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1 – 10 of 107Moustafa Haj Youssef, Jahangir Wasim, Ioannis Christodoulou and Robert Reinhardt
The aim of this study is to explore and elucidate the influence of polygamy on the succession dynamics of family businesses in the Arab world, offering insights that may be…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to explore and elucidate the influence of polygamy on the succession dynamics of family businesses in the Arab world, offering insights that may be underrepresented or overlooked in traditional, Western-focused literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This article adopts a perspective-based approach, focusing on delving into the amalgamation of polygamous family structures and their implications on the operation and continuation of family-run businesses.
Findings
Polygamy, while often primarily perceived as a cultural or religious tradition, wields substantial influence over various business facets. Notably, its presence can significantly shape business continuity, the methodologies behind succession planning and the overarching framework of corporate governance within Arab family businesses.
Originality/value
This article offers a unique Middle Eastern lens, highlighting the underexplored intersection of polygamy and business succession. It strives to bridge the knowledge gap by addressing topics potentially sidelined in mainstream Western business research.
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Jahangir Wasim, Moustafa Haj Youssef, Ioannis Christodoulou and Robert Reinhardt
This research aims to identify the intentions behind becoming an entrepreneur and the perception of entrepreneurial failure among different groups of students. There has been…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to identify the intentions behind becoming an entrepreneur and the perception of entrepreneurial failure among different groups of students. There has been significant research discussing the motivations behind becoming an entrepreneur. However, such a research study is often focused on individuals who are already in the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, this research focuses on the understanding of the entrepreneurial process specified on the intentions of becoming an entrepreneur and the associated risk, in the context of a learning process.
Design/methodology/approach
The perspectives of students towards becoming an entrepreneur and their perception of associated risk are identified. A comparative exploratory case study method is used. Three cases developed in the light of empirical evidence consist of Business, Law and Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students.
Findings
Major results show that the law and STEM students were on the same line in terms of motivational factors, such as being career driven. In contrary, the business students were more driven by personal factors such as leaving something behind and building something meaningful.
Originality/value
Whilst studies have attempted to understand entrepreneurial intentions, little work has considered students and their views on becoming entrepreneurs. Even with studies that looked at this subject matter, the focus was mainly business students. The authors build on previous work and construct the authors' views based on multi-disciplinary student base to know more about their intentions to become an entrepreneur. The science and law students were more influenced by external factors, whereas business students were focused more on their personal goals. Such classification of the diverse intentions based on student discipline opens a new and promising research avenue to better develop entrepreneurial education not only for business students but across all disciplines in higher education.
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To review the position of the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia and its strategies to retain a dominant role against increasing competition.
Abstract
Purpose
To review the position of the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia and its strategies to retain a dominant role against increasing competition.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Robert Budden and Christopher Brown‐Humes chart the recent history of Nokia that has witnessed a growing demand for handsets from its main rivals. They set out the challenges facing Nokia and report on how the company is facing them, pointing out that Nokia's fortunes are closely linked with those of Finland where it accounts for about 20 percent of the country's exports. In their second article, they focus on a disappointing reception for N‐Gage, Nokia's new gaming device. Andy Reinhardt, Eric Sylvers and Irene M. Kunii also comment on the reception to N‐Gage – which incorporates a mobile phone, games console, FM radio and digital music player – since it went on sale in October 2003. Their article also looks the latest games available in Japan.
Originality/value
To understand how companies, often described as “market leaders” have to constantly review their strategies in order to maintain their share of an increasingly crowded market and to satisfy increasingly sophisticated consumers.
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Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured…
Abstract
Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.
The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.
The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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Blues music is in the midst of its second revival in popularity in roughly thirty years. The year 1960 can be identified, with some qualification, as a reference point for the…
Abstract
Blues music is in the midst of its second revival in popularity in roughly thirty years. The year 1960 can be identified, with some qualification, as a reference point for the first rise in international awareness and appreciation of the blues. This first period of wide‐spread white interest in the blues continued until the early seventies, while the current revival began in the middle 1980s. During both periods a sizeable literature on the blues has appeared. This article provides a thumbnail sketch of the popularity of the blues, followed by a description of scholarly and critical literature devoted to the music. Documentary and instructional materials in audio and video formats are also discussed. Recommendations are made for library collections and a list of selected sources is included at the end of the article.
Lawton Robert Burns, Jeff C. Goldsmith and Aditi Sen
Researchers recommend a reorganization of the medical profession into larger groups with a multispecialty mix. We analyze whether there is evidence for the superiority of these…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers recommend a reorganization of the medical profession into larger groups with a multispecialty mix. We analyze whether there is evidence for the superiority of these models and if this organizational transformation is underway.
Design/Methodology Approach
We summarize the evidence on scale and scope economies in physician group practice, and then review the trends in physician group size and specialty mix to conduct survivorship tests of the most efficient models.
Findings
The distribution of physician groups exhibits two interesting tails. In the lower tail, a large percentage of physicians continue to practice in small, physician-owned practices. In the upper tail, there is a small but rapidly growing percentage of large groups that have been organized primarily by non-physician owners.
Research Limitations
While our analysis includes no original data, it does collate all known surveys of physician practice characteristics and group practice formation to provide a consistent picture of physician organization.
Research Implications
Our review suggests that scale and scope economies in physician practice are limited. This may explain why most physicians have retained their small practices.
Practical Implications
Larger, multispecialty groups have been primarily organized by non-physician owners in vertically integrated arrangements. There is little evidence supporting the efficiencies of such models and some concern they may pose anticompetitive threats.
Originality/Value
This is the first comprehensive review of the scale and scope economies of physician practice in nearly two decades. The research results do not appear to have changed much; nor has much changed in physician practice organization.
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The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss the existing empirical findings of the corporate environmentalism-competitiveness investigations as well as their methodological…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss the existing empirical findings of the corporate environmentalism-competitiveness investigations as well as their methodological and cognitive shortcomings.
Design/methodology/approach
An examination of the literature was conducted to identify the most seminal and novel studies exploring the relationship between corporate environmentalism and competitiveness. A range of works were selected and their conceptual frameworks, variables and statistical design were obtained and analysed.
Findings
Although existing studies tend to suggest that corporate environmentalism have a positive (or at least neutral) impact on competitiveness, more detailed and critical examination of these studies shows important methodological, cognitive and logical shortcomings, which challenge these findings.
Research limitations/implications
It is not an exhaustive review of all the existing studies, but rather a selection of the most seminal studies which represent different approaches and methodologies applied as well as a variety of empirical findings.
Practical implications
The study challenges the existing empirical findings arguing that corporate environmentalism positively affects a company's competitiveness. The present paper claims that the ultimate conclusion on the relationship can be determined after at least some of the most significant shortcomings are solved.
Originality/value
The study is based on a broad investigation of existing studies, out of which the most seminal and original papers were selected. In addition, the paper offers suggestions for the future empirical investigations.
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Duchamp caused a revolution in the art of the twentieth century with the readymade concept, and simultaneously he opened Pandora's Box, which converted art into a simulation and…
Abstract
Duchamp caused a revolution in the art of the twentieth century with the readymade concept, and simultaneously he opened Pandora's Box, which converted art into a simulation and made it dependent on discursive practices. This degenerated into a deconstructive vulgate when, from the 1960s onwards, an ‘aesthetic of banality’ was accentuated and the media institutionalized the ‘guerrilla’ between the practices and the discourses. Art ‘wrecked’ in a regime of hyper-reality of the image, and the art paradigms and criteria shifted from aesthetics to the law of the financial markets. At the same time, the proliferation of coexisting cultural ideas and a revolving cultural miscegenation ended up splitting the kingdom of the art. In the art world today, there is a cleavage between artists: on one side, the adepts to the heteronomy (a line that was born with ready-made products), those who, following dominant rules, work for the market and the organizations; on the other side, those, more passionate, for whom art is a hermeneutics for self-knowledge. Meanwhile, Picasso's aura returns to the art scene, in a panorama that until now was adverse to him.
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