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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2014

José Aguado-Romero, Antonio M. López-Hernández and Simón Vera-Ríos

In Spain contract auditing has been applied since 1988 to determine the final cost of defense procurement contracts. In this respect, the Spanish Department of Defense takes the…

92

Abstract

In Spain contract auditing has been applied since 1988 to determine the final cost of defense procurement contracts. In this respect, the Spanish Department of Defense takes the US methodology as a reference model, and therefore it may be useful to study the degree of convergence between the two models. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the degree to which the US contract auditing model for the procurement of defense materiel has influenced the system applied in Spain. Accordingly, the comparative method is used to highlight the main features of the contract auditing models used by the Spanish and the US Departments of Defense. The results obtained show that the methodology used by Spain is not an original approach, but that there is only a low degree of convergence with the US model.

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Journal of Public Procurement, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1535-0118

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Article
Publication date: 7 June 2021

Jesús Mauricio Flórez-Parra, Maria Victoria Lopez-Perez, Antonio M. López Hernández and Raquel Garde Sánchez

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the internal and external factors related to the disclosure of environmental information in universities which reflect the actions carried…

647

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the internal and external factors related to the disclosure of environmental information in universities which reflect the actions carried out in these universities.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking as reference the first 200 universities in the Shanghai ranking, several factors associated with the degree of environmental information disclosure in universities – governance dimension, the relationship and participation of stakeholders, position and prestige as signs of the quality of the institution and cultural concern in the university’s country for the environment – are analysed.

Findings

The results obtained show that the size of the leadership team, stakeholder participation, the position of the university in rankings and cultural concern in the university’s country for the environment are determining factors in the university’s environmental actions and, consequently, in their disclosure. Other factors – such as the size of the university, the level of self-financing and financial autonomy – do not affect the disclosure of environmental information.

Originality/value

Scant research exists on the environmental commitments of universities; this paper aims to fill that gap. Their role as the main channel of research and as instructors of future professionals makes them points of reference in society. Research on university ranking has traditionally focussed on teaching and research results, but environmental issues are becoming increasingly important. This paper enumerates the factors that influence the dissemination of environmental information in the most prestigious universities. This research also provides an original approach by considering not only top-down but also bottom-up strategies through communication channels and the incidence of cultural factors.

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International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

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Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Raquel Garde Sánchez, Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar and Antonio M. López Hernández

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of perceptions of pressure from stakeholders on the managers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) regarding the need to…

1175

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of perceptions of pressure from stakeholders on the managers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) regarding the need to implement socially responsible policies in the supply chain and to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information. The authors also analyse the benefits perceived by public managers from applying CSR in the supply chain and from the greater disclosure of CSR information.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured questionnaire was developed, based on a set of items related to aspects of CSR, and taking into account previous research in this field. The authors also propose a theoretical model with which to analyse relations among the variables studied. This model was verified using structural equation modelling.

Findings

The results obtained are consistent with the proposed model and show that stakeholder pressure has a direct influence on the CSR policies applied by public managers regarding suppliers and information disclosure. The authors also find that public managers believe that applying socially responsible policies in their dealings with suppliers will benefit their business.

Originality/value

Although the question of CSR has been widely debated in the context of private business, very little research has addressed this question in the public sphere, especially in that of SOEs, regarding the practice of socially responsible management with suppliers. Aspects of social responsibility towards suppliers are of considerable importance and some complexity, particularly in public enterprises, which are sometimes the main or only consumer. A better understanding of the connections between these constructs will allow corporate decision makers, particularly those in public companies, to devise appropriate strategies for social responsibility in the supply chain and for the disclosure of CSR information, and thus incorporate stakeholders’ expectations into the design of these strategies.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

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Article
Publication date: 3 November 2014

José Luis Zafra‐Gómez, Antonio M. LópezHernández, Ana María Plata Díaz and Gemma Pérez López

Financial stress features frequently as an explanatory factor in research into decisions concerning the contracting out, or decentralisation, of local public services, though…

410

Abstract

Purpose

Financial stress features frequently as an explanatory factor in research into decisions concerning the contracting out, or decentralisation, of local public services, though existing empirical studies are not unanimous in their conclusions. The understanding of how financial crises influence these processes could be enhanced by the use of a dynamic methodology that takes into account the following three aspects: the duration of the financial stress, the effectiveness of the action taken and the time‐lag between the crisis and the response. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This study introduces three important innovations in the methodology employed to study financial stress: the consideration of the duration of a financial stress episode as a key factor in promoting changes in the provision of public services; the effectiveness of the measures taken; and time‐lag, which takes into account the extended time horizon over which the local authority may implement business‐like and organisational changes.

Findings

To date, the techniques used to measure the effects of changes in service delivery methods implemented to alleviate financial stress, have not reflected the true nature of the phenomenon. The results obtained when the new approach proposed in this paper was used to examine Spanish local government responses to financial stress during the period 1999‐2007 confirm that the methodology is well‐judged and effective.

Originality/value

This study reveals that local authorities facing financial stress of two, three or four years’ duration present percentages of decentralisation and contracting‐out that are significantly higher than is the case for local authorities that implement the same processes in response to crises of one year. These findings confirm the need to carry out studies that include the duration of financial crises as a determinant factor in change processes.

Resumen

El estrés financiero como factor explicativo es una característica recurrente en la investigación sobre la privatización/descentralización de los servicios públicos locales, aunque los estudios empíricos previos no son unánimes en sus conclusiones. Nuestro conocimiento de la influencia de las crisis financieras en estos procesos se podría mejorar mediante el uso de una metodología dinámica que tenga en cuenta los tres aspectos siguientes: la duración de la tensión financiera, el tiempo que transcurre entre la crisis y la respuesta hecha, y la eficacia de esta acción. Al aplicar esta nueva metodología, se demuestra que, hasta la fecha, los métodos utilizados para medir los efectos de los cambios en las formas de prestación de servicios, como un medio de aliviar la tensión financiera, no han reflejado la verdadera naturaleza del fenómeno. Los resultados obtenidos con esta nueva propuesta confirman que la metodología aplicada es la correcta y efectiva en los gobiernos locales españoles para el período 1999‐2007.

Details

Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1012-8255

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Article
Publication date: 20 June 2008

Carmen Caba Pérez, Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar and Antonio M. López Hernández

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of financial information made available by public administrations on their web sites and to discover whether this communications…

2886

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of financial information made available by public administrations on their web sites and to discover whether this communications policy is influenced by the context in which the public entity operates.

Design/methodology/approach

The study took as its reference the prior literature and distinguished three dimensions – information content, qualitative characteristics of information and accessibility – which were converted into a disclosure index that was used to assess government web sites. A multivariable linear regression analysis was performed in search of a relationship between seven external factors and the provision of public financial information online.

Findings

The empirical research revealed that the sample municipalities were not fully aware of the potential importance of the internet in enabling the achievement of e‐democracy initiatives as a tool of new public management. The factors previously found to be important in paper‐based reporting seem to have no influence on the public disclosure of financial information on the internet. Only the cost of debt and access to the internet in households seem to be relevant factors in the degree of financial information transparency achieved via the internet.

Practical implications

The good practices by greater online public financial transparency could improve the image of governments and the confidence of citizens.

Originality/value

This paper tries to encourage a benchmarking process disseminating best practices in online government financial information and identifying the key variables that promote this process.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2004

Antonio M. López Hernández and Carmen Caba Pérez

Financial reporting information had been aimed mainly at internal users and audit offices, but this has changed in recent years. Potential users have widened, among whom we should…

1279

Abstract

Financial reporting information had been aimed mainly at internal users and audit offices, but this has changed in recent years. Potential users have widened, among whom we should mention certain financial institutions, owing to their particular relevance. In this context, based on a sample of 54 credit institutions, this study aims to obtain evidence on the information that is shown to be useful to these users in their decision‐making, by looking at the Spanish financial reports. A study is also made of causes that restrict the usefulness of local financial information, along with possible suggestions to make this information more useful to credit institutions. The results reveal that owing mainly to legal reasons, the profit and loss account and the balance sheet are the least relevant financial statements to credit institutions’ indebtedness operation decision making. Likewise, it is obvious that current local financial information needs to become more opportune, reliable, complete and understandable.

Details

International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3558

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Article
Publication date: 22 August 2022

María Muñoz Sanz-Agero and Carl Antonius Lemke Duque

This study provides a new look at the late 19th-century university issue in Spain. Loss of self-government among universities and the state’s centralization brought a conflict…

74

Abstract

Purpose

This study provides a new look at the late 19th-century university issue in Spain. Loss of self-government among universities and the state’s centralization brought a conflict between science and religion to the fore in the process of the secularization of knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

We first delve into the anti-Darwinian framework associated with the scientific professionalization process, focusing on the case of the jurist Antonio Hernández Fajarnés (1851–1909). Secondly, we study the idea of the university that emerged from the Ateneo de Madrid, analyzing key speeches from the jurist Francisco Fernández de Henestrosa (1855–s.d.) given in 1887/88 and from the pharmacist José Rodríguez Carracido (1856–1928).

Findings

The study concludes that the Restoration Era in Spain was characterized by a generalized desire – shared by neo-Scholastics, conservatives and liberal rationalists – to improve the public university system. In this context, French influence was no doubt decisive; however, the Humboldtian university idea had already begun to have notable influence.

Originality/value

This article analyzes sources yet unknown to international research, such as the Ateneo de Madrid debates and Spanish university rectors’ inaugural speeches. It opens up a critical examination of the so-called displacement of educational principles in Spain toward a state-centered system of doctrinal moderantismo as opposed to the nation-centered system of the Cádiz liberalism. At the same time, it identifies key pockets of resistance relative to Spanish university transformation toward increased methodological secularization.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 February 2023

Estefanía Martínez Valdivia, Maria del Carmen Pegalajar Palomino and Antonio Burgos-Garcia

Changes in society, the economy and health require a response from higher education regarding the training of professionals, specifically, future teachers. In this sense, active…

1770

Abstract

Purpose

Changes in society, the economy and health require a response from higher education regarding the training of professionals, specifically, future teachers. In this sense, active methodologies constitute, in line with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, a key strategic element in teacher training, given the need to educate for sustainability and social responsibility (SR). This study aims to examine innovative teaching-learning experiences based on the use of active methodologies and the interaction with sustainability and SR on the part of university students in Education.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology constitutes a systematic review of the qualitative, inductive and exploratory literature, on the basis of the PRISMA declaration principles. The sample is composed of research published between 2011 and 2021 in the world’s most important scientific databases in the educational context (WoS, Scopus and Eric-ProQuest).

Findings

This study reveals the methodologies that are most commonly used in ecological literacy, their implications for the acquisition of competencies in terms of curriculum sustainability and their relationship with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and SR. Higher education must reflect and demonstrate awareness of its social mission and pedagogical effectiveness, to transform education, taking as a reference the sustainability and SR in the university student’s curriculum.

Research limitations/implications

One of the main limitations of this study is the scarcity of research studies that include, jointly, the key descriptors analysed in this contribution such as teacher training, active methodologies, sustainability and SR. Another limitation to observe in this work is related to having considered as inclusion criteria solely research published in open access journals, since other research published in closed access journals is omitted.

Originality/value

This work demonstrates the usefulness of active methodologies in the training and professional development of future Education students in “sustainability”.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

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Book part
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Águeda Gil-López, Elena San Román, Sarah L. Jack and Ricardo Zózimo

This chapter explores how network bricolage, as a form of collective entrepreneurship, develops over time and influences the shape and form of an organization. Using a historical…

Abstract

This chapter explores how network bricolage, as a form of collective entrepreneurship, develops over time and influences the shape and form of an organization. Using a historical organization study of SEUR, a Spanish courier company founded in 1942, the authors show how network bricolage is implemented as a dynamic process of collaborative efforts between bricoleurs who draw on their historical experience to build and develop an organization. Our study offers two main contributions. In combining network bricolage with ideas of collective entrepreneurship, the authors first extend knowledge about the practice of bricolage and the role of the bricoleur in the entrepreneurial context beyond start-up. Second, the authors show that, while entrepreneurs’ decisions are historically contingent, it is how entrepreneurs wed past experience with current context which informs their actions in the present, shaping the enterprise for the future.

Details

Collective Entrepreneurship in the Contemporary European Services Industries: A Long Term Approach
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-950-8

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Book part
Publication date: 23 August 2023

Antonio Huerta-Estévez and José Satsumi López-Morales

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Mexican companies is an incipient concept that, in recent years, has had greater participation in the planning of companies'…

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Mexican companies is an incipient concept that, in recent years, has had greater participation in the planning of companies' organisational strategies. Similarly, Mexico, as an emerging economy, has managed to remain one of the main economies in Latin America and, together with companies and organised society, has developed public policies that allow compliance with the commitment of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objective of this work is to analyse the presence of CSR in Mexican companies and its relationship with the SDGs related to economic development, for which a content analysis of the websites of the hundred most important companies in Mexico, according to the 2019 ranking of Expansión magazine, was performed. Finally, we establish that more than half of Mexican companies do not consider aspects related to CSR in their organisational development, contributing to the increase in the percentage of the population lagging behind in education, health and quality food and resulting in an increase in the levels of poverty and extreme poverty among the population of Mexico.

Details

Strategic Corporate Responsibility and Green Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-446-5

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