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1 – 10 of over 2000Manveer Mann, Sang-Eun Byun and Yishuang Li
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the range of realignment strategies employed by retailers in the USA in response to the 2008 economic recession.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the range of realignment strategies employed by retailers in the USA in response to the 2008 economic recession.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the grounded theory approach, National Retail Federation News Briefs published between 2008 and 2011 were analyzed by sorting them into thematic categories and comparing trends in strategic decisions during the recession (2008-2009) and after the recession (2010-2011). Based on the emergent categories, propositions were developed to provide theoretical explanations of the findings.
Findings
The authors found five thematic categories of realignment strategies: promotional, organizational, price, operational, and product realignments. In line with contingency theories, retailers used these strategies to achieve a greater fit with the altered business environment and consumer consumption patterns. While promotional realignment was most prevalent, followed by organizational realignment, different realignment strategies were pursued based on the strategic focus and long-term vs short-term orientation of the retailers.
Originality/value
The contribution of the findings is twofold: filling a critical gap in the literature examining the range of realignment decisions of the US retail industry in response to the recent economic recession; and enhancing the theoretical understanding of underlying factors or mechanisms of specific realignment decisions in the context of a turbulent economic environment.
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Jennifer E. Nutefall and Faye A. Chadwell
The purpose of this article is to communicate how an academic library can establish and implement a realignment process to prepare itself to serve users in the 21st century.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to communicate how an academic library can establish and implement a realignment process to prepare itself to serve users in the 21st century.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed a case study approach to present the challenges of realigning an academic library. They describe the collaborative and interactive process that OSU Libraries undertook to envision what a 21st century academy library might demand and to realign its units to support this vision. They summarize the positive outcomes of this process and provide an overview of what next steps might be.
Findings
A combination of visioning exercises and collaborative study of the appropriate LIS literature were key to establishing the direction that the libraries' realignment would take and the eventual organizational structure the libraries implemented. The realignment activities not only emphasized collaboration among unit heads, but also emphasized the importance of clear communication, ongoing assessment, and connection to the university's overall strategic goals and realignment in order to guarantee eventual success.
Originality/value
This article describes a process that most academic libraries could emulate to shift the focus of legacy operations and departments to those that successfully meet the challenges of the twenty‐first century academic library.
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Made Indra Wijaya, Abd Rahim Mohamad and Muhammad Hafizurrachman
The purpose of this paper is to assess the association between shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the association between shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture.
Design/methodology/approach
Using difference in differences model, BIMC Hospitals and Siloam Hospital Bali were compared before and after shift schedule realignment to test the association between shift schedule realignment and patient safety culture.
Findings
Shift schedule realignment was associated with a significant improvement in staffing (coefficient 1.272; 95% CI 0.842 – 1.702; p<0.001), teamwork within units (coefficient 1.689; 95% CI 1.206 – 2.171; p<0.001), teamwork across units (coefficient 1.862; 95% CI 1.415 – 2.308; p<0.001), handoffs and transitions (coefficient 0.999; 95% CI 0.616 – 1.382; p<0.001), frequency of error reported (coefficient 1.037; 95% CI 0.581 – 1.493; p<0.001), feedback and communication about error (coefficient 1.412; 95% CI 0.982 – 1.841; p<0.001) and communication openness (coefficient 1.393; 95% CI 0.968 – 1.818; p<0.001).
Practical implications
With positive impact on patient safety culture, shift schedule realignment should be considered as quality improvement initiative. It stretches the compressed workload suffered by staff while maintaining 40 h per week in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Originality/value
Shift schedule realignment, designed to improve patient safety culture, has never been implemented in any Indonesian private hospital. Other hospital managers might also appreciate knowing about the shift schedule realignment to improve the patient safety culture.
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Per Skålén, Stefano Pace and Bernard Cova
The purpose of this paper is to contribute knowledge regarding the nature of successful and unsuccessful value co-creation processes between firms and brand communities and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute knowledge regarding the nature of successful and unsuccessful value co-creation processes between firms and brand communities and the strategies used to address the latter.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a netnographic study of the online collaborative platform known as Alfisti.com, which carmaker Alfa Romeo launched to enhance co-creation with its most devoted consumers, the “Alfisti”.
Findings
The findings identify three groups of collaborative practices: interacting, identity and organizing practices. The paper details how firm and brand community members enact the elements – procedures, understandings and engagements – of collaborative practices and how the alignment of these enactments impacts value co-creation.
Research limitations/implications
The paper suggests that co-creation of value succeeds when the enactment of collaborative practices aligns, i.e. when firm and brand community members enact practices in a similar way, and that co-creation fails when the enactment of practices misaligns. Firms and brand communities use three realignment strategies – compliance, interpretation and orientation – to address the misalignment and failure of co-creation. The fact that the research draws on a single qualitative case study is a limitation.
Practical implications
Managerial implications include using realignment strategies to manage firm-brand community co-creation.
Originality/value
Creating an empirical-based framework regarding successful and failing co-creation and how the latter is addressed in the context of brand community makes the paper original.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential effect of busy season resource constraints on the selection of a new auditor, conditioned upon the status of the prior…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential effect of busy season resource constraints on the selection of a new auditor, conditioned upon the status of the prior auditor.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs multivariate logistic regressions for a sample of firms that changed auditors between 1979 and 2005 to explore the empirical correlations between having a December fiscal year-end (FYE) and non-lateral switches.
Findings
The paper finds that non-BigN clients with December FYEs are less likely to switch to BigN auditors than those with non-December FYEs prior to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). This trend subsides after SOX. For firms with BigN predecessor auditors, fiscal year-end appears to have insignificant influence on auditor switching.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that upwardly mobile clients face greater audit supply constraints compared to clients already being audited by a BigN firm during the traditional busy season. However, the curbing influence on switching upwards erodes after SOX.
Practical implications
This study is to show the impact of supplier capacity constraints on audit production and structural changes within the auditing profession.
Originality/value
The findings can further the understanding of the determinants of auditor-client realignment, given that the paper identifies and explores the effects of having a December FYE on subsequent auditor appointments, conditioned upon the status of the prior auditor.
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This paper aims to suggest a procedure for successfully transforming a firm’s innovation processes in a systematic way.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to suggest a procedure for successfully transforming a firm’s innovation processes in a systematic way.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper, which draws on prior academic and practitioner papers.
Findings
Changes in a firm’s environment, such as new technological trends or customer needs, regularly call for the dynamic renewal of a firm’s innovation processes. Nonetheless, most firms proceed in a surprisingly unsystematic way if they transform their innovation processes. This approach contrasts with the systematic innovation processes that many firms have established to manage their product development from initial idea to final market launch.
Originality/value
To overcome this discrepancy, this paper distinguishes reconfiguration and realignment challenges in the transformation of a firm’s innovation processes. These different activities are illustrated with the example of transforming firms’ innovation processes towards open innovation. Furthermore, a five-step procedure is suggested to ease implementation. On this basis, implications for managers are discussed with respect to proficiently adapting their firms’ innovation processes over time.
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Howard Cooke, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek and Theo Arentz
The purpose of this paper is to identify the variables that influence corporate real estate (CRE) decision-making and gauge their relative importance to each other, thereby…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the variables that influence corporate real estate (CRE) decision-making and gauge their relative importance to each other, thereby understanding the consequent challenges/implications for CRE managers (CREM’s).
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were undertaken with experienced CREM’s using the causal network elicitation technique to create decision networks for the variables they considered for the specifically defined scenario: dealing with surplus property from a change of business strategy. These networks illustrate the complexity of the mental representations required for the realignment of the CRE portfolio. The key variables are more extensive than alignment theory suggests, namely, financial stakeholders. Additional variables identified include risk, lease accounting, costs, financial analysis, business metrics and motivational drivers. The latter indicates the importance of self-esteem and peer recognition for CREM’s and financial benefits for the C-suite. Accordingly strategy alignment needs to incorporate CRE both in terms of strategy creation and implementation.
Findings
These networks illustrate the complexity of the mental representations required for the realignment of the CRE portfolio. The key variables are more extensive than alignment theory suggests, namely, financial stakeholders. Additional variables identified include risk, lease accounting, costs, financial analysis, business metrics and motivational drivers. The latter indicates the importance of self-esteem and peer recognition for CREM’s and financial benefits for the C-suite. Accordingly, strategy alignment needs to incorporate CRE both in terms of strategy creation and implementation.
Originality/value
This research appears to be the first that looks in detail at the mental representations used by decision-makers while making CRE decisions.
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Madjid Tavana, Brian S. Bourgeois and Mariya A. Sodenkamp
The US Government adopted the base realignment and closure (BRAC) to resolve the military, economic and political issue of excess base capacity. There have been five rounds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The US Government adopted the base realignment and closure (BRAC) to resolve the military, economic and political issue of excess base capacity. There have been five rounds of BRAC since 1988, and more are expected to come in the years ahead. The complexity of the closure and realignment decisions and the plethora of factors that are often involved necessitate the need for a sound theoretical framework to structure and model the decision‐making process. This paper aims to address the issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a multiple criteria benchmarking system that integrates the employment, environmental, financial, strategic, and tactical impacts of the closure and realignment decisions into a weighted‐sum measure called the “survivability index.” The proposed index is used to determine whether the returns generated by each military base on the Department of Defense (DoD) hit list meet a sufficient target benchmark.
Findings
There is a significant amount of evidence that intuitive decision making is far from optimal and it deteriorates exponentially with problem complexity. The benchmarking system presented in this study helps decision makers (DMs) crystallize their thoughts and reduce the environmental complexities inherent in the BRAC decisions. The presented model is intended to create an even playing field for benchmarking and pursuing consensus not to imply a deterministic approach to BRAC decisions.
Originality/value
An iterative process is used to consistently analyze the objective and subjective judgments of multiple DMs within a structured framework based on the analytic network process and fuzzy logic. This iterative and interactive preference modeling procedure is the basic distinguishing feature of the presented model as opposed to statistical and optimization decision‐making approaches.
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This study aims at unpacking the multiplicity of the sitting activity in public spaces through the lens of actor-network theory. In line with previous urban research focussing on…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at unpacking the multiplicity of the sitting activity in public spaces through the lens of actor-network theory. In line with previous urban research focussing on outdoor activities, such empirical investigation aims to show the importance of the physical aspects of spaces, including seating, in supporting sitting activities as a way of encouraging the use of public space.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the overlap between actor–network theory and affordances. It utilises ethnographic research involving frequent users in Dahiyat Al Hussein Park in Amman-Jordan. Data were gathered on the different seat–user relations and the translated sitting activity networks.
Findings
Analysis demonstrates different cases of alignment, misalignment and realignment between what is intended and experienced, and where these relations are maintained, disrupted or changed. These findings reveal the multiplicity of sitting activities; this is significant for understanding how they are maintained.
Originality/value
The research suggests a new way of conceptualising the relationship between the physical environment and users and an approach for examining sitting activities. Some studies have applied actor–network theory and/or the concept of “affordance” by highlighting relations between the object and its user and how they create sitting activities. However, only few studies have problematised the multiplicity of sitting when considering seating uses.
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An efficient supply chain is becoming increasingly important as globalization and technological advancement combine to make the modern marketplace more competitive than ever. An…
Abstract
An efficient supply chain is becoming increasingly important as globalization and technological advancement combine to make the modern marketplace more competitive than ever. An example of this can be seen at Matsushita, a Japanese‐based industry leader who has had to fight to remain competitive in the face of low‐cost Chinese competitors. Faced with declining sales and profits due to cost deficiencies in its supply chain, Matsushita realized that its long‐term success was contingent upon a supply chain realignment. This realignment has included the transfer of many tasks to China. Historically known for its inexpensive land and labor, China is increasingly becoming recognized for its technological expertise and the availability of low‐cost production components. Matsushita’s revamped supply chain is utilizing all of these resources. Through this realignment Matsushita hopes to reverse its recent trend of declining sales and profits; the early results are promising.
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