Strategic coethnicity

Author(s):  
Kofi Takyi Asante

Purpose This paper aims to present two distinct approaches to migrant entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on ethnography of two Ghanaian migrant businesses, one of which draws on the Ghanaian community and another which distances itself from it, the author shows that the current understandings of social capital romanticise the notion of community. The author argues that to gain a better appreciation of the ways in which community resources are used by migrant entrepreneurs, we would need to reject such romanticised notions. Findings The ethnography revealed the operation of two entrepreneurial strategies. These, in turn, were shaped by the nature of the migrant community and the resources that entrepreneurs have at their disposal. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this research is that it draws on only two cases. Focusing on two cases allowed for an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms at play but limits the ability to generalise beyond these two cases. Further research will have to use large-scale survey designs to test the mechanisms which have been identified in this paper. Practical implications There are multiple, sometimes conflicting, tendencies in any specific entrepreneurial context, and the author proposes that this configuration of factors leads to the dominance of one or the other entrepreneurial approach. Social implications Underlying these dynamics is an attempt to reconcile the demands of two competing tendencies within the entrepreneurial context: the profit motive versus the community spirit. Originality/value The author concludes with a brief discussion of concept of strategic coethnicity by which this dilemma can be solved.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 20-22

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 This research paper concentrates on two case studies that reveal a community-oriented and a market-oriented strategy pursued by migrant entrepreneurs in one US city. The ways that social capital is deployed and the skill-based resources of the entrepreneur are key variables in the financial output of a community-centric business. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists 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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Moffatt

Purpose – This case example looks at how Deloitte Consulting applies the Three Rules synthesized by Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed based on their large-scale research project that identified patterns in the way exceptional companies think. Design/methodology/approach – The Three Rules concept is a key piece of Deloitte Consulting’s thought leadership program. So how are the three rules helping the organization perform? Now that research has shown how exceptional companies think, CEO Jim Moffatt could address the question, “Does Deloitte think like an exceptional company?” Findings – Deloitte has had success with an approach that promotes a bias towards non-price value over price and revenue over costs. Practical implications – It’s critical that all decision makers in an organization understand how decisions that are consistent with the three rules have contributed to past success as well as how they can apply the rules to difficult challenges they face today. Originality/value – This is the first case study written from a CEO’s perspective that looks at how the Three Rules approach of Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed can foster a firm’s growth and exceptional performance.


2007 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Rowlands ◽  
David Nicholas ◽  
Hamid R. Jamali ◽  
Paul Huntington

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to report on a large‐scale survey that was carried out to assess academic users' awareness, perceptions and existing levels of use of e‐books. The survey also seeks to find out about the purposes to which electronic books were put, and to obtain an understanding of the most effective library marketing and communication channels.Design/methodology/approachAn e‐mail invitation to participate in the survey was distributed to all UCL staff and students (approximately 27,000) in November 2006, and 1,818 completions were received, an effective response rate of at least 6.7 per cent. Statistical analyses were carried out on the data using Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).FindingsThe survey findings point to various ways in which user uptake and acceptance of e‐books may be encouraged. Book discovery behaviour, a key issue for publishers and librarians in both print and electronic environments, emerges as a critical focus for service delivery and enhancement.Originality/valueThe survey is part of an action research project, CIBER's SuperBook, that will further investigate the issues raised in this initial benchmarking survey using deep log analysis and qualitative methods. The paper partly fills the gap in the literature on e‐books which has mainly focused on usage and not the users.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Wise ◽  
Jelena Đurkin Badurina ◽  
Marko Perić

PurposeMore research is needed to consider residents’ perceptions prior to hosting large-scale events. This paper contributes new insight on residents’ perceptions of placemaking analysed by considering awareness, enthusiasm and participation prior to hosting a large-scale event. Placemaking is becoming increasingly important and this insight can help planners understand how locals perceive change and event planning preparations.Design/methodology/approach454 residents of Rijeka, Croatia completed a survey (seven-point Likert scale) of 17 placemaking principles, asked in three ways: (1) how you feel; (2) how you believe people near you feel and (3) if you feel that planning/preparing for ECoC 2020 has made a difference. The data analysis considers socio-demographics and the significance of awareness, enthusiasm and participation as factors affecting residents’ perceptions of placemaking.FindingsThe study found respondents originally from Rijeka expressed statistically significant higher level of agreement. Where statistically significant differences exist, female respondents expressed statistically significant higher levels of agreement. For six statements, the distribution of results was not similar for all age groups. Awareness and enthusiasm seems to influence placemaking principles to a greater extent than participation in this study, but all have proven to have statistically significant positive impacts on the placemaking principles assessed.Practical implicationsPlanners need to focus on effective promotional activities aimed at awareness and enhance enthusiasm to help increase perceptions of placemaking and increase local quality of life.Originality/valueexplores perceptions of “self” and “how others feel” by assessing principles of placemaking associated with the case of Rijeka. This allows researchers to explore understandings of how people perceive the attitudes of their fellow residents.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Chikudate ◽  
Can M. Alpaslan

Purpose Using as many perspectives as possible to understand large-scale industrial crises can be a daunting task. This paper aims to demonstrate a reasonably complex yet systemic, analytical and critical approach to analyzing what causes crises. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a multi-perspective methodology within which each perspective uses a substantially different ontology and epistemology, offering a deeper understanding of the causes of large-scale crises. The methodology utilizes extant theory and findings, archival data from English and Japanese sources, including narratives of focal people such as Toyota President Akio Toyoda. Findings The analysis suggests that what caused Toyota’s crisis was not just Toyota’s failure to solve its technical problems. It was Toyota’s collective myopia, interactively complex new technologies and misunderstanding of corporate citizenship. Practical implications The authors argue that crises are complex situations best understood from multiple perspectives and that easily observable aspects of crises are often not the most significant causes of crises. In most cases, causes of crises are hidden and taken-for-granted assumptions of managers. Thus, managers must view crises critically from multiple yet distinct viewpoints. Originality/value The authors use Alpaslan and Mitroff’s multi-disciplinary methodology to outline several critical perspectives on Toyota’s messy recall crisis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Denning

Purpose Agile is the umbrella term for a family of management practices, which include Scrum, Kanban, and Lean. To investigate Agile management as it was being practiced in large firms, in 2015 Scrum Alliance, whose mission is “to transform the world of work,” launched a Learning Consortium for the Creative Economy (LC), composed of a group of firms that included Microsoft, Ericsson, Magna International, Riot Games and others. Design/methodology/approach The group conducted site visits to learn from each other’s experiences with Agile. The questions to be explored included: To what extent are Agile management practices in fact occurring at scale in old and new firms? How effective are these management practices? Is it possible for the whole firm, particularly older firms with entrenched bureaucratic cultures, to become Agile? Findings The LC found that Agile management is already taking hold in large-scale implementations in both new and old firms. The LC observed that some firms were implementing Agile for large-scale, complex business challenges in areas beyond software, including operations where reliability is an issue. Practical implications Agile was seen as a different way of understanding and acting in the world. The successful firms were “being Agile,” not merely “doing Agile” within their existing management framework. Originality/value In the world of Agile management, delivering value to customers is the goal of every individual in the organization. Profits are seen as the result, not the goal. The Learning consortium sites visit offer managers an opportunity to study this philosophy in practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1532-1557
Author(s):  
Gerard William Stone ◽  
Sumit Lodhia

Purpose A goal of integrated reporting (IR) under the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)’s leadership is to provide clearly written, comprehensible and accessible information. In light of this objective, the purpose of this paper is to explore the readability and accessibility of integrated reports, an issue magnified by the IIRC’s continual commitment to clear and readable report language, and its intention for IR to become the corporate reporting norm. Design/methodology/approach In a whole text software facilitated analysis, the study utilises readability measures and supplementary measures of reader accessibility in a multi-year analysis of a large sample of global integrated reports sourced from the IIRC examples database. Findings The findings highlight the low readability of analysed integrated reports and indicate that readability is not improving. The supplementary measures suggest sub-optimal use of visual communication forms and overuse of structural presentation techniques which may contribute to reader accessibility of the analysed reports. Research limitations/implications The study extends readability analysis to an emerging corporate reporting phenomenon and its findings contribute to the growing IR literature. The study applies supplementary measures of reader accessibility which advance the methods available to assess the communication efficacy of integrated and other corporate reports. Practical implications The analysis of the readability and accessibility of integrated reports in the study indicates that the IIRC’s goal of clear, comprehensible and accessible reporting is not reflected by reporters’ practices. This has implications for the IIRC, reporting organisations, report readers and regulators. Originality/value The study represents the first large-scale analysis of the readability and accessibility of global integrated reports.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 1098-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengzhi Zhang ◽  
Zijing Yue ◽  
Qingqing Zhou ◽  
Shutian Ma ◽  
Zi-Ke Zhang

Purpose Food plays an important role in every culture around the world. Recently, cuisine preference analysis has become a popular research topic. However, most of these studies are conducted through questionnaires and interviews, which are highly limited by the time, cost and scope of data collection, especially when facing large-scale survey studies. Some researchers have, therefore, attempted to mine cuisine preferences based on online recipes, while this approach cannot reveal food preference from people’s perspective. Today, people are sharing what they eat on social media platforms by posting reviews about the meal, reciting the names of appetizers or entrees, and photographing as well. Such large amount of user-generated contents (UGC) has potential to indicate people’s preferences over different cuisines. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese cuisine preferences among online users of social media. Design/methodology/approach Based on both UGC and online recipes, the authors first investigated the cuisine preference distribution in different regions. Then, dish preference similarity between regions was calculated and few geographic factors were identified, which might lead to such regional similarity appeared in our study. By applying hierarchical clustering, the authors clustered regions based on dish preference and ingredient usage separately. Findings Experimental results show that, among 20 types of traditional Chinese cuisines, Sichuan cuisine is most favored across all regions in China. Geographical proximity is the more closely related to differences of regional dish preference than climate proximity. Originality/value Different from traditional definitions of regions to which cuisine belong, the authors found new association between region and cuisine based on dish preference from social media and ingredient usage of dishes. Using social media may overcome problems with using traditional questionnaires, such as high costs and long cycle for questionnaire design and answering.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Sandra Bergman

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how communication professionals enact an educational role aimed at improving organisational communication through communication training. Furthermore, this article analyses what this implementation means for the role of the communication professionals.Design/methodology/approachQualitative interviews were conducted with seven communication professionals and ten managers in two organisations. The organisations were selected due to their involvement in developing and implementing communication training programmes. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed inductively.FindingsThis study demonstrates how communication professionals are expanding their professional role to become trainers in communication. The managers who participated reported increased awareness of the communication departments and the support they can provide. The communication departments became more visible in the organisations.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is qualitative and limited to two organisations. The managers' perspectives suggest that when communication professionals act as internal trainers, their role within an organisation is strengthened.Practical implicationsThe results of this study indicate that in-house communication professionals enable managers to improve their communication, boosting their ability to implement simultaneous large-scale training and rendering the communication department more visible and available throughout the organisation.Originality/valueThis study adds to the existing discussion regarding the new roles of communication professionals in organisations by presenting two cases in which communication professionals are successfully functioning as internal communication trainers. The findings can help both researchers and practitioners gain insights into the future role of the communication profession.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 550-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlene S. Tipler ◽  
Ruth A. Tarrant ◽  
David M. Johnston ◽  
Keith F. Tuffin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons learned by schools from their involvement in the 2012 New Zealand ShakeOut nationwide earthquake drill. Design/methodology/approach – The results from a survey conducted with 514 schools were collated to identify the emergency preparedness lessons learned by schools through their participation in the ShakeOut exercise. Findings – Key findings indicated that: schools were likely to do more than the minimum when presented with a range of specific emergency preparedness activities; drills for emergency events require specific achievement objectives to be identified in order to be most effective in preparing schools; and large-scale initiatives, such as the ShakeOut exercise, encourage schools and students to engage in emergency preparedness activities. Practical implications – Based on the findings, six recommendations are made to assist schools to develop effective emergency response procedures. Originality/value – The present study contributes to the ongoing efforts of emergency management practitioners and academics to enhance the efficacy of school-based preparedness activities and to, ultimately, increase overall community resilience.


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