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1 – 10 of over 1000This study aims to examine the effects of marketing dashboards on resource allocation between exploratory and exploitative activities. It proposes that tactical dashboards will…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of marketing dashboards on resource allocation between exploratory and exploitative activities. It proposes that tactical dashboards will lead managers to place less emphasis on exploratory activities and more emphasis on exploitative activities – with performance consequences – but that these effects will be contingent on the information and decision-making environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Study hypotheses were tested using an experiment tracking objective decisions over five periods in the Markstrat simulation. A total of 105 firms, each managed by a team of Master of Business Administration students, were divided into 2 dashboard conditions and a control condition.
Findings
Teams given a tactical dashboard were less likely to engage in exploratory activities when information load was high. Tactical dashboards also suppressed exploration early in the simulation. Dashboards were associated with negative firm performance overall.
Research implications/limitations
The research suggests that dashboards can bias resource allocation, but the effects are contingent on the information and decision-making environment. Dashboards demonstrated a negative relationship with performance. The research lacked cognitive process measures and was limited to a single simulated industry type.
Practical implications
Dashboards are not a panacea for decision-making and performance and will need to change under changing conditions. Executives should build flexibility into the design and use of their dashboards and periodically audit the value the dashboard produces.
Originality/value
While widespread in marketing practice, dashboards have received little study and none involving decision-making over time and changing conditions. This research advances on limited existing work by examining objective causal effects.
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Because conventional financial reporting failed to prevent savings and loans crisis of 1988, the market value concept became popular. To see if CEO changes affect “how much…
Abstract
Because conventional financial reporting failed to prevent savings and loans crisis of 1988, the market value concept became popular. To see if CEO changes affect “how much companies are worth if sold” Fortune 500 corporations were examined from 1997 to 2002. The findings show that companies with CEO changes see significant market value drops during the year of and especially year after CEO changes (i.e. when compared to benchmark) due to asset “write‐downs”. Yet, while there are no differences in market value shifts for the CEO change versus benchmark companies during the second and third years after CEO changes, asset reductions by new CEOs take place during their first and second years. The results suggest that executives looking for bargains on assets should target competitors with recent CEO changes, and new CEOs in their zeal to get clean slates should carefully liquidate “questionably productive” assets to prevent hostile takeovers.
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Jacob L. Hiler, Laurel Aynne Cook and William Magnus Northington
This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of co-competition, within service-dominant logic, whereby multiple parties with mutually exclusive goals compete for the rights to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of co-competition, within service-dominant logic, whereby multiple parties with mutually exclusive goals compete for the rights to co-create with a firm.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, the paper uses a naturalistic inquiry approach guided by the core objectives of qualitative research provided by Belk et al. (2012). These objectives include understanding the construct of study, the antecedents and consequences of what is being studied and, finally, the process used by the consumer during the phenomena. Additionally, the results are presented within an idiographic framework.
Findings
This study finds that co-competition arises when heterogeneous segments of consumers attempt different co-creation strategies with the firm, an overlooked dark side of co-creation and co-production of value. Additionally, the study finds evidence that co-competition may have led to co-destruction of value for both consumer parties and the firm.
Originality/value
The outcomes of this process could have significant financial and reputational impacts for the firm resultant from alienating both types of consumers competing for the rights to co-create. The conceptual framework established here provides a guide through which further investigation of co-creative forces can occur.
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The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry…
Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.
This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.
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This chapter highlights the varied scope of research in the emerging information experience domain. First, I share my perspective as educator-researcher on information experience…
Abstract
This chapter highlights the varied scope of research in the emerging information experience domain. First, I share my perspective as educator-researcher on information experience and its association with informed learning. Then, in six methodological snapshots I present a selection of qualitative approaches which are suited to investigating information experience. The snapshots feature: action research, constructivist grounded theory, ethnomethodology, expanded critical incident approach, phenomenography and qualitative case study. By way of illustration, six researchers explain how and why they use one of these methods. Finally, I review the key characteristics of the six methods and their respective benefits for information experience research.
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This note offers new archival insight into a 1925 polemical exchange between Frank Knight and John Maurice Clark that was hosted in the pages of Journal of Political Economy…
Abstract
This note offers new archival insight into a 1925 polemical exchange between Frank Knight and John Maurice Clark that was hosted in the pages of Journal of Political Economy. Although the exchange centered on the effects of overhead costs on marginal productivity theory and the so-called adding-up theorem, it also provided significant elements to assess the methodological differences between two of the most representative American economists of the interwar years.
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Purpose – This chapter puts forth an approach for deeper understanding of the ways that information professionals learn, based on concepts and strategies that enable them to…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter puts forth an approach for deeper understanding of the ways that information professionals learn, based on concepts and strategies that enable them to fulfill the varied roles they take on. It considers multiple facets in their experiences of using information to learn, the essence of informed learning (Bruce, 2008). The purpose of furthering this understanding is to develop approaches for designing enhanced curriculum to support transformative learning experiences.
Design & Methodology – To explore the learning experiences, roles, and strategies of information professionals, this chapter enlists two frameworks pertinent to transformative learning: first, the informed learning construct of Bruce (2008) and, second, the threshold concepts theoretical framework of Meyer and Land (2003). Both frameworks have been used to guide the design of curriculum, and this chapter discusses using them together to design higher education courses for information professionals. Learning activities from two courses in an online MLIS degree program – information retrieval system design and information architecture – are used as case illustrations for implementing a blended approach.
Findings & Discussion – The outcomes from implementing curriculum that has been designed based on informed learning principles and threshold concepts that were derived from learner experiences are discussed. A third construct, information experience (Bruce et al., 2014), which evolved in part out of informed learning, is brought into the discussion, providing an additional dimension for understanding the learner’s relationship with his/her information world.
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The unsatisfactory state of the law with regard to prosecutions for impoverished milk has been further exemplified in a series of prosecutions at Oldham. Three farmers were…
Abstract
The unsatisfactory state of the law with regard to prosecutions for impoverished milk has been further exemplified in a series of prosecutions at Oldham. Three farmers were summoned for having sold milk “ not of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser,” and the evidence produced showed that the milk in each case was not only deficient as compared with the standard set by the Board of Agriculture, but even more deficient when compared with mixed samples taken at the farm. The Deputy Town Clerk, who conducted the prosecution, pointed out that the case of Wilkinson v. Clark clearly showed that the Inspectors were justified in going to the farm for a second sample, if the second was comparable with the first, and were entitled to rely on the Public Analyst's certificate for both samples. He argued that, in view of the enhanced price of milk, it was very necessary that the purchaser should be adequately protected and that he should obtain what he paid for — pure unadulterated milk. The defence in the first case was a denial of the milk having been tampered with, it being sold “ as it came from the cow.” Results of experiments at the Yorkshire College for Agricultural Education were quoted to show that wide variations in the quality of the milk might occur for which the farmer ought not to be held responsible. In the present case it was admitted that one of the cows was not milking satisfactorily, and had a “ hard udder.” The milk from this cow when examined closely, was stated in the defendant's evidence to be “ more like water.” This had only been found out on the morning when the first sample had gone into the churn for sale. The Bench, after consultation, expressed themselves satisfied that the milk had not been tampered with, and dismissed the summons.
A Report has been issued by the Medical Research Council upon the investigations of the Salmonella Group, with special reference to food‐poisoning, conducted by Dr. William G…
Abstract
A Report has been issued by the Medical Research Council upon the investigations of the Salmonella Group, with special reference to food‐poisoning, conducted by Dr. William G. Savage and Mr. P. Bruce White. In a preface to the report, it is stated that early in 1921 the Ministry of Health invited the co‐operation of the Medical Research Council in the promotion of a scheme of investigation into outbreaks of food‐poisoning, of which the general lines had been arranged by the Ministry in consultation with Dr. W. G. Savage, medical officer of health for Somersetshire. Nearly nine‐tenths of food‐poisoning outbreaks are due to organisms of the Salmonella or Gaertner group of bacteria, and although much successful work has been done in the identification and classification of these organisms and in tracing the causes of particular outbreaks of poisoning, we have very little knowledge of the paths, whether through animal infections or otherwise, by which these organisms have found their way originally into the food to which their subsequent ill‐effects may have been traced. The council undertook to promote further investigation. They secured the whole‐time services of Mr. P. Bruce White for the bacteriological work required, and by the courtesy of Professor Walker Hall he was enabled to work in the bacteriological laboratories of the University of Bristol, in close touch with Dr. Savage at Weston‐super‐Mare. The field inquiries were arranged by the Food Department of the Ministry of Health, with the assistance of medical officers of health and of veterinary surgeons. In these, Dr. Savage and Mr. Bruce‐White co‐operated while conducting the laboratory investigations. The results already gained include some important advances in our knowledge of the natural history of organisms of the Salmonella group, and a record of the details of many varieties of outbreaks of food‐poisoning among human beings. That side of the inquiry, in which it was hoped to deal effectively with the paths of infection through domestic or agricultural animals, has halted, in spite of much effort, for want of better facilities in this country for systematic studies of comparative pathology, but it is hoped that in the early future the work can be extended successfully in this direction. The introduction to the report explains that the primary object of the investigation has been the elucidation, not merely of the causes of bacterial food‐poisoning outbreaks, which are for the most part known, but the paths by which infection is transmitted to the food. The latter, in spite of much work, remains largely unascertained. Since the majority of outbreaks, and practically all of any importance, which occur in this country are due to specific infection or intoxication with bacilli of the Salmonella group, work has been restricted to that group. The problem is so complex that the investigators have repeatedly been compelled to branch off into studies which at first may not seem to be germane to the primary object, but they are necessary deviations and bear directlv upon the work. The report is divided into three parts. Part I. contains an extensive survey of the serological properties of the group. It shows that the sub‐grounds described are definite entities which arc fairly clear‐cut, and which do not pass into one another under any known conditions. It is hoped that these studies, following on the valuable work of Schütze and others, will establish the different sub‐groups or types on a clearly recognizable basis. In Part 2 the investigators have tried to demonstrate that these sub‐groups not only have a definite distribution in nature, but have become somewhat specialised in their disease‐producing characters. It is obvious that until this is done it is not possible to disentangle their relationships to disease or to place the aetiology of food‐poisoning on a firm basis. The definitions and distinctions between the different sub‐groups have been so confused in the past that the essential importance of this relationship has largely been overlooked. In Part 3 experimental work is advanced which the investigators consider helps to explain the differing disease‐producing rôles of these sub‐groups.
Vicki Terbovich and Bill Cochran
“Spirit of the West” is a phrase recently coined to announce the revival of an airline serving the western portion of the United States. It is also an expression that exemplifies…
Abstract
“Spirit of the West” is a phrase recently coined to announce the revival of an airline serving the western portion of the United States. It is also an expression that exemplifies the determination, neighborliness, and collaborative energies among Montana's libraries as they become connected to the twenty‐first century. The focus of this article will be on outlining the scope of activities in which Montana libraries have involved themselves as they connect to the Information Super‐highway, the hurdles they have overcome, and the directions they are planning to head in the future.