Search results

This study aims to develop the concept of competitive productivity focussing on the interplay between national competitive productivity (NCP) and firm competitive productivity (FCP) based on the following research question: how does the competitive productivity framework explain the influence that government has on public–private procurement programmes?

A case study is conducted on the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme. Data were collected using an exploratory, mixed methods design, starting with national level secondary data on five bid windows between 2011 and 2014, followed by eight in-depth qualitative interviews with industry experts.

The findings indicate that non-financial factors, such as trust (through consistent and transparent government policy) as well as a pragmatic attitude on the part of government, increased competition and ultimately resulted in a productive procurement process.

By understanding what moderating factors influence competitiveness in African procurement programmes, using competitive productivity (CP) as a framework, the research contributes to development of government policy and procurement programmes. Incidentally, there is little doubt that improving infrastructure and in turn a greater percentage of access to electricity leads to increased competitiveness of the nation, firms and individuals, thus enabling companies to grow and operate with more stability.

Originality is demonstrated through the interplay of NCP and FCP, where the constructs of culture, benchmarking and performance were found to have the strongest influence of the six constructs of the CP model.

This chapter focuses on how students think before we can teach them how to act. This idea is anchored in the observation that most institutions of higher education tend to teach their students to become employees, whether in the public or private sector, rather than to become employers. Thus, the mindset with which we equip our students is not sensitised to entrepreneurial action. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to propose and illustrate a more comprehensive approach to teaching entrepreneurship, which aims to transform the way that students think about entrepreneurship. In order to achieve this objective, we identify and develop techniques for promoting entrepreneurial awareness and preparedness in our student population, and provide tools for educators to promote the individual’s innate drive to perfect him/herself, thus recognising his/her own need for personal growth. At the theoretical level, we build on the authors’ teaching experiences from different cultural contexts, which show ways in which alternative learning initiatives may enhance enterprising thinking among students. Based on our experiences with the influence of context, we propose that it is necessary to consider seven different, yet interconnected teaching principles, which may influence the impact of entrepreneurship education and which relate to the why; where; when; what and how of entrepreneurship. In continuation, on a practical level, we suggest a coherent system of innovative educational techniques, so-called Verwunderungsübungen, or wonderment exercises, that can be used individually or in combination. By creating a comprehensive teaching paradigm for entrepreneurship we pay tribute to entrepreneurship being an inherently dynamic phenomenon, which goes beyond exclusively focusing on new venture creation.

This article examines the links between average city size, fiscal decentralisation, and national economic growth in 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

The data in this paper comprise an unbalanced panel dataset which contains economic growth indicators, average city size, fiscal decentralisation indicators and control variables in 33 OECD member countries from 1975 to 2015 in five-year intervals. Fixed-effects (FE) estimators are used for the analysis.

This research finds i) countries with larger weighted average city sizes have higher economic growth, ii) countries with greater fiscal decentralisation have higher economic growth, but iii) countries with larger weighted average city sizes with greater decentralisation have lower rates of economic growth.

The research highlights the importance of agglomerations and decentralised governance and management for economic growth. While the findings are consistent with previous evidence that larger city sizes and fiscal decentralisation are separately associated with higher rates of economic growth, the authors find countries which have larger cities and greater fiscal decentralisation experience lower rates of economic growth highlighting a need for caution on decentralisation agendas in such cases. The implications of this suggest policymakers should proceed with caution on decentralisation agendas in countries with large cities.

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, to show how the financial power of the fossil fuel industries and the prevalence of religious ideology in Congress are the two major obstacles preventing the U.S. government from taking action to slow down global warming. Then to evaluate various approaches to ‘satisfying our energy needs’, by showing a crucial dynamic behind our insatiable drive to consume energy, and to propose some ways of circumventing the current obstacles.

The approach is through a comprehensive study of the relevant evidence and academic literature, interwoven with philosophical reflections on their significance.

The findings are as follows: a major root of the current problem is the dysfunctional political system in the United States, which is corrupted by vast infusions of money from the fossil fuel industries and the dogmatic religious beliefs of Republicans in key positions on Congressional committees.

The implications are several. The proposed technological solutions to the ‘energy problem’ – nuclear power, carbon sequestration, fracking for natural gas and geo-engineering – only address the symptoms and ignore the dynamic that underlies them, exemplified in the story of Prometheus. If we continue to be driven by the Promethean spirit, we risk being subject to excruciating punishment as a result. The solution to our problems is a transition to clean and renewable sources of energy, accompanied by the kind of reduction in material desires that evidently makes for lives that are more fulfilled.

The value of the philosophical perspective on this topic is that it highlights questions of value that otherwise remain inexplicit.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the sixteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1989. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Last decades scholars in the field of human resource management (HRM) have intensely examined the contribution of HRM to organizational performance. Despite their efforts, at least one major research shortcoming can be identified. In general, they have devoted far too little attention to an aspect of HRM potentially beneficial for organizational performance: worker participation, and especially its indirect or representative forms. In contrast, for academics embedded in the industrial relations tradition, worker participation is a prominent theme, even though less emphasized in its relationship with company objectives. One might defend traditional scholars' reservations by arguing that participations main goal concerns workplace democratization and not organizational prosperity. However, several writers state that industrial democracy involving worker participation can channel conflicts of interest between employees and employers and stimulate desired employee attitudes and behavior, consequently enhancing organizational performance (e.g., Gollan, 2006; Ramsay, 1991; Taras & Kaufman, 1999). And, indeed, several studies have shown positive effects of both direct participation (e.g., European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1997) and indirect participation (e.g., Addison et al., 2000, 2003; Frick & Möller, 2003) on organizational performance.

Nevertheless, to date, the absence of an integrated model explaining the connection between worker participation and organizational performance leads to the following question that still is in need of an answer: how do direct and indirect forms of participation – separate as well as in combination – affect organizational performance? This chapter aims to contribute to the filling of the aforementioned knowledge gaps. In so doing, we focus on direct and indirect, nonunion participation on the firm level, using a Western European and especially Dutch frame of reference.

This study aims to identify and explain a possible gender pay gap in the creative industry. By using the salary information of Hollywood actors, this paper restricts the analysis to a relatively homogenous group of workers. In addition, actors' human capital endowments and past performance can be measured precisely. The factors that impact the salaries of movie stars are likely to influence the pay of other high-wage employees, such as athletes and executives.

This paper uses a rich panel data set including 178 female and male actors in 973 movies released between 1980 and 2019. Using a random-effects model and the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition approach, this paper distinguishes between a fraction of the gender pay gap that can be explained and another fraction that cannot be explained. Hence, only the unexplained residual typically obtained by estimating two standard Mincer-type earnings functions is due to discriminatory pay practices.

This study reveals a pay difference between female and male actors. Gender-specific representation in leading roles and systematic differences in performance measures can explain this pay difference. While female actors' underrepresentation in leading roles reflects consumer tastes and, therefore, reflects discriminatory attitudes, no evidence can be found for direct pay discrimination in Hollywood's movie business.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Hollywood study to relying on a rich panel data set that includes various measures of the human capital characteristics of the different individual actors. This paper's theoretical contribution lies in applying classic labor economics reasoning to explain pay determination in Hollywood's movie business.

The authors of this chapter investigate internationalisation strategies of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in China. We highlight the specific challenges that Chinese SMEs encounter when selecting international country markets in terms of distance and entry speed. The authors adopt an ambidexterity perspective that differs from traditional explanations of internationalisation behaviour by highlighting the need to balance seemingly disparate options for international expansion. Three cases provide an illustration of how Chinese companies combine distant with proximate market entries and slow with accelerated entry speed. The authors highlight how these strategies can drive and enhance international aspirations of Chinese SMEs.

Developmental delays in social and communication functioning have been proposed as a possible risk factor for offending behaviour in both young people and adults. These deficits may be particularly common in young people with both offending behaviours and mental health needs. This article describes how an assessment for pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) may be undertaken in a forensic adolescent mental health setting and integrated into the overall needs and risk assessment. Two case histories are summarised to illustrate the advantages and challenges of using this approach as part of the assessment and management of young people. It is likely that a thorough evaluation of social and communication functioning can contribute to developing effective management strategies for patients with offending behaviours and complex needs.