Postmodern approaches to business management and innovative notions for contextual adaptation – A review

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alkis Thrassou ◽  
Hela Chebbi ◽  
Naziyet Uzunboylu
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Geographic Regions ◽  
Constant Shape ◽  
Contextual Adaptation

PurposeThis article calls for a multi-perspective innovative strategic outlook to examine the matter across its varied managerial and marketing functions and across geographic regions and organizational types.Design/methodology/approachTraversing the typological and geographic spectrum of businesses, one observes an incessantly changing environment, characterized by constant shape-shifting of all macro- and micro-environmental forces. Amidst this ultra-competitive new setting, organizations globally are struggling to evolve in a manner that befits their individual and collective contextual developments. Irrevocably, time-honored strategies and tactics, appear decreasingly capable to deliver the means to increasingly obscure effects, thus, creating a visible gap in extant theoretical knowledge and a definite need for effective contemporary practices. Inescapably, organizations have begun to abandon the habitual road of conventional strategic practices to adopt innovative means to often innovative ends, urged also by the pandemic condition of 2020+.FindingsIt endeavors to implicitly define and communicate a changing organizational spirit and philosophy, infused with innovativeness, and which transcends the limitations of tangible functionality to embrace strategic, managerial and marketing notions pertaining to the wider business environment shifts and developments.Originality/valueThis article endeavors to implicitly define and communicate a changing organizational spirit and philosophy that transcends the limitations of tangible functionality to embrace strategic management and marketing notions pertaining to the wider business environment shifts and developments.

FragraAroma – accord in business, concord in family

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Nakul Gupta ◽  
Radha R. Sharma ◽  
Rupali Pardasani
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Content Type

Subject area Entrepreneurship, internationalization, family-owned business management, strategic management. Study level/applicability MBA/postgraduate management program courses on family business management. The case can be taught at the beginning of the course to acquaint students with the dynamics of family-owned businesses. MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on entrepreneurship. It can be used in the middle of the course to highlight the challenges presented by an entrepreneur due to change in the business environment and macroeconomic scenario. MBA/postgraduate course on strategic management. It can be used at the beginning of the course to introduce strategies for managing and sustaining growth of a business. MBA/postgraduate course on organizational development. It can be used in the middle of the course to help students understand the importance of designing an optimal organizational structure for a family business. Case overview FragraAroma was an Indian fragrance company. Anil Gupta, the Founder and Managing Director of FragraAroma, and his sister Nisha were equal shareholders of the company. With changes in the Foreign Direct Investment Policy in 2013 in India, Anil and Nisha's husband Tarun had different expansion plans for FragraAroma. While Anil was planning to expand FragraAroma internationally, but his sister and her husband wanted diversification of the company's customer segment in the domestic market itself. The case is poised at the juncture, where Anil was facing a labyrinth of critical decisions. Would he go ahead with Tarun's expansion plan or stick to his plan of internationalization? Would his decision affect the harmony of the family? Was there a way that could enable him sailing his family and family business out of the doldrums? Expected learning outcomes This case is primarily about a family business and the dilemmas faced by the owner of that family business. The case captures the challenges faced by a family business in sustaining growth and competitiveness. The case can be used to understand how decisions are taken in a family-owned business. To understand the challenges faced by a family-owned business while developing and implementing its growth strategies. To understand the opportunities and challenges presented to a family-owned businesses when macroeconomic scenarios change. To understand the spillover effects of business decisions on family relations in a typical family-owned business setup. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.

Catch me if you can!

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-26
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Everyone involved in strategic management – in theory or in practice – knows about competitive advantage. Every company should have one, or at least be identifying and developing one. Unfortunately, like a lot of things that “everybody knows”, competitive advantage means different things to different people. Getting to a single, unambiguous definition of competitive advantage is harder than you might expect – and “I’ll know it when I see it” doesn’t really help anyone to run a successful company in the contemporary business environment. Practical implications The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Accounting without accounting

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fábio Frezatti ◽  
David B. Carter ◽  
Marcelo F.G. Barroso
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Accounting Information System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Perspective

Purpose – An effective management accounting information system (MAIS), as well as the accounting discourse related to it, can support, facilitate, enable, and constrain diverse business discourses. This paper aims to examine the discursive and organisational effects of an organisation accounting upon absent accounting artefacts, i.e. accounting without accounting. Situated within the discursive literature, this paper examines the construction of competing articulations of the organisation by focusing on what accounting does or does not do within an organisation. In particular, the paper acknowledges the fundamental importance of the accounting discourse in supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining competing organisational discourses, as it illustrates how the absence of accounting centralises power within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach – From a rhetorical, discursive perspective, the authors develop an in-depth qualitative case study in a manufacturing organisation where MAIS has been abandoned for approximately two years. Interpretive research approaches, from a post-structural perspective, provided the base for the structure of the research. The authors studied how other organisational discourses (such as entrepreneurship and growth), which are traditionally constructed with reference to accounting and other artefacts, continued to be produced and sustained. The non-use and non-availability of management accounting information created a vacuum that needed to be filled. The lack of discursive counterpoints and counter-evidence provided by MAIS created a vacuum of information, allowing powerful, proxy discourses to prevail in the organisation, increasing risks to business management. Findings – The absence of MAIS to support an accounting discourse requires that contingent discourses “fill in the discursive gap”. Despite appearances, they are no substitute for the accounting discourse. Thus, over time, the entrepreneurial, growth and partners' discourses lose credibility, without the corresponding use of management accounting information and its associated discourse. Originality/value – There are at least two main contributions from the case study and the findings presented in this paper: first, they provide a new perspective for studying MAIS, as a specific organisational discourse among other discourses that shape people relationship within the organisation as an examination of accounting without accounting. Second, this discussion reinforces the relevance of accounting discourse for other organisational discourses, supporting, facilitating, enabling, and constraining them, by demonstrating the effects of its absence.

Is bribing a good strategy? Imbalanced interdependence and hazard of opportunism in bribery

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho Wook Shin ◽  
Jinsil Kim ◽  
Seung-hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Contract ◽  
Current Resource ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Current

PurposeIn fragile institutional environments, firms often have no choice but bribery as the means to access the services monopolized by the government. Corrupt government officials whose resources are valuable to many different firms can easily find other firms willing to offer bribes. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how this imbalanced interdependence exposes the bribing firm to the hazard of opportunism from the bribed officials.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on World Business Environment Survey (WBES) data and the instrumental variable (IV) Probit estimator with Heckman correction for the potential selection bias.FindingsThe authors find that the more firms depend on bribery to acquire governmental resources, the severer the level of opportunism they encounter from the government officials. In addition, the authors find that although the presence of a legal alternative to bribery reduces the level of a corrupt government official's opportunism that a bribing firm experiences, the more firms depend on bribery despite the presence of a legal alternative, the higher the level of the corrupt official's opportunism that the firm will experience. Finally, the authors find that establishing a relational contract with government officials reduces the hazard of opportunism.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the resource dependence literature by finding that a greater imbalance in the interdependence between two parties in bribery exposes the more dependent party to a larger hazard of opportunism. The finding that an ineffective alternative to a current resource provider would not strengthen but weaken a resource seeker's bargaining power expands the literature. The authors also contribute to the corruption research by showing the significant strategic, not legal, risk to bribing firms of engaging in bribery, which to date has not been sufficiently discussed.

Exaptation in management: beyond technological innovations

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-91
Author(s):  
José Osvaldo De Sordi ◽  
Reed Elliot Nelson ◽  
Manuel Meireles ◽  
Marcos Hashimoto ◽  
Carlos Rigato
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Data Process ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Although exaptation is recognized as a means of creation capable of generating significant economic implications for organizations, this mechanism has not been explored in depth in the field of management, where it remains restricted to innovation and product research and development. With this limitation in mind, this study aims to explore and discuss exaptation along with other entities that are more greatly concerned with the interests of and direct contact with practitioners and academics in the field of management, such as processes, data, tacit knowledge and skills. Design/methodology/approach For the purposes of this study, a comprehensive review of the literature on exaptation was conducted, and 46 entrepreneurs from companies of different sizes and segments were interviewed. Findings The results of the review of the literature and interviews with entrepreneurs helped to identify and describe 13 cases of exaptation associated with nine different kinds of organizational entities. For four of these entities, which are closely associated with management, the restrictions of the business environment regarding the exaptation of these entities are discussed, together with the more favorable organizational structures for their occurrence. Practical implications This paper discusses the exaptation to the four types of entity closely linked with management: tacit knowledge, data, process and skill. For each one of these entities the following is discussed: the organizational characteristics that hinder the exaptation of the entity in question and the managerial actions that could alter these characteristics and facilitate the occurrence of the exaptation mechanism with the entity in question. Originality/value This process led to the development of an algorithm for analyzing the exaptation mechanism and the adaptation of the attributes associated with the agent-artifact[entity]-context tripartite to describe and analyze exaptation event, including another attribute: the type of entity.

The effects of COVID-19 on small and medium-sized enterprises: empirical evidence from Jordan

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tala Abuhussein ◽  
Husam Barham ◽  
Saheer Al-Jaghoub
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Factual Data

Purpose The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in sudden changes in the macro environment and market behaviour, making most enterprises urgently reconfigure their business models to cope with changes following the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper aims to present empirical data on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting the initial conclusions regarding their crisis management. It presents factual data on how SMEs in Jordan can use entrepreneurship to combat uncertainty and promote new opportunities. Design/methodology/approach This study involves an exploratory qualitative research design, drawing from 32 semi-structured interviews of key informants from Jordanian SMEs in different stages of the crisis. The different coping strategies of the SMEs and their effectiveness in the first six months of the pandemic are then compared. Findings The findings show how Jordanian SMEs have adapted to cope with the changes in the business environment because of COVID-19. These strategies include modifying their operations that is moving from an ordinary business model to more tentative digitalisation, improving internal communication and restructuring ad hoc organisational culture. Originality/value The study presents important and timely implications for managers of Jordanian SMEs and policymakers by increasing the sensitisation and awareness of SMEs’ coping mechanisms. It is the first study in management that empirically analyses the impact of COVID-19 on Jordanian SMEs.

scholarly journals Strategies for transcending the chaos of societal disruptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
John C. Camillus ◽  
Jeffrey E. Baker ◽  
Anushka I. Daunt ◽  
Jungyoon Jang
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Options Approach ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This study aims to offer a strategic management response to societal disruptions of the magnitude triggered by the agricultural, industrial and information revolutions. These pose challenges that are much greater and different in kind than the industry-wide disruptions that businesses have learned to manage. Pandemics, climate change, biotech and artificial intelligence guarantee that such societal disruptions will be an inescapable and recurring reality. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on the strategic management responses to wicked problems, which possess in microcosm the chaotic ambiguity that characterizes societal disruptions. Findings The authors propose a management process that affirms a sense of identity, identifies robust actions, adopts a real-options approach and uses a platform organization. Research limitations/implications The primary limitation is that the recommendations and findings are extrapolations of organizational practices in analogous situations. No examples of formal management processes specifically designed to address societal disruptions were identified. Practical implications The practical implications are significant. The specific recommendations in the paper directly address strategic management practice in organizations. Social implications The social implications are integral to the motivation of the paper as it describes the intrinsic characteristics of societal change and transformation, enabling organizations to interact with society on a dynamic basis. Originality/value While there has been growing interest and research into business and industry disruptions, the challenge of societal disruptions, which is the focus of this paper, has not been directly addressed.

A tabulation of information technology and consumer behavior in hospitality revenue management research

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-587
Author(s):  
Tevfik Demirciftci ◽  
ChihChien Chen ◽  
Mehmet Erdem
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Revenue Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of revenue management (RM) studies that focus on information technology (IT) and consumer behavior published between 2008 and 2018. Design/methodology/approach In total, 112 articles published in 17 journals were identified and analyzed. Findings This study shows the importance of IT and RM and focuses on the consumer perspective. It also emphasizes that technology is not the enemy of humans: it complements and adds value to their existing jobs. Research limitations/implications Book chapters and conference proceedings related to IT and RM were not included in this study. Besides, only journal papers published in English were included in the study. The categorizing of subjects can be seen as subjective. Practical implications This study helps researchers discover articles from 2008 to 2018 and helps hospitality executives interested in RM technologies from the demand side to use these findings in their business environment. Originality/value Based on the interaction between service providers (hotels) and users (consumers) on IT and RM platforms, the paper identified eight key components that have been relevant over the past decade.

Idiosyncrasy, heterogeneity and evolution of managerial styles in contemporary Russia

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeniya Balabanova ◽  
Azer Efendiev ◽  
Mats Ehrnrooth ◽  
Alexei Koveshnikov
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Middle Managers ◽  
Economic Environment ◽  
Managerial Style ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Managerial Styles ◽  
Geographic Regions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine managerial styles of Russian managers in the context of institutional and economic environment of contemporary Russia. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a sample of 482 line and middle managers covering eight geographic regions, 14 industries and 80 organizations in Russia. Findings – Employing factor and cluster analyses the paper identifies four distinct managerial styles: paternalistic, exploitative, performance oriented and passive. In addition, the paper analyzes a number of contingent characteristics of these typological Russian managers such as their age, career development, regional, industrial and organizational presence. Originality/value – The analysis enriches the understanding of managerial style idiosyncrasy, heterogeneity and evolution in Russia. The identified plurality of managerial styles, differentially related to a number of contingency variables, indicates that it pays off for western companies to avoid using stereotypical ideas when dealing with their Russian counterparts and employ conscious strategies when recruiting managers to their Russian operations instead.

Predicting handbill avoidance in Hong Kong and the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 132-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard P. Prendergast ◽  
Alex S.L. Tsang ◽  
Ranis Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Perceived Value ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Advertising Avoidance ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Handbills are an interesting advertising medium since they are distributed by people in a social context. Little, however, is known about why handbills are often avoided. This study was designed with the purpose of extending previous research on advertising avoidance by using social psychological variables to explain consumers' avoidance of handbills in Hong Kong and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 337 individuals was conducted (166 in Hong Kong and 171 in the UK). A series of hypotheses relating to perceived handbill clutter, perceived goal impediment, and the perceived manner of the distributer were tested. Findings – Perceived handbill clutter was found to be the strongest predictor of handbill avoidance in both Hong Kong and the UK. The second strongest predictor was perceived goal impediment. The perceived manner of the distributor did not predict handbill avoidance in Hong Kong, but it did predict handbill avoidance in the UK. Research limitations/implications – The study's methodology has a number of limitations. First, the measure of the distributor's perceived manner may not have directly tapped the distributor dimensions of importance to handbill avoidance. Second, no account was taken of non-response bias. The model also did not recognize that there may be other variables capable of explaining handbill avoidance. Practical implications – The results suggest that effort is needed to raise the perceived value of handbills so that their perceived value neutralizes any perceptions of goal impediment. In addition, handbill designers need to find creative ways to stand out from the clutter. In the UK, deportment should be considered when distributors are recruited and trained. Originality/value – Handbills are frequently used as a promotional tool. In two contrasting countries, this study found that perceived handbill clutter, perceived goal impediment, and perceived manner of the distributer influence handbill avoidance. The research has extended theoretical knowledge related to advertising avoidance and generated insights that are likely to be of practical value to marketers.

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