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The purpose of this paper is to describe the forms of coordinating transactions used by a large beef slaughterhouse and processing companies and their suppliers of beef cattle, and to identify the reasons for the adoption of plural forms of governance for their transactions with cattle suppliers.

A case study format was selected for this investigation. The focal company selected offers a large number of products derived from beef for different commercialisation channels in the domestic and foreign market. A non-probability sample of 30 suppliers (cattle farmers) of the focal company provided data on finished steers sold in 2010, according to the three types of governance used in the transactions (spot market, forward contracts and long-term contracts).

The simultaneous use of more than one type of governance structure to coordinate similar transactions has been termed plural forms of governance in the literature. In Brazil, new forms of governance, such as formal and informal contracts, have been adopted for transactions between beef processing companies and cattle farmers, in addition to the use of spot market and vertical integration. It has been shown that the adoption of plural forms reduces the risk of complex transactions; and is a strategy to deal with unpredictable institutional environments and high heterogeneity of both suppliers and distribution channels.

The research provides empirical evidence of plural forms of governance, as well as the reasons for the adoption of this strategy by firms, which contributes to the ongoing theoretical discussion on this subject.

The paper has implications for company supply chain management.

This paper presents theoretical review on plural forms of governance, new empirical evidence and determinant factors for their adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to examine franchisee perception of company‐owned outlets within their network.

The paper uses a qualitative approach, based on 38 interviews of franchisees belonging to plural form networks from various industries.

The interviews show that franchisees generally perceive the advantages of the plural form in terms of network development and management, but they also perceive some limitations, mainly in terms of network culture and cohesion, as well as potential conflicts and costs.

Limitations mainly concern the exploratory nature of this research.

While they should keep on emphasising the benefits of the plural form, franchisors also have to reduce the perception of its limitations. They have to reinforce network culture and minimise internal conflicts.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on the plural form by using a franchisee‐based approach. In addition, contrary to most previous literature, it also highlights some limitations of the plural form.

This study aims to study research on franchise chain performance that has focused on franchisors’ efforts to align their interests with those of franchisees to address partner uncertainty. In contrast, the question of what a franchisor should do to address another type of uncertainty and task uncertainty remains understudied. The authors suggest a franchisor’s coordination as a key means of alleviating task uncertainty and ongoing support and plural form as two mechanisms of coordination. The authors also posit that aligned interests between the franchisor and the franchisee improve, whereas one-sided interest impedes, chain performance. Furthermore, providing greater ongoing support or deploying plural form amplifies the positive effect of aligned interests on chain performance.

The authors relied on secondary data to test the hypotheses. The authors collected data for analysis from Bond’s franchisee guide and Nation’s Restaurant News restaurant database. They also tested the framework by analyzing 17-year, panel data of 71 restaurant chains operating in the USA and Canada using system generalized method of moments.

Results show that aligning interests does improve chain performance, but that the positive effect is amplified when aligned interests are matched with a chain’s provision of ongoing support or use of plural form.

The authors explicate why it is not enough to address the misaligned interests or lack of coordination alone; a chain manager needs to address both of these problems together. In addition, the authors explicate how two franchisee coordination mechanisms – ongoing support and plural form – help a chain augment the beneficial effect of aligning interests on chain performance. Without solving the twin problems of misaligned interests and coordination simultaneously, a chain is unlikely to achieve its full performance potential.

In an earlier article (The Electronic Library, April, 1985) a description is given of a method of making a KWOC index from article or document titles with a computer program which enables an indexer to combine words from the title in any way required to form indexing terms. Two versions of the program are described, an interactive one and one which compiles a KWOC index from a file of prepared data. The method has the drawback common to all KWOC indexes that the words in the title have to be used in the form in which they occur and this leads to certain shortcomings in the index such as a multiplicity of forms for what is the same term and the use of comprehensible but unconventional forms of a term. This article discusses these shortcomings and then describes the modifications made to the interactive version of the program which allow an indexer to edit the terms chosen as the index is being compiled so that consistency in the form of the terms is achieved and accepted conventions are observed. Modifications which effect the same improvements have been made to the other version of the program and these are also described. Examples of the use of both these new versions of the program are included.

The purpose of this paper is to explore product adoption beliefs and actions of a large retail food organization with both corporate-owned stores and privately held franchise stores.

The authors used a case study approach involving survey data collection from 190 corporate-owned and licensed retail outlets that were members of a large, single organization. Ordinary least squares regression and mean differences (t-tests) were used to test the data. Findings were elaborated upon based upon structured interviews.

Corporate-owned retail outlets invested heavily in food safety innovation, while franchised retail outlets pursued minimal investment to retain product flexibility. The level of adoption is contingent upon ownership structure, as well as institutional forces emanating from the corporate environment, the customer, and peer organizations.

The findings offer greater insight into methodological issues associated with measurement of new product adoption in particular. The authors have shown that it is critical for researchers to clarify the level of analysis of the study. Quantitative survey analysis revealed both safety and economic motivations to be desirable issues in product adoption considerations. However, when quantitative and qualitative results were combined, very different outcomes were realized as ownership structure differences appear to dominate product adoption decisions. Therefore, when conducting plural organizational form research, the data gathering efforts must be carefully undertaken to ensure that critical drivers of phenomena explored are not overlooked.

Adoption of new product adoption involves the complex interplay between ownership structure/control, economic cost/benefit, managerial choice, and societal norms. Often, organizational research relating to adoption of new processes and innovations collects individual-level data. However, this study shows that adoption decisions occur at multiple levels and that the ownership/structural context must be considered.

The study has implications from social innovation/responsibility perspectives. Recent press regarding food safety has put pressure on food processing establishments to consider methods of reducing food safety breaches. No doubt, this has alerted the consumer to potential risks in food processing and influenced their preferences in favor of food safety innovations. Nonetheless, perceptions of the importance of “safety” can be interpreted in a variety of ways, leading to differing courses of action. Interviews with corporate-level executives revealed that they preferred both corporate-owned and franchised retail outlets adopt case ready (CR) meats to stem safety concerns. Yet, this aspiration diffused throughout the organization differently.

Multiple organizational structure forms operating within the same organizational entity, or “plural form” organizations, offer unique opportunities for examination. Applying various theoretical lenses, including agency theory, the resource-based theory, and institutional theory, the authors offer rationale for why different structural types within the same corporate entity may differ in their beliefs and actions concerning product safety, cost, and adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of evaluating the innovative/entrepreneurial capabilities of small firms in high‐technology industries.

The approach taken is a literature review and case study.

The contribution of the paper is twofold: in the first part, it is tried to distinguish the different forms of entrepreneurship existing. This leads to determine a form of entrepreneurship, plural entrepreneurship, that is typical in high‐tech start‐ups. In the second part, it is then tried to evaluate the innovative/entrepreneurial capabilities of a firm in such a framework. This is based on a longitudinal case study of a high‐tech start‐up where we explore how different dimensions of entrepreneurship coexist and interplay to create a firm's innovative dynamics depending on its initial resources and those added during the firm's growth.

The paper is an original attempt to distinguish different notions of entrepreneurship including the notion of plural‐entrepreneurship and capabilities in a small enterprise.

The purpose of this paper is to address a specific gap in the literature that centers on individual perspective of leadership within the context of organizational transformation. It explores synergies between leadership, analyzed as a combination of individual and plural perspectives, and managerial drivers relating to organizational transformation (communicating, mobilizing, and evaluating).

The study examines a complex organizational transformation initiative faced by an Italian, family-owned fashion design company through an action research project.

The results illustrate that context may play a role in accelerating the implementation of plural forms of leadership and their effectiveness during some phases of transformation. Specific emerging manifestations of leadership and synergies with transformation drivers are identified.

This is a single case study derived from an action research project. Although the approach is congruent with the nature of the phenomenon and the purpose of the study, it does not aim for generalizability, and as such further empirical investigation is advocated.

The paper offers an original perspective on leadership of organizational transformation, discussing in particular the co-existence of individual and plural leadership and the role of context.

This paper aims to explore franchisor–franchisee relationships in the context of plural forms. Plural forms implies the co-existence of franchised and non-franchised outlets of a given company. More specifically, the paper examines the impact of franchisors’ leadership styles on franchisees’ relationship commitment when the company franchised outlets co-exist with independent non-franchised outlets. Specifically, this study operationalize the plural forms phenomenon in franchising, using multi-channel complexity as a moderator. The mediating role of relational capital is also examined.

Data were collected from 254 franchisees. The hypothesized model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicate that all three – participative, supportive and directive leadership styles of franchisors increase relationship commitment. In a high channel complexity context, a supportive leadership style is the most effective, whereas, in a low channel complexity context, a participative style is the most effective. Relational capital also partially mediated the relationships between leadership styles and relationship commitment.

Franchisors should follow a participative leadership style when channel complexity is low. However, as they add new channels and the channel complexity increases, franchisors should shift toward a supportive leadership style to maintain existing franchisees’ commitment. In current environments, managers should avoid using directive leadership in favor of the other two leadership styles.

The present study is the first to examine the influence of channel leadership style on relationship commitment in an environment of multiple channel complexity.

This paper presents a morphological classification of languages from the IR perspective. Linguistic typology research has shown that the morphological complexity of every language in the world can be described by two variables, index of synthesis and index of fusion. These variables provide a theoretical basis for IR research handling morphological issues. A common theoretical framework is needed in particular because of the increasing significance of cross‐language retrieval research and CLIR systems processing different languages. The paper elaborates the linguistic morphological typology for the purposes of IR research. It studies how the indexes of synthesis and fusion could be used as practical tools in mono‐ and cross‐lingual IR research. The need for semantic and syntactic typologies is discussed. The paper also reviews studies made in different languages on the effects of morphology and stemming in IR.

This article presents an overview and assessment of recent reforms that have contributed to a pluralisation and fragmentation of policing in England and Wales. It considers the emergence of new forms of visible policing both within and beyond the public police. These include the growth of private security guards and patrols, local auxiliaries such as neighbourhood wardens and the introduction of second tier police personnel in the shape of the new police community support officers. To varying degrees plural forms of policing seek to offer public reassurance through visible patrols. The article goes on to explore the complex nature of relations between the “extended police family” and the different modes of governance they suggest. It concludes with a consideration of the future shape of reassurance policing.