bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Role of NGOs in the implementation of active labour market policies
Authors: Babila Sama Thomas 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis is a mixed method comparative case study. The aim of this paper is to find the role played by non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in the implementation of the active labour market policies (ALMPs) of Finland and Sweden, and also the relationship that the NGOs have with the government of the two countries.Design/methodology/approachTwo NGOs were selected in Finland and one NGO was selected in Sweden for the data collection. The two selected NGOs in Finland were Jyväskylän Katulähetys in the City of Jyväskylä and Pirkanmaan Sininauha in the City of Tampere. Meanwhile, the one selected NGO in Sweden was Stockholms Stadsmission in the City of Stockholm. Primary data were collected through questionnaires and interviews, while secondary data were collected from literature reviews, books and internet websites. A total of 130 employees responded to the questionnaires from the two selected NGOs in Finland, while 140 employees responded from the one selected NGO in Sweden. The questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS.FindingsThe findings revealed that first, the selected NGOs play active role in the implementation of the ALMPs of Finland and Sweden by employing long‐term unemployed people in the labour market. Second, the findings revealed that the selected NGOs play active role in the implementation of the ALMPs of Finland and Sweden by providing social services, mobilizing local resources and undertaking other types of activities which have created jobs for the unemployed. Last, the findings revealed that the selected NGOs play active role in the implementation of the ALMPs of Finland and Sweden by providing voluntary work to volunteers – some of who acquire skills that can help them to find a job in the open labour market.Originality/valueThe relationship between the NGOs and the Governments of Finland and Sweden was found to be one of partnership cooperation through the local Employment Offices and the City Councils. However, Finland was found to have a more bureaucratic system than Sweden in the implementation of their ALMPs with regard to NGOs. The main similarity between the two countries was that the implementation of ALMPs with regard to NGOs, takes place at the local level through the local Employment Offices and the City Councils. This study concluded that although Finland and Sweden are two “Nordic countries”, the two countries slightly differ in the implementation of their ALMPs with regard to NGOs.
Which factors drive product sales in OTC markets?
Authors: Huber Monika , Dippold Katrin , Forsthofer Rudolf 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine sales drivers for different OTC product categories.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses data from both consumer and retail panels, which are gathered for various product categories. These long‐term data are analyzed per product category with two specific regression models, mainly time‐series analysis with VAR models and Shapley value regression.FindingsIt is found that purchase intention drives sales a lot in general. Besides, it is very important to distinguish seasonal vs non‐seasonal markets. The trend coefficient, which implies the stage of maturity of the market, indicates more or less saturated markets for the examples. The proposed models can be easily applied to different OTC categories without a lot of customization.Research limitations/implicationsThe study does not take into account different outlets (e.g. online, supermarkets) and does not estimate interaction effects between the single drivers.Practical implicationsThe paper provides the market researcher with a guideline on how to proceed to model OTC product categories, e.g. which data are to be used, which models are to be estimated, which conclusions can be drawn.Originality/valueThe study develops an analysis approach which is readily applicable to different OTC product categories, which exhibit very distinct market characteristics. The advantage of this approach is that it applies a standardized tool kit of methods to analyze highly varying markets.
Research on management issues in the pharmaceutical industry: a literature review
Authors: Narayana Sushmita A. , Pati Rupesh Kumar , Vrat Prem 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper aims to present a review of literature to assess the progress of research on managerial issues in the pharmaceutical industry globally.Design/methodology/approachLiterature from peer‐reviewed journals available on online databases was collected for the last decade, using the keyword search technique, and then classifying it according to major managerial issues, research methodologies used and geographical zones.FindingsBehavioral issues at the consumer/physician level and non‐behavioral issues in pricing and medical expenses are studied the most, followed by supply chain management, research and development and manufacturing and services operations management. There is scope for conjunction of research efforts across themes and players. The studies focus on the developed nations through the application of field research and mathematical modeling techniques. The studies in the American region focus more on development and marketing while studies in Europe are aligned towards manufacturing and distribution in the industry. Studies in the developing nations are mostly exploratory in nature and require more focus on issues of research and development and marketing in addition to a substantial increase in overall research efforts. More trans‐continental studies are needed to consolidate research efforts globally.Research limitations/implicationsThe review is not exhaustive of all studies available on the industry and each of the issues. Conference papers, unpublished material and lectures were excluded.Practical implicationsIdentification of the present and emerging issues together provides practitioners in healthcare systems with an idea of available techniques and strategies to solve problems in healthcare/pharmaceutical management.Originality/valueA study on research of management issues in the pharmaceutical industry across the world has perhaps not been conducted in the recent past: this paper fills part of that gap.
Leadership, team and decision speed: empirical study using cross‐provincial data
Authors: Gu Jiajun , Weng Qingxiong , Xie Fenghua 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership style, top management teams' (TMTs') behavioral integration, and strategic decision‐making speed. It reveals how leadership impacts on team progress and strategic decision‐making speed.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was collected from more than ten provinces/cities in China. Factor analysis and structural equation model (SEM) were used to conduct the data.FindingsThe empirical study found that leadership style has a direct positive impact on the speed of strategic decision making, and an indirect positive impact on the speed of strategic decision making through the team behavior integration. The results of SEM show both leadership style and team behavior integration have a significant impact on strategic decision‐making speed. It demonstrates that transformational leadership and transactional leadership have both direct and indirect impact on the speed of strategic decisions. Moreover, transformational leadership has a greater impact than transactional leadership on team behavior integration and strategic decision‐making speed.Originality/valueThe study enriches the empirical test on the relationship between leadership, team and decision speed, therefore helping us further understand how to improve the speed of strategic decision‐making.
The Social Enterprise Mark: a critical review of its conceptual dimensions
Authors: Ridley‐Duff Rory , Southcombe Cliff 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe Social Enterprise Mark (SEM) is claimed to be the first award that guarantees to the public that an organisation is a social enterprise. To date, there has been limited discussion of its conceptual dimensions and legitimacy. This paper seeks to make a contribution to knowledge by critically discussing its conceptual dimensions and exploring its impact.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study uses feedback from participants on open access co‐operative and social enterprise workshops. They were asked to study published SEM criteria then rank ideal types of social enterprise activity (a worker co‐operative, a trading charity and a self‐employed consultant) in order of likelihood of obtaining the SEM.FindingsWorkshop participants from different backgrounds drew the conclusion that SEM criteria favour trading charities and community interest companies with social and environmental objects, not enterprises that deliver social benefits through transforming labour relations and wealth sharing. Participants reacted to their own deliberations differently depending on their sectoral affiliation.Practical implicationsAttempts by the academic community to define the social enterprise sector have run into linguistic and practical problems. Definitions tend to privilege one group of social enterprises over another. The arrival of the SEM in the UK takes place amidst these conceptual and practical difficulties.Social implicationsThe SEM criteria contribute to social constructions of social enterprise that favour “social purpose” enterprises that explicitly target a beneficiary group or community, and not “socialised” enterprises that transform labour relations, promote participative democracy, and design new wealth sharing arrangements.Originality/valueThe paper suggests there has been a shift away from the co‐operative values advanced by the founders of the UK social enterprise movement. To secure legitimacy, the paper proposes changes to the SEM to re‐establish the conceptual alignment of social enterprise and the social economy.
Viability of social enterprises: the spillover effect
Authors: Ko Stephen 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis paper seeks to address the questions of how and why the negative consequences emanating from a stricken social enterprise spread to other social enterprises, threatening viability of social enterprises as a whole.Design/methodology/approachBased on social categorization theory, a conceptual model is developed to understand how and why the perception of stakeholders on one single, stricken social enterprise can spread to other social enterprises, and ultimately affecting viability of social enterprises.FindingsA conceptual model outlines how a violation of the legitimacy of a single social enterprise results in bad perception of this stricken enterprise, and which in turn evokes negative responses from stakeholders. Then stakeholders are likely to further conclude that other social enterprises may have similar problems. As a result, they spread their negative responses to other social enterprises as the initially stricken enterprise. These negative consequences can seriously damage a social enterprise and threaten viability of other social enterprises as well.Practical implicationsTo regain legitimacy, social entrepreneurs of a focal social enterprise need to upgrade their skills, rationalize operations and enhance governance structure. Given the harmful spillover effect(s) that may inflict other social enterprises, social entrepreneurs of these social enterprises need to differentiate themselves from the focal social enterprise. Social investors need to take the spillover effects into consideration when making investment decisions.Originality/valueThis paper seeks to contribute to social enterprise literature by highlighting the importance of cognitive processing of stakeholders that is subsumed under social categorization theory, while advancing the understanding of viability of social enterprises from a critical perspective.
Conversion of local winery awareness
Authors: Riscinto‐Kozub Kristen , Childs Nancy 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this research is to distinguish between the attitudinal and behavioral differences in consumers aware of local wineries; half of which visited the wineries (n=233) and half of which did not (n=212). Smaller wineries are dependent on wine sales at the “cellar door” meaning on‐site; therefore, the cellar door experience is a critical part of the wineries overall success. Researchers examined the non‐visitor population in an effort to identify ways in which wineries can improve their services and reputation to convert non‐visitors to visitors. A unique contribution was made in identifying barriers to converting non‐visitors to visitors as well as the non‐visitors' interest and willingness to buy local.Design/methodology/approachA first phase of qualitative research occurred to obtain early learning on consumer awareness, trial, repeat, barriers, and image of local wines and wineries. The second phase consisted of a quantitative survey with local wine users/visitors and aware non‐users/visitors, using a panel design and web execution.FindingsThe research factors differ in attitudes, leisure preferences and identification of barriers to determine marketing approaches that would increase winery visits. Factor analysis found strong cores for wine/winery reputation and winery experience. A key discovery to enhance the appeal of local wines was the need to emphasize and romance the hedonic aspect of wine and the winery setting as opposed to expanding knowledge of wines and winery operation. Factor analysis revealed added dimensions for non‐visitors involving travel planning, indoor recreational preference, and buying local.Originality/valueAn examination of local US winery marketing practices, and attitudes of consumers aware of the wineries, yield useful insights for crafting marketing strategies to increase first time and repeat visits to local wineries. This research adds to the limited study of the behavior of consumers aware of local wineries but not visiting the cellar door.
The construction of gender and creativity in advertising creative departments
Authors: Windels Kasey , Lee Wei‐Na 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine female creatives' perceptions as to why there are so few women working as creatives (art directors, copywriters, and creative directors) in advertising.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with 21 female creatives provided insights into reasons for underrepresentation. Inductive coding was used to allow themes and categories to emerge from the data. A social constructionist interpretation was used.FindingsSince both gender and creativity are socially constructed, doing gender in the masculine creative department impeded progress and job satisfaction for women. Because women were held accountable both to the norms of the masculine field and to the norms of femininity, their performance suffered as they tried to succeed in an inequitable system.Originality/valueThis paper examines how being a woman operating within a masculine paradigm might be especially difficult in creative fields. Because creativity is constructed based on mostly male gatekeepers using masculinity as a model, women are devalued and unable to influence the field of gatekeepers.
Law applicable to claims asserted in international investment disputes
Authors: Bělohlávek Alexander J. , Černý Filip 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThis article aims to deal with international investment disputes, with a focus on the nature of the law applicable to the merits of such disputes.Design/methodology/approachThe procedure for determining the law applicable in investment disputes, the phases of determination and the impact thereof on the applicable law were analyzed. The diagonality of the disputes and its impact on the law applicable to the merits from the perspective of the interaction between national and international law were also analyzed. Further, the authors focused on the nature of the host state's breach of obligations towards the investor anchored in the investment treaty, and the effect thereof on the law applicable to the merits. In this respect, the notion of the investment itself was analyzed according to the relevant BITs and MITs. Finally, the authors analyzed the applicability of the Ordre Public concept to investment disputes.FindingsThe study provided practical demonstrations and examples of choice of law and application issues as resolved by the tribunals established under the ICSID.Research limitations/implicationsThe article deals mainly with the ICSID proceedings. Another should be also analyzed.Originality/valueThe paper provides a new insight into issues of the law applicable to investment disputes by analyzing this problematic in relation to all stages of investment arbitration proceedings. Particularly it took an innovative approach in shedding light on and analyzing the applicability of the Ordre Public concept in relation to investment protection, especially in relation to Article 52 of the ICSID Convention, and the recognition and enforcement proceedings of arbitral awards issued in the course of investment arbitration.
Pay for luck: new evidences from the institutional determinants of CEOs' compensation
Authors: Jouber Habib , Fakhfakh Hamadi 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe optimal contracting view assumes that compensation arrangements should not reward performance upward that is beyond the management's control. Critics to this view assert, however that unearned compensation boom may be suggestive of pay for luck. Hence, the authors ask if CEOs' incentive pay is sensitive to lucky as to purely corporate performance. If such, one could question: Are CEOs rewarded for luck? Do institutional features matter for CEOs pay‐for‐luck? How does systematic incentive effect sensitive to luck's nature? Accepting the premises of both contacting and skimming agency's approaches, this paper aims to answer these questions.Design/methodology/approachGeneral and separate ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) estimations have been run to estimate the general sensitivity of CEOs' pay, respectively, to performance and luck. These estimations are based on a sample of 300 publicly traded firms covering four countries from the Anglo‐American and Euro‐Continental corporate governance models for the period 2004 to 2008.FindingsIn support of the paper's theorizing, it was found that CEOs pay to be positively related to outside contingencies as well as to shareholders' interests. Positive pay sensitivity to exogenous shocks, which we label systematic incentive effect, shows that management take advantage of lucky external events. Further analyses show, moreover, two stylized facts. First, this effect is asymmetric as executives are rewarded more for good luck than penalized for bad luck. Second, it is less generous under stronger corporate governance, higher investor rights protection, and stricter law enforcement rules. The latter institutional factors seem to be overwhelmingly influential variables in explaining the differences in such effect across countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to the CEO compensation research by: showing that a simple contracting view can mislead shareholders about the effective CEOs' skills and efforts; and filling the lack of consensus within the empirical literature as to whether pay for luck depends on institutional features such as the law enforcement level, the degree of investors' right protection, and the corporate governance system's quality.Originality/valueThe paper's findings offer insights to shareholders, pay consultants, and regulators about the effects that unobservable macroeconomic shocks can have towards the design and the efficiency of a CEO pay contract. The findings help, however, academics understanding the international pay gap's causes.
A survey of factors influencing cost structures in the Indian hotel sector
Authors: Vij Madhu 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide some empirical evidence of the current trends regarding cost structures in the hospitality industry and to help reveal the present practices on cost structures and management adopted by the Indian hospitality sector.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology employed was mainly survey based with the use of structured questions. Online surveys and interviews were carried out during 2012 with management accountants, chief accountants and finance directors of hotel companies.FindingsThe results of the study suggest that hotels are increasingly challenged to find ways to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. Most of the respondents believe that good management and cost accounting practices are associated with the financial success of hotels.Practical implicationsA study on cost structures will help to identify and focus on the innovative practices that the sector needs to adopt in order to manage costs in the coming years. The findings from this study suggest companies need to modernize their cost accounting systems by implementing activity based costing. Most of the managers surveyed were of the opinion that the traditional costing system does not accurately reflect customer profitability analysis.Originality/valueThe inspiration for this paper arises from the fact that there is little empirical work on cost structures and design in the hospitality industry. Intense competition is now affecting the industry and efforts need to be made to create a sustainable model for hotels that can be adapted to an evolving market scenario.
Toward a history of sport branding
Authors: Hardy Stephen , Norman Brian , Sceery Sarah 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review and explore topics that might constitute a history of branding in sport and might also contribute to understanding today's sport branding practices.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs both secondary and primary sources on a range of sports across centuries of time and space. The paper also employs Mayer's principles of multi‐media learning.FindingsThe paper finds that sport brands have a long history driven by entrepreneurs and organizations through rule‐making, equipment, distinct names, and employment of new technologies.Originality/valueThe paper identifies a series of topics that merit closer scrutiny by historians whose research might inform contemporary scholars and practitioners of sport marketing.
European research, social innovation and successful cooperativist actions
Authors: Flecha Ramón 
Published: November 2012

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to focus on one innovative way through which the European research is contributing to provide scientific evidence about actions that have been demonstrated to successfully reverse the closed cycle of inequality in which many citizens get caught.Design/methodology/approachThe Communicative Methodology (CM) was applied, combining quantitative and qualitative methods and including the voices of all social agents involved.FindingsThrough the successful actions approach, the INCLUD‐ED project has identified five Successful Cooperativist Actions (SCAs) which have been proven to work in the current economy. Aiming at studying the transferability of the SCAs, the project has analysed how these actions are developed in the case of the Mondragon Corporation and La Estrella and La Milagrosa neighbourhoods of Albacete, the poorest neighbourhoods in Spain.Practical implicationsThe CM promotes the inclusion of the social groups that are researched achieving results of high value for society. This article contributes with SCAs to economy and society, providing venues to overcoming social and economic exclusion.Originality/valueFocusing on the role of the economic sector in tackling the different levels of inequalities from a multidisciplinary perspective, this paper addresses the diverse needs of the general public, scientists, as well as politicians. The implementation of SCAs has been demonstrated to improve different contexts contributing to the inclusive and sustainable growth.