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1 – 10 of over 16000Amr Metwally El-Kholy and Ahmed Yousry Akal
This research investigates the financial viability risk factors that threaten the private investor's economic scheme in the public private partnership (PPP) wastewater treatment…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates the financial viability risk factors that threaten the private investor's economic scheme in the public private partnership (PPP) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) projects in Egypt. The aims of this study are to: (1) illustrate and cluster the financial viability risk factors in accordance with the PPP WWTP projects' nature, (2) assess the risk factors' criticality degrees according to their severity and frequency levels of the financial viability, and (3) pinpoint the suited allocation of the financial viability risk factors between the public and private parties.
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on the previous analysts' endeavors, the questionnaire method, the fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach and the hypothetical normal distribution curve model; the severity, frequency, criticality and allocation preference of 32 financial viability risk factors were assessed from 12 Egyptian PPP experts.
Findings
The data analysis yielded that foreign exchange risk, currency risk/inflation, license risk, construction cost-overrun and late site handover are the key factors in arising the financial viability risk issue in the PPP WWTP projects. Considering the discussion of these key risks, the study summarized that the financial viability's key risk factors are notably be affected by the economic, political and administrative circumstances of the host county. Additionally, the inflation lesion was found to be the core reason of most of the key risk factors.
Originality/value
This research originality stems from its contribution to address the gab in the PPP risk assessment literature of the concessionaire's financial viability in the WWTP projects in a country of developing economy as Egypt. This, first, enriches the scholarly based knowledge of the PPP projects' risk analysts of the developing countries. Accordingly, it moves the current PPP risk assessment research further to deeply apprehend these markets' risks. Second, it equips the policymakers in the public and private sectors of such projects with a map that clarifies their assigned risk factors and the responsibilities that each party should bear to generate a mutual stable investment environment for achieving their aims successfully. This, indeed, paves the way for more private investments to be involved in the developing markets' PPP projects with a profitable satisfactory level for the private concessionaire. In the same vein, more WWTP projects, which are highly needed for the public sector and its people, are executed.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of shared transformational leadership and its components on team viability and team satisfaction through the mediating…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of shared transformational leadership and its components on team viability and team satisfaction through the mediating processes of workplace spirituality and team trust, the emergent states of team processes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on software project teams working in India’s information technology sector. The study adopts a cross-sectional research design to investigate the relationships between the study’s constructs.
Findings
This study shows varying effects of the components of shared transformational leadership on team viability and team satisfaction. The study has shown empirical evidence for the mediating role of workplace spirituality in the relationship between shared transformational leadership components and team effectiveness components. This study reveals the intervening roles of workplace spirituality and team trust in the relationship between shared transformational leadership as a unidimensional construct and team viability and effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
Team rewards and team autonomy can cultivate a sense of community and trust among team members. Team trust facilitates autonomy, and workplace spirituality helps develop connectedness among team members.
Originality/value
This study has contributed to the research discourse on team effectiveness by demonstrating that workplace spirituality and team trust act as mediators in the relationship between shared transformational leadership and team effectiveness. This study has shown the relative strength of the effects of the components of shared transformational leadership on workplace spirituality, team viability and team satisfaction.
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Linda D. Peters, Suvi Nenonen, Francesco Polese, Pennie Frow and Adrian Payne
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework based on the identification and examination of the mechanisms (termed “viability mechanisms”) under which market-shaping…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework based on the identification and examination of the mechanisms (termed “viability mechanisms”) under which market-shaping activities yield the emergence of a viable market: one able to adapt to the changing environment over time while remaining stable enough for actors to benefit from it.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses extant literature to build a conceptual framework identifying viability mechanisms for market shaping and a case illustration examining how a viable market for Finnish timber high-rise buildings was created. The case exemplifies how the identified viability mechanisms are practically manifested through proactive market shaping.
Findings
The proposed conceptual framework incorporates four viability mechanisms identified in the extant literature: presence of dissipative structures, consonance among system elements, resonance among system elements and reinforcing and balancing feedback loops. It illustrates how these mechanisms are manifested in a contemporary case setting resulting in a viable market.
Practical implications
First, firms and other market-shaping organizations should look for, or themselves foster, viability mechanisms within their market-shaping strategies. Second, as failure rates in innovation are extremely high, managers should seek to identify or influence viability mechanisms to avoid premature commercialization of innovations.
Originality/value
This study identifies how these viability mechanisms permit markets to emerge and survive over time. Further, it illuminates the workings of the non-linear relationship between actor-level market-shaping actions and system-level market changes. As such, it provides a “missing link” to the scholarly and managerial discourse on market-shaping strategies. Unlike much extant market-shaping literature, this study draws substantively on the systems literature.
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Jan Achterbergh and Dirk Vriens
The purpose of this paper is to show how the viable system model (VSM) and de Sitter's design theory can complement each other in the context of the diagnosis and design of viable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how the viable system model (VSM) and de Sitter's design theory can complement each other in the context of the diagnosis and design of viable organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Key concepts from Beer's model and de Sitter's design theory are introduced and analyzed in order to show how they relate.
Findings
The VSM provides insight into the related systems necessary and sufficient for viability. As such, it specifies criteria supporting the diagnosis and design of organizational infrastructures, i.e. of organizational structures, HR systems, and technology. However, it does not explicitly conceptualize and provide a detailed heuristic for the design of organizational structures. De Sitter's theory fills in this gap.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates how, based on a rudimentary model of organizational viability, de Sitter's design theory positively addresses the question of how to diagnose and design organizational structures that add to the viability of organizations.
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Patrícia Lopes Costa, Ana Margarida Passos and M. Clara Barata
– The purpose of this article was to examine how individual positive emotions and team work engagement (TWE) relate to the perceptions of team viability.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article was to examine how individual positive emotions and team work engagement (TWE) relate to the perceptions of team viability.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 254 teams (N = 1,154 individuals) participated in this study, and a multilevel analysis was conducted of the effects of individual and team-level factors.
Findings
The multilevel analysis results suggest a partial compensatory effect. High levels of individual positive emotions and high TWE are associated with a positive effect on the perceptions of team viability. Simultaneously, being part of a highly engaged team has a protective effect on perceptions of team viability, when individuals experience low levels of positive emotions.
Research limitations/implications
As the study was conducted with teams involved in a management simulation, generalizing the results to “real world” teams must be done with caution.
Practical implications
Nonetheless, these findings have important implications for managers of work groups. They highlight the need to consider collective states of work groups as relevant for their effectiveness, and suggest that promoting positive interactions between team members may result in gains in team viability perceptions, mostly when individual emotions are less positive.
Originality/value
We consider both individual and collective affective experiences at work, and focus on a less studied outcome, team viability. Additionally, we empirically demonstrate the relevance of collective states of teams for team members’ individual perceptions, as a top-down influence mechanism.
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The purpose of this article is to attempt to highlight various approaches for enhancing the viability of probiotics, with special emphasis on micro‐encapsulation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to attempt to highlight various approaches for enhancing the viability of probiotics, with special emphasis on micro‐encapsulation.
Design/methodology/approach
Various techniques, such as selection of acid and bile resistant strains, use of oxygen impermeable packaging materials, two‐step fermentation, stress adaptation, inclusion of micro‐nutrient, sonication of bacteria and micro‐encapsulation, which could be employed for maintaining or enhancing probiotic viability are discussed, with special emphasis on micro‐encapsulation.
Findings
Probiotics lose their viability during gastro‐intestinal transit due to unfavorable intestinal environment. Amongst diverse techniques micro‐encapsulation could confer protection to the probiotics both in the product as well as in the gastro‐intestinal environment.
Originality/value
The paper shows that micro‐encapsulation of probiotics renders them stable both in the product as well as in the intestinal environment and application of encapsulated probiotics would result in a product with greater prophylactic activities.
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This study is divided into two parts: The first part outlines the theory and methodology of investigation developed by the author; the second part describes the results obtained…
Abstract
This study is divided into two parts: The first part outlines the theory and methodology of investigation developed by the author; the second part describes the results obtained for the progress of Indian society from 1970 to 1980 and then deals with the issues for an intelligent management of societal systems. This paper i.e., the first part, delineates a universal model of the macro‐level dynamics of total society systems. The methodology describes two procedures for estimating the viability of a societal system; both yield the same results. One of the procedures is a simulation algorithm that makes possible the predictive inference and retrodictive confirmation of the course of system behaviour. The other procedure computes societal viability (Z) by integrating the viability measures (λ) of the ‘essential’ performance variables of the system.
Ting‐Peng Liang, Chen‐Wei Huang, Yi‐Hsuan Yeh and Binshan Lin
This paper aims to study the adoption of mobile technology in business and its determinants. A diagnostic tool for proper adoption of mobile technology is developed.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the adoption of mobile technology in business and its determinants. A diagnostic tool for proper adoption of mobile technology is developed.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded on the fit‐viability framework, the paper uses a multi‐case study via the fit and viability dimensions to examine the success or failure of mobile technology applications in business.
Findings
By drawing upon multiple streams of theory building, the paper is able to develop a set of measurement instruments to assess the fit and viability in adopting mobile technology. The findings demonstrate that the fit‐viability model (FVM) provides useful guidelines for enterprises in their decisions on whether to adopt a mobile technology.
Research limitations/implications
First, the theoretical generalizability of the FVM needs to be more carefully observed in future studies. Second, the findings are exploratory and more extensive studies may be necessary.
Practical implications
Chief information officers and managers can use the developed instrument to measure the fitness and viability of implementing mobile technology in organizations. This should be able to increase the possibility of success.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to combine the fit and viability aspects and to empirically demonstrate the value of this two‐dimensional model.
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Peter Byrne, Pat McAllister and Peter Wyatt
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of choices of model structure and scale in development viability appraisal. The paper addresses two questions concerning the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of choices of model structure and scale in development viability appraisal. The paper addresses two questions concerning the application of development appraisal techniques to viability modelling within the UK planning system. The first relates to the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the choice of model structure significantly affects model outputs. The second concerns the extent to which, given intrinsic input uncertainty, the level of model complexity significantly affects model outputs.
Design/methodology/approach
Monte Carlo simulation procedures are applied to a hypothetical development scheme in order to measure the effects of model aggregation and structure on model output variance.
Findings
It is concluded that, given the particular scheme modelled and unavoidably subjective assumptions of input variance, that simple and simplistic models may produce similar outputs to more robust and disaggregated models. Evidence is found of equifinality in the outputs of a simple, aggregated model of development viability relative to more complex, disaggregated models.
Originality/value
Development viability appraisal has become increasingly important in the planning system. Consequently, the theory, application and outputs from development appraisal are under intense scrutiny from a wide range of users. However, there has been very little published evaluation of viability models. This paper contributes to the limited literature in this area.
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Joshua Ofori-Amanfo, Samuel Wunmalya Akonsi and Gloria Kakrabah-Quarshie Agyapong
The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which organisational capabilities do impact the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which organisational capabilities do impact the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Data was collected from 306 SMEs from different sectors of the economy. The partial least square structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships between organisational capabilities and SMEs’ performance measured by their financial viability.
Findings
The findings reveal as predicted that four out of the five organisational capabilities tested were indeed important predictors of SMEs’ financial viability. Specifically, managerial capability, supply chain capability, operations capability and marketing capability were found to positively and significantly impact SMEs’ financial viability. The findings further reveal that firm size does not moderate the relationship between these capabilities and financial viability.
Research limitations/implications
This study was undertaken in a developing economy with peculiar business operating conditions and, thus, may limit the generalisability of the findings.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that key organisational capability development is critical for enhancing the financial viability of firms, confirming four of such critical capabilities that are needed by SMEs. The findings further suggest the need for firms irrespective of size to develop organisational capabilities.
Originality/value
This study has empirically established that developing managerial capability, supply chain capability, operations capability and marketing capability are important success factors if SMEs, irrespective of size, intend to enhance their financial viability.
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