Search results
1 – 10 of 242Nanda R. Shrestha, Wilbur I. Smith, Lydia McKinley‐Floyd and Kenneth R. Gray
This paper aims to propose a normative framework focusing on the need to enhance the roles of the four fundamental environmental forces of management – socio‐demographic…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a normative framework focusing on the need to enhance the roles of the four fundamental environmental forces of management – socio‐demographic, techno‐economic, politico‐institutional, and cultural. The objective is to create a business climate of certainty so that Kenya can achieve its goals of national and private sector development and of elevating its global competitiveness in terms of foreign direct investment and exports.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses secondary data to describe Kenya's development goals, its current level of private sector development, its position in the global economy, and the historical and cultural dimensions of its management practices. Against that backdrop, the article combines systems thinking and broad‐based reasoning to develop a normative management framework for policy makers and for domestic and international business managers. After using data to describe Kenya's status with respect to the four environmental forces, the article explains how Kenya – through reforming private and public institutions and implementing enlightened national development polices – could shape its management system and its prevailing climate of uncertainty in order to enhance its competitiveness in the present global economy.
Findings
The paper concludes that, if Kenya takes policy actions necessary to redirect and enhance its environmental forces, it would improve the efficacy of its resource management system and reduce the uncertainty inherent in the system. This would also promote openness to international trade and business and reduce the “cost” and other real or perceived barriers to business in the country to world levels, leading Kenya to become more competitive in the present global economy in terms of both increased foreign investment and export. As a result, Kenya should experience higher levels of private sector development, economic growth, and employment and, consequently, reduced poverty and higher standards of living for its citizens.
Originality/value
The paper introduces a normative, broad‐based management framework for national and private sector development in a cross‐cultural context. This framework should prove particularly useful to governments, policy makers, and business managers in countries that are in the early stages of private sector development and who are charged with achieving national development goals and with increasing the global competitiveness of their countries' economies.
Details
Keywords
Archie Lockamy and Wilbur I. Smith
This article examines the use of target costing as a means to improve the management of supply chains. A discussion of the shortcomings of traditional and activity‐based cost…
Abstract
This article examines the use of target costing as a means to improve the management of supply chains. A discussion of the shortcomings of traditional and activity‐based cost management approaches to supply chain management provides the basis for exploring the use of target costing within supply chains. Customer requirements and supply chain relationships are identified as key criteria for selecting the most appropriate method of target costing for supply chains. Price‐based, value‐based, and activity‐based cost management approaches to target costing are discussed, and recommendations for their use based upon customer requirements and supply chain relationships are offered. Conclusions are provided on the use of target costing to enhance a supply chain’s ability to improve customer satisfaction.
Details
Keywords
Clive Bingley, Allan Bunch and Edwin Fleming
TOP TITLES, measured by the number of loans from Dumbarton District Libraries last year, were newish books by the following ten authors: Wilbur Smith, Jeffrey Archer, Catherine…
Abstract
TOP TITLES, measured by the number of loans from Dumbarton District Libraries last year, were newish books by the following ten authors: Wilbur Smith, Jeffrey Archer, Catherine Cookson, Virginia Andrews, Danielle Steel, C McCullough, Susan Howatch, Desmond Bagley, Belva Plain, Douglas Reeman. (How can anyone be willing to go through life called ‘Belva Plain’?) The most popular non‐fiction writer was James Herriot, and for children (can you guess?), Enid Blyton.
Linda M. Waldron, Danielle Docka-Filipek, Carlie Carter and Rachel Thornton
First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based…
Abstract
First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.
Details
Keywords
Taru Saigal, Arun Kr Vaish and N.V.M. Rao
Using primary survey data from an urban area in Global North, this study aims to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors on perception of usefulness of public transport and…
Abstract
Purpose
Using primary survey data from an urban area in Global North, this study aims to examine the impact of sociodemographic factors on perception of usefulness of public transport and the importance of safety in preferring private modes of transport over public.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses stratified random sampling technique to collect data on travel behavior and socioeconomic characteristics. Descriptive statistics complemented with bivariate probit model and seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model is implemented on the data obtained.
Findings
The study finds that women, unmarried individuals, the youngest age group, least educated individuals and those who are working are expected to finding public transport more useful as compared to their respective counterparts. Despite finding the mode most useful, women are more likely to find it unsafe to travel.
Research limitations/implications
The study calls attention to not only dealing with the infrastructural changes in system but also with those attached insecurities which limit its use.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a comprehensive evaluation of the demands and challenges for transportation services faced by different segments of the society is carried out in this section of the developing world.
Details
Keywords
Jelena Debeljak and Kristijan Krkač
This paper aims to elucidate some of the arguments against egoism in the current debate, as well as to create some new arguments, or rather objections (epistemological and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to elucidate some of the arguments against egoism in the current debate, as well as to create some new arguments, or rather objections (epistemological and ontological from the position of egoism as moral solipsism), and to explicate some arguments against egoism (descriptive, normative, and ideological) as being not so convincing. It also aims to explicate Jesus's second commandment in a fashion similar to that of Adam Smith when he tried to combine self‐love with sympathy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the premise that some foundational philosophies, worldviews, or paradigms exemplify at least one type of egoism/selfish strategy. In that light the analysis of egoism and the objections are formulated.
Findings
They paper finds that present arguments in favour of egoism in business, and especially as certain “business ethics”, are not acceptable, at least on the practical and theoretical grounds on which they are presented as sound arguments.
Research limitations/implications
The paper implies that there is fundamental difference between theoretical and practical egoism, and that practical egoism sometimes uses the theoretical one as its “quasi‐justification”.
Practical implications
The paper can be summarized in a series of general advices about an altruistic attitude and practices which in the long term show more benefits than costs for any group, and consequently for business organizations as well.
Original/value
The paper presents ontological and epistemological interpretations and objections against egoism, emphasizing the somewhat neutral or at least bivalent position of Adam Smith regarding the matter in question, and introducing altruistic strategies as being compatible with the basic ideas of a free‐market system.
Details
Keywords
I SHOULD like first to say how much I appreciate the honour of being invited to deliver the Wright Brothers Lecture. To anyone whose work is associated in any way with the…
Abstract
I SHOULD like first to say how much I appreciate the honour of being invited to deliver the Wright Brothers Lecture. To anyone whose work is associated in any way with the aeronautical sciences, it must be a source of pride and gratification to be invited to be a chief participant in one of the greatest occasions in the world of aeronautical research, an occasion designed in honour of the two great pioneers, Wilbur and Orville Wright. In my own case these feelings are shared with a feeling of humility and of my own unworthiness for the task.
The management of children′s literature is a search for value andsuitability. Effective policies in library and educational work arebased firmly on knowledge of materials, and on…
Abstract
The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.
Details
Keywords
TribalCrit permits the recognition of colonization as pervasive in our American society impacting all aspects of our societal structures, including the educational system. Forced…
Abstract
TribalCrit permits the recognition of colonization as pervasive in our American society impacting all aspects of our societal structures, including the educational system. Forced boarding schools for Native learners touted the goal of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” as the mission of education in the United States, leaving an indelible strain between Native learners and the US educational system. Research from Native American scholars offers classroom instructional practices and strategies that support inclusive experiences based on truth and acknowledgment of racial and political liminal spaces. Implementing these strategies begins with informed lesson planning to ensure engagement in the instructional core between teacher, student, and content.
Details