bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The persistence of the audit culture: supervision within Swedish ambulance services
Authors: Waks Caroline 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, or to what extent, the audit society influences the professional context of Swedish pre‐hospital care.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through an in‐depth case study of public supervision within ambulance services in Sweden. A three‐dimensional framework departing from three analytical concepts (knowledge base, formal organization and operational process) was used as a tool for further analysis of the field material.FindingsThe paper describes ambulance services under the pressure of frequent audits in a context where the knowledge base of ambulatory work was contested. While some have argued this would make it more receptive to an audit culture, the relational distance between the auditor and the auditees was high, which should indicate the opposite.Originality/valueThe paper explores the audit society and its processes. In this particular case, it could be argued that the impact of an audit culture on professional activities was moderated by the dissociated approach of the auditing team.
Opening up one's everyday negotiations to inspection
Authors: Gastelaars Marja 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThis paper reflects on the output of four ethnographic research projects examining the implementation of the Dutch Inspection for Work and Income. These four reports were to open up the “black box” concerning the everyday negotiations involved in implementation and particularly focused on the actual contribution of various participants to this process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an analysis, a political re‐reading of four reports, examining the underpinning questions and assumptions behind the work of the ethnographic research.FindingsThe paper raises questions about the role of ethnographic researchers. It analyses, for instance, the ways in which researchers framed the “objects of concern” they investigated on behalf of the inspection and the political effects of their fieldwork choices, including the selection of their respondents and the ways they dealt with them throughout the research.Originality/valueIn the context of evaluative reports that are to be made public as part of a political process, the inadequate or unequal representation of particular actors has wider political consequences. Researchers need to explicitly engage with these issues raised in their reflections on the process and their findings.
Reciprocal accountability
Authors: Sullivan Patrick 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThis paper attempts to replace the understanding of public sector accountability as a linear and hierarchical process with one in which accountability occurs within a network of social relationships. It associates the former approach with the introduction of New Public Management principles in Australian public administration. It investigates the effect of this on the ability of Australia's indigenous people both to access democratic accountability as citizens, and to develop their community organisations as service providers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on field experience with aboriginal community organisations and critical assessment of the literature on this aspect of Australian public administration.FindingsThe paper finds that New Public Management approaches in Australian public administration have not led to greater political accountability but the reverse. As a disadvantaged, culturally distinct minority, aboriginal people are the subject of, rather than partners in, accountability regimes which mire their community service organisations in reporting requirements at the expense of practical activity. In some respects Aborigines are dealt with as individual citizen/clients, at other times as a disadvantaged minority group, and third, as culturally distinct polities. Each of these approaches implies different forms of accountability both by Aborigines to the state and by the state to them.Research limitations/implicationsThis analysis is inherently interpretative rather than exclusively empirical. However, greater efficiency as well as culturally appropriate outcomes can be found by instituting regional regimes of reciprocal accountability.Originality/valueThe analysis of developments in public administration is rarely brought to bear on Australian indigenous affairs.
Championing intellectual pluralism
Authors: Parker Lee , Guthrie James 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThis editorial seeks to argue for intellectual pluralism and adventurous enquiry in an era of status badging of publication venues and institutions and to review AAAJ's role, strategies and international recognition in this context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an editorial review and argument.FindingsThe paper acknowledges pressures towards a North American inspired unitary neo‐classical economic view of the accounting world and related badging of higher education institutions and research publications globally. It identifies the community of accounting scholars including AAAJ with wider and more pluralist philosophies and research agendas.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper offers scope and associated recognition for researchers prepared to take up and address a wide array of theoretical perspectives and research issues of global significance.Originality/valueThe paper provides important empirical data and research network information to scholars in the interdisciplinary accounting field of research.
Legitimacy and parliamentary oversight in Australia
Authors: Jacobs Kerry , Jones Kate 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether two early Australian public accounts committees were established for the purpose of legitimating governments of the time.Design/methodology/approachThe paper addressed these issues through a study of the establishment, early work and abolition in the 1930s of the Victorian Committee of Public Accounts (VCPA) and the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA).FindingsClear evidence is found that the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (JCPA) had been copied from the VCPA and that the VCPA had been copied from the UK House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, which was established in 1861. This would indicate that the primary objective in the establishment of both these committees was legitimation rather than control. It was found that the subsequent work of both the VCPA and the JCPA showed a drift away from an accounting focus towards a policy focus. This is similar to the JCPA experience described by Degeling et al. in relation to the JCPA, which also supports the legitimation argument. It was also found that both committees could be disestablished with relative ease because their legitimating purpose was no longer strong enough to demand their continuation and that, in fact, their abolition became the factor that served a legitimating purpose for governments.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that the ideas of legitimation and mimetic isomorphism provide a more convincing explanation for the nature and work of these two public accounts committees than the idea of accounting colonisation.
FTSE4Good: exploring its implications for corporate conduct
Authors: Collison David , Cobb George , Power David , Stevenson Lorna 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to critically evaluate membership of the FTSE4Good “socially responsible investment” indices (membership of which is based on ethical criteria), which were launched in the UK in July 2001 as a means of increased accountability and change.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an interpretive and critical approach when examining the perceptions of company representatives. The empirical findings are based on a small number of interviews and a postal questionnaire. Some descriptive and inferential statistics are used to summarise and help interpret the questionnaire results.FindingsRespondents indicated that inclusion in the indices had a significant effect on their firms' reputation, and on relationships with specific stakeholder groups. All interviewees emphasised that peer group pressure encouraged top management to maintain their membership of the indices. Questionnaire respondents indicated an even balance of views regarding tightening the admission criteria for the indices. The influence of FTSE4Good on corporate conduct was found to be limited and mainly confined to reporting activity, though policy and management systems were amongst other areas where some impacts were noted. A small proportion of respondents felt that membership of the indices had had some significant influences on their companies.Originality/valueThe investigation of the influence of a “mass market” ethical investment index on constituent companies is where the main originality of this paper lies. In particular the interviews with constituent firm representatives and the questionnaire results are novel for ascertaining perceptions about the impact of inclusion in the indices on constituent companies.
Bundling management control innovations
Authors: Modell Sven 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine how organisational experimenting with total quality management (TQM) and the balanced scorecard affects the bundling of design characteristics associated with these innovations in a Swedish central government agency.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an exploratory, longitudinal case study approach which builds on and extends the management fad and fashion literature.FindingsWhile both innovations encountered considerable implementation problems, they continued to exercise a lingering influence on the “new” performance management system emerging in the focal organisation. The original adoption of the two innovations can be explained from a traditional management fashion perspective. However, the subsequent development of performance management features a more complex mix of explanatory factors and highlights how the bundling phenomenon is entangled with managerial learning processes. This resulted in a less linear trajectory of change than that predicted by prior research on the notion of bundling.Research implicationsThe paper contributes to the literature on management fads and fashions by refining its conception of the role of managers of adopting organisations and organisational adoption, implementation and rejection of innovations.Originality/valueThe paper constitutes a first attempt to examine in greater detail how organisational experimenting with contemporary management control innovations affects the process of bundling in an individual organisation.
Conceptualising future change in corporate sustainability reporting
Authors: Adams Carol A. , Whelan Glen 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how future changes in corporate social disclosure (CSD), aimed at improving accountability for corporate performance to key stakeholder groups, might be brought about.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the work of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises with respect to human (and organisational) action and the work of Leon Festinger and Kurt Lewin with respect to human (and organisational) change, the paper examines how academics and other corporate stakeholders might effect changes in CSD.FindingsManagers act in a way which maximises their formal happiness (from von Mises) and change occurs following the creation of cognitive dissonance (Festinger) which leads to “unfreezing” (Lewin). Stakeholders can effect change by creating cognitive dissonance. With specific reference to Anglo‐American limited liability and publicly traded corporations, such cognitive dissonance and unfreezing normally involves a perceived threat to profitability.Research limitations/implicationsResearch and theorising in corporate social disclosure patterns should take as given: that the managers of Anglo‐American limited liability and publicly traded corporations continue to be strongly encouraged, via both legal and remunerative means, to maximize shareholder wealth; and that this state of affairs significantly influences the information which management choose to disclose. Future research might instead examine and consider means of creating sources of dissonance significant enough to result in managerial concern for change within the constraints imposed on managers of Anglo‐American corporations. Such research might be conducted by engaging with organisations and their stakeholders.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for the manner in which corporate stakeholders act and interrelate with others in order to effect change towards more complete and credible sustainability reports which demonstrate accountability for material impacts to key stakeholder groups.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on how change in corporate behaviour might be brought about given the personal motivations and institutional constraints imposed on the behaviour of corporate actors.
Your favourite manager is an organisational disaster
Authors: Aarum Andersen Jon 
Published: January 2009

PurposeWhen subordinates are asked what kind of manager they prefer, the answers are virtually the same. Subordinates have a different focus than managers, as the latter focus on organisational goal attainment. The purpose of this paper is to pinpoint the consequences of the subordinates' leadership preferences for organisational performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws conclusions based on previous research and empirical data collected to illustrate the likely outcome of subordinates having the managers they prefer.FindingsSubordinates favour the type of manager who has a relationship oriented style of leadership, and who is predominantly motivated by affiliation. Additionally, subordinates appear to prefer a servant leader to be their boss. Research has shown that relationship oriented and affiliation motivated managers, as well as servant leaders are detrimental to organisational effectiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe data refer only to Swedish samples of private and public managers regarding leadership styles and motivation profiles. Data have not yet been published on the occurrence of popular managers and the prevalence of servant leaders.Practical implicationsBoth managers and subordinates need to acknowledge the conflicting issues in management. The manager that the subordinates want is precisely what they should not get.Originality/valueThis paper supplies theoretical as well as empirical arguments needed to warn organisations against having managers whose behaviour is preferred by subordinates, but also impedes organisational effectiveness.
The strategic orientations of rapidly internationalizing software companies
Authors: Ruokonen Mika , Saarenketo Sami 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThis paper addresses the strategic orientations (entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and market orientation) of rapidly internationalizing small software companies.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis is based on an intensive investigation of ten small Finnish software companies that have exhibited rapid and proactive internationalization behavior.FindingsIt is argued that the manifestations of the orientations evolve as the small company develops, and these concepts are thus strongly related to the internationalization process. Further, an entrepreneurial orientation, especially a strong desire to seek growth in international markets, must be embedded in the mindset of the rapidly internationalizing small company. However, It is argued that it does not have an effect on the success of the international venture if it is not combined with strong learning and market orientations.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper brings an evolutionary viewpoint to the existing academic debate of strategic orientations of companies. It is suggested that the current conceptualization of entrepreneurial orientation should be developed to include also measures of market orientation.Practical implicationsIt is suggested that the members of the management team of a small and global software company should not only possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset and previous experience of international operations, they should also show strong commitment to considering the customers the most important stakeholders of the company, and a willingness and ability to learn rapidly from all available information about global markets.Originality/valueThis is the first qualitative investigation of the strategic orientations during the internationalization process of small companies.
Child labour and supply chain: profitability or (mis)management
Authors: Zutshi Ambika , Creed Andrew , Sohal Amrik 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a realistic assessment, with an historical perspective, of the current practises and progress made by organisations towards elimination of child labour in global supply chains.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review in the area of use of child labour within the global supply chain was combined with additional information obtained from the company searches of the GRI database, company ranking tables, and other sources.FindingsChild labour is one of a number of areas of concern in global supply chains. Continued exploitation of child labour indicates an imbalanced state and consequently forces can be unleashed through standardization, collaboration and communication amongst all stakeholders to ensure protection of the vulnerable. This paper is part of the broader analysis informing incremental changes to supply chain management to preserve the rights and welfare of children in the present and future generations.Research/limitations/implicationsThe analysis is based on secondary data sources and further research is thus needed to verify the individual weightings of the criteria used in the primary ranking of the companies.Practical implicationsThe findings provide encouragement for policy and decision makers to implement incremental changes to global supply chains in order to protect the rights and welfare of children, according to the standards of Social Accountability (SA) 8000, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and other world trade stakeholders.Originality/valueThis paper questions the view that child labour incidences have diminished proportional to economic development. A swinging fulcrum with hidden traps for developed and developing nations in light of cross border transactions through supply chains has been proposed.
Barriers to entry and market strategy: a literature review and a proposed model
Authors: Pehrsson Anders 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review previous research and to propose a model for the impact of barriers to entry on the market strategy of an entrant firm, where product/market scope and product differentiation are central strategy components. The paper asks, what is the impact of barriers on market strategies of entrants? Are early and late entrants affected in different ways?Design/methodology/approachA model and propositions are developed‐based on a review of previous research. The model applies the contingency perspective and company cases exemplify the model.FindingsIt is proposed that a firm that enters a market late and faces extensive barriers would choose a broader product/market scope and differentiate its products to a larger extent than an early entrant. It is also proposed that incumbents' market strategies indirectly affect the market strategy of an entrant firm as incumbents' market strategies interact with barriers, and the effects are due to entry timing.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes theoretically as it extends current knowledge of the impact of barriers to entry on strategy. Management of entrant firms are advised to strive for a fit between barriers and market strategy and consider the propositions.Originality/valueThe model and the propositions concern barrier effects on two key components of the market strategy of an entrant firm: product/market scope and product differentiation. Another important value is that the model accounts for interactions between incumbent strategies and barriers to entry, and effects on the market strategy of an entrant firm.
The driving drivers of dynamic competitive capabilities: a new perspective on competition
Authors: Chen Hung‐Hsin , Lee Po‐Yen 
Published: January 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the critical driving drivers of dynamic competitive capability (DCC) from the perspective of dynamic learning mechanisms (DLM), a viewpoint that has been neglected by prior studies. This paper's implicate previous research utilizing the resource‐based view (RBV) as tautological animadversion, and provide a clear theoretical model for developing DCC, especially as it relates to alliance organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe pertinent literature is reviewed and five case studies were conducted on firms in Taiwan to identify and verify what drivers of DLM influence the evolution of DCC.FindingsThe paper finds that external linkages, previous experience, repeated practice, experience codification, and the integration power of managers play key roles in developing DCC, while ambiguity has a negative impact.Research limitations/implicationsStrategic utilization of these DLM drivers enhances the DCC of alliance organizations. The results provide a reliable basis for developing the DCC of enterprises and improving the success of business activities.Originality/valueThis research closes the gap of previous research on developing DCC via DLM, and defines a clear theoretical model. Thus, this work provides a framework for firms to maintain dynamic, long‐term competitive advantages in varied and fast‐paced environments.
When the owl of Minerva flew at dusk: marketing in Greater Germany, 1918‐1939
Authors: Fullerton Ronald A. 
Published: January 2009

PurposeDuring the 1920s and into the 1930s, German‐language work on consumer behavior led the world; for example, segmentation was clearly discussed from the late 1920s. The purpose of this paper is to show how marketing thought in Germany and Austria reached a peak even as the environmental substructure that sustained it was being seriously eroded by political and economic changes that forever consigned it to a peripheral position upon the world stage.Design/methodology/approachThe design of the study is a critical historical one relying heavily upon documents produced during the period discussed. Statements are weighed and evaluated.FindingsThe paper finds that very impressive, at times world‐leading, work was being done in the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly in the areas of segmentation and what would later become known as consumer behavior. Much of what later became known as Motivation Research, or example, was pioneered in Germany and Austria before 1934.Research limitations/ implicationsThe primary implication is that a great deal of marketing thought developed outside the USA, sometimes drawing upon US marketing thought, in other cases developing completely independently. A second implication is that marketing thought can be weakened by political and economic conditions, as Germany and Austria painfully experienced.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explore historical German and Austrian marketing thought in a cross‐cultural manner, comparing and contrasting them with thought developed elsewhere.