Search results

Identifies the drivers, classifies the structures, examines the governance systems and estimates the relative economic costs and benefits of various identity‐preserved production and marketing (IPPM) systems that have evolved in the Canadian canola industry. The systems vary significantly, depending on whether they are managing input‐ or output‐based, traditionally bred or biotechnology‐based traits. Combines transaction costs and principal‐agent theory in a synthesized transaction cost‐agency model that allows for predictions regarding the organizational form of vertical integration based on the degree of asset specificity, task programmability and non‐separability. Transactions for new, proprietary, novel‐trait canola varieties require a more extensive set of institutions than traditional varieties. Identity‐preserved production and marketing systems appear technically feasible for smaller units of production, but it is unclear whether they are economically viable for long‐term or larger‐scale operations. IPPM systems can provide an effective and proven method of controlling risks and liabilities.

A previous attempt to implement the use of historical measures of asset management effectiveness – as part of a value improvement model (VIM) for repetitive processes – had not been 100 percent successful within an airport operational engineering environment. Taking into account the more holistic approach realised through applying a soft systems methodology (SSM), the purpose of this paper was to use the CATWOE (Customers, Actors, Transaction, World View, Owner and Environment) tool to gain an understanding of the root definition of the problem statement developing a conceptual model used to facilitate an improvement to the implementation process.

The research methodology taken incorporated an action research approach combining case study research with an action research process of planning, observing and reflecting summarized as taking an action case research design.

This research has developed a visual and systematic framework that enables managers to understand, analyse and improve value in their asset management repetitive processes. The CATWOE root definition tool has been used to create a conceptual model of the problem area providing a holistic view of the stakeholders and the internal and external environmental constraints that the VIM for asset management sits within.

The research was completed in‐situ at a single airport focused on a single group of assets managed by a single group of stakeholders. Future research should look to further develop the VIM and CATWOE approach in other asset management environments such as manufacturing as well as asset intensive service industries.

This research has taken a soft systems approach and successfully applied it to the implementation of hard systems measurements of asset management effectiveness within an airport operational engineering environment. Other managers with asset management responsibilities will find this approach useful in achieving their core objective to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their assets and the teams employed to maintain them at minimal total cost.

Knowledge of conversation theory and speech acts assists us to understand how people search for information. Dialogue embodies meanings and intentionalities, and represents epistemic inquiry. There are implications for the information‐processing model of cognitive psychology. Question formulation (erotetics) and turn‐taking play important roles in eliciting information, while discourse analysis furnishes us with information about people's categorising, recall, and semantic skills.

Social bookmarking is a system which allows users to share, organise, search and manage bookmarks of web resources. However, with the rapid growth in the production of online documents, people are facing the problem of information overload. Social bookmarking web sites offer a solution to this by providing push counts, which are counts of users’ recommendations of articles, and thus indicate the popularity and interest thereof. In this way, users can use the push counts to find popular and interesting articles. A measure of popularity-based solely on push counts, however, cannot be considered a true reflection of popularity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors propose to derive the degree of popularity of an article by considering the reputation of the users who push the article. Moreover, the authors propose a novel personalised blog article recommendation approach which combines reputation-based group popularity with content-based filtering (CBF), for the recommendation of popular blog articles which satisfy users’ personal preferences.

The experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms conventional CBF, item-based and user-based collaborative filtering approaches. The proposed approach considering reputation-based group popularity scores on neighbouring articles indeed can improve the recommendation quality of traditional CBF method.

The recommendation approach modifies CBF method by considering the target user's group preferences, to overcome the limitation of CBF which arises from the recommending only items similar to those the user has previously liked. Users with similar article preferences (profiles) may form a group of users with similar interests. A group's preferences may also reflect an individual's preferences. The reputation-based group preferences of the target user's group can be used to complement the target user's preferences.

The study explains why Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom (UK) focused on accountability through data during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on how data could be used to improve the government’s response to the pandemic.

Understanding the implications of accountability for COVID-19 is crucial to understanding how governments should respond to future pandemics. This article provides an account of what a select committee in the UK thought were the essential elements of these accountability relationships. To do so, the authors use a neo-Roman concept of liberty to show how Parliamentary oversight of the pandemic for accountability was crucial to maintaining the liberty of citizens during the crisis and to identify what lessons need to be learnt for future crises.

The study shows that Parliamentarians were concerned that the UK government was not meeting its obligations to report openly about the COVID-19 pandemic to them. It shows that the government did make progress in reporting during the pandemic but further advancements need to be made in future for restrictions to be compatible with the protection of liberty.

The study extends the concept of neo-Roman liberty showing how it is relevant in an emergency situation and provides an account of why accountability is necessary for the preservation of liberty when the government uses emergency powers.

Governments and Parliaments need to think about how they preserve liberty during crises through enhanced accountability mechanisms and the publication of data.

The study extends previous work on liberty and calculation, providing a theorisation of the role of numbers in the protection of liberty.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Learning within the supply chain is widely considered to provide the basis for enhanced competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the theory and current practice of organizational learning in UK construction supply chains.

A qualitative research strategy is followed for this exploration of supply chain management and organizational learning. Research enquiry draws on semi‐structured interviews with key construction supply chain stakeholders. The semi‐structure interviews are recorded, transcribed and analysed via qualitative data analysis software.

Careful examination of the transcripts reveal that whilst supply chain management practice in construction is limited, key schools of organizational learning are similarly underdeveloped. Findings disclose construction supply chain organizations routinely employ learning strategies that are best described as reactionary and interventionist.

Research was limited to the UK construction industry and represents the assessment and evaluation of construction clients and first‐tier supply chain members working within construction framework agreements. The perspectives of construction SMEs were out with the data set.

Underdeveloped organizational learning practices within supply chains present a significant barrier to the development and diffusion of supply chain management theory and practice in construction. In practical terms, the attainment of competitive advantage and the development of competing supply chain in construction would be extremely limited.

Connecting organizational learning to the development and diffusion of supply chain management has been largely overlooked within the construction management literature. The research makes two notable contributions. First, the adaptation of a pragmatic and holistic organizational learning framework for the appraisal of learning strategies and second an evaluation of organizational learning in construction supply chains.

Broadly conceptualised, a consultant's work can be evaluated by the deliverables produced and by the process used to achieve those deliverables. This paper seeks to report the use of a survey instrument to assess and compare management consultant process performance and client performance (in specifying the contract), enabling meaningful dialogue between the parties.

A validated instrument, previously developed by the authors, was employed to survey all local and regional authorities in New Zealand regarding the expectations they have of their management consultants and their perceptions of process performance. Congruence of the performance profiles was assessed with the aid of profile similarity indices.

While results for the sector indicate that New Zealand local authorities appear to be generally well satisfied with the levels of service they are receiving from their management consultants, individual authorities are experiencing significant gaps between their expectations and what is being delivered. In addition, misalignments between client expectations and benchmark process performance measures indicate a lack of rigour when specifying contracts.

The research makes use of subjective measures of excellent consulting practice sourced from industry‐respected consultants and authors in the field, rather than attempting to justify their choice from a theoretical basis. Conceptual difficulties with the use of profile similarity indices in alignment research are noted. The generalisability of the benchmark performance standards to consultants operating in other sectors remains to be tested.

Benchmark consultant performance standards provide the basis for local authorities to insist upon internationally recognized and recommended standards of contract delivery. The use of well‐developed process performance measures to assess differences between local authority expectations and perceived consultant performance, and between perceived consultant performance and benchmark expectations, provides the opportunity for local authorities and their consultants to engage in meaningful and objective dialogue. Skilled consultants will benefit from dialogue that should translate into greater respect and understanding of their true worth, and into the setting of contract specifications and pricing that reflect this assessment.

Previous authors have argued the lack of well‐developed performance measures and attendant benchmark performance standards expected of consultants. The present study directly addresses these gaps and focuses on the manner in which management consultants work with public sector clients to produce contract deliverables. Validated benchmark measures are used to detect process performance gaps, providing the opportunity for local authorities and their consultants to engage in meaningful dialogue.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

This paper aims to discuss how transnational universities create negative and positive social impacts on their host communities and what this means for campus sustainability and the expectation that universities contribute to sustainable development and to their local communities.

Using mixed methods, a multiple case study approach and qualitative meta-analysis, this study considers six transnational university campuses in China in terms of their relationship with local communities.

Because of the good reputation of universities generally, local residents tended to accord a social licence to operate (i.e. approval) to new university campuses. However, universities generally do not manage their social impacts, as well as many other industries and generally fail to consider the corporate social responsibility issues and the environmental, social and governance aspects of their activities. To improve their social licence to operate and grow and to meet expectations around “university social responsibility”, campus developments should observe key international principles and human rights standards: full disclosure of information; effective community engagement; appropriate resettlement and livelihood restoration; effective harm reduction procedures; provision of local benefits (benefit sharing); monitoring and adaptive management and implement a grievance redress mechanism.

This paper encourages broader thinking about sustainability in a higher education context and about what university social responsibility entails. Specifically, this study argues that the relationship between universities and their host communities also needs to be considered, especially during campus construction.