In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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It is still not completely understood what speeds up or slows down the decision‐making process. The duration of decision making may range from a month to four years, but usually…
Abstract
It is still not completely understood what speeds up or slows down the decision‐making process. The duration of decision making may range from a month to four years, but usually takes about 12 months. Most processes run into disruptions and interruptions, which lengthen the time taken. Measuring decision making is difficult since it is virtually impossible to define the beginning and end of the process. The evidence for this comes from an extensive study of how top managers and administrators in the public and private sectors move towards a conclusion. A database was established of 150 cases of strategic decision making obtained by interviewing. Six cases were traced back by intensive case study methods. Short, medium and long decision processes are examined using case examples. One of the curious features of decision making is what happens before the deliberation process starts. Impediments and delays are discussed and whether committees slow the process.
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The primary purpose of this bibliography is to provide a compilation of trust‐related articles from the disparate fields in which trust has been explored (from psychology to…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this bibliography is to provide a compilation of trust‐related articles from the disparate fields in which trust has been explored (from psychology to sociology and information systems to marketing. Years in its compilation and (still incomplete), it provides a listing that is not easily obtained even with the search capability of the internet and electronic library catalogues. Its secondary purpose is to highlight which articles are used most by marketing‐related trust researchers both in general and within the submissions to the special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The bibliography was compiled via search and analysis of databases, reference lists, bibliographies, internet searches, library catalogues, university web pages, researchers' curricula vitae (inter alia) for conference papers, journal articles, and books that use trust as a key concept within the work.
Findings
The paper finds that there is a plethora of material on trust, but spread across several thousand sources. No single comprehensive collection exists and the need for such a compilation is of value to researchers.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is an invaluable source of references on trust from across a wide range of academic disciplines.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the paper is the cross‐disciplinary nature of the compilation of reference materials.
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G.R. Mallory and David C. Wilson
Central to the concerns of management and to writers of organisation theory are the considerations of strategic decision making. The Organisational Analysis Research Unit, in the…
Abstract
Central to the concerns of management and to writers of organisation theory are the considerations of strategic decision making. The Organisational Analysis Research Unit, in the Management Centre, University of Bradford, has been researching the process of strategic decision making in thirty British organisations, a sample ranging from orchestras to a police force with industrial and service organisations in between. The research was initiated in response to the apparent lack of any systematic comparative studies of decision making appearing elsewhere.
The primary purpose of this article is to introduce the special issue on trust in marketing and the selected papers. However, it has a secondary objective of acting as a brief…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this article is to introduce the special issue on trust in marketing and the selected papers. However, it has a secondary objective of acting as a brief introduction to the concept of trust, of highlighting the scope and scale of research into the concept in a range of disciplines, and of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being under‐explored.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a discursive paper based on analysis and synthesis of trust literature and of submissions to the special issue.
Findings
This paper finds that despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate trust, and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into trust in marketing, for example the role of trust in a B2C context, the impact of indirect (referent) experience versus direct experience of levels of trust, and exploring the concept using more interpretivist or phenomenological approaches.
Research limitations/implications
The historical synthesis provides researchers new to the field with some foundational literature. For those interested in current thoughts, the discussion provides a synthesis of the areas represented by the paper in this special issue. For those interested in new areas it offers suggestions as to some possibilities.
Originality/value
The value of the paper lies in linking the special issue articles to areas of current interest and the identification of under‐researched areas of trust in a marketing context.
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David C. Wilson and Howard Thomas
The purpose of this paper is to examine some challenges facing business schools and their continued legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the problems of accreditation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine some challenges facing business schools and their continued legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the problems of accreditation, regulation and rankings and how these constrain strategic choice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper builds on existing literature to provide an analytical overview of the challenges currently facing business schools.
Findings
The paper assesses the current context of business schools and assesses to what extent they are becoming less relevant both in terms of practice and theories. It suggests changes business schools might make in order to increase relevance.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that business schools should change their central concerns to issues of central relevance to society and to policy. A wide range of such topics, ranging from climate change to exogenous events, is suggested.
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David C. Wilson, Layla Branicki, Bridgette Sullivan‐Taylor and Alexander D. Wilson
Threats of extreme events, such as terrorist attacks or infrastructure breakdown, are potentially highly disruptive events for all types of organizations. This paper seeks to take…
Abstract
Purpose
Threats of extreme events, such as terrorist attacks or infrastructure breakdown, are potentially highly disruptive events for all types of organizations. This paper seeks to take a political perspective to power in strategic decision making and how this influences planning for extreme events.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 160 informants drawn from 135 organizations, which are part of the critical national infrastructure in the UK, forms the empirical basis of the paper. Most of these organizations had publicly placed business continuity and preparedness as a strategic priority. The paper adopts a qualitative approach, coding data from focus groups.
Findings
In nearly all cases there is a pre‐existing dominant coalition which keeps business continuity decisions off the strategic agenda. The only exceptions to this are a handful of organizations which provide continuous production, such as some utilities, where disruption to business as usual can be readily quantified. The data reveal structural and decisional elements of the exercise of power. Structurally, the dominant coalition centralizes control by ensuring that only a few functional interests participate in decision making.
Research limitations/implications
Decisional elements of power emphasize the dominance of calculative rationality where decisions are primarily made on information and arguments which can be quantified. Finally, the paper notes the recursive aspect of power relations whereby agency and structure are mutually constitutive over time. Organizational structures of control are maintained, despite the involvement of managers charged with organizational preparedness and resilience, who remain outside the dominant coalition.
Originality/value
The paper constitutes a first attempt to show how planning for emergencies fits within the strategy‐making process and how politically controlled this process is.
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This paper reports preliminary findings about how households organize street vending businesses in response to varying sources and degrees of uncertainty. The thesis is that…
Abstract
This paper reports preliminary findings about how households organize street vending businesses in response to varying sources and degrees of uncertainty. The thesis is that households organize themselves in different ways in response to different types of uncertainty associated with 1) earning different types of income and 2) differences as well as changes in intra‐household relationships. The important findings are twofold: first, that household members earn income from both “formal” and “informal” sources BOTH sequentially and simultaneously. The second finding is that people coordinate the efforts of household members with respect to (un)certainty to keep income flowing from the income‐earning activities the members are practicing. I review some empirical work on the informal economy and follow this discussion with data from Chicago's Maxwell Street Market.
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.