Search results

This paper investigates the role of institutional pressures (IPs) and supply chain integration (SCI) in driving the adoption of circular economy (CE) practices. It is hypothesised that, responding to IPs, firms might adopt higher levels of SCI in the attempt to implement CE practices.

A research model is developed and tested on a cross-sectional sample of 150 multi-national enterprises (MNEs). Textual content from corporate sustainability reports is used to measure the constructs of interest through an advanced coding approach.

Findings show that IPs are driving the adoption of CE practices primarily through the mediation of SCI; the prominent roles of coercive regulatory pressures (CRPs) and normative pressures (NPs) are also highlighted. CRPs influence on CE practices is partially mediated by SCI, with NPs influence being fully mediated by it.

The study shows that SCI is a key mechanism that lies in between IPs and CE practices; as such, organisations interested in implementing CE practices need to be aware of requirements for achieving higher levels of SCI.

This empirical study is the first large scale analysis that conceptualises how MNE-driven supply chains adopt CE practices. The study empirically validates the model and identifies research avenues in supply chain management (SCM) research to support the adoption of CE practices.

This paper describes the simulation of a nearest neighbour searching algorithm for document retrieval using a pool of microprocessors. The documents in a database are organised in a multi‐dimensional binary search tree, and the algorithm identifies the nearest neighbour for a query by a backtracking search of this tree. Three techniques are described which allow parallel searching of the tree. A PASCAL‐based, general purpose simulation system is used to simulate these techniques, using a pool of Transputer‐like microprocessors with three standard document test collections. The degree of speed‐up and processor utilisation obtained is shown to be strongly dependent upon the characteristics of the documents and queries used. The results support the use of pooled microprocessor systems for searching applications in information retrieval.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the implicit motivations of entrepreneurial philanthropists during different stages of their lives.

The authors follow a Historical Organization Studies approach by performing a psychobiographical analysis using McClelland’s Thematic Apperception Test on the autobiography of Andrew Carnegie across different stages of his life while considering the historical context.

The configuration of the implicit motivations of entrepreneurial philanthropists change with achievement motivation decreasing and power motivation increasing over time explaining the shift of focus from self to others.

While researchers have been theorizing and using interviews to uncover shifts in entrepreneurial motivations, this is the first paper to longitudinally uncover implicit motivations to explain why successful entrepreneurs give back later in life.

Professionals often dislike dirty work, yet they accommodate or even embrace it in everyday practice. This chapter problematizes Andrew Abbott’s professional purity thesis by examining five major forms of impurities in professional work, namely impurity in expertise, impurity in jurisdictions, impurity in clients, impurity in organizations, and impurity in politics. These impurities complicate the relationship between purity and status as some impurities may enhance professional status while others may jeopardize it, especially when the social origins of professionals are rapidly diversifying and professional work is increasingly intertwined with the logics of market and bureaucracy. Taking impurities seriously can help the sociology of professions move beyond the idealistic image of an independent, disinterested professional detached from human emotions, turf battles, client influence, and organizational or political forces and towards a more pragmatic understanding of professional work, expertise, ethics and the nature of professionalism.

Programmes to promote alcohol awareness and harm reduction in the general population often take an atomised approach, encouraging individual drinkers to understand their unit intake and adjust it accordingly. Although many public health practitioners harbour doubts about the value of this approach, few clear alternatives have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to provide such an alternative.

Alcohol Concern’s Communities Together project was rooted in the idea that drinking patterns can only be understood in their social context. It was an attempt to take seriously Harold Holder’s injunction to “cease to focus narrowly on the individual and begin to adopt broader community perspectives on alcohol problems”. The project applied Asset-Based Community Development methods, handing a large degree of control over to the participants, drawing on their own talents and enthusiasms, and recognising their autonomy and their authority as experts in their own lives.

The project outputs have been described as “community development with an alcohol twist”. They included a range of activities and events that created inclusive and non-judgemental spaces for people to think about alcohol and draw their own conclusions. It was also a lesson in humility for those of us who like to consider ourselves as the experts in public health: we had to learn that we did not have all the answers to questions about other people’s lives.

The project indicates that community development may be a valid alternative to more traditional and more didactic approaches to alcohol harm reduction.

The project may provide an innovative and flexible model that could be applied in various communities in order to address alcohol misuse in an engaging and undogmatic fashion that helps people take more control of their own lives.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Since 2016, the authors have been teaching an interdisciplinary module on the global clothing industry to students enrolled in an introductory psychology course and a second year chemistry course at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. In 2016, the module also involved third year chemistry students, and in 2017, second year sociology students and graduate students in English literature from the University of Stuttgart in Germany took part. The module has the following features: (1) it focuses on a complex industry with ramifications for social and environmental sustainability, (2) it involves an issue of direct relevance to the students, (3) students teach those from another discipline as “subject experts,” and (4) students are assessed on their learning within their home course. An evaluation of the 2018 iteration with psychology and chemistry students (N = 185) showed post-test decreases in participants’ materialistic values, increases in knowledge and concern about the social and environmental impacts of the clothing industry and reported changes to clothes buying practices. The authors discuss the institutional barriers faced and provide five recommendations for other university teachers considering integrating an interdisciplinary sustainability module into existing courses.

One of the emerging roles of management accountants in organizations is the design and operation of their organization's knowledge management system (KMS) that ensures the strategic utilization and management of its knowledge resources. Knowledge-based organizations face identifiable general risks but those whose primary product is knowledge, knowledge-products organizations (KPOs), additionally face unique risks. The management accountants’ role in the management of knowledge is even more critical in such organizations. We review the literature and survey a small convenient sample of knowledge-products organizations to identify the general risks knowledge-based organizations face and the additional risks unique to KPOs. The general risks of managing knowledge include inappropriate corporate information policies, employee turnover, and lack of data transferability. Additional risks unique to KPOs include the short life span (shelf-life) of knowledge products, the challenging nature of knowledge experts, and the vulnerability of intellectual property. The paper includes recommendations for management accountants in KPOs to develop and maintain competitive advantage through their KMS. These include developing enterprise-wide knowledge policies, fostering collaboration and documentation, addressing knowledge security, and evaluating the effectiveness of the KMS.