David Carpenter and Bart Meehan
Discusses the extent to which environmental management is considered a mainstream business activity within Australian and New Zealand universities. Describes how a survey…
Abstract
Discusses the extent to which environmental management is considered a mainstream business activity within Australian and New Zealand universities. Describes how a survey instrument was used to collect data on environmental programs, their resourcing and control processes, and the level of community involvement in their development and ongoing management. These indicators of mainstreaming are discussed and particular reference is made to the Australian National University (ANU) and its experience with mainstreaming environmental management. The survey data indicate that in the majority of the surveyed institutions, environmental management cannot be considered a mainstream business activity. To aid universities in assessing their progress towards mainstreaming, a conceptual framework is presented and a model of organisational change is discussed.
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Purpose – The chapter explores the development and impact of the Museums Victoria’s exhibition World War I: Love & Sorrow, which aimed to present an honest, graphic and…
Abstract
Purpose – The chapter explores the development and impact of the Museums Victoria’s exhibition World War I: Love & Sorrow, which aimed to present an honest, graphic and challenging account of the experience and effect of World War I on Australian society. The paper describes the exhibition content and uses a range of methodological approaches to study its emotional and other impacts.
Methodology/Approach – A range of evaluation methodologies are used: visitor observation and summative evaluation collected in the months after the exhibition opened, and quantitative and qualitative studies produced in 2017. Comparative assessment of a large sample of visitor comments cards was also undertaken. The more recent evaluations focused particularly on emotional impacts.
Findings – The research finds that emotion is central to the success of the exhibition: underpinning the exhibition concept, guiding the research process and selection of interpretative approaches, and shaping visitor response.
Originality/Value – The emotional aspects of museum work have received relatively little attention, and few studies focused on the evaluation of visitor emotions have been published. The chapter uses a case study to highlight the role of emotions in museum exhibitions and historical interpretation, argues for more central place for emotions in historical enquiry, and addresses concerns about subjectivity, authenticity and evidence.
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Bart Lenderink, Johannes I.M. Halman, Hans Boes and Hans Voordijk
Stimulating innovation in projects can contribute to achieving policy goals, addressing societal challenges and meeting objectives within programs and projects. Despite their…
Abstract
Purpose
Stimulating innovation in projects can contribute to achieving policy goals, addressing societal challenges and meeting objectives within programs and projects. Despite their potential, innovations are rarely included in tender assignments and evaluated in the award of civil engineering projects. One explanation for this is the perceived difficulty in triggering and objectively assessing innovations in the awarding of projects. The aim of this paper is to develop, implement and evaluated a method to encourage and assess innovations in the awarding of bridge construction projects to address this problem.
Design/methodology/approach
A design science research (DSR) approach is used to develop, implement and evaluate a method to trigger and assess innovations in tenders for bridge projects. DSR approaches are used to develop “well-tested, well-understood and well documented innovative generic designs, dealing with authentic field problems or opportunities” (van Aken et al., 2016).
Findings
The findings show that the application of the developed method in a bridge project led to the inclusion of a broad range of innovations in the tender offers. Despite the broad support for the defined criteria, there were some differences in the way the criteria were interpreted by the public procurement team and by the tenderers. Despite these differences, no legal claims were filed in court.
Practical implications
Further development and wider adoption of the method is likely to have a positive impact on the application of innovations in bridge projects. With some adjustments, the method would also be appropriate for other civil engineering and construction projects.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the discussion on how the terms innovation and innovativeness can be operationalized and used in the literature and practice. The developed method provides definitions for assessing the degree as well as the level of innovations in tenders for bridge projects. Further, it provides a way to rank innovations and determine the additional value of the offered innovations in terms of a notional reduction in tender price. Finally, it provides insights into how to encourage innovations through public procurement in civil engineering projects.
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Jiju Antony, Michael Sony, Bart Lameijer, Shreeranga Bhat, Raja Jayaraman and Leopoldo Gutierrez
Design science research (DSR) is a structured approach for solving complex ill-structured problems in organizations through the development of an artefact followed by its…
Abstract
Purpose
Design science research (DSR) is a structured approach for solving complex ill-structured problems in organizations through the development of an artefact followed by its validation. This paper aims to evaluate existing DSR methodology and propose specific accents to promote DSR for environmental, social and governance (ESG)-oriented operational excellence (OPEX) initiatives within organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This commentary paper is based on an abductive reasoning approach to evaluate and understand DSR and assess its effectiveness for developing solutions to typical ESG-oriented OPEX-based problems within organizations.
Findings
Existing literature on DSR is reviewed, after which it is evaluated on its ability to contribute to the implementation of sustainable solutions for ESG-oriented OPEX-based problems. Based on the review, specific DSR methodological accents are proposed for the development of ESG-oriented OPEX-based solutions in organizations.
Research limitations/implications
This conceptual paper contributes to the conceptual understanding of the applicability, limitations and contextual preconditions for applying DSR. This paper proposes an explicit and, in some ways, alternative view on DSR research for OPEX researchers to apply and further the body of knowledge on matters of sustainability (ESG) in operations management.
Practical implications
Currently, there is limited understanding and application of the DSR methodology for OPEX-based problem-solving initiatives, as appears in the scant literature on DSR applied for the implementation of OPEX based initiatives for ESG purposes. This paper aims to challenge and provide accents for DSR applied to OPEX-related problems by means of a DSR framework and thereby promotes intervention-based studies among researchers.
Originality/value
The proposed step-by-step methodology contains novel elements and is expected to be of help for OPEX-oriented academicians and practitioners in implementing DSR methodology for practical related problems which need research interventions from academics from Higher Education Institutions.
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Sustainability has become an important catch‐word in several fields that has stimulated an important body of work on a wide variety of topics ranging from economic development and…
Abstract
Sustainability has become an important catch‐word in several fields that has stimulated an important body of work on a wide variety of topics ranging from economic development and agricultural production to social equity and biodiversity. Few generalizations can be made about such a diverse body of work. However, one can say with some confidence that this reflection has come about in large part from a sense that certain activities constitute a threat to human well‐being through the destruction of the necessary conditions of human survival. This fact has contributed to a rampant pessimism regarding prospects for the future and a rethinking of the meaning of sustainability in the fields noted above. However, acknowledging that sustainability is a rich concept in current thinking about economy, environment, and ecology does not mean that it is clearly understood. Indeed, the opposite is true. For example, John Pezzey, in a recent World Bank study, identified twenty‐seven definitions of sustainability. Even a summary survey of the work about sustainability shows that the term is a multidimensional concept that comprises of a number of interrelated elements, including ecological, environmental, economic, technological, social, cultural, ethical, and political dimensions.
This paper documents and accounts for the globalization of the so-called national bourgeoisie in the late twentieth century. A substantial and growing body of sociological…
Abstract
This paper documents and accounts for the globalization of the so-called national bourgeoisie in the late twentieth century. A substantial and growing body of sociological literature holds that firms and investors from the developing world have been denationalized, neutered, or destroyed by their efforts to penetrate international markets – and that cross-national economic competition is therefore giving way to transnational class conflict over time. By way of contrast, I hold that not only peripheral capitalists but their elected and appointed representatives are compelled to undertake large-scale, fixed investments, exploit their competitive advantages, and challenge foreign firms – and their respective representatives – on their own soil by the very logic of capitalist competition, and that the aforementioned challenges will occur on political as well as economic terrain.
George Christodoulides, Nina Michaelidou and Nikoletta Theofania Siamagka
The role of affective states in consumer behaviour is well established. However, no study to date has examined online affective states empirically as a basis for constructing…
Abstract
Purpose
The role of affective states in consumer behaviour is well established. However, no study to date has examined online affective states empirically as a basis for constructing typologies of internet users and for assessing the invariance of clusters across national cultures. This paper aims to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Four focus groups were carried out with internet users to adapt a set of affective states identified from the literature to the online environment. An online survey was then designed to collect data from internet users in four Western and four East Asian countries.
Findings
Based on a cluster analysis, six cross‐national market segments are identified and labelled “Positive Online Affectivists”, “Offline Affectivists”, “On/Off‐line Negative Affectivists”, “Online Affectivists”, “Indistinguishable Affectivists”, and “Negative Offline Affectivists”. The resulting clusters discriminate on the basis of national culture, gender, working status and perceptions towards online brands.
Practical implications
Marketers may use this typology to segment internet users in order to predict their perceptions towards online brands. Also, a standardised approach to e‐marketing is not recommended on the basis of affective state‐based segmentation.
Originality/value
This is the first study proposing affective state‐based typologies of internet users using comparable samples from four Western and four East Asian countries.