Jörgen Lundälv, Henrik Ehrlington and Andreas Johansen
The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge, awareness and experience of different employees in a Swedish municipality (City of Gothenburg) concerning the disability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge, awareness and experience of different employees in a Swedish municipality (City of Gothenburg) concerning the disability perspective, accessibility and universal design in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on an online survey. A total of 119 different employees responded to the survey. The data was analyzed from a mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and textual analysis. The study also included personal interviews with 19 employees in the City of Gothenburg.
Findings
A total of 521 employees in the City of Gothenburg participated in disability awareness exercises (DAE) at the Disability Awareness Arena to gain greater knowledge and insight on disability perspectives in different environments and services. Of these, 119 people representing different professions in soft and hard services and companies participated in the survey; and 19 people participated in personal interviews. The study showed that a vast majority of them were very satisfied and they have developed and practiced their new knowledge and attitude toward disability and accessibility.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation in this study is that it has investigated the experiences and effects of the DAE 6–12 months after its implementation. Therefore, it is not possible to analyze long-term effects that the DAE can have in practice.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study of these issues has been conducted in Sweden. This study is deemed to have significant social benefit because of the steadily increasing demand for disability simulations, awareness of disability perspective and accessibility in municipality settings. No other study has addressed the importance of the DAE in these perspectives. DAE is defined in this article as a unique concept for promoting the usage of the disability perspective in the everyday workplace.
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Andreas Økland, Agnar Johansen and Nils O.E. Olsson
Standardizing the development, planning and construction of public building projects can contribute to timely and efficient project delivery. This is especially relevant when…
Abstract
Purpose
Standardizing the development, planning and construction of public building projects can contribute to timely and efficient project delivery. This is especially relevant when there are urgent needs for capacity. The purpose of this paper is to share the experiences from the development of standardized concepts for school extensions and prison building in Norway.
Design/methodology/approach
The research questions posed in this paper are on the interaction between public entities project delivery models and standardizing building types and the construction method. To investigate the research questions, the paper presents the findings from two case studies: school and prison development and construction projects. It is based on a literature review, semi-structured interviews, document studies and quantitative data on time and cost for the planning and construction phases.
Findings
Standardization and use of modularized building systems can contribute to shortened delivery time by reducing the duration of both the planning and construction phase. The most significant time reduction resulted from less time spent on quality assurance of cost estimates prior to the funding of the projects. Project costs increased in the school case, but were reduced in the prison case. An important challenge faced in both cases is a shallow pool of capable suppliers; the actors have approached the challenge with different strategies, yet neither actor has been successful in their attempts.
Originality/value
The paper provides empirical data to add to the collective knowledge on the project management aspects of using standardized project delivery models and standardized (modular) building. However, by emphasizing the interaction between project delivery models and standardization of the planning and execution of the projects, additional insight into the benefits and challenges are highlighted.
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Francesco Nemore, Rocco Caferra and Andrea Morone
Our main purpose is to test the unemployment invariance hypothesis in Italy.
Abstract
Purpose
Our main purpose is to test the unemployment invariance hypothesis in Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides an empirical investigation of the unemployment and labor force participation in Italy.
Findings
Cointegration analysis results strongly suggest a clear long-run relationship between unemployment and labor force participation revealing a persistent and general added worker effect.
Originality/value
Our results seem to confute the unemployment invariance hypothesis.
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Andreas Andrikopoulos, Andreas Georgakopoulos, Anna Merika and Andreas Merikas
This paper aims to explore the effect of interlocking directorates on agency conflicts and corporate performance in the shipping industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the effect of interlocking directorates on agency conflicts and corporate performance in the shipping industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use social network analysis to discover central nodes in the network of personal and corporate connections in an international sample of 110 listed shipping companies.
Findings
Assessing network structure, the authors find that the network of corporate leaders is denser than the network of shipping companies. The network of shipping companies is populated with many isolated nodes; the network of shipping executives and directors is populated with many cohesive groups in which the longest distance between two corporate leaders is two companies. The authors find that interlocking corporate leadership can help resolve agency conflicts in the shipping industry, bearing a negative effect on the magnitude of agency costs. The extent of leadership overlaps is associated with board size, financial leverage and profitability. The relationship between profits and interlocks is bidirectional, implying that interlocking directorates bear a positive effect on asset returns.
Originality/value
The authors map the relational structures in the social networks of companies and company leaders in the shipping industry and discover the cross-sectional determinants of interlocks in the shipping industry. The finding about the effect of interlocks on profitability and agency costs bears policy implications for the design of corporate governance in the shipping industry.
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Nayef Al‐Shammari, KhalifaGhali, ReyadhFaras and Abdullah Al‐Salman
This paper investigates the validity of the expectations hypothesis for the term structure of interest rates in the context of the deposit interest rates in Kuwait. The data set…
Abstract
This paper investigates the validity of the expectations hypothesis for the term structure of interest rates in the context of the deposit interest rates in Kuwait. The data set covers average inter local bank interest rates on deposits of Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) with maturity of one, three and six months from the period June 1994 to August 2008. We utilize Johansen procedures to examine the relationship between spot and forward rates. Our findings show that the spot and forward rates are cointegrated for all cases, the one month interest rates, the three month interest rates as well as the six month interest rates. The explanation of this relationship indicates that the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates is accepted for the case of Kuwait.
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Simone Pizzi, Andrea Venturelli and Fabio Caputo
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the comply-or-explain principle in the Italian context. In particular, the analysis will evaluate, which factor…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the comply-or-explain principle in the Italian context. In particular, the analysis will evaluate, which factor impact on firms' voluntary adoption of this tool to adequate their non-financial reports to the legal requirements of Directive 95/2014/EU.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology consists of two different levels of analysis. The first part is statistical descriptive, and it consists of a rhetorical analysis on the justifications provided by the firms about their omissions to comply with Directive 95/2014/EU. The second part is inferential and its aim is to evaluate, which factors impact on comply-or-explains adoption.
Findings
The findings reveal how the comply-or-explain application in Italy has been characterized by several criticisms. The result highlight how the justifications adopted by the firms is influenced by their sector of activity and omission's type. Moreover, the analysis suggests how the sector of activity and the level of adherence to global reporting initiative influenced the average number of omissions.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the research are represented by the focuses on a single country and by the short period of analysis. In this sense, future research could be addressed to the analysis of countries different from Italy. Moreover, accounting scholars could provide further contributions to the political debate through the evolution of the “comply-or-explain” principle’s strategies over the years.
Practical implications
The practical implications connected to the present research are twofold. The first one is represented by the possibility for policymakers to increase the degree of attention about the use of comply-or-explain as legitimization's tool. The second one is represented by the possibility for practitioners to identify a new reporting framework.
Social implications
The social implications are represented by the possibility for stakeholders to evaluate the reliability's degree of the disclosure produced by Italian public interest entities after the implementation of Directive 95/2014/EU.
Originality/value
Despite the growing attention paid by academics regard Directive 95/2014/EU, this is the first attempt to analyze the comply-or-explain from a rhetorical perspective.
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Andreas Reinhardt and Susanne Enke
Studies on personal characteristics that influence managers' performance in their jobs and their ability to innovate focus mainly on for-profit organizations. We argue that…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies on personal characteristics that influence managers' performance in their jobs and their ability to innovate focus mainly on for-profit organizations. We argue that non-profit organizations (NPOs) differ substantially from for-profit organizations in their organizational set-up and processes, so the skills they demand from their managers and employees also differ. We undertake this research to explore the personal factors that could be particularly relevant to managers' performance and innovativeness in the non-profit sector.
Design/methodology/approach
We conduct a qualitative, model-building study to derive the personal factors that influence managers' intention to perform and to innovate and their behavior in that regard. The base of our analysis is 15 interviews with knowledgeable informants who either work in NPOs, provide services to them or perform research about them.
Findings
We derive 14 personal factors that can be aggregated into four categories—experience, virtues and vices, interpersonal skills and management skills—each of which affect NPO managers' individual performance and/or individual innovativeness.
Originality/value
This study adds to existing research on Ajzen's (1985) Theory of Planned Behavior by extending it to the nonprofit context, so it contributes to the literature on individuals' behavioral intentions.
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Francesca Dal Mas, Maurizio Massaro, Rosa Lombardi and Andrea Garlatti
The purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis of the current literature providing a deep contribution to understanding the paradigm shift from output to outcome measures in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis of the current literature providing a deep contribution to understanding the paradigm shift from output to outcome measures in the public sector. Thus, the main aim is to provide relevant insights of both theoretical and empirical studies, offering a critique of the schemes and the research methods used and underlining future research opportunities for the compelling (or underestimated) contents and new emerging trends.
Design/methodology/approach
Articles published in main public management and administration journals, as internationally recognized, are analyzed using a structured literature review methodology. The paper investigates selected contributions published in Association of Business Schools (ABS) (Chartered Association of Business Schools – UK] Grade 4, 3 and 2 journals specializing in the field of “Public Sector Management,” dealing with the topic of performance measurement, from output to outcome.
Findings
Findings are described defying a framework that deepens emerging elements of current literature such as main countries analyzed, main research topics highlighted, research methods applied (qualitative versus quantitative; case studies, interviews, comparative studies etc.), different definitions of “output” and “outcome,” top keywords and their connections.
Originality/value
The paper’s findings aim to offer insights and a current “shared vision” into the state of the art and possible future research avenues on the topic of output and outcome measures in the public sector fostering the development of further studies especially in the direction of sustainability.