bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Quantifying coordination work as a function of the task uncertainty and interdependence
Authors: Nuñez Alba N. , Giachetti Ronald E. , Boria Giacomo 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of coordination in business processes by quantifying how the coordination load is affected by changes in task structure and task characteristics.Design/methodology/approachA model is presented that quantifies the amount of coordination work as a function of the task characteristics analyzability and variability and the task structure factor of interdependence. To test the model, a management simulation game is used with a full factorial design of experiments. Two replications are conducted for each treatment. Validated questionnaires and time studies are used to obtain the data.FindingsAnalyses of the experimental results indicate that as task analyzability decreases and task interdependence increases then the coordination load increases. The increase in coordination load is greater for changes in task interdependence than for changes in task analyzability.Practical implicationsThe experimental results indicate the time savings from doing tasks in parallel versus sequential are less than what would expected due to the increased interdependence between tasks and the resulting requirements for coordination. These results can be used to understand the trade‐offs of different process configurations, primarily how coordination load changes when a process is changed from sequential to parallel.Originality/valueThis research deviates from previous research in that the coordination load difference is measured when going from a sequential process to a parallel process. Most previous studies have shown differences but not the magnitude of the difference. Moreover, most previous studies have been at the organization level, while this research focuses on the business process level.
Exploring performance attribution
Authors: Dick Gavin P.M. 
Published: April 2009

PurposeAccreditation to the ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Standard has proven to be a persistent and growing phenomenon in services and manufacturing, yet to date little attempt has been made to explore how performance results in cross‐sectional research may be attributed to different causation mechanisms and how their influences may alter over time. This paper aims to fill this gap.Design/methodology/approachThe paper defines four possible causation mechanisms before searching and analysing the empirical literature on quality management system certification to ISO 9001 and business performance for evidence of their causal influence.FindingsFrom the analyses, it is found that the benefit that can safely be attributed to the treatment‐effect of ISO 9001 accreditation is lower waste; while the benefits of lower costs and better quality are less likely unless motives for adoption are developmental rather than externally driven. From an analysis of longitudinal studies a strong selection‐mechanism is found where more profitable firms have a greater propensity to adopt than less profitable firms. From the finding propositions are developed to show how the influence of these mechanisms change over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe existence of the selection‐mechanism has profound implications for interpreting business performance achievements because the benefits that are attributed to the treatment‐effect from adopting quality management system standards are likely to be greatly inflated by the influence of the selection‐mechanism. The author suggests that richer theory is needed that can incorporate bi‐directional influences and new research is needed to explore the underlying causes of the selection effect.Originality/valueThe paper is believed to be the first to systematically explore attribution of performance in the ISO 9001 literature. Its findings provide new insights into the complexities of attribution of performance in studies of new practices and systems.
Discovering effective performance measurement for e‐business
Authors: Hinton Matthew , Barnes David 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to identify the features of an effective e‐business performance measurement system, as well as the practices in organisations with distinctive e‐business performance metrics. From this it was hoped to identify a set of best practice recommendations.Design/methodology/approachA case study methodology is used to examine the performance measurement practices of 12 potentially exemplar organisations that have made efforts to develop distinctive performance metrics for e‐business. Qualitative data are collected from interviews with key informants from each organisation, with supporting data generate from company documents.FindingsThe study has uncovered a variety of approaches to e‐business performance measurement, with no common framework apparent. Whilst the case organisations show significant differences in the level of success achieved in developing suitable measures, there is evidence of a common concern to link e‐business performance to organisational objectives. However, there is a general unwillingness to embark on major overhauls of existing performance measurement systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe acknowledged weakness of case study research is that it can only investigate a limited number of situations. This raises the issue of the generalisability of the findings to a wider population. However, in the absence of empirical work in this area, the case organisations provided examples of superior practice in e‐business performance measurement when compared to organisations more generally.Practical implicationsThis study identifies several gaps between the academic literature and current management practice, suggesting that researchers should consider the impact of theory on the process of organisational performance management. It also offers advice for organisations with respect to absorbing e‐business measures into their current performance measurement systems.Originality/valueThis paper offers empirical understanding of the application of performance metrics to e‐business and identifies several inconsistencies between academic theory and real‐world practice.
Performance management from multiple perspectives: taking stock
Authors: Holloway Jacky 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to summarise key conclusions from a multidisciplinary review of the state of the art of research into organisational performance management, in particular how research can aid and involve practitioners.Design/methodology/approachThis Special Issue incorporates papers that address current performance management challenges for managers and academics from a relatively small selection of academic disciplines. This particular paper locates the others in a wider context of a cross‐disciplinary study, identifying shared strengths to be found within the academic community.FindingsIn spite of a number of barriers to knowledge transfer, and tensions and gaps within the performance management research portfolio (described in the paper), much progress has been made that will advance further through active involvement with practitioners and across discipline boundaries. Specific suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of performance management practice are included.Practical implicationsResearch has already provided useful knowledge for practitioners, with the potential for greater value provided that performance management researchers are open to more collaboration in order to tackle the complex questions facing practitioners and theoreticians alike.Originality/valueThe paper provides an overview of the conclusions reached in a substantial and original multidisciplinary review, providing readers with the flavour of that publication.
New thinking on the financial crisis
Authors: Allen Roy E. , Snyder Donald 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of the current global financial crisis in light of other large‐scale financial crises.Design/methodology/approachThe phenomenon of large‐scale financial crisis has not been modeled well by neo‐classical general equilibrium approaches; the paper explores whether evolutionary and complex systems approaches might be more useful. Previous empirical work and current data are coalesced to identify fundamental drivers of the boom and bust phases of the current crisis.FindingsMany features of financial crisis occur naturally in evolutionary and complex systems. The boom phase leading to this current crisis (early 1980s through 2006) and bust phase (2007‐) are associated with structural changes in institutions, technologies, monetary processes, i.e. changing “meso structures”. Increasingly, purely financial constructs and processes are dominant infrastructures within the global economy.Research limitations/implicationsRigorous analytical predictions of financial crisis variables are at present not possible using evolutionary and complex systems approaches; however, such systems can be fruitfully studied through simulation methods and certain types of econometric modeling.Practical implicationsCommon patterns in large‐scale financial crises might be better anticipated and guarded against. Better money‐liquidity supply decisions on the part of official institutions might help prevent economy‐wide money‐liquidity crises from turning into systemic solvency crises.Originality/valueScholars, policymakers, and practitioners might appreciate the more comprehensive evolutionary and complex systems framework and see that it suggests a new political economy of financial crisis. Despite a huge scholarly literature (organized recently as first‐ second‐ and third‐generation models of financial crises) and a flurry of topical essays in recent months, systemic understanding has been lacking.
The crisis: a return to political economy?
Authors: Wong Loong 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the current financial crisis, suggesting that most analyses have attributed the crisis to a lack of business ethics, the rise of greed and lax regulation. Prescriptions offered to address this crisis draw accordingly on the need for greater regulation of market behaviour, business practices and boardroom pay. Whilst these reforms are necessary, they fail to recognise that such business practices have their roots in an extreme political and economic ideology – neoliberal market fundamentalism. This paper seeks to suggests that a greater appreciation of the nexus between politics, philosophy and economics is critical in order to develop a different practice. As such, the author provides a socio‐historical and political context for understanding the present crisis before offering a critique and reform of the business educational agenda. The author argues that such a context would engender greater understanding of business practices and systems for both students and practitioners and would go some way in enabling them to fashion a more critical reflexive and engaged practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a critical‐historical review of the literature on the crisis. In so doing, the paper opens up the analysis to philosophical and political approaches to understanding financial crises.FindingsThe paper finds that explanations for the crisis can be found through a critical appreciation of philosophical and political texts. This finding also suggests that current business and management education and practices can benefit from an incorporation of these historical strands of thought.Research limitations/implicationsIn drawing on various strands in philosophy, politics, economics and sociology, the paper finds that a singular account for the crisis is flawed. The paper also finds that a richer and deeper appreciation of the crisis can be found through a critical‐historical positioning of the crisis. This necessitates an understanding of politics and philosophy in business practices and education.Practical implicationsIn explaining the crisis, the paper suggests that many of the current financial “innovations” are problematic and a more critical approach is needed to engage with these “new” innovations.Originality/valueThe paper seeks to open up new vistas for business education and practices. Through a critical‐historical interrogation of the crisis, the paper opens up new spaces for understanding international economics and business practices. This reflexivity is often missing in international business studies and most management practices.
The Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky paradigm and the global subprime mortgage meltdown
Authors: Rapp William V. 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThis paper sets out to analyze the current global financial crisis that originated in the US subprime mortgage market through the lens of the Kindleberger‐Aliber‐Minsky (KAM) paradigm as set forth in Kindleberger and Aliber's Manias, Panics and Crashes, to first examine the bubble's origins in the displacement caused by the internet collapse, the subsequent US recession, and the aggressive lowering of US interest rates. It shows how these events, combined with other technological and regulatory factors, resulted in a US housing bubble fueled by the aggressive securitization of mortgages by many large financial institutions, a reduction in their credit standards, and a lack of regulatory oversight. In this way it assesses the prime players in the process in terms of motivation and performance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores how the process peaked and began to unravel as cash flows at the base of the financial pyramid built through securitization slowed. Once the supporting cash flow came under pressure and was questioned, several major players went bankrupt or took tremendous losses. It became apparent that risk and innovation had been improperly balanced, a prime characteristic of the KAM paradigm. Indeed, greed, innovation, and technology had combined to substantially reduce credit quality and increase leverage, vastly expanding the likelihood of a liquidity crisis and a substantial drop in the value of asset‐backed securities.FindingsThe analysis then examines why this effect had significant global dimensions, unlike, for example, the Japanese real estate and stock market collapse or the US internet boom and bust. The analysis also shows how market reactions have been in line with what might be expected under the KAM paradigm. It also conforms with what Robert Shiller and Edward Gramlich anticipated and with normal bank behavior in a credit crisis.Originality/valueThe paper assesses the policy responses to the crisis and their likely success under a KAM paradigm analysis. The proposed remedies already include the aggressive fiscal and lender of last resort monetary responses typical of the KAM paradigm but regulatory measures too. Further, as KAM notes, almost all booms and crashes involve scandals and scams. So not surprisingly there has been growing recourse to the courts seeking criminal and civil remedies. Also typical of such a dramatic boom and bust, governments are examining regulatory and legislative actions to address the current difficult economic and credit situation and to make sure that similar things do not occur in the future. But politics and a US presidential election are driving significant differences in approach. Under these circumstances what can the lens of the KAM paradigm tell us about the actions taken or proposed and what is or is not likely to work?
An economic wonderland: derivative castles built on sand
Authors: Cloke Jon 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThis paper seeks to use the way in which markets in derivatives have developed historically to examine how neo‐classical market‐oriented economic theory has been used as a stalking‐horse to create an illusionary market in the increasingly complex derivatives that have brought about the current global financial crisis and which threaten liberal democracy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses the current global financial crisis using three separate themes in the development of derivatives themselves: the development of financial derivatives themselves; the subversion of risk analysis; and the co‐opting of the concept and analysis of fair value by the financial services industry and its support network. These themes are used to show how self‐regulation, supervision and the perception of risk have effectively been abandoned in the creation of an immensely profitable market based on an imaginary product. The study uses a combination of available facts and figures from professional literature and from international financial institutions and financial services organisations, as well as comparative analyses outlining financial services praxis.FindingsIt is suggested that in an effectively unregulated, globalising capitalism this crisis and others like it are inevitable, and that the self‐regulating capacities of capitalism suggested by neo‐classical theory are non‐existent.Originality/valueThe paper uses facts and figures provided by the financial services industry to illustrate the poverty of the theoretical justification of the market in financial derivatives and the critiques of various practitioners and experts to point out that the crisis came foretold.
International business and the crisis
Authors: Toporowski Jan 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the effects of the financial crisis on international business.Design/methodology/approachThe paper argues that international business is differentiated by line of business and country of operation.FindingsThe crisis will therefore affect international business according to how exposed such business is to international finance. Alongside the financial implications of the crisis, falling investment will reduce profits and liquidity in all business sectors.Originality/valueThe most original feature of the paper is an argument that recent developments in international business have been led by financial market inflation, rather than by the autonomous managerial strategies of international businesses.
MUREX
Authors: Jiang Jehn‐Ruey , King Chung‐Ta , Liao Chi‐Shiang , Liu Ching‐Hao 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose MUREX, a mutable replica control scheme, to keep one‐copy equivalence for synchronous replication in structured peer‐to‐peer (P2P) storage systems.Design/methodology/approachFor synchronous replication in P2P networks, it is proper to adopt crash‐recovery as the fault model; that is, nodes are fail‐stop and can recover and rejoin the system after synchronizing their states with other active nodes. In addition to the state synchronization problem, the paper identifies other two problems to solve for synchronous replication in P2P storage systems. They are the replica acquisition and the replica migration problems.FindingsOn the basis of multi‐column read/write quorums, MUREX conquers the problems by the replica pointer, the on‐demand replica regeneration, and the leased lock techniques.Originality/valueThe paper proves the correctness of MUREX, analyzes and also simulates it in terms of communication cost and operation success rate.
Human‐computer interaction in ubiquitous computing environments
Authors: Abawajy J.H. 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore characteristics of human‐computer interaction when the human body and its movements become input for interaction and interface control in pervasive computing settings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper quantifies the performance of human movement based on Fitt's Law and discusses some of the human factors and technical considerations that arise in trying to use human body movements as an input medium.FindingsThe paper finds that new interaction technologies utilising human movements may provide more flexible, naturalistic interfaces and support the ubiquitous or pervasive computing paradigm.Practical implicationsIn pervasive computing environments the challenge is to create intuitive and user‐friendly interfaces. Application domains that may utilize human body movements as input are surveyed here and the paper addresses issues such as culture, privacy, security and ethics raised by movement of a user's body‐based interaction styles.Originality/valueThe paper describes the utilization of human body movements as input for interaction and interface control in pervasive computing settings.
The nonlinear relation between agency costs and managerial equity ownership
Authors: Jelinek Kate , Stuerke Pamela S. 
Published: April 2009

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of managerial equity ownership on return on assets as a measure of profitability and two financial statement‐based agency cost measures, i.e. asset utilization and an expense ratio, which proxy for management's efficiency in use of assets and perquisite consumption, respectively.Design/methodology/approachMultivariate tests are constructed to examine the nonlinear relation between managerial equity ownership and both profitability and agency costs, using interaction terms to capture the relation at various levels of managerial ownership.FindingsThe paper documents that managerial equity ownership is nonlinearly and positively associated with return on assets and asset utilization, and nonlinearly and negatively associated with the expense ratio, after controlling for firm size, leverage, corporate diversification, institutional ownership, research intensity, firm age, and executive stock options.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that the ability of managerial equity ownership to reduce agency costs decreases as levels of ownership increase. Further, the results indicate that, in some industries, high levels of ownership lead to increased expense ratios, suggesting increased perquisite consumption. Finally, these results suggest that, above a certain level in some industries, managerial equity ownership only marginally encourages efficient asset utilization but does not significantly deter excessive spending.Originality/valueThe paper provides a link between research that demonstrates a linear relation between managerial equity ownership and financial‐statement based profitability and agency cost measures and research that finds a nonlinear relation between managerial equity ownership and Tobin's Q, a proxy for firm performance.