Benetton Italy: Beyond Fordism and Flexible Specialisation. The Evolution of the Network Firm Model

Author(s):  
Fiorenza Belussi
1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Procter ◽  
Michael Rowlinson ◽  
Louise McArdle, ◽  
John Hassard ◽  
Paul Forrester

This paper offers a defence of Atkinson's model of the flexible firm. It takes issue with two arguments against it: that the model needs to be understood at a political level, as part of a wider `post-industrial' vision; and that the observed increase in flexibility offers the model no support because of its `non-strategic' nature. On the first of these it is argued that flexibility operates on a different level from flexible specialisation and other varieties of `post-industrialism' and that to consider them together confuses rather than illuminates the debate. On the second, it is argued that the criticism relies on an unnecessarily restrictive view of strategy. Rather than being regarded as `plans', strategies should be regarded as `patterns' in decision-making. On the basis of this alternative conception the paper suggests ways in which the flexible firm model might be recast.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beom-Su Kim ◽  
Sangdae Kim ◽  
Kyong Hoon Kim ◽  
Tae-Eung Sung ◽  
Babar Shah ◽  
...  

Many applications are able to obtain enriched information by employing a wireless multimedia sensor network (WMSN) in industrial environments, which consists of nodes that are capable of processing multimedia data. However, as many aspects of WMSNs still need to be refined, this remains a potential research area. An efficient application needs the ability to capture and store the latest information about an object or event, which requires real-time multimedia data to be delivered to the sink timely. Motivated to achieve this goal, we developed a new adaptive QoS routing protocol based on the (m,k)-firm model. The proposed model processes captured information by employing a multimedia stream in the (m,k)-firm format. In addition, the model includes a new adaptive real-time protocol and traffic handling scheme to transmit event information by selecting the next hop according to the flow status as well as the requirement of the (m,k)-firm model. Different from the previous approach, two level adjustment in routing protocol and traffic management are able to increase the number of successful packets within the deadline as well as path setup schemes along the previous route is able to reduce the packet loss until a new path is established. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed schemes are able to improve the stream dynamic success ratio and network lifetime compared to previous work by meeting the requirement of the (m,k)-firm model regardless of the amount of traffic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 16971-16976
Author(s):  
T.A. Alexeeva ◽  
W.A. Barnett ◽  
N.V. Kuznetsov ◽  
T.N. Mokaev

Author(s):  
Josh Krushell

Though much literature has been produced on the topic of academic restructuring, those works concerned  with the Canadian context have mainly focused on issues of corporate­university linkages, the role of state coordination of public universities, and the disparity between funding and student enrollment. Very little work has been done in documenting or analysing the role of adjunct faculty, who now make up nearly half  the university faculty, in Canadian universities. Statistics Canada has only once collected data on part­time faculty, and only one current analysis of this data has been conducted (Omiecinski, 2003). The Canadian  Association of University Teachers, furthermore, only publishes data concerning full­time faculty  members. The implications of an emerging division between the use of full­time and part­time faculty on  the nature of academic work and the quality of post­secondary education has been yet unexamined. Drawing on labour market segmentation theory, this study presents the multiple ways in which the work of  academic staff in Canadian post­secondary education has conformed to the principles of the flexible firm model, first observed of private business firms in the 1980s by John Atkinson. A series of semi­structured  interviews with academic faculty and administrators, as well as a collection of current secondary source data, informed the basis of this research. It was found that the changing nature of academic work in post­  secondary education is negatively affecting the quality of undergraduate education provided in Canada.


Projections ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-90
Author(s):  
Winnifred Wijnker ◽  
Ed S. Tan ◽  
Arthur Bakker ◽  
Tamara A. J. M. van Gog ◽  
Paul H. M. Drijvers

Film has been used for education ever since educators recognized its powerful potential for learning. But its educational application has been criticized throughout the decades for underuse of the distinctive potential of film: to raise interest. To understand more fully film’s potential for learning, we propose a dynamic model of viewer interest and its underlying cognitive and emotional mechanisms (film’s interest raising mechanisms or FIRM model). In addition, we present an analysis method for assessing the interestingness of films in learning contexts. Our model marries interest theories from cognitive film theory and educational psychology and captures the dynamics of interestingness across a film as depending on a balance between challenge posed and coping potential provided.


Author(s):  
Florian Butollo ◽  
Lea Schneidemesser

The “Industry 4.0” paradigm is present in the strategy of governments, employers' associations and trade union federations. Revisiting Piore and Sabel's classic study on flexible specialisation, we criticise the one-sidedness and narrowness inherent in the discourse of Industry 4.0, to which we counter empirical analyses on decentralised factory networks. Contrary to the prevailing stylised account, flexibility is facilitated by “B2B” platforms that link manufacturers and customers – a model that relies more on the versatility of decentralised manufacturing networks than on sophisticated production technology. The effects on labour are ambivalent, as they involve both potential for a small-scale, skilled-labour-intensive manufacturing paradigm, and dangers arising from competitive pressure for cost reduction. In sum, our aim is to offer theoretical and empirical evidence for understanding changes in digitised manufacturing and to highlight the approach of “B2B” networks and platforms in the debate on the transformation of manufacturing and industrial work.


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