bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Relationships between environment, culture, and management control systems
Authors: Reginato Luciane , Guerreiro Reinaldo 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between external environment and organisational culture, and the subsequent relationship of organisational culture with the adoption of management control systems in large Brazilian companies.Design/methodology/approachThe research involves 109 of the “Best and Biggest” companies in Brazil, as designated by the Brazilian financial magazine Exame. Data are collected by a research questionnaire distributed electronically to senior managers of the sample companies. The data are analysed by multivariate structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results show that a significant relationship exists between the constructs of “external environment” and “organisational culture”, thus indicating that the environment exerts a significant influence on planning, execution, control elements, and managers' characteristics and skills. The results also show a significant relationship between the constructs of “organisational culture” and “management controls”, thus indicating that organisational culture has a strong influence on the choice of management control systems in practice in the companies.Originality/valueAlthough isolated studies have investigated various aspects of the external business environment, organisational culture, and management control systems, few studies have explored the relationships among them.
Private firms, public entities, and microeconomic incentives
Authors: Keating Barry , Keating Maryann 
Published: June 2013

PurposePublic private partnerships (PPPs) centralize decision making into a hybrid type of firm, consisting of a government entity with a private firm, that is either a profit‐seeking or non‐profit entity, that initiates, constructs, maintains, or provides a service. The PPP model recognizes that both the public and the private sectors have certain comparative advantages in the performance of specific tasks. PPPs, grounded in cost/benefit analysis, have been used in Australia for decades and are presently being introduced in the USA as a form of innovate contracting. This paper aims to evaluate PPPs as a potentially transferable model for the delivery of public services. PPP firms are evaluated in terms of capital asset management, productive and allocative efficiency, transfer of risk between the public and private sectors, rights to the residual, and the public interest. A case study comparison of Fremantle Ports (Australia) and the Indiana Toll Road (USA) is employed to demonstrate PPP design and function.Design/methodology/approachA description and evaluation of public private partnerships (PPP) is presented and two original and primary case studies are reviewed.FindingsA PPP functioning as a monopoly provider of a common pool public asset approximates economic efficiency when user fees cover virtually full cost. Identifying optimal output and quality assessment is more challenging in the case of social goods in which the public goal is subsidy minimization and clients cannot assess quality. Best practices are helpful; they guarantee the PPP process, but not the outcome. All PPPs, in whatever country or industry, are vulnerable to bureaucratic expansion whenever they are given access to subsidized loans underwritten by taxpayers.Originality/valueThe two case studies in this paper are 100 percent original; they were examined in person by the authors, and the managers of the two entities were interviewed in Indiana (USA) and Fremantle, Western Australia.
Going global – a trajectory of individual and organizational development
Authors: Osmundsen Tonje C. 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThis paper aims to show how the internationalization process of a multinational corporation (MNC) is shaped and formed by actors engaging in collaborative inquiry. Faced with a centralized strategy grounded in Scandinavian organizational solutions, leaders of foreign subsidiaries reinterpret their local institutional frameworks in creating new organizational practices. Their ability to create acceptance for these practices both locally and with the central management determines which practices prevail.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a qualitative comparative study of organizational units in Norway, Sweden, Mexico, the USA, South Korea and Poland. Over a four‐year period, 165 interviews were conducted with both employees and management.FindingsThrough a perspective on learning, it is possible to show how organizational members make use of their institutional environment as they mutually attempt to build shared ideologies for conducting their business. To view organizational change as a learning process allows for explaining how both actors and structures intertwined represent the dynamic for change. Cultural‐cognitive institutions are seen here as active living phenomena which are created and enacted by individuals in their historical and geographical contexts.Originality/valueMuch research on MNCs has focused on explaining the development of such organizations either as a result of experiential learning (i.e. the Uppsala model), systematic planning (economic rationality) or contextual factors (contingency perspectives). This study provides a closer and more detailed look at how these organizations develop through the action and interaction of people in one MNC.
Consumer preferences for sustainability and their impact on supply chain management
Authors: Bask Anu , Halme Merja , Kallio Markku , Kuula Markku 
Published: June 2013

PurposeConsumer values increasingly favor sustainable development in products and services, thereby fostering the need to develop new operational and managerial practices that support sustainability in supply chain management. The purpose of this study is to identify relevant product features related to sustainable development in this context, and use the choice of mobile phone as an example in measuring their importance.Design/methodology/approachThe study used two different methods (qualitative and quantitative) in two phases. First it organized focus‐group discussions in order to identify the features of sustainability that affect the choice of a mobile phone. The most significant features served as a starting point for the choice of attributes to be included in the final step, choice‐based conjoint analysis (CBC), which assesses respondents' value functions by means of latent class clustering. Between the two major phases it carried out two additional pre‐tests in order to reduce the number of attributes.FindingsThe results provide fundamental information concerning the relative importance of sustainability features in the selection of a mobile phone. The study identified four different clusters of purchasers: updaters, budgeters, environmentalists, and long‐life users. According to the findings, some consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainability features. The authors discuss the potential implications of the results in the context of supply chain design.Originality/valueThe literature on supply chain management tends to see the consumers as a “black box”. This paper reports the first results of opening this box by linking the supply chain perspective to consumer choice behavior.
Natural resource scarcity and the closed‐loop supply chain: a resource‐advantage view
Authors: Bell John E. , Mollenkopf Diane A. , Stolze Hannah J. 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThis research aims to provide a theoretical framework for exploring how firms can respond to the growing threat of natural resource scarcity. Specifically, the role of closed‐loop supply chain management is examined as a means for creating resource advantages that can lead to marketplace competitive advantages.Design/methodology/approachThe research extends previous theoretical research, integrating natural resource scarcity and closed‐loop supply chain management for the first time. Resource‐advantage theory is employed as the theoretical lens for the research model and propositions.FindingsThe findings deepen understanding of the forces that create natural resource scarcity conditions in the supply chain, and highlight the need for higher order closed‐loop capabilities that have the ability to mitigate natural resource scarcity.Research limitations/implicationsThe theoretical model and six research propositions suggest relationships between natural resource scarcity, closed‐loop capabilities, and firm level performance that need to be tested empirically. Future research opportunities and methodologies are suggested.Practical implicationsGrowing natural resource scarcity is already having a major impact on many firms and industries; therefore, this research has significant managerial implications due to supply risks and potential disruptions caused by insufficient natural resources in current and future supply chains.Originality/valueThis paper seeks to increase discussion about natural resource scarcity and bring it into focus as a relevant supply chain topic related to closed‐loop supply chain capabilities and the internal firm level resources needed to ensure performance in a changing world.
Green performance criteria for sustainable ports in Asia
Authors: Lirn Taih‐cherng , Jim Wu Yen‐Chun , Chen Yenming J. 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to measure a port's green performance. The literature is reviewed and a survey is carried out to identify major green port performance indicators and to evaluate three major ports' overall green performance in Asia. Indicators located in the critical quadrants with a high degree of importance and low degree of performance are identified and resources are suggested that can be employed to improve the ports' overall sustainability performance effectively.Design/methodology/approachPort performance indicators are reviewed to select the green‐related ones by a session of brain storming with academicians from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the shipping discipline. Selected indicators are used to design an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) questionnaire. The weight and degree of performance of each of the 17 green indicators among three major container ports are calculated by the data obtained from the AHP round survey respondents.FindingsAvoiding pollutants during cargo handling and port maintenance, noise control, and sewage treatment were perceived to be the three critical indicators by respondents in two of the three ports investigated. Among the three investigated ports, Shanghai port had the highest number of critical indicators to be improved. Air pollutants avoidance, encouraging the use of low‐sulphur fuel, and using electrically powered equipment were three of the five critical indicators found in Shanghai port, but not in the other two investigated ports in this study.Originality/valueThe theoretical implications of this research are the development of a conceptual framework to measure the degree of importance of a set of green port performance indicators, and to provide a decision support system to help port authorities to evaluate their performance regarding the 17 green port performance indicators compared with that of other ports.
Evaluation and implementation: two regeneration programmes
Authors: Hordern Jim 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss different approaches to evaluation taken in the case of two regeneration programmes in England and Wales and identify how assumptions about the nature of policy and programme implementation affect evaluation and considerations of its use in the public sector.Design/methodology/approachUsing an analysis of evaluation reports relating to two regeneration programmes, a distinction is drawn between two approaches to evaluation. This distinction is then articulated further with reference to differing perspectives in policy implementation studies. Related issues of policy and programme success and failure are discussed, in addition to the potential for policy learning.FindingsThere is a difference between the two approaches to evaluation employed in the two cases, which is likely to reflect contrasting beliefs about the nature and process of implementation. Implementation research indicates that while a process of evaluating progress against a set of specific objectives clearly has legitimacy in a public sector environment, it is likely to be inconclusive or even counterproductive. This is due to the inevitability of policy evolution, the multiple reformations of policy at the micro level, and the constraints engendered by norms of appropriacy in the wider policy environment.Originality/valueThis article suggests how ongoing debates in implementation studies can inform and illuminate decisions made about approaches to evaluation. The dynamic between conceptions of implementation and the purpose of evaluation is illustrated through a comparison of the use of evaluation in two regeneration programmes.
Improving employment and women's well‐being in regeneration programmes
Authors: Escott Karen , Buckner Lisa 
Published: June 2013

PurposeHow does women's labour market disconnection impact on health and well‐being? The paper seeks to explain how economic isolation can cause low self esteem for women. Neighbourhood analysis provides the opportunity to explore some of the operational contradictions in public policy and how they are experienced in regeneration areas.Design/methodology/approachLocal dynamics of employment and health are examined in neighbourhoods in two UK cities. The research draws on focus group data involving local women as well as interviews with representatives of statutory and voluntary organisations. Examination of relevant statistical data supports the evidence base on women's well‐being in these regeneration areas.FindingsBy analysing labour market characteristics and local women's experiences, depression and low esteem in relation to low incomes, barriers to employment and discrimination emerge as particularly important aspects of well‐being. The paper suggests that policy makers often fail to make the connections between women's marginalisation from the labour market and the causes of persistently high levels of poor health.Practical implicationsPolicy implications suggest that public agencies seeking to promote economic sustainability need to consider health issues along with other neighbourhood characteristics as part of a holistic approach to labour market activation.Originality/valueThe originality lies in engagement with several areas of public management practice aimed at addressing poverty and improving community well‐being. By exploring issues of economic inactivity, employability and ill health among women the findings help inform policies seeking to address problems of worklessness in local neighbourhoods.
Modernising pathology services: modelling effective IT project collaboration
Authors: Wainwright David W. , Shaw Christopher S. 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to adapt a causal modelling approach to investigate the organisational collaboration and information technology (IT) project management issues concerning the planning and adoption of inter‐organisational IT systems across NHS hospital pathology departments.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers adopted an interpretive research approach utilising qualitative methods and in particular template analysis. Themes and categories were initially derived from a review of the literature based on critical success factors from enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects.FindingsA causal loop modelling approach was adapted to define key linkages between success factors. This highlighted virtuous and vicious cycles associated with IT project management and team collaboration – influencing the adoption process of large‐scale integrated IT systems.Research limitations/implicationsSingle case studies can be problematic in terms of generalising from the research. The study had a limited number of interview participants due to the focus on strategic management. Future studies could extend the number of stakeholders involved and also focus on end‐users of services, such as clinicians in primary care.Practical implicationsThe discussion and conclusions assess the appropriateness and utility of using a causal modelling approach, and an adapted causal loop model, to inform more effective approaches to IT planning, project management, team collaboration and adoption of integrated systems.Social implicationsThe findings indicate that a more enhanced understanding of project team collaboration involving technical, administrative and clinical stakeholders has the potential to inform more effective strategies for modernisation of hospital clinical services such as pathology.Originality/valueThis study investigates the anatomy of a high‐profile IT project under the umbrella of strategic modernisation of health services. Privileged access to key stakeholders has enabled the development of a causal model for IT project collaboration and management. This will form the basis for further development of more refined models to enhance project outcomes in the future.
Enablers and challenges in implementing a comprehensive workplace health and well‐being approach
Authors: Mellor Nadine , Webster Jennifer 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify key enablers and challenges in the implementation of a comprehensive approach to the management of employee well‐being.Design/methodology/approachA large organization which had implemented such an approach was chosen as a case study. Company documents and data regarding the corporate well‐being strategy were analysed, informing the content of the approach. Interviews with implementers and managers were conducted to identify how it was done.FindingsThe focal organization had several health management systems capable of addressing the requirements for employee well‐being management. These included occupational safety and health, health promotion, management of ill‐health and human resource management. Key enablers identified were strong senior leadership support, dedicated resources, involvement of stakeholders and intensive communication. Challenges revolved around the integration of these systems into a coherent whole, striking a balance between a focus on occupational risks and lifestyle risks; readiness of managers to bring attention to the concept of employees’ well‐being and their ability to monitor employees’ health‐related needs. Together with a target‐driven work culture, these challenges worked against promoting well‐being.Research limitations/implicationsThis case study is exploratory. Further research needs to gather direct views of both managers and employees on how the well‐being approach had been received. Explanatory research models that integrate health promotion and work management systems to better inform implementation strategy and the roles of managers are needed.Originality/valueThe paper shows that line managers need to make greater use of regular management processes such as work planning, formal and informal interactions, and resourcing, to monitor employees’ well‐being needs. They also need to continually self‐assess how their own leadership style may affect employee well‐being.
New firms … old assets
Authors: Hefferan Michael J. , Wardner Pamela 
Published: June 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, through the Delphi technique, how demand drivers and accommodation priorities for emerging knowledge‐intensive firms are understood and how corporate property and asset managers can respond to them.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical paper discusses the results emerging from a Delphi study in four rounds with ten experts. This research focuses on the high growth, commercial sector in south‐east Queensland in Australia.FindingsThe accommodation priority demands of knowledge‐intensive firms varied depending on the stage of their lifecycle, that is, start‐up, established or mature. For start‐ups, accommodation cost was of primary importance; however, for the established and mature firms, their priorities were directly related to those supporting the progress of the firms itself and the productivity of its employers.Practical implicationsMany of the findings are likely to be applicable to commercial environments elsewhere and would provide a basis for investors, developers, asset owners and managers to better align their “old” assets, through better asset management, to these “new” firms within this rapidly changing environment.Originality/valueThe use of the Delphi technique in this multi‐faceted research topic captures the practical knowledge, wisdom and intuition of experts who deal with such issues on a day‐to‐day basis. Most real estate issues usually involve diverse specialities and perspectives – this paper illustrates how common ground through consensus can be achieved.
The asset allocation of sustainable real estate: a chance for a green contribution?
Authors: Geiger Peter , Cajias Marcelo , Bienert Sven 
Published: June 2013

PurposeGiven the growing market awareness concerning responsible investments in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between real estate companies which implemented a corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda and the possible role within a multi‐asset portfolio optimisation framework. The behaviour of the asset class sustainable real estate (SRE) together with its diversification characteristics are the main focus.Design/methodology/approachThe study is an explorative empirical analysis applying a portfolio optimisation algorithm. First, the authors developed a sustainable real estate index comprehending listed real estate companies from 2004 until 2010 acting in line with a CSR agenda. Second, the authors introduced SRE into the opportunity set of an UK investor and finally, generated the theoretical optimal asset allocation of SRE within different risk‐return portfolios.FindingsThe unique risk‐return pattern of SRE enables the asset class to be allocated across all portfolios ranging from low to high risk along the efficient frontier. In the low‐risk levels, SRE behaves as a diversifier whereas in the medium‐ to high‐risk portfolios SRE is represented as the main allocated asset. Sustainable real estate thus offers opportunities to numerous investors in view of their investment preferences and corporate strategies.Practical implicationsThe results could encourage institutional investors to take investments in CSR‐driven listed real estate companies into account and to rethink their strategic asset allocation approach in view of the identified asset characteristics and the behaviour within a portfolio framework.Originality/valueThe paper provides a first insight in the field of portfolio management by introducing SRE into the opportunity set of a UK investor. The study raises SRE to an aggregated level and delivers theoretical as well as empirical evidence of the role sustainable real estate is playing within a multi‐asset portfolio.