Anita Hammer and Suparna Karmakar
This research contributes to current debates on automation and the future of work, a much-hyped but under researched area, in emerging economies through a particular focus on…
Abstract
Purpose
This research contributes to current debates on automation and the future of work, a much-hyped but under researched area, in emerging economies through a particular focus on India. It assesses the national strategy on artificial intelligence and explores the impact of automation on the Indian labour market, work and employment to inform policy.
Design/methodology/approach
The article critically assesses the National Strategy on AI, promulgated by NITI Aayog (a national policy think tank), supported by the government of India and top industry associations, through a sectoral analysis. The key dimensions of the national strategy are examined against scholarship on the political economy of work in India to better understand the possible impact of automation on work.
Findings
The study shows that technology is not free from the wider dynamics that surround the world of work. The adoption of new technologies is likely to occur in niches in the manufacturing and services sectors, while its impact on employment and the labour market more broadly, and in addressing societal inequalities will be limited. The national strategy, however, does not take into account the nature of capital accumulation and structural inequalities that stem from a large informal economy and surplus labour context with limited upskilling opportunities. This raises doubts about the effectiveness of the current policy.
Research limitations/implications
The critical assessment of new technologies and work has two implications: first, it underscores the need for situated analyses of social and material relations of work in formulating and assessing strategies and policies; second, it highlights the necessity of qualitative workplace studies that examine the relationship between technology and the future of work.
Practical implications
The article assesses an influential state policy in a key aspect of future of work–automation.
Social implications
The policy assessed in this study would have significant social and economic outcomes for labour, work and employment in India. The study highlights the limitations of the state policy in addressing key labour market dimensions and work and employment relations in its formulation and implementation.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the impact of automation on work and employment in India. It provides a critical intervention in current debates on future of work from the point of view of an important emerging economy defined by labour surplus and a large informal economy.
Details
Keywords
Andrew Kinder and Ivan T. Robertson
Explores the practical implications and the psychological meaning of thelinks between specific job competences and personality variables usingbiographical material from the lives…
Abstract
Explores the practical implications and the psychological meaning of the links between specific job competences and personality variables using biographical material from the lives of famous people such as Anita Roddick, Sir John Harvey‐Jones, Lord Shaftesbury and Mikhail Gorbachev. Uses results from an earlier study, involving a meta‐analysis of personality data to provide an empirical base. Focuses on four areas: “creative/innovative”, “analysis and judgement”, “resilience” and “persuasiveness”.
Details
Keywords
Majed Al‐Mashari and Mohamed Zairi
Although SAP R/3 has become widely utilised as a means to change IT systems and business processes, not all organizations embarking on its implementation have achieved their…
Abstract
Although SAP R/3 has become widely utilised as a means to change IT systems and business processes, not all organizations embarking on its implementation have achieved their intended results. However, leading practices have demonstrated that success is essentially conditional on managing adequately the complex context of implementation, which necessitates organizational changes across various key areas related to strategy, business processes, IT, structure, culture, and management systems. This paper describes a proposed model presenting the implementation of SAP R/3 from an integrative and holistic perspective. The model is developed based on reported experiences of several best practice organizations. The central theme of the paper argues that at the heart of effective SAP R/3 implementation, a fully balanced perspective has to be taken. On the other hand, the exclusive focus on technical aspects, at the cost of change management elements, has proved to be far from successful.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enhance understanding of organizational change by countering managerial and critical assumptions that it is possible to break with the past.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, case study approach involving interviews with 50 staff, ten supervisors, eight deputy supervisors, four assistant managers, two departmental managers plus the IT, training and personnel managers. The paper focuses on the experiences of supervisors and deputy supervisors.
Findings
That culture cannot be so readily forgotten or reinvented as management gurus assume or critics fear. Memories are stubborn and culture is constituted through them in ways that lead to continuity and change.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations leading to future research include that the study explores only one organization. Second, consultants are not used. Third, the reengineering only focus on a part of the organization. Fourth, the findings can be contrasted with an organization that is considered leading edge.
Originality/value
The qualitative findings provide a complex understanding of change especially in terms of how memory can serve to both facilitate and hinder change initiatives and how attempts to introduce more “informal” cultures simultaneously reproduce “formality”.
Details
Keywords
Multinational companies (MNCs) entering developing markets face cultural, language, and other barriers to understanding consumers. Ethnographic consumer insights research offers…
Abstract
Purpose
Multinational companies (MNCs) entering developing markets face cultural, language, and other barriers to understanding consumers. Ethnographic consumer insights research offers the best means of understanding needed product innovations and adaptations for these markets. This paper aims to focus on these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper emphasizes qualitative methods and gives examples of their successful application in developing markets.
Findings
Despite a wealth of quantitative consumer data from surveys, online data, and secondary data analysis, these methods cannot provide a culture‐sensitive understanding of local consumers. Anthropological approaches are best situated to do this.
Originality/value
While MNCs have global experience they can gain local experience by coming to see through the lens of qualitative consumer insights.
Details
Keywords
All of the major market economies of East Asia have developed institutional arrangements through which business associations, labor unions, and other major types of associations…
Abstract
Purpose
All of the major market economies of East Asia have developed institutional arrangements through which business associations, labor unions, and other major types of associations maintain close relationships with the state. During the stage in which these were emerging economies, the state dominated this relationship in an arrangement known as “state corporatism.” But with democratization, Japan’s, Taiwan’s, and South Korea’s business associations and unions came more under the influence their members, and a new balance in relations with the state emerged in an arrangement known as “societal corporatism.” In China, which is still in transition from the status of an emerging economy, the state continues to dominate associations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the situation in China and to analyze whether the government is likely to maintain its dominance in future decades over powerful economic constituencies and their associations.
Design/methodology/approach
The historical transition from state corporatism to societal corporatist practices in East Asia is discussed on the basis of available English-language literature. This forms the framework for an analysis of China, based largely upon on-site research and Chinese-language writings. The paper includes case studies of China’s two major business associations.
Findings
The paper finds that China’s controls over business associations using state corporatist techniques are likely to persist in coming decades, due to the government’s vigilance in warding off any transition to members’ influence and societal corporatism.
Practical implications
The influence of the state on businesses and unions and on business associations affects the operations of these vival economic institutions as well as the shaping of government policies.
Originality/value
To understand relations between business associations and governments in East Asia, especially China, it is necessary to come to grips with the concept and practices of corporatism. This paper uses a comparative perspective to illuminate trends in the region’s capitalist countries and to cast new light on China.
Details
Keywords
Anita Lifen Zhao, Stuart Hanmer‐Lloyd, Philippa Ward and Mark M.H. Goode
The purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors that discourage Chinese consumers from adopting internet banking services (IBS). This market is experiencing fast growth;…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors that discourage Chinese consumers from adopting internet banking services (IBS). This market is experiencing fast growth; however, an in‐depth understanding of Chinese consumers within this is lacking. Perceived risk is a key construct in Western consumer decision making, whereas whether this is true in China's IBS market is rarely researched. An exploration of this dynamic market is therefore critical to develop theoretical and practical implications.
Design/methodology/approach
To maximise the comparability with existing Western findings, the current research adopts a quantitative approach to measure Chinese consumers' risk perception. However, as the existing literature provides limited guidelines associated with the current context, exploratory research was conducted to establish a general understanding and to identify additional elements of this particular market. A detailed instrument was developed and examined Chinese consumers' risk perception in depth. Primary data were collected by self‐administered questionnaires containing 504 respondents from southern China. Exploratory factor analysis is employed to identify critical risk factors.
Findings
Results indicate that the concept of perceived risk has merit in explaining Chinese consumers' decisions on whether to use IBS. Results clearly reveal that the significant risk barriers identified are influenced by culture and do not simply follow predominant Western patterns. Suggestions for banks are developed in an attempt to overcome these risk barriers.
Originality/value
The current research adds value to the existing literature in that findings reinforce the need to (re)examine Western theories from a more critical perspective. This also leads to a discussion addressing further areas for open debate and research.
Details
Keywords
Glenna Sumner and Anita Williams
This paper aims to explain the economic impact of the change in the degree of contract enforcement in the USA since August 2008. This change, from solid enforcement (hard…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explain the economic impact of the change in the degree of contract enforcement in the USA since August 2008. This change, from solid enforcement (hard contracts), to uncertain enforcement (fuzzy contracts), is a result of political expediency during an economic crisis. The purpose of the paper is to point out that political decisions are not made in an economic vacuum, and that there is an economic impact to the move away from hard contracts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a time value of money, net present value approach with specific emphasis on the investor's adjustment to the required rate of return in the face of uncertain contract enforcement. Both closed and open economic systems are addressed.
Findings
The paper finds that in the shift to a fuzzy contract environment, investors will increase the required rate of return on future investment contracts, thereby lowering the value of those assets. Both individually, and in the aggregate, asset values will fall.
Research limitations/implications
The paper makes no attempt to evaluate reasons for or against the institutional changes that produced the move to fuzzy contracts. The paper examines only the resulting impact of the change on asset valuations.
Practical implications
Reducing the certainty of contract enforcement reduces asset valuations and investment.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills a need to be cognizant of the fact that actions of politicians can have unintended economic consequences, using the specific example of the shift in contract enforcement in the USA since August 2008.