Understanding the morphing of focal nets in the solution business: a triad management perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Cova ◽  
Robert Spencer ◽  
Fabiana Ferreira ◽  
João Proença
Keyword(s):  
Firm Dynamics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Value System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
Management Perspective

Purpose Solutions are here approached from the focal net point of view i.e. the collaborative arrangements through which firms combine their individual offerings into a coherent, customer-facing solution. Focal nets are seen as an effective way to organize for value-system and solution development. However, a precise understanding as to how inter-firm dynamics support the morphing of a focal net to develop a customer’s solution is still not clear. This paper aims to provide an improved understanding of the dynamics at play between firms for providing a solution. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative and exploratory research approach is adopted, exploring the relationships at play within a focal net dedicated to providing a solution in the aerospace industry: a total of four triads are selected and analyzed, all of them involving the same buyer (the aircraft manufacturer) the same buyer’s customer (the airline) and a different service provider. Interviews with top managers in each company forming the triads have been carried out, with subsequent analysis, on the relational dynamics at play at the level of each triad and in-between triads within the focal net. Findings The study shows the handling by a solution provider of the transition from a program focal net to a customer-specific solution focal net. The four triads presented, taken individually, highlight four different component devices each of which contributes toward handling this transition. The four triads taken together along with their interactions (inter-triad) denote the capability of the solution provider to manage the morphing of the focal net. Originality/value The paper mobilizes a focal net perspective for the understanding of solution provision while combining this with a triadic perspective to demonstrate the inter-firm dynamics at play.

Stakeholder views on sustainability in an urban destination context: an inclusive path to destination competitiveness

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Panse ◽  
Alan Fyall ◽  
Sergio Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Mass Tourism ◽  
Destination Competitiveness ◽  
Development Goals

Purpose Mass tourism in urban settings has proven to be economically significant in many parts of the world. To date, however, the academic debate on sustainable tourism has focused primarily on the ecological and socio-cultural sustainability of tourism in rural and coastal, rather than urban, settings. This paper aims to review the emerging debate on sustainable urban tourism, its complexities and challenges, and questions how urban destinations that are striving to become sustainable cities, can leverage benefit from the implementation of sustainable policies and practices to achieve tourism ‘destination’ competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a qualitative, exploratory research approach using in-depth interviews to seek responses from key stakeholders on their views and experiences of sustainability in the context of an urban destination. Thematic analysis is used to analyze and present the findings. Findings This study concludes that destinations need to be viewed in their broader regional context. Rather than be viewed solely as destinations that are ‘kind to the environment,’ sustainable urban destinations need to demonstrate a deeper commitment to all stakeholder groups, and especially local residents, to provide a fair and desirable ecosystem for achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Originality/value This paper reflects on the potential relationship between ‘urban sustainability’ and the ‘destination competitiveness’ of an urban tourism destination. This then will provide the platform for sustainability to truly contribute to future destination competitiveness.

Corruption and control from the perspective of Islam

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-368
Author(s):  
Waled Younes E. Alazzabi ◽  
Hasri Mustafa ◽  
Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Situational Factor ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Control

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and provide insights into corruption and the control procedures from an Islamic perspective. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts qualitative research approach using the holy Quran as a primary source and hadith of the Prophet Mohammed supported by the anecdotes of his companions as a secondary source and prior literature. Findings This paper offers an Islamic taxonomy of corruption that contains economic, managerial, financial, political, environmental, social and ethical corruption which is explicitly prohibited because of their consequence on societies. Islam establishes proactive, preventive, detecting and reactive procedures to control corruption and prescribes how to avoid its harmful consequences. The paper also reveals significant concepts in relation to individuals’ qualities that if taken care of, better chances to reduce corruption and better living conditions can be accomplished. Research limitations/implications The paper recommends means to the business community through providing managerial and practical procedures which can be used for limiting corruption effectively. However, this piece of work provides further explanations on corruption to improve our understanding on such a phenomenon and contributes to the literature from the perspective of Islam point of view. Originality/value The paper contributes to the debate on corruption, human, religion and control from an Islamic point of view, which is lacking. This paper finds evidence that loss of belief is a situational factor that leads to corrupt acts. Also, moral teaching in early ages is necessary for inner and self-control. Moral renovation is an influential factor that keeps individuals motivated and refrain from indulging into corrupt acts.

Can return on investment in knowledge management initiatives in organizations be measured?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maayan Nakash ◽  
Dan Bouhnik
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Performance Measure ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
High Status ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis paper focuses on the meanings attributed to the measurement of return on investment (ROI) in knowledge management (KM) initiatives in knowledge-intensive organizations. At the heart of this exploratory research is the introduction of a unique coherent perspective of discipline experts regarding the ROI metric, as part of their perception of assessing effectiveness in this field.Design/methodology/approachThe research begins with in-depth semi-structured personal interviews and continues with focus groups, as part of a qualitative research paradigm. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis method, based on the grounded theory approach.FindingsThe findings provide empirical evidence regarding the significant challenges associated with the objective assessment of KM performance, which is deeply rooted in numerical-financial values. Despite the high status of ROI in the business environment, the authors find that decision-makers surprisingly avoid evaluating ROI for the most important resource of the organization, notwithstanding the immeasurable hopes that depend on this performance measure and the expectation of establishing the profitability of investment in organizational KM.Originality/valueThe uniqueness of this research is the adoption of the skeptical-critical research approach. For the first time, the authors interrogate the suitability and relevance of the general model of the ROI metric as a means of proving the value and contribution of well-managed knowledge to organizations. The authors call for adoption of a new integrative perspective for evaluating effectiveness, which will reflect the holistic set of KM in organizations.

scholarly journals Managerial and leadership implications of the retained duty system in English fire and rescue services

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien West ◽  
Peter Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Rescue Services ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Key Issues

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial and leadership challenges faced when managing personnel in the retained duty system (RDS) within English fire and rescue services. It examines the key areas of motivation, commitment, culture, relationships and practical management arrangements. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory research, using primary and secondary sources, adopted a deductive approach, incorporating questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and document analysis. Findings The research identified issues agreed upon by both employees and managers, and as well as areas of disparity and conflict. It also highlighted matters that appear to be pivotal to the successful management of a RDS, and in particular the importance of how roles are deployed, and managed by senior management, as well as how employees perceive them. Practical implications This paper offers recommendations regarding the managerial understanding and appreciation of an RDS as some managers in this research appear to have little or no knowledge of (or indeed a misconception of) key issues in the effective management of the RDS It suggests recommendations for the wider support and engagement of RDS personnel. Originality/value This paper offers a contemporary assessment of the challenges faced when managing RDS personnel. While firefighters and whole-time unionised firefighters in particular, have attracted interest from scholars of industrial relations, there has been relatively little academic research from a public management perspective.

Triggers and motivators of privacy protection behavior on Facebook

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Alkire ◽  
Johannes Pohlmann ◽  
Willy Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
User Privacy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Internet user privacy risks have been a topical subject with respect to consumers, corporations and governments. In line with the recent privacy scandals linked to social media, the aim of this study is to explore users’ privacy protection behaviors (PPB) on Facebook through the actions they take to protect their privacy, their underlying motives and the values behind these protective actions. Moreover, this study aims to address an unintended consequence of Facebook usage. Despite Facebook’s positive and uplifting goal of connecting people, consumers are forced to resort to specific behaviors to protect their privacy and well-being. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts an exploratory research approach by using a well-established qualitative technique: structured laddering interviews. In total, 20 in-depth personal interviews were conducted with the Millennials. Findings Results show that the process of privacy protection is initiated by experiences, uncertainty and literacy, rather than threats, which leads to concerns that trigger PPBs. The most common PPBs include: “Reflection,” “Avoidance,” “Intervention,” “Restriction,” “Control,” and “Restraint.” The underlying motives for the adoption of these strategies include: “Success,” “Security,” “Social Recognition,” “A World of Peace,” “Exclusivity of Self,” “Being in Control,” “Meaning” and “True Friendship”. Originality/value The present research adopts a transdisciplinary framework to help fill the gap regarding the interplay of PPBs on Facebook, the triggers of those behaviors and their underlying motives. It contributes to the service literature and practice as it provides insights into a growing area of interest, whereas more social media channels are being created and more services are using social media strategies to engage and interact with their customers. Finally, it addresses the growing need to consider the impact of technological services, including internet and social media, on consumers’ and societies’ well-being.

Shari’ah issues in Islamic banking: a qualitative survey in Malaysia

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelghani Echchabi ◽  
Hassanuddeen Abd. Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Islamic Finance ◽  
Islamic Banking ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Islamic Banks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Survey ◽  
Customers Perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the customers’ perception regarding the current shari’ah issues of Islamic banks in Malaysia. Specifically, the study attempts to examine the awareness of the current criticisms of the main shari’ah issues in Islamic finance, and the perception of the selected customers towards these criticisms. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a qualitative approach to understand in detail the customers’ perception and experiences about shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks. Semi-structured interview is used with ten Islamic banks’ customers in Malaysia. The study also used phenomenological techniques to analyse the data. Findings – The findings revealed that the interviewees have considerable exposure and awareness of the current criticisms of the shari’ah compliance of Islamic banks. Originality/value – This research is the first to study the shari’ah issues of Islamic banks in Malaysia from the customers’ perspective, by using a qualitative research approach. The findings of this study are of original importance, because they unveil the customers’ experience in an area that has been severely looked at from the professional and experts’ point of view only.

Ownership concentration of three large Belgian banks during the crisis

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 663-677
Author(s):  
Jean-Charles Deudon ◽  
Ana C. Marques ◽  
Gerrit Sarens
Keyword(s):  
Ownership Structure ◽  
Financial Distress ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Concentrated Ownership ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
External Sources ◽  
The One ◽  
Year 2000

Purpose – In this paper, two different ownership structures in Belgian banks are studied to see whether this had an impact on how these banks went through the financial crisis of 2007-2008. On the one hand, there is the concentrated ownership structure with a number of major shareholders, while on the other hand, the ownership can be really dispersed with no shareholder having a significantly large stake and ability to influence management’s decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The authors study three large Belgians banks. Dexia and KBC followed the first model (concentrated ownership), while Fortis’ ownership was really dispersed since the year 2000. The authors perform several interviews with people involved with these banks during the crisis and analyze several external sources of information. Findings – The mitigating impact that major shareholders could have had on the – in hindsight – wrong decisions of Belgian banks’ top managers is found to be very limited. Therefore, it can be concluded that the dispersed ownership structure of Fortis was not an important factor in its collapse. Nevertheless, a concentrated ownership structure has been found out to help in case of financial distress, mainly because governments will be more inclined to participate to bailouts when a sound rescue strategy, elaborated with the help of a stable and concentrated ownership structure, is present. Originality/value – By performing interviews, the authors get an insider’s point of view of these banks during the crisis.

What do we know about manufacturing reshoring?

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Barbieri ◽  
Francesco Ciabuschi ◽  
Luciano Fratocchi ◽  
Matteo Vignoli
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Processes ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
New Business ◽  
Industrialization Policy

Purpose The aim of this paper is to analyze and classify research that has been conducted on manufacturing reshoring, i.e. the decision to bring back to the home country production activities earlier offshored, independently of the governance mode (insourcing vs outsourcing). Consequently, the paper also aims at providing avenues for future research and to highlight the distinct value of studying manufacturing reshoring either per se or in combination with other constructs of the international business tradition. Design/methodology/approach A set of 57 carefully selected articles on manufacturing reshoring published in international journals or books indexed on Scopus in the past 10 years was systematically analyzed based on the “5Ws and 1H” (who-what-where-when-why and how) set of questions. Findings The authors’ work shows a certain convergence among authors regarding what reshoring is and what its key features and motivations are. In contrast, other related aspects, such as the decision-making and implementation processes, are comparatively less understood. Research limitations/implications As manufacturing reshoring is a “recent” topic, for some of its aspects, only exploratory research is available to date, limiting the authors’ possibility to either characterize it in a more exhaustive way or highlight well-established patterns. Practical implications The paper demonstrates that studying reshoring will indeed contribute to expanding our understanding of internationalization processes and strategies in general and of production internationalization specifically. While past studies have argued that the learning derived from international experience would permit firms to overcome their unfamiliarity with new business environments, reshoring might show that this outcome is not necessarily certain. Rather, firms might not be able to overcome obstacles because of internationalization or they might realize that attempting to do so is not desirable, e.g. because of excessive risk or changes in the firm’s strategic priorities. Social implications From a societal point of view, the present research underlines that reshoring can be part of that re-industrialization policy that many Western countries include in their economic agenda – yet, its impact on employment should not be overestimated, as often relocation is only in regard to some product lines. At the same time, there might be an intimate relationship between reshoring and the various forms of technological innovations applied to manufacturing – which has become popularly labeled as “Industry 4.0”. Originality/value Literature reviews proposed until now usually paid almost exclusive attention to motivations driving this phenomenon. This paper offers a broader and more comprehensive examination of the extant knowledge of manufacturing reshoring and identifies the main unresolved issues and knowledge gaps, which future research should investigate.

Multi-brand loyalty: when one brand is not enough

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reto Felix
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Tradition ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Over Time

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to provide a deeper, constructivist account of multi-brand loyalty. Previous literature has acknowledged the existence of multi-brand loyalty, but described it from a narrow, rational and primarily utilitarian point of view. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on open-ended, depth interviews. Data were labeled, coded and classified into different topics, and thematic analysis was used to identify three dominant themes. Findings – Multi-brand loyalty emerged in three forms: biased, specialized and perfect substitutes. These relationships may undergo dynamic transformations over time. Further, family tradition and perceived freedom were identified as two important motivations for consumers to be loyal to more than one brand. The managerial implications address suggestions on how companies can avoid that consumers become loyal to several brands instead of maintaining single-brand loyalty. Originality/value – The study is the first to address multi-brand loyalty based on a qualitative research approach and provides preliminary insights into occurrences and motivations related to the construct.

Myths of top tourism countries, tourism contribution and competitiveness

2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Mihalic ◽  
Julio Aramberri
Keyword(s):  
Data Gathering ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Value System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
A Value ◽  
Limited Applicability ◽  
Tourism Policy ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Generally True

Purpose – This paper aims to deal with the myths of tourism in regard to the tourism available data and their mythical interpretation in relation to top tourism countries, tourism economic contribution and competitiveness and to argue that there is yet no such thing as globalisation of tourism demand. For many decades, tourism researchers have tried to present the true tourism situation, yet – seduced by the available tourism data and rankings – they might have failed to produce the accurate or generally true description. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a transformative research approach which aims to break existing scientific paradigms in the field of tourism knowledge. Thus, this paper challenges the ever going elaboration of established tourism meanings by asking whether tourism understanding of its development, rankings and competitiveness is justified under the present circumstances. Findings – The paper presented some existing anomalies in the understanding of tourism global system which are based on existing data, methodologies, geo-political structure of sovereign states and tourism research values. This implies a limited applicability of current tourism understandings to a universal level. Research limitations/implications – For the time being, the discussion on accuracy of the authors’ tourism knowledge remains under the notion of “tourism myths” and the doors for more research on what new approaches, values and methodologies would enable tourism researchers to obtain the accurate tourism rankings, remain wide open. Practical implications – This paper can mobilise for improvements in data gathering, accessibility, interpretation and methodology to improve tourism policy, planning and management. In this regard, the paper mobilises for “cosmopolitan responsibility” for tourism surveys and understandings which will provide tourism researchers with a value system that meets the globalised tourism development. Social implications – This paper shows the possible impact on tourism knowledge, new tourism paradigms and then on tourism policy and management. Originality/value – This paper’s originality is in opening up new approaches to understanding what tourism researchers a while ago would never have considered relevant.

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