Supply and sales

The textbook discusses theoretical, methodological and practical issues related to the activities of such important areas in the life of any organization as supply and sales. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for undergraduate and graduate students studying in the areas of training "Management", "Economics", "State and Municipal Management", "Quality Management", "Housing and communal infrastructure", "Trade", as well as in engineering, technological and other areas and specialties providing for the study of disciplines of economic, organizational and managerial cycles; for graduate students, students of business schools and advanced training and retraining courses. It can be useful for university teachers, employees of research and consulting firms, managers and specialists of enterprises.

Competitiveness of organizations and territories

The textbook discusses the issues of managing the competitiveness of organizations and territories, including the theory of competition, its role in the economy, types and strategies of competition. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for university students studying in bachelor's and master's degrees in the areas of training "Management", "Economics", "State and Municipal Management", "Housing and communal infrastructure", "Trade", "Quality Management", as well as in engineering and technological areas and specialties studying disciplines of economic, organizational and managerial cycles; for graduate students, students of business schools and advanced training and retraining courses. It can be useful for university teachers, employees of research and consulting firms, business structures, managers and specialists of enterprises.

Critical Success Factors for Organizational Agility

Companies are facing important challenges related to markets' internationalization, regulatory restrictions, and fierce competition especially during the COVID-19 context. Environment is thus characterized by rapid and volatile changes. Organizational agility is the key capability allowing firms to adapt continuously by sensing changes in their environment and responding in an efficient and rapid manner. Previous work has addressed organizational agility enablers, including IT ones, allowing the firm to be more agile. In this chapter, the authors first extend their organizational agility enablers list through an in-depth analysis of consulting firms and governmental agencies reports on agility during the COVID-19 context. The final list contains 28 organizational agility enablers belonging to 10 groups. Then, the authors conduct a Q-study in order to identify what factors are critical for a successful journey towards agility and to analyze the results from an IT perspective.

Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement for a Diverse Workforce

In the recent years, employee engagement has become a hot topic of discussion among popular business press and consulting firms. This topic has created interest in various stakeholder groups ranging from scholarly human resource practitioners to policy makers or government agencies. The interest in employee engagement has progressively increased, however, in academic literature: the concept of employee engagement has been studied rarely and comparatively less is known regarding its antecedents and consequences. Recently, a number of researchers have argued that the challenge of engaging the employees is mounting. Although it seems to conceptually overlap with existing constructs, for instance, job involvement, organizational commitment, still some empirical research confirms that engagement is a separate construct. Therefore, this chapter aims (a) to shed some light in this respect by assessing the association between workforce diversity, specifically in terms of their age and employee engagement, and (b) to provide a variety of precursors and outcomes of employee engagement.

Team Members’ Perspectives on Factors Affecting Virtual Team Working in Information Technology Consulting Firms

This study aims to explore team members’ perspectives on factors affecting virtual team working in information technology consulting firms. Using semi-structured interviews with 25 research participants, this research adopted 2 virtual teams in different contexts. One that had no face-to-face interaction whereas and the other one had the initial face-to-face meeting. The results showed that communication, trust, socialization, cultural diversity and leadership were factors affecting virtual team working for both teams. Communication was the main challenge due to different time zones but both teams overcame by organizing overlapping hours to have online synchronous meetings. The initial face-to-face meeting and open lines of communication developed affect-based trust among team members whereas cognition-based trust based on consistent work performance existed in virtual teams that lacked physical interaction. Conducting virtual bonding exercises occasionally is necessary for virtual team members in order to renew interpersonal ties among team members. In terms of culture diversity, team members from individualistic cultures favored direct communication whereas team members from collectivistic cultures soured out group-based information before reaching unanimous decisions. In terms of leadership, managers of both virtual teams ensured that work progress was on schedule and maintaining positive leadership attitudes is the key to lead virtual teams.

Introduction to Territory Marketing

The textbook allows you to form competencies in the field of specialized marketing activities - territory marketing. In the theoretical part of the manual, modern concepts, technologies, methods and strategic aspects of territory marketing are outlined; an idea is given about the specifics of the tools of marketing management of the territory, including digital marketing, cluster marketing, crowdsourcing, branding; individual aspects of interaction with consulting firms are considered. To consolidate theoretical knowledge and form practical skills in each chapter, the theoretical material is accompanied by self-control questions and practical tasks. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. For students in the bachelor's degree 38.03.02 "Management", it can also be useful for students in the master's degree 38.04.02 "Management", students of business schools, advanced training programs, practitioners engaged in regional management and marketing.

An empirical study of sustainability reporting assurance: current trends and new insights

Purpose This study aims to examine trends in the global assurance practices of sustainability reports, updating and broaden the extant literature and proving new insights that could guide future research. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected for 12,783 companies and exploratory descriptive analyses of sustainability reporting assurance practices were undertaken. Findings The study shows that assurance growth is lagging behind the growth in sustainability reporting. It reveals that assurer switching is a common practice amongst companies. There is an increasing trend towards the use of the International Standard for Assurance Engagements 3000 by non-accounting assurers. Additionally, in terms of assurance providers, the study finds that accounting firms are dominating the market, however, engineering firms are fast increasing their share of the sustainability assurance market, whilst consulting firms’ share is decreasing. However, the switch towards consulting firms is higher than the switch towards accounting firms in the last switch period. Practical implications Overall, the results of this study provide insights about companies’ assurance practices for regulators, assurance providers and companies interested in assuring their sustainability reports. Social implications This study is relevant for companies’ stakeholders, including investors, to enhance their understanding of companies’ current assurance practices. Originality/value Prior studies on the assurance practices of sustainability reports are limited in scope (concentrate on large companies) and depth (examine accounting vs non-accounting assures and consider the evolving patterns at the institutional rather than firm-level). This study presents developments and trajectories of assurance practices to inform researchers and practitioners on the global trends by bringing an updated and broader perspective on the topic.

Evaluating the Service Operating Efficiency and Its Determinants in Global Consulting Firms: A Metafrontier Analysis

Knowledge consulting services are one of the fastest growing fields in the knowledge service industry since the 2010s and have been emerging as a core area of the knowledge economy. Accordingly, consulting services are actively sought and provided in various fields, including business strategy and management, accounting, and ICT, and global consulting firms have experienced rapid growth. However, previous research evaluating the performance or service quality of knowledge consulting services is relatively scarce. In particular, there are barely any studies that apply the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to measure the relative operating efficiencies of consulting firms in the global consulting service field. This study measured the operating efficiency of 27 global consulting firms using DEA. As global consulting firms are managed differently depending on the characteristics of the country in which they operate, the 27 global consulting firms were classified into three groups by region (USA, Europe, Asia) to measure their meta-efficiency (ME), group efficiency (GE), and technology gap ratio (TGR) and identify the causes of inefficiency at global consulting firms. The contextual variables within consulting firms that affect efficiency were analyzed using Tobit regression. Based on the analysis results, this study suggests strategies for enhancing the operating efficiency and realizing sustainable growth in global consulting firms.

Protecting National Park Soundscapes: Summary of the 2012 NAE workshop

After reviewing the 2010 National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report "Technology for a Quieter America", the National Park Service (NPS) asked the NAE to undertake a consensus study on the importance of quiet to both visitors and wildlife in its hundreds of properties. The aim of the workshop was to provide best practices to assist NPS park managers, contractors, and concessionaires in protecting park soundscapes. The workshop was hosted by the NPS in Fort Collins, Colorado in October 2012 and was attended by twenty-four participants including park personnel and noise control specialists from government, academia, industry and consulting firms. The NAE report published in cooperation with the NPS and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center identified seventeen cost-effective actions for reducing noise in our national parks. This paper describes and summarizes the issues raised at the workshop and those recommendations.

Compliance in corporate culture: codes of ethics and conduct of consultants

For a long time, the point of view on compliance as a set of initiatives aimed at preventing illegal actions dominated. Currently, an extended interpretation of compliance is becoming widespread, which should also cover the ethical aspects of doing business.During the analysis, it was found that ethical standards in consulting were formed simultaneously with the formation of the consultant profession. This allows us to draw a conclusion about the successful century-old practice of implementing ethical codes into the corporate culture of consulting firms. This article is a continuation of the authors’ research in the field of management consulting.The purpose of the study is to analyse the Russian and foreign experience of implementing ethical standards and compliance control in the field of management consulting. The methodological basis of the research is the methods of logical, comparative, expert analysis, marketing research. The informational basis of the research is regulatory legal acts, official websites and documents of consulting companies and professional associations of consultants, expert assessments and ratings of consulting firms.The article reveals an interconnected three-level system of international, national and intra-company standards of business ethics and professional practice; gives examples of reputational risks of well-known international consulting companies; justifies the role of consulting firms in the formation of the ethical structure of business. The practical significance of the study is to focus the attention of client companies on the need to familiarize themselves with the standards of ethics and business practices before concluding a contract with a consulting firm.