

Findings

The main finding of this research is the understanding of the problems of research design in measuring the contribution of HRM to develop performance in organizations.

Research limitations/implications

The research presented in this paper needs to review and standardize comparative research design to confirm the performance of HRM in organizations. It compares the alternative perspectives of measuring performance in financial criteria.

Originality/value

This paper reviews the research between key authors for exploring the correlation between HRM and organizational performance for future research and examines the influence of human resource professional bodies.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 59 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1938

T.P. Wright

IT is indeed an honour to appear before you to address you on the subject “American Methods of Aircraft Production.” We in America have long held the Royal Aeronautical Society in…

Abstract

IT is indeed an honour to appear before you to address you on the subject “American Methods of Aircraft Production.” We in America have long held the Royal Aeronautical Society in high regard, amply justified by the excellence of its published papers and the example it has set in organisation and in the conducting of an aeronautical society. Indeed, a few years ago when several of us in America decided that we, too, should have an aeronautical society, we planned our own organisation very largely on yours. We are very much pleased that the relationship which has existed between your Society and the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences in America throughout the brief career of the latter has been so close and friendly and I can assure you that we intend to do everything possible on our part to continue this highly desirable condition.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 10 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2001

Philip C. Wright and Gary D. Geroy

Outlines how human competency engineering can be used as a change maangement or organizational development tool, based upon studies conducted in Canada, Hong Kong and Indonesia…

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Abstract

Outlines how human competency engineering can be used as a change maangement or organizational development tool, based upon studies conducted in Canada, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Suggests that a change model based on the practical application of social science and physical science concepts can be applied over several cultures.

Details

Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7606

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1999

Christine Ryan

In the past two decades, the public sector both in Australia and overseas has undergone a period of intense change. The focus has been on efficiency, effectiveness and value for…

7482

Abstract

In the past two decades, the public sector both in Australia and overseas has undergone a period of intense change. The focus has been on efficiency, effectiveness and value for money of public sector operations. The methods by which governments account and report on their operations has received scrutiny. While Treasuries and Departments of Finance in each Australian jurisdiction have traditionally formulated the reporting and accounting rules used in the public sector, since 1983, with the formation of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (PSASB), the accounting profession has become involved in the setting of accounting standards for the public sector. Several researchers have suggested that a “contest” exists between the accounting profession and the government regulators for control over the public sector accounting standards process. This paper explores the processes whereby the public sector in Australia formulates its financial reporting policies by examining the interactions between the PSASB and the government regulators in each of the Australian jurisdictions. Policy community and policy network theory are used to argue that policy is formulated by a “cooperative” grouping of accounting professionals from the central agencies of Treasuries and Departments of Finance and the PSASB. The paper concludes that this method of policy formulation has implications for the content of policy and for the access of stakeholders to the formulation of that policy.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 May 2018

Mariluz Fernandez-Alles, Juan Pablo Diánez-González, Tamara Rodríguez-González and Mercedes Villanueva-Flores

The purpose of this paper is to analyze potentially significant differences in a series of relevant characteristics of universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs). To this…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze potentially significant differences in a series of relevant characteristics of universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs). To this end, TTOs have been classified by the function of their resources assigned to the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. The factors analyzed are the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs as well as the TTOs’ age, experience, professionalization and relational capital.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have performed a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis to identify the groups of TTOs with homogeneous behavior and features. This multivariate technique allows determining whether it is possible to identify some differentiated conglomerates of TTOs.

Findings

The results of the cluster analysis allow concluding that the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs, the age and degree of professionalization of these TTOs, the experiences of their employees in matters related to entrepreneurship and their relationships with market actors explain the different levels of commitment of TTOs toward the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. In contrast with the expected results, the relationship between TTOs and academic actors does not seem to explain such differences.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the identification of the particular design characteristics that TTOs should exhibit to promote the entrepreneurial performance of universities, offering important recommendations to academic institutions regarding the efficient design of TTOs to manage university ambidexterity and to build TTOs’ entrepreneurial identity.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2004

Clive Beed and Cara Beed

Distributional issues have re‐emerged as an important issue in economics, social science, and philosophy in the last few decades. In the same period, the relevance of derivative…

6115

Abstract

Distributional issues have re‐emerged as an important issue in economics, social science, and philosophy in the last few decades. In the same period, the relevance of derivative Judeo‐Christian socio‐economic principles to the contemporary world has been (re)asserted, developing an incipient Judeo‐Christian economics. Methodologically, this undertaking is comparable to that underlying the evolution of Islamic and other forms of religious economics. The methodology employed in the Judeo‐Christian undertaking is described via a worked example. The example shows how normative principles can be derived from Judeo‐Christian thought allegedly relevant to shaping the contemporary distribution of wealth and income. The principles are deduced from a particular sub‐set of Judeo‐Christian source material, and have the effect of generating greater equity in economic distribution. The deductions are compared with selected ideas canvassed in recent economics' discussion about inequitable distribution concerning appropriate criteria for guiding redistributional policy, ideas of “equal opportunity” vs “equal outcomes”, and the relation between distribution and economic growth.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 31 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 April 2021

John Bowman Dinsmore, Scott A. Wright and Daria Plotkina

The freemium pricing model is dominant in digital products such as mobile applications. While limited evaluation of a product such as when a consumer is under time pressure, has…

Abstract

Purpose

The freemium pricing model is dominant in digital products such as mobile applications. While limited evaluation of a product such as when a consumer is under time pressure, has been found to increase consumer preference for the free version (“the zero price effect”), this paper aims to explore moderators that attenuate or reverse that effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experiments test the role of anchoring effects induced by time pressure in moderating the zero price effect.

Findings

The studies offer evidence that anchoring effects induced by time pressure can be directed to reduce preference for free versions of products. In addition, these effects are mediated by the perceived performance risk of a product and an upper boundary condition for monetary price level is found.

Research limitations/implications

This research demonstrates exceptions to time pressure’s role in intensifying the zero price effect. Future research could focus on additional moderators of the effect such as the need for certainty and examine time pressure’s effect on in-app purchases.

Practical implications

These findings can be directly applied by marketers of digital products using a freemium pricing model who wants to use time pressure to create urgency with customers without pushing them toward the free version of a product.

Originality/value

This paper finds exceptions to the zero price effect where consumers exhibit a stronger preference for the paid (vs free) version of a product when under time pressure.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1906

IT is fitting that a new series of this magazine should be introduced by some reflections on the whole question of book selection, both for the general public and libraries.

Abstract

IT is fitting that a new series of this magazine should be introduced by some reflections on the whole question of book selection, both for the general public and libraries.

Details

New Library World, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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