Eliza Sharma and John Ben Prince
The paper aims to explore the problems related to the financial management of municipal corporations in India and to suggest solutions.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the problems related to the financial management of municipal corporations in India and to suggest solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on primary data collected from a sample of 577 employees of municipal corporations working in four metro cities of India, namely Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi. Data were put through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for problem identification and inferences were classified and grouped to map the solutions for these problems.
Findings
The study found that municipal corporations in India face four major problems or issues in their financial management. These problems are mainly related to the four dimensions: Power, Interruptions, Finances, and Resources. The model used to explore these four types of issues is named as “PIFR model” by the author.
Originality/value
The findings suggest that real-world problems can be represented through a conceptual model that helps in identifying practical suggestions which can be implemented by municipal corporations at the ground level for better financial management.
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Alessandro Stefanini, Davide Aloini and Peter Gloor
This study investigates the relationships between team dynamics and performance in healthcare operations. Specifically, it explores, through wearable sensors, how team…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relationships between team dynamics and performance in healthcare operations. Specifically, it explores, through wearable sensors, how team coordination mechanisms can influence the likelihood of surgical glitches during routine surgery.
Design/methodology/approach
Breast surgeries of a large Italian university hospital were monitored using Sociometric Badges – wearable sensors developed at MIT Media Lab – for collecting objective and systematic measures of individual and group behaviors in real time. Data retrieved were used to analyze team coordination mechanisms, as it evolved in the real settings, and finally to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Findings highlight that a relevant portion of glitches in routine surgery is caused by improper team coordination practices. In particular, results show that the likelihood of glitches decreases when practitioners adopt implicit coordination mechanisms rather than explicit ones. In addition, team cohesion appears to be positively related with the surgical performance.
Originality/value
For the first time, direct, objective and real time measurements of team behaviors have enabled an in-depth evaluation of the team coordination mechanisms in surgery and the impact on surgical glitches. From a methodological perspective, this research also represents an early attempt to investigate coordination behaviors in dynamic and complex operating environments using wearable sensor tools.
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Loubna A. Youssef, Usama Elsayed, Sherif Shaheen and Nour Mahmoud Khalifa
This paper focuses on a project to work on the digital library of Arab children's culture for sustainable development (DLACSD).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on a project to work on the digital library of Arab children's culture for sustainable development (DLACSD).
Design/methodology/approach
This project claims to link the past, present, and future by creating a platform that can grow to include not only works by adults but by children who inspire adults with their imagination and the joys they bring to the world.
Findings
This project addresses in phases the different aspects of the problem of the lack of material for Egyptian/Arab children at different stages in Arabic on the internet (with copyright law in mind). It is time to fill this gap by having a rich repository of stories, plays, games and songs for children in Arabic in a digital library to enrich the life of the child and to inform the world that much that is worthwhile is available in Arabic for parents, teachers, and children to enjoy.
Research limitations/implications
Through reading samples of the works by Abdel-Tawab Youssef (1928–2015) by using the Dublin Core Elements, it will be informative to see how his writings address the United Nations Goals of Sustainable Development way before these Goals were discussed.
Practical implications
Writers for children, librarians, teachers, psychologists, literary critics, illustrators, and parents need a platform that makes material available to promote children’s culture in the Arab world and to introduce the world to what is of value for children in Arabic.
Social implications
Currently, communication brings the world together and although the social media and the new technology have introduced problems that are serious, to say the least, collaborators on all levels must play an active role in redressing the social wrongs, especially those affecting children.
Originality/value
This ongoing project by members of a team who believe in interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity has taken the first step to create and develop (DLACSD).
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Zahirul Hoque, Kate Mai and Esin Ozdil
This paper has two purposes. First, it aims to explore how Australian universities used calculative rhetoric and practices through accounting numbers to persuade employees and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper has two purposes. First, it aims to explore how Australian universities used calculative rhetoric and practices through accounting numbers to persuade employees and legitimize their financial recovery plans to alleviate the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, it aims to analyze how the accounting-based solutions were legitimized through a well-blended pathos, logos and ethos rhetoric.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on a rhetorical theory of diffusion, we employed a qualitative research design within all 37 Australian public universities involving Internet-based documentary analysis.
Findings
This study finds that in an urgent crisis like the fiscal crisis caused by COVID-19, universities again found rescue in accounting tools, in particular budgets, as a rhetorical device to justify their operational and strategic choices such as job-cuts, programs closures and staff pay-cuts. However, in this crisis, the same old accounting-based solutions were even more quickly to be accepted by being delivered in management’s colorful blending of pathos–logos–ethos rhetoric.
Research limitations/implications
While this study is constrained to Australian public universities’ financial responses, its findings have implications for university decision-makers and higher education policymakers across the globe when it comes to university management using calculative devices in persuading employees to work their way through financial hardship caused by an extreme health crisis-like COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This study adds more evidence that the use of budgets as a calculative tool continues to play a key role in organizations in the construction, mobilization and preservation of certain strategic and operational choices during volatilities. Especially, the same way of creating calculative-based solutions can be communicated via the colorful blending of different rhetoric to make it acceptable.
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Haya Al-Dajani, Nupur Pavan Bang, Rodrigo Basco, Andrea Calabrò, Jeremy Chi Yeung Cheng, Eric Clinton, Joshua J. Daspit, Alfredo De Massis, Allan Discua Cruz, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, William B. Gartner, Olivier Germain, Silvia Gherardi, Jenny Helin, Miguel Imas, Sarah Jack, Maura McAdam, Miruna Radu-Lefebvre, Paola Rovelli, Malin Tillmar, Mariateresa Torchia, Karen Verduijn and Friederike Welter
This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.
Findings
Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.
Originality/value
This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.
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Municipalities have the potential to become models of the circular economy (CE). This paper aims to examine the impact of the municipal council’s characteristics on municipal CE…
Abstract
Purpose
Municipalities have the potential to become models of the circular economy (CE). This paper aims to examine the impact of the municipal council’s characteristics on municipal CE disclosure and promotion.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the resource dependence and upper echelons theories. For a sample of the 100 largest cities in Canada, a mixed methodology is used to code and analyze data and test the hypotheses.
Findings
Municipal councillors’ education and experience related to the environment or sustainability are both likely to affect CE disclosure, and their sector membership (public or private) moderates the relationship between CE disclosure and councillors’ experience. This experience may be reinforced by membership in the private sector, which has applied CE principles more extensively than the public sector has. Municipal councils with a greater number of councillors from the private sector appear to perform better in matters of transparency and to disclose more CE information on their public websites.
Practical implications
Municipalities could use the findings to foster their transition to CE by implementing a CE-related training plan for their councillors. A CE-dedicated section on their websites could improve transparency and inform and educate residents about CE.
Social implications
The public sector could learn from the private sector’s best practices regarding CE.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the transparency and engagement of municipalities toward CE. The authors extend the resource dependence and upper echelons theories to a new context, that of public organizations.
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In countries where disclosing and reporting matters on sustainability are optional, what are the drivers promoting voluntarily disclosing information related to social…
Abstract
Purpose
In countries where disclosing and reporting matters on sustainability are optional, what are the drivers promoting voluntarily disclosing information related to social responsibility and environmental sustainability corporate environmental and social responsibility? Exploring drivers promoting the demand for voluntarily disclosing information related to social responsibility and environmental sustainability in Saudi Arabia, where regulatory and professional bodies have not mandated information on corporate environmental and social responsibility, motivates this study.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 48 individuals voluntarily participated in the survey.
Findings
Findings reveal that creating a better social, ethical and mental image, building a public relations image for the company, improving stakeholder trust in the company, signaling to investors the company’s care for the earth to meet the ethical motivation of stakeholders, enhancing corporate social responsibility awareness and exhibiting surpasses the mere generation of profits, all derive such disclosure. Such disclosure also signifies the firm’s value as well as improves the overall firm’s economic performance.
Practical implications
Regulatory and professional bodies must issue and adopt reporting models for entities, principally private companies, whether publicly traded or not, of the content. Their reports should aim to inform users and stakeholders about fulfilling the social and environmental responsibilities of entities toward society and its members.
Social implications
Out of the drivers for the demand, perceptions of elders toward meeting ethical motivation of senior management significantly differ from that of younger.
Originality/value
Few studies have been attempted on drivers of the demand for reporting environmental sustainability and social responsibility in an environment where such reporting is not mandated. This study offers insight from Saudi Arabian corporate reports.