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The purpose of this paper is to detail the approach used in a project that worked with journal publication, subscription and article processing charges (APC) data. The project aim was to test if the resources allocated by the Matariki Network of Universities, a group of seven medium-sized universities, would pay for APC at the current level of publishing activity.

Data were collated and analysed from three years (2015–2017) for each of the seven partners.

A range of assumptions were made in dealing with the data. It was difficult to identify a subscription package that was common to all the partners. Data were not always consistent and in some instances it was incomplete. An iterative and flexible approach was required in this project. Even though testing had been carried out during planning, changes had to be made as the project was carried out. The timetable had to be flexible as those working on the project dealt with their day-to-day operational priorities and to enable each of the partners to contribute as resources allowed.

As alternative models of scholarly journal publication are evolving, it is important that the implications of these be tested to inform planning. Details of this testing need to be shared so that others can confirm the results, consider the approach and apply lessons learned.

This paper focuses on the details of the investigation so that others interested in repeating this project, or carrying out a similar project, can consider this in their planning.

As chairman of Simon Engineering, Leopold Brook has kept his company's profit record looking good in spite of the atrocious economic situation in Britain. But, he tells Ken Gooding, the management of a large concern should never be left as the sole responsibility of one man. Pictures by Patrick Thurston.

Gives an overview of the reception of Eucken’s work abroad and the influences on the thinking of Eucken from outside the German language area. Further, points to the contribution of Eucken to monetary and capital theory and the theory of the centrally administered economy, the significance of the thinking of Eucken, for almost all questions on the agenda of modern economic policy is illustrated. This especially applies to the parts which are often marked as utopian, among which are his ideas in the area of (international) monetary policy.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the findings from the initial stages of an activity-based benchmarking project developed across an international network of academic libraries. Through working on a shared response to the question: “if we enable and support the academic endeavour how do we measure our effectiveness?” the network of libraries is using the formal mechanism of benchmarking as a means of continuous improvement.

Actual improvements as a result of benchmarking are known to arise from considering and looking at processes, tools and techniques rather than from simply comparing and reviewing measurements of activity. The establishment of the Matariki Network of Universities provided the opportunity to begin work on international benchmarking amongst the member libraries. The project is a collaborative exercise involving comparisons across the libraries on a selected number of services and activities that are similar across the institutions and are representative of overall library service provision. In this first stage of the project the focus is on support for teaching and learning, specifically activities and programmes that support the transition of first-year students into university life. To simplify the process the libraries have shared details in relation to specific cohorts of students. In order to achieve this, participating libraries used an online collaborative workspace to respond to a series of questions. These responses were analysed to identify common themes, highlight exemplars and select further topics for discussion.

Acknowledging the challenge of international collaboration, processes and mechanisms were developed. It was important to establish a shared language with a set of agreed terms and definitions. Similarly, taking time for each partner to contribute to the project has been valuable. Consideration of each of the libraries responses to the survey questions reveals a diverse number of activities and practices that represent a strong commitment to the needs of students. Drawing on institutional strategic direction and policy, each library allocates substantial resourcing to these activities and practices. The exercise within the benchmarking project produced a valuable set of data for each library to review and learn from. In terms of managing the project, findings are consistent with those reported in the administration of other benchmarking projects. The libraries are in the early stages of developing a series of common international performance measures. It is evident that learning more detail about assessment processes used across each library is necessary to advance the project aims. Further work with the project partners on measuring the effectiveness of their activities will allow the testing of the application of a maturity model for quality improvement of library assessment practices.

The project provides the opportunity to develop a series of performance measures that can be verified across an international network of libraries. Sharing information on activities and practices that impact upon the wider institution provides a means to review and improve library assessment practices.

This paper outlines the first benchmarking activity in the development of a review of performance measures through an activity-based benchmarking project. The activity included an international network of academic libraries. This work will lead to benchmarking effectiveness measures and the development of a library assessment capability maturity model. This will offer a development path, and a better understanding of progress, to demonstrate value and provide evidence of successful outcomes.

This special issue seeks to create an interdisciplinary community of researchers applying decision-making theory to the international marketing context. The articles published in this special issue contain cutting-edge conceptual and empirical studies that enhance existing knowledge on international marketing decision-making.

Thirty-six (36) manuscripts were submitted to the editorial office focusing on a broad range of international marketing decision-making. Following a thorough review process, a collection of five original empirical studies on different facets of international marketing decision-making from multiple theoretical, contextual and methodological perspectives are included in this Special Issue.

Overall, the combined evidence presented in this Special Issue shows that the general field of international marketing decision-making is starting to mature. Evidence from the contributors to this Special Issue shows that researchers have taken inspiration from both the past and the present when designing and crafting their research and, by doing so, they have collectively contributed to new knowledge in terms of international marketing decision-making principles, decision-maker personality traits, the consequences of international marketing decisions and cross-cultural differences with regards to decision-making influences and behavior.

With few exceptions, not much is known about how international marketing decisions are made. Yet, the way international marketing decisions are made is critical for international marketing success. This sphere of international marketing decision-making research, while relatively anemic, is typically underpinned by behavioral economic theories of decision-making, such that a duality in decision-making processes is identified. Nevertheless, international marketing and management studies are dominated by the planning paradigm, while in practice, managers often see the attempt to deviate from planning as irresponsible and dangerous. The articles included in this special issue have addressed major unanswered questions regarding the content and processes of international marketing decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the variation in the relationship between governance mechanisms and the effect of the relationship on contract performance, especially in controlling partner opportunism.

This study conducts a comparative case analysis of contract governance of “National Health Insurance Program” in India. The data are collected using field research through in-depth interviews and direct observation across three states in India.

The authors find that the governance mechanisms continue to complement and substitute, both in a dynamic manner, but until aligned with the nature of transaction, they are ineffective to mitigate opportunism, a critical dimension of contract performance. Inappropriate governance mechanisms inflate the gaps in incomplete contracts, resulting in partner opportunism.

The study draws findings from healthcare context and service-based contracting; therefore, the applicability of this study may vary in other contexts.

The paper highlights the need for building flexibility in the governance structure while designing contracts. Further, managers need to combine both governance mechanisms dynamically to align with the nature of the transaction to control partner opportunism.

The authors contribute to the existing debate on the conundrum of the relationship between governance mechanisms and provide a new explanation. The authors propose that it is not the specific governance mechanisms but the alignment of the governance mix with the nature of the transaction that determines the contract performance, especially control of partner opportunism.

This paper aims to extend the customer complaint behaviour (CCB) knowledge by introducing a visual technique called customer complaint journey mapping as a means of capturing and understanding multi-faceted service failures involving multiple actors.

Research participants were trained to record contemporaneous accounts of future dissatisfactory dining experiences. Minimising issues of memory recall whilst faithfully capturing complainants' raw emotions. These recordings formed the basis for follow up interviews, based on the critical incident technique.

The central finding of this paper was how other actors outside of the traditional service dyad played a dynamic role in co-creating a complainants' emotions and subsequent behaviours.

The resulting customer complaint maps give deep insights into the complex social dynamics involved in CCB, providing a powerful tool for both researchers and staff responsible for recovery strategies.

The mapping framework provides an innovative means of capturing the actual complaint experiences of customers and the role of other actors, utilising a multi-method approach designed to address various limitations of existing CCB research.

Tremendous change has taken place in organisational structures, networks and strategy over the past 25 years. Yet, a strategic management framework developed 25 years ago has increased in popularity among researchers in the past decade. This paper aims to review how Simons’ Levers of Control (LOC) framework has been used in empirical research studies over the past 25 years.

The findings are based on electronic database searches of papers adopting Simons’ framework published in accounting and management journals.

A total of 45 empirical studies adopting the LOC framework are presented chronologically by research method. The review highlights the far greater use of the framework in qualitative compared to quantitative studies. Qualitative studies have extended the application of the framework to broader organisational issues such as sustainability, environmental accounting and inter-organisational controls. The quantitative studies have mainly sought to add to our understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of the use of interactive control systems.

This paper furthers our understanding of Simons’ framework by synthesising and analysing the literature over 25 years. It provides insight into the varying interpretations of the concepts underlying the framework in empirical studies including differences in operationalisation of the concepts in quantitative studies. In addition, it highlights the application of the framework beyond the original domain in which it was developed. Fruitful areas for future research are pointed to in the paper.

Managers' attention is a scarce resource in complex innovation settings. Prior research on the factors to which managers pay attention is mostly based on surveys. The present study aims to address the need for knowledge about the behavior of decision makers based on observations from portfolio meetings. The study seeks to investigate how managers allocate their attention and the role of different factors for their attention. Observations also make it possible to compare prior research and expectations with the actual observed behavior of decision makers.

The present analysis draws on insights from previous research into decision making in product and portfolio management and studies on organizational decision making. The authors frame why the attention of decision makers is so critical in complex situations. Data for this study were collected through direct observation, from a portfolio management system, and from an information quality measurement system in an internationally operating petrochemical company. Observations were transcribed, coded and analyzed with regression analysis using the Proc Lifereg procedure in SAS.

Six potential factors that might explain decision makers' attention are identified. The analysis shows that the quality of information was not significant for explaining variations of decision makers' attention; but, even more surprisingly, differences in project status did not explain variations in attention. Delayed projects did not get significantly more attention than those delivered on time. By controlling for other project characteristics, the newness of projects to the corporate portfolio was found to be the most important parameter.

First, the analysis is based on observations from actual meetings rather than from surveys. Second, several observations contradict prior research on product development, e.g. it has been argued that decision makers should pay special attention to certain phases and projects having trouble meeting expectations towards planned deadlines. It is also new that findings on the different treatment of new projects and ongoing projects have been brought forward in research on product and portfolio management.