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1 – 10 of over 2000Mohanbir Sawhney, Jon Nathanson, Oded Perry, Chad Smith, Sripad Sriram and James Tsai
Israeli entrepreneur and inventor Dov Moran envisioned the creation of a mobile device that was a small, stand-alone, fully functional mobile phone that could be slipped into a…
Abstract
Israeli entrepreneur and inventor Dov Moran envisioned the creation of a mobile device that was a small, stand-alone, fully functional mobile phone that could be slipped into a variety of enclosures, or “jackets,” that would provide added functionality and better reflect the personalities of its users. As the development of the Modu phone began to take shape, Moran and his team decided that to ensure the success of the new phone's much anticipated launch, Modu would develop and market the accessory jackets itself. The question now was which of the eight jackets to develop and what factors should be considered in making that decision. The case is about how to estimate optimal product-line extensions after accounting for experience curve and cannibalization effects of products that share similar features, cost, and price. This will require quantitative analysis that estimates the effect of the experience curve and cannibalization on cost, revenues, and ultimately, profit. The issue is how to optimize profits by choosing an ideal set of products.
Understand the importance of quantitative analysis in launching product-line extensions while taking into account demand and cost side interactions
Combine both qualitative and quantitative data in choosing a targeted segment
Reflect on the strategic and financial considerations in choosing a segment for a new technology product
Evaluate the implications of experience curve and cannibalization when introducing product-line extensions and their impact on the decision under consideration
Understand the importance of quantitative analysis in launching product-line extensions while taking into account demand and cost side interactions
Combine both qualitative and quantitative data in choosing a targeted segment
Reflect on the strategic and financial considerations in choosing a segment for a new technology product
Evaluate the implications of experience curve and cannibalization when introducing product-line extensions and their impact on the decision under consideration
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of nostalgia, especially nostalgia associated with place, and its potential in the development of branding and advertising…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of nostalgia, especially nostalgia associated with place, and its potential in the development of branding and advertising images for the hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper achieves its aims by reviewing the relevant literature and illustrating the extant theory with the results of a small pilot study.
Findings
Nostalgia is an effective tool for developing brand and advertising images for the hospitality industry. It is relevant especially to place and place‐related aspects such as terroir and it communicates with consumers of all ages. As well as evoking a direct response, nostalgic images also bring to mind many related sounds, odours and objects, which may also be linked with expectation. However, nostalgic images must be chosen with care, since some individuals may be negatively affected by them.
Practical implications
Hospitality organizations can make greater use of their links with place, culture and food by incorporating nostalgic imagery in their branding and advertising. The effects of nostalgia are felt by more age groups than is generally recognized.
Original/value
There has been little, if any, attention to nostalgia as a marketing tool in the hospitality industry. This article, which addresses this shortfall, will appeal to hospitality managers and entrepreneurs who seek to improve the effectiveness of their branding and advertising.
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Many scholars analyse networks and learning to understand how individuals successfully create and manage new ventures. Based on the assumption that entrepreneurs learn from…
Abstract
Purpose
Many scholars analyse networks and learning to understand how individuals successfully create and manage new ventures. Based on the assumption that entrepreneurs learn from networks, the purpose of this paper is to examine which types of difficulties encourage entrepreneurs to use networks to facilitate learning, whether entrepreneurs change networks to deal with such difficulties, and which network characteristics facilitate learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Networks are considered a potential source of learning, namely, the cognitive process of acquiring and structuring knowledge, creating meaning from experience and generating new solutions from existing knowledge. Through networks, entrepreneur share information and discuss opportunities and problems. Using an innovative approach combining story telling and network mapping, this study analyses how entrepreneurs use networks in learning. The data collected from six entrepreneurs working in knowledge-intensive sectors enables examining the learning process ensuing from the interactions between entrepreneurs and their contacts.
Findings
The findings show that entrepreneurs construct different types of networks in response to their difficulties, not in relation to products or technologies, but to learn to overcome self-crises, external threats, management and organisational issues. The findings reveal that entrepreneurs develop networks dominated by strong ties for exploitative learning and networks dominated by weak ties for explorative learning.
Originality/value
This study contributes to literature on networks and entrepreneurial learning. More specifically, the study provides evidence of learning in the context of networks, which is a relatively overlooked area in entrepreneurship literature, identifying the role of difficulties in determining the type of learning through networks and the related mechanisms.
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Kieron Sheehy, Rajni Kumrai and Martin Woodhead
The paper aims to explore young people's experiences of having access to personal advisors (PAs), from Connexions, a support and guidance service.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore young people's experiences of having access to personal advisors (PAs), from Connexions, a support and guidance service.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted, in two phases, with young people in a large new town. Thematic analysis highlighted significant issues and suggested factors that might differentiate between those in employment, education and training and those not in this position.
Findings
Young people's relationship with their Connexions PA emerged as a significant factor in mediating the extent to which they used the service as a “portal” to opportunities and resources. For some young people faced with complex and challenging circumstances, the relationship with their PA provided a uniquely stable and valued source of support.
Research limitations/implications
Although drawn from a small and focused sample, the results suggests that the large‐scale cuts to the service, currently underway, could have a significant impact on young people in difficult circumstances.
Practical implications
The identity of the Connexions service creates issues of access for potential service users.
Originality/value
The research illustrates the positive impact that PAs can have in the complex and challenging situations which some young people encounter. It highlights the nature of the relationship developed with PA as a key issue in facilitating positive changes in the lives of young people. It also suggest that the categories of not in education, employment and training and education, employment and training are too simplistic as descriptors of the young peoples lives or the work undertaken with them by PAs.
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Mike Young and Victor Dulewicz
This paper aims to present a summary of a study to identify the competencies of effective leadership and management in the British Royal Navy (RN).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a summary of a study to identify the competencies of effective leadership and management in the British Royal Navy (RN).
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 261 Officers and Ratings. Performance was determined through the organisation's own extensive appraisal process, whilst personality and competency data were gathered through the use of the well‐established occupational personality questionnaire (OPQ) and the then relatively new leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ).
Findings
The results provide support for an integrated approach to leadership and management selection and development by identifying four “supra‐competency” clusters associated with high performance in both activities. They also provide an illuminating insight into the important academic debate over the differences between the constructs of leadership and management. Additional findings highlight the importance of motivation as a competency, and deliver the first empirical support for a relationship between congruent/public and emotional/private self‐awareness and performance.
Practical implications
The findings have been endorsed by the RN and are being actively implemented as the basis for all leadership and management selection, training and development.
Originality/value
This is a rare example of a study of leadership and management validated against formal performance appraisal data. The fact that conclusions are drawn from an appraisal system which conforms with best practice and from a highly representative sample, with a 97 per cent response rate, reinforces their value.
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Mike Young and Victor Dulewicz
To develop a model clarifying the personal factors and behavioural characteristics (competencies) relevant to effective command, leadership and management in the Royal Navy.
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a model clarifying the personal factors and behavioural characteristics (competencies) relevant to effective command, leadership and management in the Royal Navy.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire study was conducted on a sample of 261 Officers and ratings. Their performance was rated through the organisation's own rigorous appraisal process whilst personality and competency data were gathered through the use of the well‐established occupational personality questionnaire (OPQ) and the relatively new leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ).
Findings
The results provide support for the RN's current integrated approach to command, leadership and management by identifying four “supra‐competency” clusters – conceptualising, aligning, interacting and creating success – and the related personality and leadership dimensions, which are correlated with high performance. Support for the validity of the LDQ and OPQ questionnaires is also produced by the results found from performance appraisal data.
Research limitations/implications
The research was conducted within one establishment of one of the services (the RN). Further replication studies in other services and private sector companies are planned or underway.
Practical implications
The model produced from this study is now being used by the British Royal Navy as the basis of command, leadership and management training and development and its use by the Admiralty Interview Board for Officer selection is currently under consideration. Some findings are generalisable to other organisations.
Originality/value
This is a rare example of a study of leadership validated against formal performance appraisal data. The fact that conclusions are drawn from an appraisal system which conforms to best practice and from a highly representative sample, with a 97 per cent response rate, supports the value of these findings for both academic researchers and practitioners.
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Mike Young and Victor Dulewicz
This paper aims to present some findings from a wider study into effective command, leadership and management in the British Royal Navy (RN). Its aim is to increase understanding…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present some findings from a wider study into effective command, leadership and management in the British Royal Navy (RN). Its aim is to increase understanding of two types of self‐awareness, emotional and congruent, and their relationship to job performance and personality.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 261 Officers and Ratings in the Royal Navy. Performance was established through the organisation's own rigorous appraisal process, while personality and competency data were gathered through the use of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) and the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ). Two difference measures were computed to assess the congruence of self‐other assessment (d1) and degree of under‐ or over‐rating (d2).
Findings
The results demonstrate that self‐evaluation of own performance (from LDQ) was significantly correlated with appraised (actual) performance. Hierarchical regression showed that both d scales explain significant variance in appraised performance, especially the d2 measure which accounted for 47 per cent. The findings establish the first empirical relationship between congruent/public (self‐evaluation) and emotional/private (self‐consciousness) self‐awareness and performance.
Research limitations/implications
Measures of self‐awareness were derived from the three data sets described, not from a separate measure. The findings relate to a single organisation and need to be replicated more widely.
Practical implications/implications
The results of this study suggest that emotional/private and congruent/public self‐awareness are related to each other and that the latter is significantly related to effective performance. The findings have implications for manager and officer assessment, selection and development.
Originality/value
Given the broad employment contexts of previous studies into external/congruent and internal/emotional self‐awareness and performance, the findings and improvement applications discussed in this paper could have practical implications for many other organisations.
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Jacky Young, Debbie Collins and Kerry Keel
Unicorn and STILAS are multiuser client/server systems developed in and for the Unix environment to automate all aspects of information management, from cataloging and authority…
Abstract
Unicorn and STILAS are multiuser client/server systems developed in and for the Unix environment to automate all aspects of information management, from cataloging and authority control to intelligent access of non‐SIRSI databases. In keeping with the client/server concept, SIRSI has introduced a graphical user interface (GUI) to Unicorn and STILAS. The SIRSI system provides a path to information both inside and outside the library. SIRSI provides a standard interface, an “Intelligent Interface” client to diverse database systems and other vendors' library automation systems. SIRSI's Reference Database Managers provide an intelligent connection to locally mounted reference databases. SIRSI's VIZION, a stand‐alone desktop client, provides an automatic graphical user interface to hundreds of online sources of information and services available through the Internet and via modem. Furthermore, SIRSI has recently introduced WebCat, which facilitates mounting and access to the complete catalogs and other services of libraries over the Internet's World Wide Web.
This chapter complements the one that appeared as “History of the AIB Fellows: 1975–2008” in Volume 14 of this series (International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First…
Abstract
This chapter complements the one that appeared as “History of the AIB Fellows: 1975–2008” in Volume 14 of this series (International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First 50 Years and Beyond, Jean J. Boddewyn, Editor). It traces what happened under the deanship of Alan Rugman (2011–2014) who took many initiatives reported here while his death in July 2014 generated trenchant, funny, and loving comments from more than half of the AIB Fellows. The lives and contributions of many other major international business scholars who passed away from 2008 to 2014 are also evoked here: Endel Kolde, Lee Nehrt, Howard Perlmutter, Stefan Robock, John Ryans, Vern Terpstra, and Daniel Van Den Bulcke.
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Mike W. Peng, Canan C. Mutlu, Steve Sauerwald, Kevin Y. Au and Denis Y.L. Wang
This paper aims to explore the interlock-performance relationship among mainland Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong by taking advantage of a relationship-intensive context whereby…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the interlock-performance relationship among mainland Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong by taking advantage of a relationship-intensive context whereby such a link is likely to be especially important. Although strategic networks such as interlocking directorates have been found to affect a number of strategic behaviors, the link connecting board interlocks and corporate performance has remained ambiguous. Considerable light has been shed on the strategic networks of firms whose shares are listed abroad, which have been under-studied despite their rising importance in the global economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Data come from a particularly interesting historical period – the early 1990s prior to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China. Both quantitative and qualitative research have been used.
Findings
Empirically, it was found that good performance in an earlier period helps draw outside directors in a later period, and that network centrality and certain types of interlocks help improve performance, albeit with varying degrees. Overall, our results answer the question whether strategic networks such as interlocks matter for corporate performance with a qualified “yes”.
Originality/value
Taking advantage of a relationship-intensive context, this article explores the interlock-performance relationship among mainland Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong. Focus is specifically on the two years, 1993 and 1995, due to their specific historical importance because these two years represent the beginning of Chinese firms’ listing in Hong Kong.
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