bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Discounted Cash Flow Models
Authors: Olsson Per , Levin Joakim
Published: January 2015

This article describes the principle behind discounted cash flow (
DCF
) valuation, its applications in valuing companies and projects, and references to relevant valuation literature.
Disinvestment Decisions
Authors: DaDalt Peter J. , McManus Ginette V. , Owers James
Published: January 2015

Disinvestment is defined as transactions involving immediate changes in the composition of the firm's assets, and does not include transactions that also result in changes in the firm's ownership or financing structure (i.e. spin‐offs, split‐offs, and equity carveouts). Disinvestments therefore include sell‐offs, liquidations, plant closings, and abandonments. The span of research on disinvestment decisions is briefly summarized, and reasons for disinvestment are discussed. Among others, these include efficient redeployment of resources, the presence or absence of complementary resources, synergies, diversification, the use of divestitures as a source of financing, and information effects.
Experimental Asset Markets
Authors: Peterson Steven
Published: January 2015

Experimental asset markets are multiple‐period laboratory double‐auction markets utilizing human subjects who trade asset units with fundamental values determined by well‐defined (perhaps stochastic) dividend streams.
Financial Distress
Authors: Couwenberg Oscar
Published: January 2015

Financial distress occurs when a firm will not be able to honor its debts now or in the near future. Resolving such a situation often needs a restucturing of assets and/or liabilities. This can be done informally, that is without court intervention, or formally via a legally defined bankruptcy procedure. Research shows an informal restructuring preserves firm value as direct and indirect costs of using a bankruptcy procedure can be avoided.
Foreign Exchange Management
Authors: Puttonen Vesa
Published: January 2015

The value of a firm can be thought of as the net present value of all expected cash flows.
Initial Public Offerings (
IPO
s)
Authors: Welch Ivo
Published: January 2015

In contrast to a seasoned offering, an initial public offering (IPO) is the offering of shares of a company, which are not publicly traded.
Retail Banking
Authors: Channon Derek F.
Published: January 2015

Historically, retail banking was a relatively simple business. Commercial banks, operating essentially via a branch network, took in consumer deposits that were then usually used to provide loans, in most countries on overdraft, to the corporate sector.
Term Structure Models
Authors: Sandmann Klaus
Published: January 2015

Measured by the number of discussion papers and published articles, the theory of the term structure of interest rates is one of the most active fields of research in the literature on finance.
Volatility
Authors: Gemmill Gordon
Published: January 2015

Volatility is the term used in finance to denote the standard deviation of returns on an asset.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Authors: Collett Nick
Published: January 2015

This review explains the different types of M&A and reasons for M&A. It looks at shareholder wealth effects, concentrating on U.S. and U.K. research and explains some of the methodological issues in M&A studies.
Agency Theory
Authors: Needle David
Published: January 2015

An agency relationship exists when an agent performs a task on behalf of someone else. Agency theory is based on the assumptions that the agent will act in a self‐interested way and this needs to be controlled. The theory applies to different types of relationships in organizations, for example, between shareholders and managers, management and labor, and in subcontracting. There are strong links between agency theory and those theories related to ownership and control, transaction analysis, and motivation. Agency theory was used to explain management behavior in the 2008 banking crisis. Critics cite the lack of real evidence and question the assumptions of selfish behavior. However, the theory gives some insights as to how organizations operate and to the operation of reward systems and performance management.
Communication and Briefing Groups
Authors: Davey Kate M.
Published: January 2015

Communications researchers draw on a wide range of approaches to human resource management. These can be grouped into three very different, but overlapping, views of communication in HRM. These focus broadly on information management, participation and organizational culture. The most straightforward approach to communication is concerned with the passing of information between senders and receivers. In HRM this may be most evident in the provision of clearly specified, legally required employment procedures. Participation involves interaction between employees and management . This could be in negotiating work conditions between employees and management. Finally, organizations may be seen as communicatively constructed, created and given meaning by the stories, symbols and rituals that convey culture. Briefing groups may be seen either as a conduit for passing information down through the organization, an opportunity for employee participation or as a process through which the organization is structured and constituted.
Multiskilling
Authors: DeVaro Jed , Morita Hodaka
Published: January 2015

The article defines multiskilling, and discusses its advantages and disadvantages. It then explores trade‐offs of multiskilled and specialized workers, and discusses international comparison of multiskilling and related practices.
Organizational Commitment
Authors: Meyer John P.
Published: January 2015

Stimulated initially by concerns over retention, organizational commitment research has evolved to address the different ways that commitment can be experienced (i.e., multiple mindsets) and the different targets to which it is directed (multiple foci). Consideration is also given to a wider range of organization‐relevant outcomes and to employee well‐being.
Outsourcing
HRM
Authors: Cooke Fang Lee
Published: January 2015

A major change in the way the human resource management (
HRM
) function is delivered since the mid‐1990s has been the increasing use of HR outsourcing. This has been taking place not only in large domestic firms and multinational firms in the private sector, but also in the public sector, such as healthcare and education sectors. This article investigates reasons for the rise of HR outsourcing as well as the types of HR activities that are outsourced. It also examines what, if any, differences may exist in the HR outsourcing across different ownership forms, firm size, and nationality. Implications for the in‐house HR capacity and the nature of work and career patterns for HR professionals are also discussed.
Staff Handbooks
Authors: Needle David
Published: January 2015

Staff handbooks either in written or on‐line form bring together in one place information for employees on policies and procedures and rights and obligations. The content may vary widely but usually contains details of basic terms and conditions such as hours of work, pay and holiday entitlement as well as policies on such issues as training and health and safety. The handbook
is a source of reference for employers and managers as well as employees, and can assist in achieving fair and consistent treatment of people across the organization. Some organizations use the handbook to enhance the psychological contract and as part of employer branding. In may countries, it is used to identify key terms that form part of the contract of employment,
although its status in law has been questioned in both the UK and USA. Given its significance as a source of information and its legal status, it is important that the handbook is updated regularly.
Internal Labor Markets and Workforce Planning
Authors: Marsden David
Published: January 2015

Job moves by workers occur both between and within organizations. Movements between organizations, by means of local, national, and international labor markets, play a key role in economic adjustments. But it is easy to overlook the equally important adjustments between labor supply and demand that take place within organizations. Sometimes this is due to firms having multiple establishments, and moving workers between their operations in different regional locations.
Mergers and Acquisitions, Strategic Alliances, and their Impact on Human Resource Management
Authors: Lei David
Published: January 2015

The global proliferation of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), along with strategic alliances (SA), among all firm types and sizes has placed great demands on strategic human resources management (SHRM) to formulate and to execute new initiatives to learn, build, and reinforce new sources of competitive advantage. M&A and SA enable organizations to gain access to new markets, product lines, technologies, and geographies. However, they differ along some vital dimensions, especially relating to the degree and nature of control over how distinctive resources are cultivated and utilized. M&A places great demands on SHRM to harmonize the often disparate national and organizational cultures of the newly combined entity. However, the transitional nature of SA, in particular, can potentially generate significant sources of tension among partners as they seek to learn from one another and compete simultaneously. Thus, SHRM needs to recognize this duality of cooperation and competition in SA and design processes that enhance organizational learning while limiting excessive dependence on the partner.
Organization Development and Change
Authors: Woodman Richard W.
Published: January 2015

Organization development and change (also called OD) is a field of applied behavioral science focused on understanding and managing organizational change. OD techniques and approaches provide the HRM professional important tools to contribute to organizational effectiveness.
Performance Appraisal
Authors: Fletcher Clive
Published: January 2015

Performance appraisal (
PA
) is the term given to the process whereby organizations seek to review employees' ongoing performance, give them feedback, motivate, and develop them to improve, set objectives and – in many instances – obtain information to act as a basis for reward decisions (e.g., in terms of performance‐related pay or promotion).
Performance Management
Authors: Houldsworth Elizabeth
Published: January 2015

This contribution defines performance management as a key HRM practice that is broader than appraisal. The evolution of performance management is described as well as the main components of the process as typically implemented within Western corporations. This section seeks to make the reader aware of the some of the main debates around the process and highlights both the potential benefits and limitations of the approach.
Reward Systems
Authors: Franco‐Santos Monica , Gomez‐Mejia Luis
Published: January 2015

Reward systems are central to the Human Resource Management function. Their purpose is to attract talented individuals, motivate them, and retain those that have a better fit with the organization. Reward systems have a direct impact (and in most firms the most important one) on the cost side of the organization's financial statement. They are strategic as they influence people's attitudes, behavior, and performance. In this chapter we provide an overview of reward systems and their main components.
Temporary Workers/Temporary Agency Workers
Authors: Cuyper Nele De , Witte Hans De
Published: January 2015

A substantial proportion of the total working population, ranging from 8% in the United States to 14% in Europe, is temporarily employed. Temporary employment refers to dependent employment of limited duration, either directly by the organization or by an agency. The use of temporary employment is mostly inspired by employers' motives related to cost reduction and flexibility. This has led to concerns about the impact of temporary employment for the worker. These concerns are rooted in the observation of poorer quality of temporary jobs compared with permanent jobs. Surprisingly, however, this poorer quality does not lead to an overall negative experience in terms of attitude, health and well‐being among the temporary workforce. Possibly, temporary workers see their job as a transitory stage to permanent employment.
The Balanced Scorecard
Authors: Norton David P.
Published: January 2015

Various surveys over the past two decades indicate that 60–80% of organizations fall far short of the targets expressed in their strategic plans.
Business Process Reengineering
Authors: Glick Willam H.
Published: January 2015

Business process reengineering is a systematic change management methodology focused on radical transformation of processes and systems tied to enhancing value for customers. It is a strategic cognitive approach grounded on rethinking the organization to deliver measurable results. Changes to business processes must be matched with a realignment of strategy, structure, culture, jobs, and information systems.
Partnership at Work and Mutual Gains
Authors: Johnstone Stewart , Ackers Peter
Published: January 2015

This chapter addresses two main issues. First, we consider the meaning of “partnership at work,” by examining howframes of referenceshape our understanding of the nature of theemployment relationship. We then explore the challenges surrounding definitions of partnership, and offer our own set of principles, practices, and processes. Here we focus upon thevoluntary workplace partnership debatein liberal market economies, such as theUKandUS, rather than the related, but distinctive literature aboutsocietal social partnershipsin coordinated market economies like Germany and Sweden. Finally, we assess the extent to which partnership at work can delivermutual gains, taking account of both the key theoretical debates as well as empirical evidence.
Critical Incidents Technique
Authors: Shaw James B.
Published: January 2015

This note describes the critical incidents technique developed orginally by Flannagan.
Employee Assistance Programs
Authors: Attridge Mark
Published: January 2015

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are employer‐sponsored services designed for assisting employees with personal, family, or work problems. Most workplaces today have an EAP, as over 80% of medium and large size employers in the United States provide EAP benefits to their workforce. EAPs play an important role in helping troubled employees to balance the demands of work and personal life, while also supporting the employer's goals for improved or sustained levels of productivity at workplace. Common areas of need include stress, mental health disorders, substance abuse, other behavioral addictions, parenting issues, emotional problems, problems at work, and personal financial and legal concerns. EAPs also support individual managers and the organization as a whole. The latter kind of support includes efforts at prevention, training, management consultation, organizational development and workplace crisis services. To accomplish these goals, EAPs often partner with other employee benefit programs, including work/life, occupational health and wellness, and disability claims case management.
Integrity Testing
Authors: Sackett Paul R.
Published: January 2015

Integrity (or honesty) tests are paper‐and‐pencil instruments administered primarily to job applicants for the purpose of predicting counterproductive work behavior. Recent estimates suggest that several million such tests are administered in the US annually, primarily to applicants for entry‐level jobs with access to money or merchandise (e.g., retailing, financial services). Early integrity tests were billed as paper‐and‐pencil surrogates for polygraph testing. Current research, however, downplays or eliminates the link to the polygraph. It focuses not only on the prediction of employee theft but also on a wide variety of counterproductive behaviors, to include violation of work rules, fraudulent workers' compensation claims, and absenteeism.

Two basic types of tests can be identified. Overt tests measure attitudes toward theft and other forms of counterproductivity. They commonly ask for a self‐report of applicant involvement in various illegal and/or counterproductive behaviors. Personality‐oriented tests are considerably broader in focus and are not explicitly aimed at theft. They may include items dealing with dependability, conscientiousness, social conformity, thrill‐seeking, trouble with authority, and hostility.
Lean Production
Authors: Jürgens Ulrich
Published: January 2015

The term “lean production” was introduced in the late 1980s to characterize Japanese production system contrasting them with Western mass production systems. The model for the lean production system (LPS) is the Toyota production system. Central to LPS, besides certain principles concerning the layout and management of production processes is the reliance on employee empowerment and teamwork. The diffusion of LPS has been accompanied by controversies about the impact on working conditions through the intensification and standardization of work.
Part‐Time Work
Authors: Rubery Jill
Published: January 2015

Part‐time work has been increasing in OECD countries but its incidence remains highly variable. This growth is often attributed to the growth of service work, employers' need for flexibility and women's increasing participation but these apply to all OECD countries. Different institutional arrangements, social norms and gender relations account for more of the variable incidence. Part‐time work in some contexts offers convenient hours for those with caring responsibilities but much part‐time work is driven by employers' flexibility requirements, resulting in highly variable hours that are difficult to combine with childcare. Part‐time work opportunities are not a prerequisite in all societies for a high female participation rate, even among mothers. However, where work is organized on a part‐time basis it tends to be done mainly by women. Options to work part‐time may enable women to have more continuous employment careers but often at the cost of low pay and reduced training and career opportunities. Improving the employment conditions of part‐timers may require both higher minimum employment rights such as minimum wages and rights to work reduced hours within all standard employment contracts, to avoid the concentration of part‐time opportunities in low skilled jobs and low paying organizations.
Reference Checks
Authors: Russell Craig J.
Published: January 2015

Reference checks and a brief history of their use in personnel selection systems are described. Generally yielding low criterion validity due to low reliability, reference checks can help minimize employer exposure to negligent hiring charges when applicants provide false information about prior credentials or accomplishments. Hurdles including reference providers legal inability or unwillingness to provide reference checks are also discussed.
Minimum Wage
Authors: de Coulon Augustin
Published: January 2015

A majority of developed countries have adopted minimum wage laws. A large literature aims at determining whether those laws cause employment's losses. The issue remains contentious even though studies that finds negative effects only identify very small impact, possibly close to zero. There is, however, a growing literature showing that minimum wages have a visible and larger impact on wage inequality. Minimum wage laws will reduce wage inequality in countries where a substantial part of the workforce is paid very low wages directly. This will typically be the case for countries with greater wage inequality. And the reduction in wage inequality will also be larger, when firms tend to increase the wages of employees situated higher up that at the minimum level. Recent work have found that indeed employers tend to increases wages of workers who earn wages up to the 25% percentile of the distribution.
360‐Degree Appraisals
Authors: Borman Walter C. , Bracken David W.
Published: January 2015

The central idea of a 360‐degree appraisal system is to obtain performance evaluations on individual employees from multiple perspectives or sources.
Absorptive Capacity
Authors: Athanassiou Nicholas
Published: January 2015

Absorptive Capacity is a critical component of innovative capabilities that enables the firm to exploit external knowledge. It allows a firm to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends. Firms' absorptive capacity is part of their dynamic capabilities and can be conceptualized as having four dimensions: acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation. Another way to further understand a firm's absorptive capacity is to think of it as a quality that is derived by the firm's level tacit knowledge.
Change
Authors: Regnér Patrick , Yildiz Harun E.
Published: January 2015

The unique attributes of the internal and external contexts of multinational corporations (
MNC
s) make effective management of organizational change not only a necessity but also a challenge for these firms. The key to success lies in ensuring that the content, context, and process of change efforts are aligned and coherent. In this chapter, we will review each of these change dimensions with a particular focus on the specific issues and concerns faced by
MNC
s.
Communication
Authors: Harvey Carol P.
Published: January 2015

The communication process of encoding, sending a message, and decoding its correct meaning is a vital part of successful management and if not done correctly can effect an organization's profitability. In today's global environment, this process is challenged by cultural differences in communication patterns and technological issues that impact both interpersonal and organizational communications.
Context
Authors: McNett Jeanne M.
Published: January 2015

The term
context
is used in several ways in international management. In the more general way, context describes the environment around a specific focus, such as the geographic area, business conditions, cultural assumptions, and unique history. Context also is used more specifically to describe the communication process environment across cultures. Cultures vary to the extent that they use language itself and not environment to convey meaning, as explained by Hall.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Muller Alan
Published: January 2015

CSR is a multifaceted concept encompassing a wide range of organizational actions intended to further some social good. In terms of the antecedents of CSR, some perspectives view CSR as a response to institutional pressures; that is, expectations of the society in which the organization operates. Yet other perspectives focus more on managers' intrinsic motives, rooted in morality. In terms of the consequences of CSR, a considerable body of literature has explored the relationship between CSR and the financial performance of the firm. In the international context, research is most often directed toward understanding cross‐country variation in CSR activities and performance within multinational enterprises (MNEs).
Country of Origin
Authors: John Anna
Published: January 2015

This article defines the term
country of origin
(
COO
) from the international management perspective. It discusses
COO
effects and their role in performance of
multinational companies
(
MNCs
). Its final section outlines distinctions between
COO
effects and
host‐country
(
HC
) effects.
Cross‐Cultural Role Theory
Authors: Peterson Mark F.
Published: January 2015

Role theory considers the influence that role set members have on a focal person. Boundary spanning roles are important for research about multinational organizations, while the relationship of national values to roles and role relationships are part of comparative research. Cognitive theory has recently been applied to suggest that generalized role expectations be reconceptualized as sources of meaning or guidance that people occupying particular roles utilize to make sense of work events.
Economic Crisis
Authors: Gevorkyan Aleksandr V.
Published: January 2015

An economic crisis is a breakdown, of established social relations, manifested in dry economic indicators of employment, growth, and inflation. There is much theoretical research on the nature of the economic crises that is relevant to modern economic growth. The unity of pure technical, business, financial, but also political and social factors that economic crisis brings, perhaps has been one of the hardest lessons contemporary economists are relearning, in the wake of the latest economic and financial collapse trying to battle double‐digit unemployment rates and declining productive capacities. If history is any guide, the world is now set for a qualitatively new transformation in business, production methods, financial flows, and social awareness.
Emic Studies
Authors: Smith Peter B.
Published: January 2015

Emic studies are those that are based upon locally salient aspects of management, rather than concepts that are derived from studies conducted in other parts of the world.
Family Firms
Authors: Singal Manisha
Published: January 2015

Family firms are the most common organization form of business in the world. They are characterized by the overlap of family, management, and ownership roles of its members. While unique advantages like increased resources in the form of family's social, financial and emotional capital and lower agency and transactions costs due to trust in family relationships are often offset by disadvantages like lack of professionalization and succession conflict in future generations, public family firms in the United States have demonstrated superior financial performance than other firms.
Financial Institutions
Authors: Becker Jochen
Published: January 2015

Financial Institutions are legal entities enabling the transfer of funds from subjects who provide payment surplus, so‐called capital providers, to subjects who demand payment instruments, the so‐called capital seekers. Both capital providers and capital seekers may be either natural or legal persons. The relationship between the two parties is determined by
financial contracts
that represent certain claims for current and future payments (Harris and Raviv, 1991; Hart, 1995). Hence, financial institutions can be classified into two categories based on the facilitation they provide: financial markets (see encyclopedia entry:
financial markets
) and financial intermediaries.
Financial Reporting
Authors: McGee Robert W.
Published: January 2015

This article discusses the requirements for good financial reporting, with emphasis on International Financial Reporting Standards (
IFRS
), which is rapidly becoming the worldwide standard for financial reporting. The pros and cons of adopting IFRS are also discussed, along with some of the major criticisms that have been made of the movement toward the worldwide adoption of IFRS.
Global Mindset
Authors: Levy Orly , Beechler Schon , Taylor Sully , Boyacigiller Nakiye A.
Published: January 2015

In the past two decades, global mindset has emerged as a key individual capability and a critical source of long‐term competitive advantage of firms. There are three major perspectives on global mindset: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional, each offering a different conceptualization of global mindset. As a result, there is still a considerable confusion about the core properties of global mindset, its dimensionality, and level of analysis. Recent works attempt to reconcile the myriad approaches to global mindset, suggesting that it is a highly complex individual‐level cognitive structure characterized by cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity. As such, global mindset involves three complementary aspects: (i) an openness to and awareness of multiple spheres of meaning and action; (ii) complex representation and articulation of cultural and strategic dynamics; and (iii) mediation and integration of ideals and actions oriented both to the global and the local. These works also suggest that global mindset leads to effective managerial action in a global context because it affects the information processing capabilities of key decision makers.
Corporate Governance Through Codes
Authors: Haxhi Ilir , Aguilera Ruth V.
Published: January 2015

The UK's 1992 Cadbury Report defines corporate governance (CG) as the system by which businesses are directed and controlled. CG codes are a set of best practices designed to address deficiencies in the formal contracts and institutions by suggesting prescriptions on the preferred role and composition of the board of directors, relationships with shareholders and top management, auditing and information disclosure, and the remuneration and dismissal of directors. Codes can be distinguished from other modes of regulation in that they are formally non binding, exemplified in the widely used comply‐or‐explain principle, issued by committees of experts, flexible in their application, built on the market mechanism for evaluation of deviations and evolutionary in nature.

Several scholars consider the Cadbury Code (1992) as the original code, although the first code was created in 1978 in the US. Today about 90 nations worldwide have issued their own code(s). Regulating CG through codes is seen as a process, where “soft rules” for example codes, are favored over traditional “hard rules”. However, unlike “hard” law regulation, for example, Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002, codes may not lead to the optimal CG; that is they merely reduce the worst corporate behavior but do not foster the best practices through strict compliance.
Incubator
Authors: Liu Kai
Published: January 2015

This short article starts from tracing the origin of the term incubator and explains why the term now is closely associated with the support of early stage ventures. It provides a definition for business incubator and also point out differences between incubators and science/technology parks by highlighting its exclusive focus on early stage ventures. It outlines the four key components which an incubator normally possess and also summarize the various goals of establishing an incubator from public and private sector perspective. It concludes that the past researches show business incubators are instrumental and effective in enhancing the survival rate of start‐ups.
Individualism and Collectivism
Authors: Lun Janetta , Lee Tiane
Published: January 2015

Individualism and collectivism (IC) are cultural constructs that illustrate the extent to which individuals are autonomous or embedded in their groups. These constructs have been used to explain a wide range of cultural differences observed in human psychology and behavior. A brief historical background and theoretical and empirical development of these constructs are discussed. The article also provides an overview of research on
IC
in organizations and management.
Information Technology
Authors: Moreno Valter , Padovani Fernando
Published: January 2015

Over the past decades, advances in information technology (IT) have shaped the way firms do business around the world. As they support, integrate, and optimize work and information flows inside and across organizations, IT solutions have become inextricably intertwined with almost all business practices conducted by organizational agents. In this article, we specifically address issues related to the role of IT in the management of internationalized companies. We start by defining IT and information systems (IS) and presenting some of the main research issues pertaining to their management in organizations. Next, we discuss the essential challenges faced by international companies, as far as IT is concerned. We conclude by presenting empirical results and gaps in the scholarly IS/international management literature.
Intellectual Property Rights
Authors: von Bismarck Alexandra , Berger Matthias
Published: January 2015

The main basis of progress in all economic fields is ideas. Ideas are generally not protectable themselves but only their expression, namely, by intellectual property (IP) rights. These rights provide their creators with exclusive rights over their work to prevent third parties from using it without permission by their creator. By granting those rights, the stimulation of the creation of new ideas and economic progress is pursued. The most important IP rights are covered by patents, industrial designs, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Islamic Microfinance
Authors: Oseni Umar A. , Hassan M. Kabir
Published: January 2015

With the exponential growth in Sharī'ah‐compliant assets, which has recently surpassed a $1.7 trillion mark, there is an increasing call for the assessment of the impact of this growth on the less privileged in the society, particularly, in Muslim countries. Both the classical history and the most recent history of Islamic finance reveal elements of microfinance as the crux of the initiatives. Against this backdrop, this article examines Islamic microfinance as a major component of the global Islamic finance industry. As a value‐oriented industry guided by specific rules, the Islamic finance industry has at its core the objectives of microfinance, which represents the original value proposition of Islamic financial intermediation. While examining the key Islamic finance products that are utilized in the existing microfinance initiatives, it is argued that Islamic financial institutions should brace up to play its original role of financing microenterprises. The ethical objective of Islamic finance and the imperativeness of social responsibility are the essential values that drive the Islamic microfinance framework. The article concludes that considering the original value proposition of Islamic financial intermediation, Islamic microfinance is structured to fulfill the social and developmental expectations of the financially excluded people.
K
luckhohn and
S
trodtbeck's Dimensions
Authors: McNett Jeanne M.
Published: January 2015

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck were anthropologists who developed a culture values orientation theory that looks at culture as a collective response to six problems all societies encounter.
Licensing
Authors: Abhijit Roy
Published: January 2015

Licensing
involves a contractual agreement between a firm (the licensor) who makes a legally protected asset available to others (the licensees) in return for royalties, license fees, and other forms of compensations. The licensed asset is usually a company name, brand name, patent, trade secret, or product formulation. Special licensing arrangements can involve
contract manufacturing
, whereby the licensor provides technical specifications to a subcontractor or local manufacturer, who in turn oversees the production, or
franchising
, whereby a contract signed by a franchisor and a franchisee, which allows the later to operate a business developed by the former in return for a fee and adherence to policies and practices set by them.
Organizational Behavior
Authors: Osland Joyce , Devine Kay , Turner Marlene
Published: January 2015

The field of organizational behavior, its international dimensions, and the subfield of organization development (OD) are described. OD values are more congruent with some cultures' values than others, and culture influences various aspects of the planned change process. Thus, global OD initiatives and practices have to be contextualized to fit local conditions. Globalization and the needs of global organizations determined the topics that receive most attention in international organizational behavior. Examples of recent international research include studies of manager impact on employees in two regional clusters and job satisfaction. Two ongoing debates are described: whether money buys happiness in the psychological well‐being field, and whether cultural behavior and multinational enterprise practices are converging or diverging.
Paternalistic Leadership
Authors: Aycan Zeynep
Published: January 2015

Paternalistic leadership (PL), commonly practiced in collectivistic and high power distant cultures, refers to the hierarchical superior–subordinate relationship where the leader provides care, nurturance, and guidance to employees in their professional and personal lives in a parental manner, and, in exchange, expects loyalty and deference from the employees (Aycan, 2006). Depending on the cultural context PL may be perceived as oppressive and exploitative versus caring and empowering. Cultural and organizational contingencies may also determine the extent to which PL is associated with positive or negative organizational outcomes.
Relational Models Theory
Authors: Vodosek Markus
Published: January 2015

Relational models theory posits that people use four elementary relational models for generating social action; for understanding and evaluating social behavior; and for coordinating, planning, encoding, and remembering social interactions. The four models are communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing. Metarelational models govern the configuration of relational models among multiple social entities such as individuals and institutions, in contrast to relational models that govern dyadic relations among individual social entities.
Teaching
Authors: Lane Henry W. , McNett Jeanne M.
Published: January 2015

The discipline of international management has developed within the domain of international business. There are several ways the discipline is structured within business schools. The pedagogy of international management has several directions, as well, and is evolving.
Resource Dependence
Authors: Ambos Tina C.
Published: January 2015

Resource dependence theory (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978) provides a view on the social context of organizations, which has increasingly been applied in research on the multinational organization during the last years.
Social Identity
Authors: Klaus Nicola , Sackmann Sonja
Published: January 2015

The term “social identity” is used to refer to an individual's sense of self based on his or her actual or perceived membership in social groups, such as a company, division, work group, sports club, region, ethnic group, and so on. Through the process of social identification, individuals perceive themselves as members of those groups and attribute the characteristics typical of these groups to their self. Social identity has many implications for organizations including corporate culture, human resource management and marketing.
Stereotypes
Authors: Dietz Joerg , Kleinlogel Emmanuelle P. , Chui Celia W. S.
Published: January 2015

Stereotypes are descriptive “pictures in our heads” (Lippman, 1922) about members of other social groups, such as people of a different ethnic or national origin. Individuals can draw on stereotypes in a controlled, conscious manner (explicit stereotypes), but they are not always aware of their automatic activation (implicit stereotypes) and subsequent influence on perception. This automatic activation is also critical for the cognitive efficiency function and the prejudice justification function of stereotypes. In the international business domain, stereotypes about members of other cultures are relevant, but research on such stereotypes is comparatively sparse.
Global Mobility
Authors: Selmer Jan , Lauring Jakob
Published: January 2015

Global Mobility usually covers physical international mobility for work purposes by white‐collar or skilled workers or professionals. Global Mobility reflects changes in the corporate world, using various alternative forms of global employment, as well as changes in today's mobile society, where movement of people across national borders is becoming increasingly common.
World Trade Organization (
WTO
)
Authors: Calle Maria‐Alejandra
Published: January 2015

The World Trade Organization (
WTO
),established in 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, is the global international organization administering the rules of international trade. These rules include, among others: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (
GATT
), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (
GATS
), the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (
TRIPS
), and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (
SPS
Agreement). With the objective of ensuring a predictable and transparent multilateral trading system, the WTO monitors the implementation of trade rules, serves as a forum for multilateral trade negotiations, administers the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (
TPRM
) and provides a mechanism for dispute settlement.

The most important challenge of the WTOup to date, remains the completion of the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations.
Urbanization
Authors: Wut Tai M.
Published: January 2015

Urbanization is the study of the growth of cities.
Strategic Use ofIT
Authors: Titah Ryad , de Guinea Ana Ortiz
Published: January 2015

The strategic use of information technology (IT) is critical in linking the use of IT to organizational benefits. The objective of this article is to provide a succinct overview of the research investigating the strategic use of IT in organizations. To do so, this article defines the concept of strategic use of IT and summarizes the three main theoretical perspectives from which strategic IT use has been investigated. First, the traditional microeconomic perspective, which analyzes the strategic use of IT according to five industry forces and the value chain activities of a given firm. Second, the resource‐based view of the firm, which emphasizes that the use of IT can only lead to competitive advantage when complemented with other critical resources to create rare, valuable, and inimitable resources. Third, the dynamic capability perspective, grounded in Schumpeterian economics, which highlights that the strategic use of IT should serve to enhance the capability of a firm to reconfigure its competencies to rapidly respond to changing business conditions. The article ends with a brief discussion on future avenues for research.
Enterprise Systems
Authors: Amrani Redouane E.L. , Truex Duane
Published: January 2015

The purpose of this article is to present the main issues related to Enterprise Systems (ES). These systems manage large volumes of transactions and offer information sharing across functional processes and between organizational layers. However, they continue to be associated with organizational transformation and offer significant challenges to organizations. To overcome common issues and provide enduring value, we present the role of a new organizational structure called
Enterprise System Competency Center
.
Integrated Development Environments (
IDE
s)
Authors: Dahanayake Ajantha
Published: January 2015

This article provides a general overview of an integrated development environment (
IDE
). IDE is an enhanced editor for programming languages that provides software applications developers with a comprehensive package of programming and software development tools.
Systems Development
Authors: Conger Sue
Published: January 2015

Over the past 60 years, systems development has evolved from custom development to mashups that comprise fragments of software that can be scattered all over the Internet. In addition, the methodologies used for development have evolved from concentrating on functions to data to objects to services. Each successive generation focused on the key problem area of that era. This article briefly describes the history of systems development, the current state, and emerging areas as the field of work continues to evolve.
Web 2.0
Authors: Ransbotham Sam , Kane Gerald C.
Published: January 2015

In the few short years of its existence, the Internet has fundamentally changed society in numerous ways. One key technology behind this transformation is the World Wide Web. Originally, the Web primarily allowed static viewing of content. Now, an important shift is taking place as the original Web (“version 1.0”) is evolving to support new ways of collaborating and interacting (“Web 2.0”).
Design Science Research
Authors: Chatterjee Samir
Published: January 2015

Since the dawn of the digital revolution, information technologies have changed the way we live, work, play, and entertain.
IT
Project Failure: Causes and Response Strategies
Authors: Lee Jong Seok
Published: January 2015

An information technology (
IT
) project is a planned organizational change that requires significant financial investments and human efforts, and failed projects can cause significant damage to entire organizations. Despite advances in the project management discipline, recent research continues to show alarming numbers of project failures and many of these project failures are associated with management issues as opposed to technical issues. In this article, I discuss three causes underlying many of the
IT
project failures (escalation of commitment, communication failures, and risk management) and response strategies to each failure causes.
Decision Support Systems
Authors: Power Daniel J. , Sharda Ramesh , Burstein Frada
Published: January 2015

Decision support systems (DSS) are a class of computerized information system that support decision‐making activities. Decision support systems are designed artifacts that have specific functionality. Five more specific Decision Support System types include i) communications‐driven, ii) data‐driven, iii) document‐driven, iv) knowledge‐driven, and v) model‐driven systems. Communications technologies are central to communications‐driven DSS for supporting decision‐making. Data‐driven DSS provide access to large data stores and analytics to create information. Document‐driven DSS use documents to provide information for decision making. Knowledge‐driven DSS are sometimes generically calledexpert systemsorrecommender systems. Model‐driven DSS use quantitative models for functionality and have been calledmodel‐oriented DSSandcomputationally oriented DSS. The termknowledge management system (KMS)encompasses both document and knowledge‐driven DSS. Holsapple and Whinston proposed a slightly different classification identifying text‐oriented DSS, database‐oriented DSS, spreadsheet‐oriented DSS, solver‐oriented DSS, rule‐oriented DSS, and compound DSS.
Federal Trade Commission Act
Authors: Becker Gilbert
Published: January 2015

This article describes the Federal Trade Commission Act, which is one of the three primary antitrust laws in the United States. Its proscriptions against unfair and deceptive business practices, including advertising, are identified. Varying interpretations of the meaning of the word deceptive are also presented. In addition, an overview of the Commission's organizational structure and enforcement process is provided.
Kinked Demand Curves
Authors: Becker Gilbert
Published: January 2015

This article describes one set of demand relationships which may arise in oligopoly markets where only a few firms exist and the behavior and profitability of each depends, in part, on the actions of its rivals. The underlying assumptions regarding the firms' behavior, and economic prediction of the model are presented. The strength of this model and its weaknesses are described.
Market Definition
Authors: Becker Gilbert
Published: January 2015

This article provides an economic description of the concept of a market. It identifies the two boundaries of this group of buyers and sellers, and the importance to managers of avoiding confusion with other common erroneous descriptions of a market. The article also explains the central role of market definition in antitrust cases. Various theoretical measures, used by regulatory authorities, the courts, and other economists, are presented and explained, as are some of their shortcomings. Several more practical measures and their relative strengths are also examined.
Market Power
Authors: Becker Gilbert
Published: January 2015

This article provides an examination of the concept of market power. It defines the term and considers its principal source, firm size, in light of the varying types of economic markets that may exist in an economy. Several measures of market power are identified and their relative strengths are explained. The role of market power in antitrust policy is examined, as are several methods by which such power can be acquired. Various market consequences that may result from the advent of market power are presented. In addition, the article outlines some conclusions drawn from numerous empirical studies of market power.