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The purpose of this paper is to measure polychronicity in Spain, traditionally typified as having a polychronic culture, characterized by a multifocused working environment.

A sample of 134 executives from 19 organizations in Madrid completed a questionnaire on polychronicity (working on more than one task at a time), time tangibility (precision in time use and performance), context (direct or indirect communication) and attention to people (whether people are dealt with spontaneously or in a more scheduled manner).

Contrary to what was expected in light of the traditional image of Spain, results indicate a tendency towards monochronicity. Gender and age did not show a relation with polychronicity. Time tangibility and context were also unrelated to polychronicity. A previously unmeasured variable, implied in Hall's original work, the spontaneous attention to people in establishing and maintaining good work relations, was positively related to polychronicity. Having worked for a multinational was also positively related to polychronicity.

The study was undertaken in Madrid only and focused on differences within a Spanish sample and no cross‐cultural comparison was made.

As far as the authors are aware, this is the first study of polychronicity in Spain. Social interaction, coined previously as an explanation for polychronic behavior, was added in this paper.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The objectives of this paper are to analyze the drivers of smoked marine fish prices and examine the challenges along the value chain to inform policy.

The study relies on cross-sectional data from 158 fish smokers, 100 wholesalers, and 120 retailers in Ghana. The challenges faced by the actors along the chain are identified and ranked using Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The three-stage least square estimation approach is employed to control for endogeneity resulting from the simultaneous equations for prices of different fish types and their substitutes.

The results reveal that marketing experience, the extent of competition, price of substitutes, payment terms, and variable cost items, such as transportation cost and storage charges, are key determinants of smoked fish prices along the value chain. Lack of access to credit is the main constraint to the marketing of smoked marine fish, irrespective of the actor or the fish type.

Many studies have established the linkages between fish consumption, prices, and food security in the literature. However, there is a dearth of information on the responsiveness of fish prices to changes in the market and seller-specific factors to drive policy to stabilize prices along the value chain.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2021-0566

Contact problems are among the most difficult ones in mechanics. Due to its practical importance, the problem has been receiving extensive research work over the years. The finite element method has been widely used to solve contact problems with various grades of complexity. Great progress has been made on both theoretical studies and engineering applications. This paper reviews some of the main developments in contact theories and finite element solution techniques for static contact problems. Classical and variational formulations of the problem are first given and then finite element solution techniques are reviewed. Available constraint methods, friction laws and contact searching algorithms are also briefly described. At the end of the paper, a bibliography is included, listing about seven hundred papers which are related to static contact problems and have been published in various journals and conference proceedings from 1976.

A major source of failure for new ventures is the entrepreneurs℉ misunderstanding of the product-market fit. Recently, researchers have suggested that to get a better understanding of the product-market fit, entrepreneurs should “get out of the building” and interview many customers. This approach, while advantageous, is not without drawbacks. This article presents a conceptual model that incorporates the characteristics of “getting out of the building” to conduct customer interviews, and the biases that can arise to influence the entrepreneurs℉ misjudgment of the product-market fit. We provide recommendations to overcome these biases.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend the whole phenomenon of corporate philanthropy in Malaysia by studying the traits of companies that make significant contributions to society. Specifically, it looks at firms' ownership structures and specific characteristics and their influence on the extent of corporate philanthropy.

This study employs Agency theory as the basis for explaining philanthropic behaviour of Malaysian companies. A total of 100 public‐listed companies were selected from the top 200 companies based on market capitalization as listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The ownership structures and firm characteristics of the selected companies were tested against the extent of corporate philanthropy in order to see the relationship among the variables. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this study reveal that ownership structure does have some influence on corporate philanthropic activities. This is consistent with the proposition of Agency theory. In addition, the size factor is also found to be a significant determinant of philanthropic tendency among Malaysian companies.

In view of the increasing importance of corporate philanthropy in the overall context of corporate social responsibility and nation building, this study serves well in providing an insight into the determinants of corporate philanthropic tendencies in Malaysia. By doing this, it extends the horizon of the study done by Prathaban and Rahim on the levels of firm charitable contributions.

This paper offers an important explanation of the factors that influence corporate philanthropic tendency, particularly in the Malaysian context.

This paper argues that the search for a theory of public budgeting has proceeded mainly on assumptions of the rationalist paradigm. This approach yielded mostly technical explanations for budgeting phenomena. These explanations fail to capture the complexities of public budgeting and yield incomplete theories. Without attempting to break new ground, the authors argue that budgeting theory should be guided by heuristic concepts borrowed from open systems theory. This offers greater potential for reconciling the rational and non-rational aspects of budgeting and permits constructive synthesis of insights from extant theories of budgeting without rejecting the rationalist paradigm. This approach views budgeting as only one of the complex functions governments perform to cope with their environment and to maintain stability.

This study aims to respond to calls for more research to understand how sustainability control systems (SCSs) feature (or do not feature) in short-term operational and long-term strategic decision-making.

An in-depth case study of a large multinational organisation undertaking several rounds of sustainability reporting is presented. Data collection was extensive including 26 semi-structured interviews with a range of employees from senior management to facility employees, access to confidential reports and internal documents and attendance of company meetings, including an external stakeholder engagement meeting and the attendance of the company’s annual environmental meeting. A descriptive, analytical and explanatory analysis is performed on the case context (Pfister et al., 2022).

Simon’s (1995) levers of control framework structures our discussion. The case company has sophisticated and formalised diagnostic controls and strong belief and boundary systems. Conventional management controls and SCSs are used in short-term operational decision-making, although differences between financial imperatives and other aspects such as environmental concerns are difficult to reconcile. SCSs also provided information to justify company actions in short-term decisions that impacted stakeholders. However, SCSs played a very limited role in the long-term strategic decision. Tensions between social, environmental and economic factors are more reconcilable in the long-term strategic decision, where holistic risks and opportunities need to be fully identified. External reporting is seen in a “constraining” light (Tessier and Otley, 2012), and intentionally de-coupled from SCSs.

This paper responds to recent calls for rich, holistic and contextually-grounded perspectives of sustainability processes at an extractives company. The study provides novel insight into how SCSs are used (or not used) in short-term or long-term decision-making and external reporting. The paper illustrates how a large company is responding to sustainability pressures within the unique contextual setting of New Zealand. The study outlines the imitations of existing practice and provides implications for how sustainability-based internal controls can be better embedded into organisations.

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.