Sameeksha Desai, Johan Eklund and Andreas Högberg
The purpose of this paper is to study the efficiency of capital allocation, across levels of ownership, in the aftermath of pro‐market reforms in India.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the efficiency of capital allocation, across levels of ownership, in the aftermath of pro‐market reforms in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper measures investment efficiency using the accelerator principle and examines the effect of ownership type on capital allocation.
Findings
No significant improvement in capital allocation during the period studied is found. The findings suggest firms face significant costs in adjusting their capital stock.
Originality/value
The paper uses unique data to estimate the elasticity of capital with respect to output.
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Ulf Johanson, Matti Skoog, Andreas Backlund and Roland Almqvist
The aim of this paper is to debate various critical issues in the implementation and use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a management control tool. Because there is no…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to debate various critical issues in the implementation and use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a management control tool. Because there is no self‐evident solution to these critical issues, they are termed dilemmas.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper contributes to the BSC debate by collecting insights from empirical findings, as well as exploring various theoretical aspects.
Findings
After presenting four perceived dilemmas and how they affect the implementation and use of the BSC in various settings, the paper concludes that there is a need for further debate and research on these dilemmas.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is primarily a contribution to the debate concerning the balanced scorecard and its range of application as a management control model.
Practical implications
The paper is motivated by an overall high rate of implementation failure in various practical settings.
Originality/value
Some of the problems described have been debated before, whereas others are new. However, there has been hardly any discussion of the dilemmas in conjunction with one another. The paper is an attempt to generate important new questions about the future implementation and use of the BSC.
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Christina Donovan and Hannes Hautz
This paper seeks to illustrate how interventionist education reforms shape dis/trust-building processes and their impact on teacher professionalism in vocational education and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to illustrate how interventionist education reforms shape dis/trust-building processes and their impact on teacher professionalism in vocational education and training (VET) across national contexts. Using trust as the object of analysis, we discuss the affective mechanisms of becoming a professional in a standards-based neoliberal environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an analysis of VET teacher narratives in England and Austria, the paper draws attention to the ways in which policy instrumentalism has created a culture of distrust in VET. Drawing upon foundational work on system trust developed by Niklas Luhmann, we illustrate how conditions for trust sit at symbolic thresholds, which set the conditions for professional recognition within VET.
Findings
Our analysis revealed that attempts to standardise VET strategy are fuelled by the need for existential security and predictability, leading to tensions in the cultivation of system trust. Conditions for professional recognition across both contexts were based on practices of documentation and subordination, narrowly defining modes of legitimate self-expression in organisations. This constitutes a crisis of trust in VET teacher professionalism, which undermines pedagogical autonomy and integrity.
Practical implications
We seek to highlight the impact that reduced trust in the governance of VET can have on issues associated with teacher motivation, well-being and retention. The consideration of trust is therefore essential both for policy design and implementation in VET organisations.
Originality/value
The application of trust theory offers a distinctive lens through which to understand the impact of accountability, performativity and governance processes upon teacher subjectivity within VET across national contexts.
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Maria Alessandra Antonelli, Angelo Castaldo, Marco Forti, Alessia Marrocco and Andrea Salustri
This paper proposes an analysis of occupational accidents in Italy at the regional level. For this purpose, our panel is composed of 20 regions over the 2010–2019 time span.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes an analysis of occupational accidents in Italy at the regional level. For this purpose, our panel is composed of 20 regions over the 2010–2019 time span.
Design/methodology/approach
We apply different econometric estimation techniques (pooled OLS model, panel fixed and random effects models and semiparametric fixed model) using INAIL and ISTAT data. Our models investigate workplace accidents at the regional level by accounting for socioeconomic, labour market and productive system variables and controlling for possible underreporting bias.
Findings
Overall results reveal the existence of a relevant under-notification phenomenon of accidents at work with respect to moderate accidents, that is higher especially for the southern regions of Italy. However, when considering as outcome variable an alternative set of more severe workplace accidents our model specification remains highly jointly statistically significant. Among our main findings, the analysis shows that worker skills (blue collar) strongly affect the regional pattern of workplace accidents, i.e. an increase of 1% of low paid employees generates about an increase of 1.8 severe workplace accidents per thousand workers. Moreover, we provide evidence that the size of the firm is inversely related to the occupational accident rates. Finally, our results highlight a nonlinear relationship between GDP and occupational accidents for the Italian regional context, confirmed by the high statistical significance of the quadratic term in all the estimated linear models and by the semi-parametric analysis.
Originality/value
A first element of originality of our study consists of investigating the macro determinants of occupation accidents at a regional Italian level. Second, the empirical literature (Boone and Van Ours, 2006) highlights the possible bias of underreporting behaviours on nonfatal accidents in contrast to fatal accidents that are always reported. From this perspective, we have identified a few analyses (namely, Boone et al., 2011) considering different accident sets characterised by different severity degrees. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature considering five alternative subsets of accidents stratified by degree of severity (i.e. moderate, severe, moderate plus severe, severe plus fatal and total accident rates) to test for possible underreporting bias affecting our econometric model.
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Alexander Yulievich Chepurenko, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Butryumova, Marina Vyacheslavovna Chernysheva and Anastasia Yevgenyevna Sutormina
This paper deals with types and actors of entrepreneurship in and around academia in Russia, as well as with institutional settings of the entrepreneurial activity of academic…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper deals with types and actors of entrepreneurship in and around academia in Russia, as well as with institutional settings of the entrepreneurial activity of academic faculty.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a series of semi-structured interviews using the purposive snowball method (2022–2023). The respondents are either engaged in different kinds of entrepreneurship in and outside universities in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod or experts in entrepreneurship in and around academia.
Findings
A double mixed embeddedness driven approach to the typology of diverse forms of entrepreneurship in and around academia are shown in the context of the temporality as well as of the micro-, meso- and macro-level institutions, such as the low demand in innovations in the economy; uncertainty of property rights; limited interest of university administration in academic entrepreneurs or its focus solely on students' entrepreneurship; and necessity entrepreneurship motives on the micro-level. The research limitations of the study are the small number of observations and the localisation of the panel in only one country.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations of the study are the small number of observations and the localisation of the panel in only one country.
Practical implications
The “Special Military Operation” and its consequences would hinder bottom-up academic entrepreneurship in the country, while pushing universities to launch R&D with the big industry, and forcing many faculties to non-academic entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
For the first time, the broad variety of entrepreneurial activities of academic staff including the specifics of non-classical forms of entrepreneurship in and around academia and their embeddedness into different contexts are discussed.
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Adeel Akmal, Nataliya Podgorodnichenko, Richard Greatbanks and Jing A. Zhang
Extant research documents the importance of lean thinking for organizations, however, as prior research has largely focused on hard lean practices, but little is known about the…
Abstract
Purpose
Extant research documents the importance of lean thinking for organizations, however, as prior research has largely focused on hard lean practices, but little is known about the effects or the significance of soft lean practices. This research attempts to address this issue by examining how soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness, and in turn increase the success of lean implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a single case study design in a small-medium enterprise livestock feed manufacturing organization, and investigates the period from late 2011 through the end of 2019 covering two attempts at lean implementation – an initial failed attempt followed by a successful introduction of lean within the case organization. The research analyzes interviews with 29 managers and employees from all organizational levels and departments within the case organization. Secondary data including organizational documents and performance measures and metrics were also incorporated into the research design.
Findings
Drawing on agency theory, the authors advance a principal-agent interaction perspective to conceptualize organizational lean readiness – specifically, the authors consider the “state or condition” of four agency factors (goal conflict, information asymmetry, risk aversion and length of relationship), and explore if these four agency factors can be utilized as proxies for organizational readiness for lean implementation. The authors identify the formation of a shared vision and identity within the organization as an effective mechanism through which soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness. Finally, the analysis offers an understanding of how the long-term success of lean implementation is improved by the introduction of soft lean practices as a prerequisite to create organizational readiness for the implementation of hard lean practices.
Originality/value
The study is unique in the sense that it empirically links agency theory and the role of soft lean practices in developing organizational lean readiness in a small-medium enterprise context by defining the ideal state of four agency factors as proxies for organizational readiness.
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Álvaro Hernández-Tamurejo, Beatriz Rodríguez Herráez and María Leonor Mora Agudo
This empirical research aims to provide organisations with useful information on how teleworking has affected employee commuting, allowing organisations to adapt working…
Abstract
Purpose
This empirical research aims to provide organisations with useful information on how teleworking has affected employee commuting, allowing organisations to adapt working conditions to the new social context. This research sets out to provide evidence on the behaviour of teleworkers in terms of the mode of transport chosen when commuting to work physically.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on a survey conducted in Madrid based on a theoretical approach grounded in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and discrete choice models. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and discriminant analysis have been used to determine the variables that influence the mode of transport chosen by teleworkers when commuting in person.
Findings
The results indicate the prevalence of private car use by teleworkers when working at the office, finding that attitudes and satisfaction with modes of transport significantly influence their choice. The characteristics and frequency of teleworking, however, are not significant, which indicates that teleworkers attach greater importance to their preferred mode of transport, regardless of the disadvantages.
Originality/value
This research provides empirical evidence using an inductive approach to understand the challenges that organisations are facing with regard to teleworking since commuting behaviour has changed for teleworkers. This requires organisations to give significant reconsideration to the issue of commuting as an important component of working time that could condition employee satisfaction and, therefore, the retention or recruitment of talent. Furthermore, residence and mobility changes afford organisations better access for recruitment, notwithstanding urban planning implications.