bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Mentor or evaluator? Assisting and assessing newcomers to the professions
Authors: Le Maistre Cathrine , Boudreau Spencer , Paré Anthony 
Published: September 2006

PurposeA four‐year longitudinal study was conducted on the school‐to‐work transition in four professions traditionally called “helping professions,” namely education, social work, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy. One goal of the study was to understand the nature and process of the mentoring relationships that develop and sustain newcomers in their professional life, especially the possible tension between the roles of mentor and evaluator. It was expected that this would help us in our jobs of preparing student practitioners and supporting their mentors and would offer models of practice suitable for other occupations.Design/methodology/approachTeams of researchers visited university students involved in professional training and engaged in a practicum during their final year at university. The students and their supervisors were interviewed separately according to a semi‐structured protocol, and each interview, lasting between 40 and 60 minutes, was audiotaped and transcribed.FindingsAn inherent contradiction between supervision‐as‐mentoring as the literature defines it and supervision‐as‐evaluation – as the universities and professions demand was observed. Evaluation as it is practiced often includes intangibles, even though the intended evaluation seems well‐defined.Practical implicationsAlthough this study was focused on practice in four particular professions, it is believed that the findings may be extrapolated to any enterprise where experienced practitioners are placed in a supervisory role with newcomers and are expected to perform the potentially conflicting role of mentor and evaluator. If the same person must mentor and evaluate the newcomer, they must be trained in these roles, evaluation guidelines must be clearly defined, and dialogue is of prime importance.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on the role of the universities in the preparation of new entrants to the “helping professions” and offers some suggestions for their support – which are generalizable to any workplace where beginners are trained, mentored and evaluated.
Aspects on the city as a knowledge tool
Authors: Edvinsson Leif 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe city can be viewed from many perspectives. In this article the author's perspective will be the city as knowledge tool. In the knowledge economy it might be argued that one of the most essential dimensions will be the relational as well as organizational dimensions, such as a city. The city is the larger context, or structural capital surrounding the human capital, for the value creation dynamics. This also implies that the city is a very complex issue but also highly dynamic knowledge context.Design/methodology/approachThe method is literature review, empirical project case observations and creative research.FindingsThe city might be seen in this context of a more or less good city regime to support the value creation from and for the knowledge workers. Then the distinction can be that a knowledge city is purposely designed for encouraging and nourishing the collective knowledge, i.e. intellectual capital, as capabilities to shape efficient and sustainable actions of welfare over time. The city can be seen as the structural capital surrounding the human capital but also the relational capital connecting the human capital with the structural capital to give a higher value adding for the knowledge worker.Practical implicationsThe city design is the critical organizational and relational capital of tomorrow for the knowledge worker. The city concept and design of its new urbanism, i.e. people migrating into cities, is becoming more and more of a strategic tool in the global competition of knowledge or talent war. To shape the efficient interface for the individual knowledge worker to leverage the global opportunity space with a local opportunity space. In the case of urban design for the knowledge economy this might take us to the need for designing a knowledge port for the knowledge flow as an exchange design for the intangible flows.Originality/valueThis paper views the larger structural capital surrounding the knowledge worker by both looking at some cases as well as stating a preliminary model of drivers for design of a knowledge city. These mentioned cases or forecasts might have strong impact on the urban design for attracting and nourishing citizens for the growth of social capital as network of friends into a new type of urbanism for minds. The knowledge city design is a unifying concept that will help to integrate perspectives of economics, urban studies and knowledge management. The design of a knowledge harbor concept is a multidisciplinary issue and is now being prototyped in reality.
World cities of knowledge: research strength, networks and nodality
Authors: Wichmann Matthiessen Christian , Winkel Schwarz Annette , Find Søren 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe paper sets out to focus on the upper level of knowledge cities of the world.Design/methodology/approachThey are analyzed in terms of research output in total and for three disciplines: biotechnology, information and communications technology, and nanotechnology. The concept of knowledge in regional and urban competition is generally recognized, although relations between urban and regional economic growth and knowledge level are far from clear.FindingsIn this paper research strength of the major research metropolis of the world is analyzed, and interrelations between the centers using co‐authorship as indicator are identified.Originality/valueCategorization of the nodal cities of the global research community is linked to the world city concept.
The contribution of KIBS to innovation in cities: an evolutionary and institutional perspective
Authors: Simmie James , Strambach Simone 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to begin to develop a theoretical position for understanding the role of services in innovation in post‐industrial societies.Design/methodology/approachThis study develops an evolutionary and institutional approach to understanding the role of certain specialist services in innovation and illustrate how significant they are for the economies of large metropolitan areas in England and Germany.FindingsThe paper argues that the role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in innovation may be understood theoretically in terms of evolutionary and institutional economics. From this perspective is is argued that urban economies are path dependent interactive learning systems that develop individually through time. They are increasingly characterized by networked production systems in which KIBS play a key role in the transfer of bespoke knowledge between actors both within and from outside individual cities. As a result the authors argue that KIBS make a significant and place specific contribution to innovation in the cities where they are located.Originality/valueThe paper suggests a systematic theoretical approach to understanding the currently under‐theorized role of services in general and KIBS in particular in innovation. It also points to the importance of the geography of specialized services.
Rethinking social capital theory: a knowledge management perspective
Authors: McElroy Mark W. , Jorna René J. , van Engelen Jo 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThis paper seeks to argue the relevance of knowledge management (KM) to the development of social capital, and to enhancing the capacity to take effective action in human social systems.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies a pluralistic definition of knowledge (including subjective beliefs in minds and objective claims expressed in language) to show that most forms of social capital reduce to knowledge.FindingsFirst, social capital mostly comprises knowledge (trust, beliefs, rules, and norms). Second, the capacity to individually and collectively learn (in networks) is therefore arguably the most important form of social capital, even if rarely acknowledged as such in the literature. Third, because of the importance of learning and innovation to the production of social capital in society and organizations, KM has an important role to play in related development efforts.Practical implicationsThe paper introduces social capital constructivism. Practicing it to strengthen social capital can enhance the capacity to take effective action in human social systems. This points to a new value proposition and functional orientation for KM: to enhance the human capacity to take effective action by fostering the growth and development of social capital.Originality/valueThe thesis reveals social capital as consisting mostly of knowledge, and shows how KM can enhance a human capacity to take effective action in social systems by fostering the production of social capital itself.
Implementing the Balanced Scorecard at a college of business
Authors: Papenhausen Chris , Einstein Walter 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the Balanced Scorecard approach, a performance management system, could be implemented at a college of business.Design/methodology/approachThe authors' own college of business is used as an example, to present how a successful Balanced Scorecard would look.Practical implicationsA comprehensive guide for implementation of the Balanced Scorecard approach is presented, including presentation of specific objectives and measures appropriate for a college of business.Originality/valueThe paper points out that the Balanced Scorecard approach is well suited to a higher education situation and allows the alignment of a wide variety of measures with the unique mission and strategy of a college of business.
Content analysis of social, environmental reporting: what is new?
Authors: Guthrie James , Abeysekera Indra 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to review the use of content analysis as a research method in understanding social and environmental accounting (SEA) and to examine current contemporary foci of this research tradition. Further, seeks to examine several research method issues relating to the use of content analysis are examined.Design/methodology/approachContemporary focus and research issues are analyzed to provide some future directions for scholars in the field of SEA, by categorizing work in the SEA, social environmental reporting (SER) and intellectual capital reporting (ICR) literature, according to the following: normative literature/theory/commentaries; focus of empirical investigation; quality SER research; combined research methodologies; content analysis method issues.FindingsLiterature indicates that few attempts have been made to combine other research methodologies with content analysis, although it has proven fruitful with the limited investigation undertaken to examine aspects of SER. Further extending the performance reporting by combining SER with ICR may provide useful information.Research limitations/implicationsIncreasingly, researchers in the field of SEA need to be able to justify the specific research methods they use when collecting the empirical data that they examine in order to support and test opinions regarding the merit of different approaches to managing, measuring and reporting of SEA.Originality/valueTraditionally, the focus of content analysis has been narrow but this paper breaks new ground in proposing to broaden the focus to include SEA and to combine content analysis with other methods of data collection.
Managers as learning facilitators in small manufacturing firms
Authors: Coetzer Alan 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe findings of an exploratory study, guided by the question: “What are the effects of managers on salient elements of work environments that have the potential to influence informal workplace learning?”.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through semi‐structured interviews with owner‐managers, managers, and employees in ten small manufacturing firms. Verbatim expressions of the interview participants were analysed using content analytic procedures.FindingsThe ways managers intentionally promote learning were unveiled, including: providing access to a range of workplace activities; promoting communication in the workplace; facilitating access to direct guidance from workplace models; and designating learning facilitators. Informal employee practices used by managers seem to have unintended positive “side effects” on informal workplace learning.Research limitations/implicationsSeveral questions are in need of further investigation. What are the effects on employees' learning of informal human resource management practices?; What are the effects on newcomers' learning of pre‐employment socialisation agents?; and What are the effects on employees' learning of low specialisation?Practical implicationsManagers should examine characteristics of work environments and ensure that these characteristics support informal workplace learning through provision of learning opportunities, support for learning and incentives to learn. Managers may need practical advice and behavioural guidelines to help them strengthen informal workplace learning. They should view fostering learning as a priority action.Originality/valueThe paper contributes knowledge to understanding the ways managers intentionally seek to foster employee learning and how certain management practices that seem to be common in small firms have the potential to affect employees' learning.
A scheme to increase profitability in entrepreneurial SMEs
Authors: Reynolds Paul L. , Lancaster Geoff 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThis article aims to demonstrate how small entrepreneurial firms can employ low cost market research techniques in the area of service evaluation to prioritise the sales effort, increase sales and improve margins.Design/methodology/approach“Triangulation” has been used. Secondary data included academic sources and internal company records. Primary data included exploratory depth interviews and group discussions, a questionnaire‐based survey and the construction of case studies.FindingsIt can be seen from the case study results presented that a customer service appreciation survey can yield useful and actionable information, which can be used creatively by entrepreneurs to bring about significant improvements in business performance in a short space of time.Research limitations/implicationsIt would have been better if more extensive data were available on customers to allow for more sophisticated quota sampling controls.Practical implicationsA model of small firm growth is discussed and the concept of crisis points in the early stages of the life cycle of small entrepreneurial firms is examined. The paper demonstrates how a low risk growth strategy, which minimises the possibility of the firm encountering a “crisis point”, can be chosen.Originality/valueThe content of the article is original in the sense that particular emphasis is placed on the concept of “leveraging.” The study shows that such a “leveraged”‐based scheme is particularly relevant in a customer multiple sourcing purchasing situation.
The measurement of success in a business incubation project
Authors: Voisey Pam , Gornall Lynne , Jones Paul , Thomas Brychan 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact and success of a business incubation project on its participants. The study aims to consider the impact of the project in terms of developing and supporting entrepreneurial activity within Wales. It seeks to build on and enhance existing business incubation literature and contribute to the field by identifying “good” practice and considers the measurement of success within such projects.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an individual case study methodology which evaluates all aspects of the Graduate Teleworking Initiative (GTi) project. A range of qualitative and quantitative methods is utilised to capture the views of aspiring entrepreneurs. In addition the progress of entrepreneurs is compared with “distance travelled” methodologies developed by other EU programmes, using the experiences of GTi businesses as individual case histories. In addition, this paper looks at additional ways to measure the success of this type of project, based on a study of the current academic literature and work currently being undertaken with funding agencies in Wales in respect of economic regeneration. The case study method is recognised as the most effective research strategy to capture the “rich” experience of complex projects.FindingsThe study finds that, if incubation facilities are to receive continuing support, the measurement of success needs to be broader than a set of statistical outputs. The academic literature queries whether business incubation works, and invites us to decide if the end result is of value or not. This paper considers additional ways to measure the success of this type of project. Applications for public funding in support of business incubators as part of an overall economic regeneration strategy should be able to provide a wider evaluation of effectiveness, and this paper seeks to develop a model to this purpose, to assist the ongoing development of incubator facilities in Wales.Practical implicationsThis study will be of interest to business incubation providers and entrepreneurial researchers in identifying valid and achievable success measures and should inform developments in this field.Originality/valueThe paper provides a unique insight into a successful business incubation project and identifies the key to its on going success. Furthermore, the study identifies generic measures of success for a typical business incubation project based on the GTi experience and a detailed investigation of alternative business incubators.
A conceptual framework of CREM performance measurement tools
Authors: Lindholm Anna‐Liisa , Nenonen Suvi 
Published: September 2006

PurposeTo provide a review and classification of tools, techniques and methodologies, which are and could be used for measuring and identifying the success of corporate real estate and workplace management.Design/methodology/approachReview of previously published works on performance measurement and measurement models and empirical interviews with 26 corporate real estate executives to examine what are common approaches to measuring performance.FindingsProvides information about the corporate real estate performance measuring methods and practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptual framework is not an exhaustive list of methods and techniques. It is more like a first analytical review and classification of different kinds of methods, which could be developed over time.Practical implicationsA useful source of information and impartial analysis of methods for corporate real estate and workplace managers seeking ways to demonstrate their value to the core business of their firm.Originality/valueCorporate real estate and workplace managers need better ways and tools to illustrate to the corporate leaders how they add value. This paper provides a review of such tools and offers practical help and guidance for using this kind of tools.
Corporate social responsibility and the UK construction industry
Authors: Jones Peter , Comfort Daphne , Hillier David 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThis paper offers a preliminary exploration of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues being addressed and reported by some of the UK's leading construction companies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics and origins of CSR and this is followed by a brief outline of the construction industry and some of the challenges it is currently facing. The empirical information for the paper is drawn from the CSR reports and information posted on the world wide web by some of the leading construction companies.FindingsThe findings reveal substantial variations in the nature and the extent of reporting. The paper specifically focuses upon six sets of CSR issues namely those relating to environment; health and safety; human resources; supply chain management; customers and communities; and governance and ethics. More generally the paper suggests that although construction companies report their recognition of the importance of CSR and their commitment to integrate it within their businesses they make relatively limited use of key performance Indicators and have low participation rates in general benchmarking exercises.Originality/valueThe paper provides an accessible review of the CSR issues and agendas being reported by some of the UK's leading construction companies and as such it will interest academics and practitioners working in the construction industry and those professionals who work with the construction industry.
Strategic management and operations of real estate valuation service providers in Hong Kong
Authors: Cheng Lim Lay , Adair Alastair , McGreal Stanley , Webb James 
Published: September 2006

PurposeThe paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the current valuation practices and services offered across Asia, in particular the valuation techniques and methodology used by practising valuers in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approachIn order to gain professional opinions and an in‐depth understanding of Hong Kong valuation service providers, the methods and concepts used, and the extent of involvement with Chinese clients and businesses, the paper reports the findings of interviews with major real estate valuation firms and a survey of individual valuers involved in the appraisal of properties in Hong Kong and China.FindingsThe results show that there are significant differences between the strategic management and the operational level across several facets of the valuation process in Hong Kong and China. The paper contributes to an understanding of behavioural influences within valuation.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is the restriction of the survey on Hong Kong‐based valuers. Further research will widen evidence to valuers based in mainland China.Originality/valueThis paper presents the results of original empirical research utilising data drawn from interviews and survey questionnaires. The value of the work lies in the analysis of the strategic overview of the organisation, management and operation of appraisal practice in Hong Kong.