Search results

1 – 10 of 250
Book part
Publication date: 4 September 2003

Oliver Koll

Scanning both the academic and popular business literature of the last 40 years puzzles the alert reader. The variety of prescriptions of how to be successful (effective…

Abstract

Scanning both the academic and popular business literature of the last 40 years puzzles the alert reader. The variety of prescriptions of how to be successful (effective, performing, etc.) 1 Organizational performance, organizational success and organizational effectiveness will be used interchangeably throughout this paper.1 in business is hardly comprehensible: “Being close to the customer,” Total Quality Management, corporate social responsibility, shareholder value maximization, efficient consumer response, management reward systems or employee involvement programs are but a few of the slogans introduced as means to increase organizational effectiveness. Management scholars have made little effort to integrate the various performance-enhancing strategies or to assess them in an orderly manner.

This study classifies organizational strategies by the importance each strategy attaches to different constituencies in the firm’s environment. A number of researchers divide an organization’s environment into various constituency groups and argue that these groups constitute – as providers and recipients of resources – the basis for organizational survival and well-being. Some theoretical schools argue for the foremost importance of responsiveness to certain constituencies while stakeholder theory calls for a – situation-contingent – balance in these responsiveness levels. Given that maximum responsiveness levels to different groups may be limited by an organization’s resource endowment or even counterbalanced, the need exists for a concurrent assessment of these competing claims by jointly evaluating the effect of the respective behaviors towards constituencies on performance. Thus, this study investigates the competing merits of implementing alternative business philosophies (e.g. balanced versus focused responsiveness to constituencies). Such a concurrent assessment provides a “critical test” of multiple, opposing theories rather than testing the merits of one theory (Carlsmith, Ellsworth & Aronson, 1976).

In the high tolerance level applied for this study (be among the top 80% of the industry) only a handful of organizations managed to sustain such a balanced strategy over the whole observation period. Continuously monitoring stakeholder demands and crafting suitable responsiveness strategies must therefore be a focus of successful business strategies. While such behavior may not be a sufficient explanation for organizational success, it certainly is a necessary one.

Details

Evaluating Marketing Actions and Outcomes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-046-3

Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2019

As more and more people decide to commit their lives to print, autobiographies constitute a significant resource to explore stories of harm, violence and crime. Published…

Abstract

As more and more people decide to commit their lives to print, autobiographies constitute a significant resource to explore stories of harm, violence and crime. Published autobiography, however, presents a unique form of storytelling, unavoidably entailing the accumulation and (re)telling of a mass of stories; about oneself, others, contexts and cultures. Relatedly, paratexts – or the elements that surround the central text, such as covers, introductions and prologues – demonstrate how these texts are both individually and collectively shaped. Taking the co-constructed nature of all narratives, including self-narratives, as its starting point, this chapter seeks to demonstrate how terrorists who have authored autobiographies understand the world and their actions within it. In doing so, this chapter provides a practical demonstration of how insight derived from literary criticism can profitably be brought to bear in systematically breaking down and analysing an autobiography – that of a notable American jihadist, Omar Hammami – including its paratextual elements. In particular, I argue that considerations of genre, the inclusion of different types of events and stories collected from others all provide valuable strategies for the ‘doing’ of narrative criminology using autobiographies.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-006-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 May 2018

Itsaso Barrainkua and Marcela Espinosa-Pike

This study explores auditors’ professional attitudes and behaviours. It tests the influence of public interest commitment, independence enforcement beliefs and organisational…

Abstract

This study explores auditors’ professional attitudes and behaviours. It tests the influence of public interest commitment, independence enforcement beliefs and organisational ethical culture on auditors’ acceptance of and engagement in practices that compromise their objectivity. The study is based on survey responses of 122 Spanish auditors. To analyse the combined effect of the variables under study, variance-based structural equation modelling (partial least squares, PLS) was employed. The results suggest that the regulatory efforts to improve auditors’ behaviours by enforcing independence rules have been internalised by auditors. The results also reinforce the need to instil the societal responsibilities of professional auditors, since auditors’ public interest commitment is related to their ethical decision making. Furthermore, this study reveals that firms’ ethical cultures influence auditors’ commitment to the public interest, as well as their ethical decision making. The study raises practical implications for auditing professionals, regulators and audit firms. Understanding auditors’ beliefs and behavioural patterns is critical to proposing mechanisms that enhance their ethical behaviours, which could ultimately enhance audit quality. The chapter contributes to the field by analysing the combined effect of the regulatory framework and organisational context on auditors’ professional values and behaviours.

Details

Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-973-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2019

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-006-6

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2019

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-006-6

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1999

Lynn Copeland Kristina Long and Todd Mundle

In order to build the COPPUL (Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries) virtual library, Simon Fraser University Library (SFU) has co‐developed modular integratable…

Abstract

In order to build the COPPUL (Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries) virtual library, Simon Fraser University Library (SFU) has co‐developed modular integratable holdings display and user requesting software, called GODOT, which can be called from a variety of search engines. GODOT displays holdings for a citation, populates an interlibrary loan form with the citation, and validates patron information; requests are forwarded to the supplying library in a number of formats. It is highly configurable by the borrowing library. SFU also developed a Z39.50 interface (called SLRI) based on the Stanford Gateway Interface to search its BRS databases and other library catalogues; GODOT is invoked from within SLRI. This has enabled SFU users to borrow more than twice as much material without interlibrary loan staff numbers being increased.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 September 2013

Laura G. Singleton

– This paper aims to deepen understanding of the influence of Barnard's Functions of the Executive in management theory by examining its early scholarly reception.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to deepen understanding of the influence of Barnard's Functions of the Executive in management theory by examining its early scholarly reception.

Design/methodology/approach

The research presented is a qualitative analysis of references to Barnard's work in academic journals prior to 1956, based on 139 articles identified through text-based searching of electronic databases.

Findings

Favorable opinions of Barnard's book tend to emphasize his practical insights as a business executive, while his conceptual frameworks are viewed more skeptically. Criticism often focuses on the “scientific” legitimacy of his approach or his perceived ideological perspective. Concepts prominently discussed vary among social science disciplines, and his name is quickly tied to those of subsequent academics whose work is “like” his – these likewise vary by discipline. As they emerge, their voices on the concepts may supersede Barnard's influence.

Research limitations/implications

Since this study ends in the mid-1950s, conclusions about how its findings reflect on subsequent use of Barnard's work by management scholars are speculative. Further research could build on this work by examining scholarly literature to track how and where specific ideas or concepts from Barnard's book have been developed in management scholarship up to the present day.

Originality/value

This study informs current scholars interested in Barnard's work by suggesting how its early usage by academics based on boundaries of disciplinary interest may have diffused the book's early impact and influenced later attention to its concepts by management scholars.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

W.A.C Adie MA

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War…

Abstract

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?

Details

International Journal of Commerce and Management, vol. 13 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1056-9219

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Henriette Roued-Cunliffe

The purpose of this paper is to gather an overview of different research fields that study collection building amongst heritage amateurs (e.g. amateur archaeologists, family and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gather an overview of different research fields that study collection building amongst heritage amateurs (e.g. amateur archaeologists, family and local historians, etc.).

Design/methodology/approach

First, the paper will define the term heritage amateur and then identify possible fields in which these groups and their collection building have been studied. A snowball procedure was used to collect material for the study.

Findings

While there is an overlap between some of the subjects and fields examined, there is a potential for more collaboration resulting in a deeper understanding of collection building amongst heritage amateurs.

Research limitations/implications

The term heritage amateur is not widely used, and the identification and collection of material for the review rely on the definition and understanding of this term and the groups included under it.

Practical implications

This review of existing literature will benefit researchers and practitioners in the fields of education, information science, museums, libraries and archival studies, as well as the multidisciplinary area of heritage studies.

Social implications

There is a growing institutional and political interest in making digital heritage collections available to the general public, and this paper argues that an important part of this is understanding how heritage amateurs already do this.

Originality/value

This paper will connect narrow interest areas such as participatory heritage or serious leisure and show how their angles on heritage amateurs differ and compare.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 36 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 January 2020

Alberto Lusoli

This paper aims to explore the early days of business education with the aim of understanding how the Harvard Business School (HBS) contributed to the constitution of “management”…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the early days of business education with the aim of understanding how the Harvard Business School (HBS) contributed to the constitution of “management” as a science-based profession. The research focuses on HBS signature pedagogy, the case method and its role in the institutionalization of managerial knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on a qualitative content analysis of HBS Annals published between 1908 and 1930. Through a manual coding of the Annals, the paper traces the diffusion of the case method in the curriculum and connects it with the institutional transformations that took place between 1908 and 1930.

Findings

The data show how HBS curriculum transitioned from lectures to case teaching in the aftermath of First World War. This pedagogy allowed HBS to demonstrate the possibility of systematically investigate management problems and to deliver business education at scale. The discussion argues that the case method, acting as a boundary object between business praxis and management theories, constituted management as a science-based profession.

Originality/value

Recent debates have emerged about case method’s ability to critically question socio-economic structures within which business is conducted. This paper contributes to the debate arguing that the historical and institutional factors leading to the affirmation of this pedagogical approach had a substantive role in the type of knowledge produced through its application. The findings challenge the idea that the affirmation of the case method is attributable to its epistemological primacy in investigating business problems.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

1 – 10 of 250