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1 – 10 of over 119000This research aims to investigate the adoption of electronic communication tools and seeks to shed more light on their diffusion process, a challenging task for project‐based…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate the adoption of electronic communication tools and seeks to shed more light on their diffusion process, a challenging task for project‐based (PBO) and traditional business organizations (TBO).
Design/methodology/approach
The data for the study were collected through three surveys, one total population survey in the Finnish and Swedish house building industries representing traditional business organizations, together with a focused and a total population survey in project‐based organizations.
Findings
The main findings from the survey indicate a difference in attitude between the employees of TBOs and PBOs. Moreover, electronic document management and scheduling were more prominent among PBOs, because these firms exhibit more inter‐organizational communication.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are limited to project‐based and traditional business organizations. The research emphasises the fact that PBOs make more inter‐firm collaboration efforts and thus require more extensive communication systems for inter‐organizational links. Further research is needed in other industries to validate the present findings.
Practical implications
By looking at the use of ICT, the aim was to determine which e‐communication tools are more tightly coupled to management and how firms can benefit most from these tools for organizational governance.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies to have examined the uses of ICT in a PBO and TBO context and especially in Finnish and Swedish background.
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Danu Patria, Petrus A. Usmanij and Vanessa Ratten
Small traditional industry has been recognized as an important local economy that support cultural industry and is significant in many parts of the world, particularly in…
Abstract
Small traditional industry has been recognized as an important local economy that support cultural industry and is significant in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. The significance of this type industry as a poverty barrier, enables jobs for local rural villagers, and their role in continuing local community based cultural activities have become obvious. However, as the current modern days global pressures affecting many traditional people in developing countries, pathways of small traditional industry toward local sustainable development remain unclear. Further continuous investigations are still required on how this industry provide the platform for greater local, regional and global sustainability. Literatures and debates on the sustainability of the rural developing country concerning small traditional industries may even begin from the establishment of Brundtland sustainability commission in 1987. The conflict between brown and green agenda in Brundtland commission may also point to small-scale traditional industry growth in the developing world. Cultural traditional industries in developing countries could better lead to local sustainability pathway. On the other hand, conflict of the use of natural resources and competition may create different stories. How traditional industry in developing country survive and further innovate for development is a significant knowledge to understand. This chapter uses Jepara traditional furniture industry in Central Java – Indonesia which has been the subject of prolonged study on how small-scale industry implicated to global competition and pressures of raw material resources decline. This chapter further reviews previous research and recent study on Jepara industry upgrade and innovation, and how likely innovation may prosper for the future sustainability of this type of industry.
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Tor Wallin Andreassen, Line Lervik-Olsen, Hannah Snyder, Allard C.R. Van Riel, Jillian C. Sweeney and Yves Van Vaerenbergh
Building on the multi-divisional business model (M-model), the purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of triadic business models – T-models – and how they…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the multi-divisional business model (M-model), the purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of triadic business models – T-models – and how they create value for their three categories of stakeholders, i.e., the suppliers, the platform firm and the buyers. The research question that guides the present study is twofold: How is value created individually and collectively in triadic business models and what might challenge their sustainability?
Design/methodology/approach
Anchored in extant literature and a process of conceptual modeling with empirical examples from Uber, a new business model archetype was developed for two-sided markets mediated by a middleman.
Findings
The paper provides a theoretically and conceptually derived roadmap for sustainable business in a triadic business model, i.e., for the buyers, sellers and the platform firm. This model is coined the T-model. A number of propositions are derived that argue the relationship between key constructs. Finally, the future beyond the T-model is explored.
Research limitations/implications
The paper identifies, illustrates and discusses the ways in which value is created in sustainable T-models. First, value is created from a number of sources, not only from lower transaction costs. Second, it is proposed that it is not about a choice of either M-model or T-model but rather a continuum. Toward 2050, technology in general and Blockchain specifically may for some transactions or services, eliminate the need for middlemen. The main conclusion is that despite this development, there will, for most organizations, be elements of the M-model in all or most T-model businesses. In short: middlemen will have elements of the M-model embedded in the T-model when co creating value with buyers and sellers.
Originality/value
While two-sided T-models are not new to the business area, surprisingly no papers have systematically investigated, illustrated, and discussed how value is created among and between the three stakeholder categories of the T-model. With this insight, more sustainable T-models can be created.
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This article addresses how for‐profit organizational management and leadership considers social responsibility. It is argued in this article that managers and leaders self‐define…
Abstract
This article addresses how for‐profit organizational management and leadership considers social responsibility. It is argued in this article that managers and leaders self‐define their personal and organizational missions in holistic integrative ways or in ways that particularize and isolate their organizations from the wider societal context. This is discussed in the context of the paradigms that traditional managers and leaders use in business and commercial organizations. A companion article will continue the discussion of leadership and organization paradigms in the contexts of language and power in a subsequent issue.
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Kenton B. Walker and Ervin L. Black
Presents and supports a process‐centered model of undergraduate business education for the core business curriculum and business school management, consistent with the trend…
Abstract
Presents and supports a process‐centered model of undergraduate business education for the core business curriculum and business school management, consistent with the trend toward process‐managed organizations. This model conforms to calls from the public, academic community, and business leaders for improved performance of business faculties and educational institutions and increased capabilities in business school graduates. Outlines five business process courses for the business core curriculum. Benefits of this approach include providing a framework for formulating and implementing a strategy for developing the business curriculum and elimination of redundancy in the coverage of topical material. In addition, the process approach provides a vehicle for the development of interdisciplinary faculty, encourages attention to the need to change, and provides a basis for aligning faculty and institutional reward systems.
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Amr Kotb, Alan Sangster and David Henderson
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of technological change on the internal audit practices and skills requirements for internal auditors in an e-business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of technological change on the internal audit practices and skills requirements for internal auditors in an e-business environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Generalist internal auditors and specialist information technology (IT) internal auditors were surveyed online in ten countries, including the USA and the UK which, together, provided the majority of responses.
Findings
The results suggest a need for advanced IT-audit techniques in conducting the internal audit function, thereby increasing IT audit skill demands on generalist internal auditors. However, the results show a low confidence among internal auditors about their IT training and a continuing reliance upon IT audit specialists, rather than their own training/retraining.
Research limitations/implications
The responses obtained in this study provide insight into both the status quo of the internal audit function, and to the changes that are needed to prepare generalist internal auditors for work in an e-business environment and, while the scale of the study limits the extent to which the findings may be generalized, they are consistent with the literature concerning the changing business environment and with the literature on resistance to change, suggesting that the issues revealed should be of concern.
Practical implications
The results reported in this paper are useful to internal auditing educators and regulators in their consideration of the skills needed by generalist internal auditors in e-business environment.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on a significantly growing area which remains relatively unexplored in the auditing-related literature, e-business audit. The study provides empirical evidence on challenges facing internal auditors in an e-business environment, thereby serving as a wake-up call, to both internal auditors and the professional bodies representing them, to defend their jurisdictional space against rival professional groups.
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To demonstrate how quality management (QM), a widely accepted management paradigm, can be used to advance education for sustainability in the business curriculum.
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate how quality management (QM), a widely accepted management paradigm, can be used to advance education for sustainability in the business curriculum.
Design/methodology/approach
The assumptions of QM and environmental sustainability are explored. A class exercise is developed that uses QM tools – and in particular, Deming's 14 management points – to help management students to examine and critique environmentally sustainable practices in organizations.
Findings
QM can be used as a bridge between management theory and environmental sustainability. QM can also be used as a framework for teaching environmental sustainability in management classes. The class exercise helps students to enhance their critical skills as they examine and assess sustainable practices in organizations.
Practical implications
A useful perspective on integrating management theory and environmental sustainability. A very useful class exercise for teaching environmental sustainability in management classes, and helping students to enhance their critical skills. The class exercise benefits students, the larger business community, and society since it illustrates the importance of sustainability to future organizational decision makers.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates how environmental sustainability and management theory can be integrated, and presents an original, company‐based class exercise for teaching environmental sustainability in management classes.
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David Walters, Michael Halliday and Stan Glaser
This paper attempts to answer the questions raised in a previous paper by the authors (“Creating value in the ‘new economy”’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 8) which dealt with…
Abstract
This paper attempts to answer the questions raised in a previous paper by the authors (“Creating value in the ‘new economy”’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 8) which dealt with how business has had to reevaluate the importance of its assets in the “new economy”. The present paper now addresses the questions of how these changes affect traditional marketing delivery structures and mechanisms and, more importantly, how these changes affect the cost of marketing and the estimation of value that marketing delivers. The disciplines of marketing are such that a major role can be played in exploring the likely scenarios that will optimise competitive advantage.
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Sladjana Nørskov, Peter Kesting and John Parm Ulhøi
This paper aims to present that deliberate change is strongly associated with formal structures and top-down influence. Hierarchical configurations have been used to structure…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present that deliberate change is strongly associated with formal structures and top-down influence. Hierarchical configurations have been used to structure processes, overcome resistance and get things done. But is deliberate change also possible without formal structures and hierarchical influence?
Design/methodology/approach
This longitudinal, qualitative study investigates an open-source software (OSS) community named TYPO3. This case exhibits no formal hierarchical attributes. The study is based on mailing lists, interviews and observations.
Findings
The study reveals that deliberate change is indeed achievable in a non-hierarchical collaborative OSS community context. However, it presupposes the presence and active involvement of informal change agents. The paper identifies and specifies four key drivers for change agents’ influence.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to organisational analysis by providing a deeper understanding of the importance of leadership in making deliberate change possible in non-hierarchical settings. It points to the importance of “change-by-conviction”, essentially based on voluntary behaviour. This can open the door to reducing the negative side effects of deliberate change also for hierarchical organisations.
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Proposes that a broad perspective needs to be taken of operations management, so that it is no longer seen as the domain of mechanistic functionalism, but rather as the architect…
Abstract
Proposes that a broad perspective needs to be taken of operations management, so that it is no longer seen as the domain of mechanistic functionalism, but rather as the architect and engineer of the business model driving in turn the firm's creation of value. Suggests that a value chain approach provides an appropriate framework for such business model architecture. Draws a distinction between industry level value chains and value chain analysis at the level of the firm where the focus is on business processes. Suggests that mapping one against the other is critical to business model effectiveness and the creation of value. Finally, notes that a firm's value chain should not be seen as necessarily a series of smooth synchronous links, but as dynamic that creates its own interaction costs. This should not be seen as dysfunctional, but as a source of dynamism replicating the market environment the firm is operating in. While it does not sit well with the notions of scientific management so commonly associated with classical operations management, suggests that this process fusion is a fundamental aspect of the firm's operations that needs to be purposefully managed.
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