This chapter presents a study of ‘floral ethics’, defined as a set of standardized practices for handling flowers shared among members of the florist occupation. Drawing on 36…
Abstract
This chapter presents a study of ‘floral ethics’, defined as a set of standardized practices for handling flowers shared among members of the florist occupation. Drawing on 36 months of ethnographic fieldwork in flower shops in Switzerland and Chicago, it contributes to the sociology of work and professions by providing a nuanced understanding of the tensions that can arise between the professional expertise of florists and the aesthetic preferences of customers. The findings on the micro-level reveal that adherence to floral ethics serves as a strategy for protecting and maintaining occupational legitimacy. By uncovering divergent conceptions of what constitutes ‘work well done’ among florists, this chapter offers a broader argument on the power asymmetry inherent in service relationships.
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Nishant Kumar and Robert Demir
The purpose of this paper is to address the limitations of prior views regarding knowledge source exploitation by proposing a phenomenological approach to managerial attention and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the limitations of prior views regarding knowledge source exploitation by proposing a phenomenological approach to managerial attention and the antecedents of exploiting knowledge sources within the multinational corporations (MNC) network.
Design/methodology/approach
A phenomenological approach to attention is taken to explain the antecedents of managerial attention in knowledge source exploitation behavior. This approach provides an alternative way of conceiving of knowledge source remoteness and familiarity, on the one hand, and exclusion and inclusion on the other.
Findings
Drawing on a phenomenological approach to attention, the merits and limits of prior studies of attention and knowledge seeking/exchange behavior are addressed and three modes of managerial attention are proposed – relative attention, mimetic attention, implicit attention – to explain the antecedents of managerial attention to MNC knowledge sources.
Originality/value
This approach to knowledge source exploitation and attention provides a rich conceptualization of taken‐for‐granted assumptions in extant literature on managerial attention and knowledge‐seeking behavior. The framework offered here builds on a conceptually rigid foundation of attention that overcomes dualisms such as mind‐body, subject‐object, and thinking‐acting that are often embedded in other mainstream approaches to managerial attention.
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A. Bouquet, C. Dedeban and S. Piperno
The use of the prominent finite difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the time‐domain solution of electromagnetic wave propagation past devices with small geometrical details…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of the prominent finite difference time‐domain (FDTD) method for the time‐domain solution of electromagnetic wave propagation past devices with small geometrical details can require very fine grids and can lead to unmanageable computational time and storage. The purpose of this paper is to extend the analysis of a discontinuous Galerkin time‐domain (DGTD) method (able to handle possibly non‐conforming locally refined grids, based on portions of Cartesian grids) and investigate the use of perfectly matched layer regions and the coupling with a fictitious domain approach. The use of a DGTD method with a locally refined, non‐conforming mesh can help focusing on these small details. In this paper, the adaptation to the DGTD method of the fictitious domain approach initially developed for the FDTD is considered, in order to avoid the use of a volume mesh fitting the geometry near the details.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a DGTD method, a fictitious domain approach is developed to deal with complex and small geometrical details.
Findings
The fictitious domain approach is a very interesting complement to the FDTD method, since it makes it possible to handle complex geometries. However, the fictitious domain approach requires small volume elements, thus making the use of the FDTD on wide, regular, fine grids often unmanageable. The DGTD method has the ability to handle easily locally refined grids and the paper shows it can be coupled to a fictitious domain approach.
Research limitations/implications
Although the stability and dispersion analysis of the DGTD method is complete, the theoretical analysis of the fictitious domain approach in the DGTD context is not. It is a subject of further investigation (which could provide important insights for potential improvements).
Originality/value
This is believed to be the first time a DGTD method is coupled with a fictitious domain approach.
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Orly Levy, Sully Taylor, Nakiye A. Boyacigiller and Schon Beechler
In this section, we offer a careful and systematic review of the theoretical and empirical studies relating to global mindset that have been published in books and peer-reviewed…
Abstract
In this section, we offer a careful and systematic review of the theoretical and empirical studies relating to global mindset that have been published in books and peer-reviewed journals. This review includes studies that use differing terms to refer to the idea of global mindset but consider the same general concept. At the same time, we exclude studies that do not specifically pertain to global mindset but concentrate on such areas as global leadership, expatriates, and expatriation, even though they may focus on similar underlying themes found in the global mindset literature. We then identify two fundamental themes in the global mindset literature – cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity – and use these concepts to develop a new integrative approach to global mindset.
This study aims to provide insight to the little-researched phenomenon of reverse knowledge flow within multinational corporations (MNCs) and to explain the role of managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide insight to the little-researched phenomenon of reverse knowledge flow within multinational corporations (MNCs) and to explain the role of managerial attention in exploiting the prospect of knowledge transfer from subsidiaries located in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Existing literature across disciplines has been integrated to provide a clear description of the concept of reverse knowledge flow and managerial attention, in order to explain the role of managerial attention in reverse knowledge transfer activities within MNCs. Two pilot studies were conducted on European MNCs to build the background for this study.
Findings
Managerial attention is a key factor in recognising potential source of knowledge within the multinational network, and a prior requirement for knowledge transfer to take place. Attention decisions are partially based on the knowledge source location, awareness/attractiveness, and the strategic importance. Thus, MNCs can adopt managerial practices and control mechanisms to influence the attention of executives and achieve higher knowledge flow from subsidiaries.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need to undertake empirical research and in-depth case studies of knowledge management practices using the arguments and framework provided in this article.
Practical implications
MNCs can develop mechanisms for overcoming attention biases influence on reverse knowledge flow. The attention based approach can lead to better subsidiary integration and knowledge management practices in MNCs.
Originality/value
This study advances the theory on reverse knowledge flow in MNCs by presenting an attention based theoretical framework for effective knowledge transfer.
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Xiaofeng Zheng, Zhiying Liu and Xiuyuan Gong
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role leader attention plays in the nurture of transformational leadership (TL) behavior, as well as the mechanism by which TL affects…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role leader attention plays in the nurture of transformational leadership (TL) behavior, as well as the mechanism by which TL affects innovation ambidexterity, this research empirically studied the relationship between leader attention scope (LAS) and innovation ambidexterity (exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation) through the mediating role of TL. Further, the moderating effect of environmental dynamism (ED) on the relationship between TL and innovation ambidexterity was examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical study was adopted by distributing questionnaires to high echelon leaders in mainland China to assess related variables. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships of the variables based on the 188 returned questionnaires.
Findings
The results show that LAS had a positive effect on innovation ambidexterity, and the relationship was partially mediated by TL. ED negatively moderated the relationship between TL and innovation ambidexterity.
Practical implications
The results suggest that upper echelon leaders receive more unfamiliar, outward-oriented, and source-diverse information to broaden their attention scope. The broad outlook they get obliges them to engage in TL behavior which is beneficial for innovation ambidexterity.
Originality/value
Based on upper echelons theory, this research reveals the realization mechanism of innovation ambidexterity from the perspectives of leader attention and leadership behavior. This paper avoids the previous research limitation of prevalently employing demographic measurements to substitute for leaders’ psychological processes. The study of LAS also explains the formation mechanism of TL. ED is considered to examine the effectiveness of TL.
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This paper explores the development of a luxury retail shoe brand in Belle Époque Vienna.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the development of a luxury retail shoe brand in Belle Époque Vienna.
Design/methodology/approach
Footwear retailing and marketing history is a neglected area. Unfortunately, no business records have survived from Robert Schlesinger’s shoe stores. However, it has been possible to reconstruct the history of the development of the Paprika Schlesinger brand from its extensive advertising in the Viennese newspaper, the Neue Freie Presse, with the guidance of the founder’s grandson, Prof Robert A. Shaw, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Birkbeck, University of London, England. This case study would not have been possible without the digitization of some major collections of primary sources. In 2014, the European Union’s Europeana digitization initiative launched a new portal via the Library of Europe website which provides access to selected digitized historic newspaper collections in libraries across Europe. The project partners include the Austrian National Library which has digitized full runs of several major historic Austrian newspapers, including the Neue Freie Presse. Other project partners which have digitized historic newspapers which are relevant to this paper are the Landesbibliothek Dr Friedrich Teßmann of Italy’s Südtirol region, the National Library of France and the Berlin State Library. An associate project partner library, the Slovenian National and University Library’s Digital Library of Slovenia, has also digitized relevant historic newspapers. Furthermore, the City of Vienna has digitized a complete set of Vienna city directories as part of its Wienbibliothek Digital project.
Findings
This paper suggests that Robert Schlesinger created one of the first European luxury retail shoe brands.
Originality/value
This is the first academic study of the historical development of the advertising and marketing of a European luxury retail shoe brand.
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Although two decades have passed since the publication of Walsh and Ungson’s (1991) seminal article on organizational memory, there has been only limited theoretical elaboration…
Abstract
Although two decades have passed since the publication of Walsh and Ungson’s (1991) seminal article on organizational memory, there has been only limited theoretical elaboration and application of this critical aspect of cognition in the strategic management literature. We remedy this gap by advancing the construct of competitive memory, which we define as a firm’s dynamic capability consisting of stored information from its past competitive interaction with a given rival that can be brought to bear on present or future competitive actions. We theorize that competitive memory is composed of both procedural and declarative elements and can be accessed automatically and deliberatively. Additionally, we suggest that competitive memory is relational: As rivals within a competitive set interact in the market, competitive memory drives not only their strategic actions, but also their expectations about their competitors. Last, competitive memory is also dynamic, which can be constructed and reconstructed over time by an organization’s enactment of its internal and external environments and by purposive memory trials with its competitive set.
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Campbell Cowie and Christopher T. Marsden
Examines abuse potential with regard to digital pay‐TV services and permitted competition which is allowed, and these are referred to as bottleneck facilities (technology). Looks…
Abstract
Examines abuse potential with regard to digital pay‐TV services and permitted competition which is allowed, and these are referred to as bottleneck facilities (technology). Looks at technical analysis ad bottleneck control in addition to self‐regulation and industry standard settings, and further discusses public policy concern. Concludes that it may be cautionable to pursue narrower objectives in the communications industry – especially where other declarations of public policy are feasible.