bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Managing relationships, networks, and complexity in innovation, diffusion, and adoption processes
Authors: Woodside Arch G. , Biemans Wim
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Seeks to introduce a JBIM special issue of articles that moves the innovation‐diffusion‐adoption (IDA) literature beyond identifying key success factors to thick descriptions of the dynamics of human interactions and the enactment of decisions‐events‐outcomes using multiple rounds of informant‐researcher interpretations.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopts the view that informants' views as to what is happening, why it is happening, and the consequences of what is happening often go through a series of revisions depending on when the informant data are collected.

Findings

Individuals successful in guiding IDA processes exhibit great adaptability in going around and through road‐blocks that they encounter over the months and years from innovation to market success. Informants in second and third interviews provide critical information on process nuances that go unreported in single‐meeting interviews.

Research limitations/implications

Specific case studies are absent of how executives might use such process data to revise their sense‐making and improve decisions based on insights that become available only through such explicit retrospection. The implication is that this special issue is a stepping‐stone from cross‐sectional survey research to system dynamics research with hands‐on participation by executives.

Practical implications

Now one should get real, describe, understand, and play inside IDA processes in real‐time with executives and researchers working together via multiple meetings using system dynamics research tools.

Originality/value

For IDA research this special issue calls for embracing a revolution ending the dominance of closed‐end self‐completed survey data to using multiple‐rounds of face‐to‐face interviews and direct observations with informant revisions of findings.
Opening up decision making: making sense of entrepreneur and reseller business‐to‐business strategies
Authors: Woodside Arch G.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Aims to map business‐to‐business strategic actions to illustrate how manufacturers and resellers of new fast moving consumer goods interact when responding to environmental feedback to their decisions and to assess the effectiveness of alternative implemented decisions in assisting organizational growth.

Design/methodology/approach

This report presents a detailed example of causal mapping analysis for a manufacturing entrepreneurial case study; the example covers processes linking events, decisions, and activities in business start‐up, growth, and failure of the enterprise.

Findings

For the case study illustrating the mapping approach, between the start‐up to the demise stages a shift does occur in the number of decision areas judged very good to very bad; for example, product design decisions shift from very good to remarkably good to very bad among the three stages. Pricing strategy was judged very bad consistently across the three stages.

Research limitations/implications

For research on entrepreneur behavior, additional work on inter‐coder reliability is needed to confirm the consistency of both creating concepts and coding linkages in such maps. Detailed causal maps are needed in large samples of entrepreneur case studies to test the propositions. The application presented here is exploratory only. Causal mapping analysis represents a tool useful in case study research and theory construction from such case study data and such analysis deserves wider use among researchers desiring to open up research in decision making.

Originality/value

What really is happening and why? To help in answering, mapping thought‐decisions‐outcome dynamics over several stages of new product innovation and diffusion occurring among manufacturers and resellers provides an explicit sensemaking approach for executives.
Modeling innovation, manufacturing, diffusion and adoption/rejection processes
Authors: Woodside Arch G. , Biemans Wim G.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Seeks to advocate adopting the comparative case study method and system dynamics modeling to inform theory and to prescribe executive actions for successfully managing new products built using radically new technologies.

Design/methodology/approach

Reviews NPD theory and research on the dynamic processes including feedback loops and the hidden demons (hard to identify weak linkages that have large downstream impacts) in radically new innovation, manufacturing, diffusion and adoption/rejection processes; examines the IMDAR process model (innovation‐manufacturing‐diffusion‐adoption/rejection) of new products.

Findings

Several alternative routes of tacit and explicit interorganizational behaviors and decisions lead to NPD successes and failures; while executives believe surveys identifying specific factors are important particularly for NPD success, none of these factors is necessary or sufficient by itself for explaining success – specific cases of NPD success occur in the absence of any one of the identified success factors – embracing a system dynamics rather than a main effects view of NPD success and failure provides solid grounding for useful theory and practice in NPD.

Research limitations/implications

Does not provide an empirical comparison between cross‐sectional data‐based modelling versus system dynamics analysis. Business and industrial marketing research that embraces complexity and examines decision and actions over multiple time periods is still in its infancy.

Practical implications

Most successful companies suffer from their success: they fail to remain watchful, mindful, and active with regard to new technological developments that seemingly have minor relationships to their industries.

Originality/value

This paper offers a theory‐of‐the‐firm system dynamics approach to inform new product executives to think beyond check‐lists and embrace multiple‐path thinking.
A research agenda for investigation of product innovation in the financial services sector
Authors: Akamavi Raphaël K.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Holistically reviews the literature, examines critically and summarises systematically the major pioneering works of contributors in this field. Its primary objective is to formulate a research agenda in the area of new service development (NSD) in the financial services sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive in‐depth content analysis: theoretical discussion and conceptual frameworks of product innovation are carried out. This paper explores and evaluates extant frameworks of the tangible NPD process, which form the basis for NPD for the services literature. NSD has been central to the literature on services marketing, and a competitive weapon for firms, the important propensity has been related to the investigation of NSD issues.

Findings

This study identifies significant deficiencies and gaps (e.g. stakeholders involvement: roles of customers and supportive activities units) in the literature, with specific regard to new financial product development relating to the financial services sector.

Research limitations/implications

This emerging approach to NPD suggests a new perspective on how to achieve NPD success in the financial services sector.

Practical implications

Managers and executives should strategically rethink the stakeholders’ roles, and the design and management of a NSD process. They should be aware of beneficial gains, which can be obtained from the process of stakeholder integration and involvement in NSD activities.

Originality/value

Provides a critical overview and analysis of theoretical perspectives on financial NSD /NPD with an annotated bibliographical reference covering the period between 1957 and 2005, which can help the advance of NSD research in the financial services sector. It also adds to the growing literature on the financial service innovation process.
The importance of brand cues in intangible service industries: an application to investment services
Authors: Brady Michael K. , Bourdeau Brian L. , Heskel Julia
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The puprose of this study is to empirically test the suggestion that branding is more important for services than for physical goods and that there is a direct relationship between the level of intangibility and the importance of branding.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory study is employed using a scenario‐based repeated measures ANOVA design, wherein the degree of product intangibility is varied from high (mutual funds) to medium (hotels) to low (computers) through a survey distributed to 101 respondents.

Findings

The results support the position that intrinsic brand cues are more important for highly intangible service purchases (mutual funds) than for purchases that are more tangible (hotels and computers). The results also reveal that extrinsic brand cues are less important in purchase decisions of highly intangible services.

Research limitations/implications

This study answers a call for additional empirical research into the dynamics of services branding and its effects on consumer decision making.

Practical implications

This study provides managers with information about how to prioritize brand‐building activities.

Originality/value

This study fills an important gap in the services marketing literature by offering a rare empirical study on services branding. Furthermore, this study makes an important extension to the research of Krishnan and Hartline in their article, “Brand equity: is it more important in services?”by testing the effects of specific brand cues on consumer's purchase decisions. The findings are more in line with prior conceptual research on the importance of services branding than the results presented by Krishnan and Hartline.
Satisfaction emotions and consumer behavioral intentions
Authors: White Christopher , Yu Yi‐Ting
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop and refine the theoretical framework underpinning consumer satisfaction emotions and re‐examine the emotions/behavioral intentions link.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. An extensive and critical review of literature related to consumer satisfaction emotions and consumer behavioral intentions led to the identification of two research questions. A self‐completion questionnaire was developed and administered to hospitality management graduates in Switzerland.

Findings

The PCA suggested that satisfaction emotions were best conceptualized as a three‐dimensional construct that included positive, negative and what the present authors have labeled “bi‐directional” emotions. Moreover, a positive statistically significant relationship between “bi‐directional” emotions and consumer complaining behavior was established through correlation analysis.

Research limitations/implications

The respondents were studying at a private institution in Switzerland, and as such, the socio‐economic background of the respondents may not be representative of education consumers generally, and of consumers of services in industries other than education.

Practical implications

The findings reported in this paper indicate that the emotions framework that was developed could provide a valuable resource for managers as segmentation tool, and as an instrument for measuring and monitoring consumer behavioral intentions.

Originality/value

This paper has identified a relationship between specific satisfaction emotions and consumer complaining behavior. As a consequence, a more comprehensive satisfaction emotions scale has been developed that captures a broader range of consumer behavioral intentions. This information should benefit practitioners and researchers alike.
Measuring service quality in b2b services: an evaluation of the SERVQUAL scalevis‐à‐visthe INDSERV scale
Authors: Gounaris Spiros
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to validate an empirically derived measure for assessing perceived service quality in the business‐to‐business (b2b) context. In doing so, the SERVQUAL scale is evaluated against the alternative measure.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was mailed to 1,285 companies from different industries. Respondents were identified by approaching companies from four service industries, namely consultants offering middle and senior management training and recruitment services, banks offering corporate banking, software development and maintenance houses and freight shipping providers in Athens, Greece.

Findings

SERVQUAL appears to suffer from significant methodological problems when applied to b2b services. This comes hardly as a surprise since the instrument has been developed using consumer markets as a frame of reference.

Practical implications

For practitioners, the major implication is that the developed instrument allows them to make the most out of their efforts to monitor the perceived quality of their services since it is more relevant to the b2b context and it has greater predictive power than SERVQUAL.

Originality/value

The findings of this study may stimulate future research towards various directions. For instance, INDSERV must be examined in other national contexts before being widely adopted, can be used for assessing the impact of increased levels of perceived service quality on various performance indicators or it can be directed towards tackling some of the limitations of this study such as testing the instrument in different types of services, along the lines that various classification schemes have identified.
A multiple‐item scale for measuring customer loyalty development
Authors: McMullan Rosalind
Published: January 2007

Purpose

This paper seeks to explore the complex inter‐relationships between the attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of customer loyalty development, by examining the dynamic processes by which customer loyalty is initiated and sustained using a mixed methods approach. In doing so, the paper highlights the absence of valid and reliable measures of customer loyalty development and discusses the use of the multi‐phase model of customer loyalty development.

Design/methodology/approach

This model is the basis for the construction of a multi‐item scale to measure customer loyalty development. A mixed methods design is specified and stages in the construction of the scale are discussed including measures of validity and reliability.

Findings

The findings of the research demonstrate the validity and reliability of the loyalty scale and highlight the sustaining and mediating effects associated with different levels of loyalty development.

Research limitations/implications

The study is set within the passenger ferry sector. Future research will seek to make empirical generalisations in relation to the application of the loyalty scale.

Practical implications

The main implications of this research are to emphasise the importance of sustaining and developing customer loyalty based on a differentiated approach to rewarding customers who have different levels of loyalty development. The findings highlighted the need to acknowledge the importance of reciprocity in terms of which aspects of service customers value within different levels of loyalty.

Originality/value

The main contributions of this paper are the presentation of the loyalty scale and the confirmation of the plateau of customer loyalty development.
Building a customer base in the electronic marketplace: an empirical exploration of the e‐tailing industry
Authors: Jiang Pingjun , Talaga James
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Building a customer base as an outcome of customer satisfaction has not been investigated empirically in e‐tailing industry. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Explores the relationship between satisfying customers and building a customer base using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Data from the e‐retailing industry related to the input variables (e.g. customers' ratings on a set of e‐store attributes) and output variables (e.g. a proxy measure of “customer base”) are analyzed.

Findings

Performance scores for developing a customer base vary across product categories. Performance score is a good parameter for predicting future change on a unique number of visitors and on the competition pattern for a particular e‐tailer.

Research limitations/implications

Further study can examine other drivers of a developing customer base (e.g. advertising, trust building, and strategic alliance) – thereby producing more robust evidence for customer base development in e‐tailing industry.

Practical implications

Good practices in the generation of customers and page view have been identified. Knowing the efficiency patterns of an e‐tailer makes it possible to guide managerial action by providing a measure of the extent to which different management actions at the e‐tailer can lead to higher future customer growth. Managers should realize that customers match realizations and expectations of product/service performance.

Originality/value

This study has identified satisfaction as the important driver of developing a customer base. It focuses on improving diagnosis of the performance of e‐tailers by assessing reach efficiency and page view efficiency separately.
Harris County Public Library: creating a design paradigm for twenty‐first century libraries
Authors: Park Catherine S.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

To highlight the new service model used by Harris County Public Library and point out what has been successful.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a libraries new service model, key points are brought out to identify what has been changed, and why these changes are important.

Findings

By changing its service model and design approach, Harris County Public Library has been able to maintain staffing levels and use space more efficiently as library use has increased.

Originality/value

Uses examples that can benefit other libraries on using space and staffing efficiently.
Passport services: a business plan for Alameda County Library
Authors: Telford‐Ishida Barbara
Published: January 2007

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a business plan for libraries to offer profitable passport services to patrons.

Design/methodology/approach

Gives an overview of demographic, financial, and management profiles of California libraries that offer passport services. Presents a plan for introducing passport service in two California libraries.

Findings

Current political and demographic environments for the two libraries make the introduction of passport services a potentially lucrative opportunity.

Research limitations/implications

Little to no correlation was found between patron demographics of libraries currently offering passport services and the amount of revenue the services produce.

Practical implications

Passport services may provide libraries a simple but effective way to supplement their budgets.

Originality/value

Suggests an innovative way for libraries to increase relevance to patrons through services as well as create a stable funding source.
Sustaining the work of “Learning in libraries”
Authors: Degyansky Kathy
Published: January 2007

Purpose

A model collaborative approach among three distinct library systems with common goals and missions but unique delivery systems. The primary goal was to improve the out of school environment in libraries and develop best practices in supporting youth during these hours. This paper deals with these issues

Design/methodology/approach

With support from the Urban Libraries Council, the project maintained an outcome‐based approach with measurable goals, indicators, and outcomes.

Findings

Substantive progress was made in producing tangible products. Sustaining the work becomes the main focus as the funding runs out.

Originality/value

Suggests options for collaborative project management among several large library systems.
Chomps and yomps; chads and spads; which dictionary?
Authors: Duckett Bob
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Aims to investigates the difficult area of which dictionary to choose for a set purpose.Design/methodology/approach –This is a viewpoint paper drawn from the author's own experience.Findings – It is important to know one's dictionaries. Clarity of purpose in selection, clarity of arrangement on the shelves, and clarity of intent in the volumes are all factors that influence one's choice of dictionary.Originality/value – Given the above, correct choice of dictionary and clarity of thought on the part of the user could lead to a more clear‐sighted and creative society.Paper type – Viewpoint
Researching the trade in knowledge between the West and developing countries
Authors: Shaw K.E.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to research the trade in knowledge as a commodity between advanced nations and less developed ones.

Design/methodology/approach

Investigates knowledge transfer between nations and examines cultural factors and their effect on this exchange.

Findings

Finds that successful adoption of traded material calls for careful evaluation, investment in research, monitoring and the scrutiny of experience. Some movement is likely to be needed in deeper underlying assumptions about learning and teaching in the receiving countries. Beyond this, there will be a need for modifications in the system and institutions of education especially at higher levels. The indigenisation of overseas material thus requires some awareness of economic, political, social and cultural conditions, locally as well as in the providing countries. There is thus ample scope for higher degree research, which need not be highly expensive. It would, however, require thorough theoretical awareness and methodological sophistication.

Originality/value

Provides useful insight into the problems of trade in knowledge between developed and developing nations.
Assessing achievement of primary grader students and factors affecting achievement in Pakistan
Authors: Saeed Muhammad , Bashir Gondal Muhammad , Bushra
Published: January 2007

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on achievement level of primary grade students in different subjects taught at primary level and the factors affecting the student achievement in this regard.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was carried out on a sample of 1,080 students of grade 3 and 5 drawn from randomly selected 36 primary/ elementary schools from nine districts of the Punjab province. The instruments were: the achievement tests in three subjects mathematics, Urdu (national language) and life skills (Islamyat, social studies and science); and questionnaires for teachers and students to know various possible factors affecting achievement.

Findings

Results show that the achievement was the lowest in the subject of Urdu (mean 15.2) and the highest in life skills (mean 29.9) in grade 3. While in grade 5, it was the lowest in mathematics (mean 10.8) and the highest in life skills (31.63). Overall the performance of the female students was relatively better than their male partners. Location‐wise, the rural students performed better than the urban students. District‐wise, the performance of students of Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts was relatively better than the students of district Kasur and Bahawalpur. Among the factors affecting students achievement were parental education, their occupation and guidance, teacher guidance, social status, transport facility, self study, book reading and home work – all have a positive or negative correlation with students’ achievement.

Originality/value

This paper is of use to those wishing to understand the achievement levels of students at primary grade in developing countries.
The educational system for training coaches in Greece
Authors: Laios Athanasios
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Coaches leave an indelible mark on all their athletes by striving to exemplify the highest moral character, behaviour and leadership. Coaching is said to be as much an art as a science, and demands creativity and individual interpretation of people and situations. The aim of this study was to present the educational system for training coaches in Greece.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a review of the literature and Greek sports legislation.

Findings

It was found that the occupation of coaching can be practised in Greece by: graduates of the five departments of Physical Education and Sports Science; holders of a certificate or diploma from coaching schools in foreign countries accredited by the Greek Centre of Sport Research and Technology; and holders of a certificate or diploma from special schools set up by the General Secretariat for Sport. The results showed significant differences regarding the institution which issue coaching diplomas, duration of coach training periods and source of the official and legal licence given.

Originality/value

The study provides useful information on the Greek system of training and educating coaches, the duration of their studies, the category, and the teaching staff.
Incrementalism and strategic change: a university's experience
Authors: Arnaboldi Michela , Azzone Giovanni
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The processual interpretation of strategic change has been often applied to private companies searching for a logic behind their apparent chaotic transformation. The purpose of this paper is to report on an experience in a public organisation, an Italian university, where this perspective is exceptionally reflected, entailing a refining process towards a new strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The longitudinal case study was carried out analyzing different subunits within this institution, investigating the way in which top managers have tried to re‐position the organisation, taking advantage of the increased autonomy given by a series of reforms of the academic system.

Findings

The results show an incremental process towards autonomy and accountability, through which top managers have transformed the organisational structure, identified responsibilities, and introduced a new set of managerial techniques.

Originality/value

This study shows how the combination of three elements – logic, incrementalism and accounting – has guided the institution in the trajectory of its transformation.
Interrogating the crisis in higher education marketing: the CORD model
Authors: Maringe Felix
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Higher education (HE) marketing the world over is in a state of crisis that manifests itself on three fronts. First, there continues to be sizeable resistance towards the marketing idea in the academy of many universities across the world. Second, HE itself has failed to identify its core business without which the sector can not have a firm marketing foundation. Third, HE marketing has not adequately domesticated itself and continues to rely on imported wisdom from the business sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore these problems using evidence from international research and propose a curriculum focused marketing model which should help refocus HE marketing, domesticate it appropriately and reduce the internal resistance with which it is frequently associated.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper begins by examining the imperatives for marketisation in HE. It then reviews the extent of the three obstacles using evidence from research in different parts of the world. It concludes by offering a curriculum focused marketing model (CORD) which could serve the basis for future HE marketisation.

Findings

Based on wide ranging data from the developed and less developed countries, obtained through national and regional surveys and a review of secondary findings, the paper suggests that a way out of this crisis is for universities to identify their core business as the development of their curricula and to base their marketing on a proposed curriculum centred marketing model.

Originality/value

The CORD model represents an attempt at addressing the crisis that HE marketing faces today.
E‐Learning and the development of “voice” in business studies education
Authors: Hart Mike , Rush David
Published: January 2007

Purpose

This paper seeks to engage in an examination of “Quality in Business Education” (the QUBE project) with a specific brief to examine student involvement in the quality process.

Design/methodology/approach

The work was carried out in conjunction with five partner institutions. The semantic distinctions between the terms “customer” and “consumer” subject to a detailed discussion. The paper examines the role of e‐learning in facilitating and encouraging student engagement in course delivery and evaluation.

Findings

One of the classic formulations in which consumers may react to the provision of services is provided by Hirschman's formulation of responses to the provision of services. Put simply, consumers may “vote with their feet” by choosing an alternative supplier of services that fits their need (exit). Another response is to articulate concerns vociferously in order to obtain redress or amelioration (voice). These traditional marketing concepts are then applied to the case of higher education.

Originality/value

The paper suggests an explanation why the student voice does not achieve more prominence, given the possibilities offered by recent advances in ICT, and details some of the experiences of course delivery and evaluation in their own institution.
Local government consultant performance measures: an empirical study
Authors: Deakins Eric , Dillon Stuart
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to report on development and use of a survey instrument that captures qualitative, process‐related data from local authority officers in New Zealand, from which is derived a rigorous and parsimonious set of critical performance measures.

Design/methodology/approach

An instrument was developed utilising performance exemplars promoted by industry‐respected consulting experts. New Zealand local authorities were surveyed and exploratory factor analysis used to identify what the factors represent conceptually. Profile Similarity Indices (PSIs) describe the alignment between expected and actual consultant performances.

Findings

A rigorous set of five critical process‐related dimensions of performance and their associated (18) scales were derived, which demonstrate the desired properties of reliability and validity. Interpretation of the Profile Similarity Indices values is provided.

Research limitations/implications

Subjective data on excellent consulting practice sourced from industry‐respected consultants was used rather than justifying reasons for their choice from a theoretical basis. Generalisability of results to other business and industry sectors remains to be tested.

Practical implications

The derived performance measures may be used by practitioners to objectively assess management consultant performance and local authority performance (in specifying the contract). Where performance discrepancies exist, reasons and remedial actions may be determined via consideration of the individual scale items.

Originality/value

There continues to be a lack of research into the practices employed by local authorities when they retain and manage their management consultants; such purchasers often experience difficulty judging what is being offered and what kinds and levels of performance are relevant and achievable. Underperformance may be due to a lack of objective and well‐developed consulting performance standards. The present study examines these gaps.
Risk financing in UK local authorities: is there a case for risk pooling?
Authors: Hood John , Young Peter
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Since the early 1990s there has been a growth in local authorities of risk management. However, despite a range of different strategies, initiatives and practices the issue of financing the risks to which authorities are exposed has remained problematic. The traditional dependence on the commercial insurance market has proved to be a flawed strategy. This paper aims to analyse an alternative risk financing strategy which has been successful in local authorities in other countries, that of risk pooling.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses the rationale behind risk pools, investigates the legislative environment that appears to make these acceptable to central government and evaluates the likely benefits to local authorities of their adoption.

Findings

The paper finds that the perceived main legislative barrier to risk pools may no longer exist. Given that, there is a strategic, financial and operational case to be made for at least exploring the possibility of risk pooling. The experience from the USA would suggest that pools can have an important role to play in risk financing, and evidence now exists that a number of UK local authorities are actively pursuing pool formation.

Practical implications

The development of risk pools is likely to result in a significant reduction in the use of conventional insurance by local authorities. The evidence would suggest that this will be beneficial, but this is subject to the proviso that actuarial, financial and managerial practice within pools is rigorous.

Originality/value

This is an under‐researched area, with almost no extant UK‐relevant academic, or indeed practitioner, literature. The paper adds to the understanding of public sector risk management and financing for both academic and practitioner audiences.
Leadership and followership in public libraries: transnational perspectives
Authors: Mullins John , Linehan Margaret
Published: January 2007

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the topic of leadership as perceived and described by public library leaders. In particular, the paper seeks to investigate the reported impact of public library leaders on their followers. The study aims to develop an understanding of the perceptions of current leaders in the field of public librarianship.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 30 top‐level public librarians from Ireland, the UK, and the east coast of the USA were selected for inclusion in this study. A review of the relevant literature was used to design an interview guide which was used to conduct structured in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews.

Findings

The findings illustrate that the leaders believe that followers are motivated by example from their leaders. The interviewed librarians highlight the role played by followers, whom they see as the foundation of public library service. The librarians argue that a partnership approach between leaders and followers is necessary to formulate and to put into effect strategies and courses of action to fulfil organizational purpose and goals.

Originality/value

The current study is the most in‐depth study to date on this topic, drawing on face‐to‐face interviews with 30 public library leaders. Prior to this study, no in‐depth study on the topic of leadership in librarianship has been researched and published outside of North America. As this study was undertaken in three national jurisdictions – Ireland, UK, and the USA, it is also the first transnational study on the topic.
Common law – common mistakes?
Authors: De Maria William
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The paper aims to respond conceptually, rather then empirically, to policy ignorance. It seeks to examine certain aspects of whistleblower protection offered in the common law countries of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a four‐country comparison of whistleblower protection laws against 13 characteristics gleaned from the international literature on whistleblower legislation. This analysis is informed by considerations of the common law and corruption and critical state theory.

Findings

The conclusion reached is that the whistleblower laws established in the common law countries of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK variously contain serious structural deficiencies, particularly with respect to the scope of protection and the construction of corruption. The concern is that whistleblowers seeking protection under these inadequate programs will be hurt and there will be negligible impact on the profile of corruption.

Research limitations/implications

The major weakness in the analysis was the subjective and arbitrary way the disclosure management characteristics were selected to assess the disclosure laws of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. Future research should seek more objective indictors of performance as well as a consideration of exterior indicators such as the impact of disclosure policies on corruption.

Practical implications

If the findings here are validated in subsequent research, then governments should urgently review their current whistleblower policies in order to improve disclosure protection.

Originality/value

A conceptual framework informed by considerations of corruption, the common law and critical state theory was used to put whistleblower protection in a wider context where state interest competed with the needs of whistleblowers.
Determinants of pay satisfaction of senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service
Authors: Ejye Omar Ogenyi , Odu Ogenyi Victoria
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate senior managers' satisfaction with pay in the Nigerian Civil Service.

Design/methodology/approach

A field study was undertaken to test the hypotheses. The sample was drawn from senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service. A quantitative methodological approach was used based on questionnaire designed to measure the variables that literature review has identified as having relationship with pay satisfaction.

Findings

The finding of this research paper shows that pay incentive scheme is a distinctive dimension of pay satisfaction among senior managers in the Nigerian Civil Service; and the perception of pay‐for‐performance determines the level of satisfaction with pay.

Research limitations/implications

The sample size is very small relative to the total federal civil service population. Only senior managers were selected for questioning and may not reflect the general opinion in the Nigerian Civil Service. The sample is limited to the Federal Civil Service and excludes state and local government services in a federally governed country.

Practical implications

The study has important implications for organisations and human resource practitioners in Nigeria to design their compensation and benefit programmes.

Originality/value

This research is one of the few studies that explore pay incentive schemes as a distinct dimension of pay satisfaction relevant to the Nigerian work environment. It adds value to the study of organisational justice by demonstrating that procedural justice, interactional justice, and distributive justice, influence pay satisfaction.
The art of compromise? The individual and organisational legitimacy of “irregular auditing”
Authors: Herrbach Olivier
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Irregular auditing practices, such as false sign‐off, are evidence that proper implementation of work programmes by audit fieldworkers is not always achieved. That such behaviours have been widely attested in the literature raises important questions about the impact they have on the audit engagement. In order to get further insight into the phenomenon, seeks to adopt a qualitative approach, deemed appropriate to complement the mostly quantitative studies available in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on 15 semi‐directive interviews performed with current and former French audit seniors. The interviews were meant to highlight the role of irregular auditing in view of the individual and organisational strive for legitimacy that characterises the audit profession.

Findings

The research showed that, far from being systematically dysfunctional, irregular auditing plays an important role in audit firms, and that it can only be understood in view of the nested personal (individual auditor), organisational (audit firm) and institutional (auditing as a profession) constraints of the audit environment.

Research limitations/implications

Owing to the limited number of interviews and their situated context, the study has an exploratory nature. Its findings are used to provide recommendations for future research into various aspects of auditor performance.

Originality/value

The study of irregular auditing has major consequences for understanding of the professional status of audit fieldworkers. It also provides insights into the recent evolution of auditing methods and of the profession's ideology.
Budgetary reforms
Authors: Edwards Pamela , Ezzamel Mahmoud , Robson Keith
Published: January 2007

Purpose

Seeks to explain the survival of the Local Education Authority (LEA) as an organizational form despite the significant reform of UK education that created a hostile environment for them.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting a historical perspective and drawing on neo‐institutional sociology, analyses the structuration of the educational field and the survival strategies of three LEAs, from 1988 to the mid‐1990s. The evidence base is some 100 semi‐structured interviews conducted between 1993 and 1997 with local education officers, head teachers and members of Boards of Governors.

Findings

The paper shows that LEAs have been able to continually transmute structures and reproduce social systems that secured their continued and major involvement in education. Coping strategies were designed that reduced their own bureaucracy, built partnerships and new patterns of coalitions with schools, and discouraged a broadening of the organizational field.

Research limitations/implications

Although the evidence comes from just three LEAs, survival strategies appear to have been adopted across the country, but there may be regional variations that could be further explored. In addition, parents were not interviewed, and issues of parent power and the nature of relationships between parents and other participants in the organizational field would be fruitful areas for future research.

Practical implications

In practice the system of education remains dominated by the producers of education, although the head teacher has more and the LEA less power than previously.

Originality/value

The historical perspective offers an understanding of institutional context by focusing on changes over time and generates insights on how organizations behave and develop.
No barter
Authors: Stuart Ray
Published: January 2007

Purpose

To reflect on the process of trade between cultures.

Design/methodology/approach

Fictional poem.

Findings

The poem considers the trading positions of two cultures and the needs of both sides. It suggests a separation of commodities, regular items under contract being treated differently from those produced as unique and more highly valued artefacts.

Originality/value

Promotes reflection on the respective values of the two sides in the negotiation; of their needs and wants, and their economic backgrounds. Provides a unique account of negotiation and settling on price where different cultures meet.
Good hours, bad hours and auditors' defence mechanisms in audit firms
Authors: Sweeney Breda , Pierce Bernard
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The aim of the research is to investigate, using a field survey, the concept of underreporting of time (URT), from both an individual and organisational perspective as a defence mechanism for coping with time budget pressure.

Design/methodology/approach

Big Four audit partners and seniors are interviewed regarding the factors that motivate staff auditors to engage in manipulation of time records and the consequences of the behaviour for individual auditors and audit firms.

Findings

Findings indicate that time record manipulation is not a single type of activity as suggested previously, but includes a variety of behaviours, six of which are identified in the study. Each of these constitutes a very different type of defence mechanism, motivated by different influences and resulting in different outcomes for the individual and the organisation. The firms engage in a defence mechanism characterised by a series of mixed messages to avoid dealing with inherent cost/quality conflicts and elements of this mechanism become embedded in routine activities at different levels in the firms.

Research limitations/implications

The implications for audit firms vary with the type of time record manipulation and future research therefore needs to concentrate on a closer examination of the various practices that make up URT as identified in this study.

Originality/value

The insights provided by the research are used to explain apparently conflicting arguments in the literature and to set out implications for research and practice.
Going where no accounting historian has gone before
Authors: Lee T.A.
Published: January 2007

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce counterfactual analysis and reasoning to the study of accounting history. The counterfactual focus is the institutionalisation of public accountancy in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a counterfactual research design using Ferguson and Bunzl and asks a “what if” question of an event of importance to accounting historians in order to create a plausible counterfactual outcome that is grounded in rationality and causal analysis. The specific counterfactual question relates to the royal charter granted to public accountants practicing in Edinburgh in 1854. The counterfactual outcome is compared to the actual timeline of public accountancy institutionalisation in the UK.

Findings

The “alternative” history reveals uncertainties that confronted public accountants in the past and provides a basis for suggesting that the current fractured and inefficient state of institutionalised public accountancy in the UK has its origins at least partially in the 1854 royal charter. It also suggests that attempts to register and unify public accountants in the UK have been hindered by nineteenth century royal charters.

Research limitations/implications

The study argues that counterfactual analysis is a useful historical tool with which to understand the consequences of historical decisions made in the professional project of British public accountancy. In addition, the study reveals the potential for counterfactual analysis to illumine the consequences of decisions in other areas of accounting and auditing history.

Originality/value

This study is the first counterfactual analysis in the accounting history literature and therefore provides a template for further studies and improved research design.