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Organisational integration is being heralded as a critical “dynamic capability” and is seen as an important strategic issue for firms in the future. This study seeks to explore this issue in the specific context of e‐commerce and information system integration, by considering the model proposed by Poon and Swatman, in the case of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. Poon and Swatman propose that the model of business transformation enabled by traditional IT turns “inside out” when applied to the e‐commerce domain. Their model suggests a hierarchy of levels of e‐commerce integration. At the lowest level firms develop inter‐organisational systems. At the next level they undertake limited integration with existing internal systems, and only at the highest level do they achieve full internal integration. The study, which was carried out by a mailed questionnaire, found that the proposed model is indeed valid. Three distinct groups of firms are identified that correspond to the hierarchical levels proposed in the model. The benefits realised by the firms were found to increase with increasing integration, but the level of process change required was found to be independent of the level of integration. Contextual variables, such as industry sector and organisational size, are explored for firms at the three different levels of integration. Developments of the Poon and Swatman model are suggested.

This paper delineates the distinctive nature of appraisal politics perceptions (referenced to organizational politics) experienced by appraisees (APAP) as a form of hindrance work stressor that is more episodic than chronic, salient during the PA rating and reward decisions. The study argues and attempts to establish empirically that due to its distinct nature, it causes both short-term episodic strain and long-term chronic strain. Further, the study investigates the distinctive role played by appraisee's hard and soft influence behaviour as a coping mechanism moderating the influence of APAP as a stressor on strain variables in Indian organizational context that ferments politics.

The data was collected using self-reports from 407 employees in Indian organizations using survey method. Multivariate analyses including moderating tests were used for testing the hypotheses.

Only the episodic components of the APAP-appraiser's rating politics and pay and promotion politics were significantly related to anxiety felt by appraisees during PA – an episodic measure of strain. All three APAP components were significantly related to the chronic strain measure of dissatisfaction. There was modest support for the role of influence tactics (IT) as a coping mechanism attenuating the negative relation of APAP with the dissatisfaction variables as chronic strain measures. Contrary to the hypothesis, softer tactics exacerbated the APAP–PA anxiety relation, indicating the episodic nature of stressor and strain.

The study contributes significantly to enhance the understanding about the nature of Appraisal politics.

This article aims to provide prospective authors guidelines that will hopefully enable them to submit more competitive manuscripts to journals publishing careers research.

Based on their experience as an author, reviewer and editorial team member, the authors identify the main criteria that a quantitative study must meet to be considered for publication in international peer-reviewed journals covering career-related topics. They emphasize the importance of contributing to the careers literature and of designing the study in accordance with the research question.

Manuscripts are rejected because they are insufficiently innovative, and/or because sample, instruments and design are not appropriate to answer the research question at hand. Cross-sectional designs cannot be used to answer questions of mediation but should not be discarded automatically since they can be used to address other types of questions, including questions about nesting, clustering of individuals into subgroups, and to some extent, even causality.

The manuscript provides an insight into the decision-making process of reviewers and editorial board members and includes recommendations on the use of cross-sectional data.

Project governance has been linked to project success because top management support is necessary for projects to succeed. However, top managers are time poor and it is not clear which project governance mechanisms are effective for project success. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue and identify project governance mechanisms that correlate with success.

This is a quantitative study. A theoretical model of project governance was developed and tested with secondary industry data gathered from 51 global organisations and 66,817 responses.

The results found five project governance mechanisms (Vision, Change, Sponsor, KPI and Monitor) significantly correlate with project success and are effective at different stages in the project lifecycle.

Earlier research has found a relationship between project governance and project success but it has not been specific enough to guide top managers in practice. This is the first research to take this next step and identify project governance mechanisms that correlate with project success. One finding of this research that has particular value is the identification of when in the project lifecycle a particular governance mechanism is most effective.

As evidence mounts on the importance of small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to national and international economies and the opportunities presented to them by the internet, it becomes important to understand the key issues which determine internet adoption and utilisation. With literature on SME internet adoption fragmented and incoherent, there is also a need for conceptual framework development and testing to provide more focused research in this important area. Several researchers have also highlighted a need for research which concentrates more on specific industrial sectors rather than taking a more generalist approach to SME internet adoption. Within this evolving research context, the agri‐food industry makes a particularly relevant area of study, which this paper aims to study.

This paper addresses this purpose by conducting a study of 50 Northern Ireland SME agri‐food companies. The study utilises and tests a conceptual framework derived from the extant literature in relation to the determinants of SME web site adoption and utilisation.

The findings of this study point to the need for SME agri‐food companies to develop an awareness of the internet's efficacy for their business and a subsequent dynamic strategic approach in adoption and utilisation. However, the lack of marketing ability and negative industry norms prevalent within developed economy agri‐food industries will contribute negatively to internet adoption and utilisation. These will need to be addressed if the internet, and web site adoption and utilisation in particular, are to provide an effective business tool. The research findings support the conceptual framework's usefulness as a research tool. The findings point to the importance of marketing ability and industry norms in relation to their impact on the central determinants of internet adoption by the SME agri‐food companies studied.

In this paper it is contended that a lack of marketing ability and negative industry attitudes towards internet adoption and utilisation will constrain levels of awareness of the efficacy of the internet as a business tool for the individual businesses researched. The findings reveal that this will subsequently contribute to a lack of strategic web site development and subsequent utilisation.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of organizational support, as it is evidenced by supervisor's support and coworkers' support, in the work engagement levels of employees who are parents of children with special needs and disabilities (SND).

The authors employed a self-administered survey questionnaire in Singapore and collected 224 useable responses. They used moderated hierarchical regression analysis to assess the relationships among organizational support, employees' child disability severity and levels of work engagement.

The research results indicated that higher levels of supervisor's and coworkers' support have a positive impact on work engagement levels of employees with children with SND. In addition, the authors observed that supervisor's support and coworkers' support moderate the relationship between employee’s child's disability severity and work engagement levels.

The results contribute to the introduction of a discussion about supportive practices directed toward this diverse group of employees in Singapore. The research findings are country-specific.

The authors propose that human resource management practitioners could craft policies that may trigger tangible and emotional support by supervisors and coworkers of employees with children with disabilities, depending on employees’ children's disability severity.

This research is the first empirical examination that measures the work engagement levels of employed parents of children with SND in Singapore, considering both organizational and family dimensions.

Business‐to‐business international Internet marketing is one of the key drivers in sustaining an organisation’s competitive advantage. The challenge for organisations today is to understand the factors that play a critical role in utilising Internet capabilities and their implications on business strategic objectives to enable them to compete successfully in the electronic age. Proposes 33 critical factors classified into five categories and validated empirically through a sample of 123 UK companies. Discusses the significance, importance and implications for each category and makes recommendations.

The current push for small firms to be “wired up to the digital marketplace” is evidenced by the number of initiatives targeting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote this activity. Like other governments worldwide, UK Online’s SME targets (together with the supporting DTI adoption ladder) exemplify the “conventional wisdom” view of a homogeneous small business sector, within which firms take an ordered, sequential progression on the route to Internet technology adoption. This approach is questioned by grounding the official rhetoric in the reality of organisational and operational complexity of this important sector of the UK economy. These initiatives are compared and contrasted with similar models of small firm development, most of which neglected to address the diverse nature of small firm needs. The authors recommend a more discriminant approach, focused upon factors such as firm size, age, managerial structure and information and communications technology adoption stages.

The article deals with factors that act as an incentive to internationalisation of the hotels in the small‐to‐medium‐sized enterprises (SME) category in the traditional tourism countries, and also discusses the obstacles to internationalisation. The “OLI” approach according to Dunning (ownership advantages, location‐specific advantages, advantages of internalisation) is tested against the results of a survey of hotelkeepers in the Alpine countries, particularly Austria. It is not just the size of the enterprise that acts as a limit on the extent of internationalisation of SMEs. Other factors that determine the attitude taken towards internationalisation include market intelligence, financing problems, the degree of entrepreneurial spirit, and the specific nature of tourism services.

This research aims to analyze to what extent sustainability and its related core aspects are integrated in media and communication's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe.

A total of n = 1068 bachelor and master’s degree programs, as well as their related curricula/program specifications, from 28 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis.

Results show that the level of curricular integration of sustainability aspects in the field of media and communication is low (14%) to very low (6%) on module level. In most cases, sustainability remains an abstract guiding principle that is not translated into a dedicated course offer. This can indicate the difficulty of operationalizing such a concept as sustainability, which is experienced by not only higher education institutions but also policy and society as a whole. In addition, the results leave space for a reflection on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions.

The authors are aware that not all teaching (content) is depicted in curricula. Especially where teaching is research-based, The authors assume that sustainability (communication) is more present as the curricula' analysis can represent it. In addition, the fact of solely investigating English language curricula can be seen as a further limitation.

This research is one of the few attempts to verify the actual integration level of sustainability aspects in the curricula of a specific sustainability-relevant discipline, which is neither conducted as a case study nor as a single-country analysis.