Peter Hockey, Alexandra Tobin, Juliette Kemp, Janet Kerrigan, Fleur Kitsell, Penny Green, Amanda Sewell, Christopher Smith, Stephanie Stanwick and Peter Lees
The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel approach to leadership development for UK healthcare workers, while contributing to health service improvement in a developing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel approach to leadership development for UK healthcare workers, while contributing to health service improvement in a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach
A quality improvement faculty are used to teach and mentor National Health Service (NHS) International Development Clinical Fellows in quality improvement (QI) methods. Using accepted QI methods, sensitive and practical improvement projects are selected in partnership with local people in Cambodia in order to start achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goals related to child and maternal health. Simultaneously, NHS International Fellows gain an unparalleled opportunity to develop their leadership skills, which should benefit the NHS on their return to the UK.
Findings
Healthcare quality improvement methods, developed in First World countries, are transferable to the developing world and also function as a vehicle for developing leadership skills in experienced healthcare workers.
Practical implications
This leadership development programme fits with the stated aims of the Global Health Partnerships report, which encourages the NHS to play a global role in healthcare development in the developing world. Other First World healthcare systems could adopt this leadership development method to both improve the leadership capability of their own staff while also making a significant contribution to less well‐developed healthcare systems.
Originality/value
The combination of leadership development through quality improvement is novel – promising to benefit both providers and recipients.
Details
Keywords
Carmen Pilar Martí-Ballester and Alexandra Simon
The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the management systems (MSs) field by addressing whether the implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the management systems (MSs) field by addressing whether the implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) and the integration level of its elements bring benefits and/or challenges to companies and whether these are related to corporate financial performance (CFP).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a Spanish sample of 76 organizations with at least an environmental and a quality MS, the authors perform a partial least squares (PLS) analysis.
Findings
The results showed evidence of a positive relationship of the integration benefits with respect to the integration level of MS documentation and the integration level of MS procedures that overweights the negative significant effect of difficulties of integration in relation to the integration level of MS documentation and the integration level of MS procedures. The authors also found new evidence on this topic, related to a positive significant relationship between the integration level of MS procedures and CFP that overweights the negative significant effect of integration level of MS documentation on CFP.
Research limitations/implications
This study used cross-sectional data from interviewees who are Catalan managers. Furthermore, the mail survey was answered in 2010 at the beginning of the economic crisis from which results should be taken with caution given that the situation might have changed due to the continuation of the Spanish economic crisis.
Practical implications
The findings could allow companies’ managers to understand the extent to which the integration of quality management practices and environmental management practices influences some of the most relevant firms’ financial performance dimensions.
Originality/value
As far as the authors know, there are not empirical studies that address the relationship of IMS with a measure of performance such as CFP.
Details
Keywords
Kofi Mintah Oware and Thathaiah Mallikarjunappa
The purpose of this study is to investigate family management, financial performance and gender diversity of listed firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate family management, financial performance and gender diversity of listed firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the India stock market as a testing ground, this paper used descriptive statistics and panel regression with random effect assumptions in the analysis of 800 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2019.
Findings
The findings show that an improvement in stock price returns leads to a corresponding increase in women employment. Also, the study shows that an increase in family-managed firms leads to a decrease in the number of women employed in listed firms. This paper speculates using the social role theory that family involvement may see women as the weaker vessel and with a role to concentrate on raising children and handling house affairs. The consequence is a decrease in women employment. The study also shows that the interactive variable of financial performance (return on assets and return on equity) × family-managed firms still causes a decrease in women employment. This paper perceives that managers in family-managed firms see women as weaker vessels and home managers which is consistent with the Indian culture. The results are robust after controlling for endogeneity.
Research limitations/implications
The research study is limited to large firms on the Indian stock market that submit sustainability reports and also used a single country data that can potentially limit the generalisation of the study.
Originality/value
No studies have combined social role theory in examining the effect of family management on gender diversity in the emerging markets.
Details
Keywords
Alexandra Coghlan and Lewis Carter
Mobile games and ICT-based mixed reality tools offer significant opportunities for tourism. This chapter reviews the existing literature in both these areas, and presents a novel…
Abstract
Mobile games and ICT-based mixed reality tools offer significant opportunities for tourism. This chapter reviews the existing literature in both these areas, and presents a novel way of combining games and virtual reality into an interpretive tool. As a complex, threatened marine ecosystem, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces significant interpretive challenges, and almost no new interpretive tools have been developed over the last 30 years. Here, the authors unpack the stages and interdisciplinary approach required to design the tool and highlight how it might fit within the broader scope of ICT developments in tourism. We outline areas of future research, with a particular focus on how ICT might contribute to making nature-based tourism more sustainable, by finding fun, innovative ways to engage tourists in the conservation of some of our most iconic natural assets.
Details
Keywords
This study begins by explaining the co-venture between the Stanford University and Sun Labs: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe or LOCKSS. It aims at assisting libraries in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study begins by explaining the co-venture between the Stanford University and Sun Labs: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe or LOCKSS. It aims at assisting libraries in maintaining, owning and preserving digital journals through decentralized digital repositories. Based on this technique of preservation, this study aims at illuminating how illicit repositories for literature, so-called shadow libraries, leverage similar methods to sustain their existence. The study does so by viewing the web of shadow libraries as an ecology, examining their interrelations and their sustainability in the digital realm.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is inspired by webometric approaches, but it instead focuses on link structures rather than number of links, emphasizing the existence of connections rather than their weight. The data were collected using Hyphe, a user-centric Web Crawler, which maps the connections between a predetermined set of web addresses. This approach is informed by theoretical understandings from both platform and infrastructure studies with the intention of providing insights the mechanisms of decentralization and centralization which constitute the proposed shadow library ecology.
Findings
LOCKSS inspired methodology is found to play a crucial role in sustaining shadow libraries over extended periods. By creating multiple copies and creating avenues for the possibility of users to create multiple copies, shadow libraries seemingly secure their existence by leveraging the fundamental aspects of piracy itself: copies.
Originality/value
This study uses digital methods to unpack the dynamic of shadow libraries, showing how they infuse technology with their ideology to ensure digital preservation and broader access to knowledge.
Details
Keywords
Liran Christine Shan, Aine Regan, Frank J Monahan, Chenguang Li, Celine Murrin, Fiona Lalor, Patrick G. Wall and Aine McConnon
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attitudes towards and interest in enriching processed meat with healthy ingredients (“functional processed meat”).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attitudes towards and interest in enriching processed meat with healthy ingredients (“functional processed meat”).
Design/methodology/approach
Seven focus groups across age and gender were conducted. Discussions were analysed using an inductive thematic approach.
Findings
Strategies that participants felt as important for improving the healthiness of processed meat mainly included the use of better quality meat and less salt, fat, preservatives and other additives. “Functional processed meat” was a new concept for participants. Four themes were constructed to reflect participants’ attitudes towards functional processed meat: opposing views on processed meat as a carrier of healthy ingredients; belief in the health benefits of functional processed meat; perceived value of functional processed meat for different consumer groups; and trust and perceived risk surrounding the functional food concept. A large proportion of the participants were unconvinced about the concept of functional processed meat; however many of the participants expressed an openness to purchase this food product if taste and price remained uncompromised.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size of the current study is small. Complementary quantitative research with a more representative sample should be implemented. Adopting a quantitative approach, the findings from this study should be explored further to investigate their application in a representative sample of the population.
Originality/value
This study represents a first exploratory investigation of consumer views on functional processed meat. It can inform further consumer and market research in relation to the development of “healthier” processed meat.
Details
Keywords
The term of lateral thinking in Oxford dictionary is seeking to solve problems by unorthodox or apparently illogical methods. On the hypercompetitive markets agile…
Abstract
The term of lateral thinking in Oxford dictionary is seeking to solve problems by unorthodox or apparently illogical methods. On the hypercompetitive markets agile, value-oriented, inspiring, collaborative, appreciative leaders are needed. These AVICA-type leaders have the ability to catalyze and develop adaptive processes. They are receptive to innovation and also open to the creative thoughts of others. The leader himself is also a lateral innovator and unfolds the creativity of the employees in business life and the students in higher education. The educators, in a lateral approach, are leaders, but can also be Renaissance-type people, polyhistors, homo ludens. Creativity researchers generally agree that educators’ view on creativity determines the way in which they deal with developing students’ mindset. In our research, we evaluate how important students consider the knowledge of lateral innovation to their related subjects, the development of their innovative way of thinking and how they perceive the activities of the lecturers in this direction. The other question is whether educators see lateral approach as an important value creation process. The ultimate goal of the research is to explore the factors that contribute to the implementation of the lateral mindset for the sustainable competitiveness of higher education in economics.
Details
Keywords
Alan Walker and Kristiina Martimo
This article focuses on researching quality of life in old age. Based on a review of the relevant literature, it argues that research has not reflected sufficiently the…
Abstract
This article focuses on researching quality of life in old age. Based on a review of the relevant literature, it argues that research has not reflected sufficiently the multifaceted nature of quality of life and has relied too much on the judgements of professionals rather than older people. It concludes that quality of life research in general has under‐emphasised the importance of material factors in people's lives. With regard to older people, research shows that relatively poor quality of life, as reported by older people themselves, is associated with only a minority and, among this minority, twice the proportion of older women to men. The article ends with an outline of the new Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Growing Older Research Programme on Extending Quality Life, which in three years time promises to provide usable information for policy makers and practitioners about the determinants of quality of life in old age.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to discover whether corporate sustainability disclosure has a potential impact on the market value and earnings quality of firms in an emerging market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discover whether corporate sustainability disclosure has a potential impact on the market value and earnings quality of firms in an emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 220 companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Sri Lanka during the period 2012-2016. Firm value proxies by Tobin’s Q, while earnings quality proxies by discretionary accruals (DAC). The study is premised on value-enhancing theory for firm value and transparent financial reporting perspective for earnings quality. Regression analyses are executed on the panel data to achieve the study objectives.
Findings
The results reveal a positive relationship between sustainability reporting (SR) and firm market value, accepting the value-enhancing theory while rejecting the value-destroying theory. This finding suggests that investors pay a premium in the financial markets for firms that perform in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, compared to firms that do not perform in a similar manner. In the same vein, the results reveal that sustainability disclosure and DAC are negatively and significantly associated, resulting in high-quality earnings. The result is consistent with the transparent financial reporting hypothesis, which is also in line with the managers’ integrity motivation.
Originality/value
This is the first study investigating the consequences of SR that is specific to the Sri Lankan context. Owing to the sparse studies on consequences of SR, this study contributes significantly to the extant literature by broadening the geographical coverage to include a developing country setting.