Alisa G. Brink, Jennifer C. Coats and Frederick W. Rankin
Participative budgeting can benefita firm by incorporating subordinates’ private information into financing and operating decisions. In the managerial accounting literature…
Abstract
Participative budgeting can benefita firm by incorporating subordinates’ private information into financing and operating decisions. In the managerial accounting literature, studies of participative budgeting posit superiors that range from passively committed to highly active participants, some of whom are permitted to communicate, choose compensation schemes, negotiate with subordinates, and reject budgets. This paper synthesizes and analyzes experimental research in participative budgeting with a focus on the role of the superior defined in the research design, and on how that role affects budget outcomes, subordinate behavior, and in some cases superior behavior. We demonstrate how superior type influences economic and behavioral predictions, and likewise affects budgeting outcomes and the interpretation of the results. This paper is intended to further our understanding of how superior type affects behavior in participative budgeting studies, and to facilitate the choice of superior type in future research designs.
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Robert A. Reber and Jerry A. Wallin
Performance management involves using behavior modification techniques to improve organizational performance. The application of performance management to the area of occupational…
Abstract
Performance management involves using behavior modification techniques to improve organizational performance. The application of performance management to the area of occupational safety is especially well matched, since most workplace injuries can be attributed to behavioral problems (i.e., unsafe acts). This investigation further extends the growing body of literature on safety performance management to yet another industry—offshore oilfield diving. It further bridges the gap between behavior modification theory and practice by heavily incorporating in‐house personnel to implement the performance management interventions.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues related to the contemporary study of audiobook practices, in order to aid subsequent research on topics related to reading, digital…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues related to the contemporary study of audiobook practices, in order to aid subsequent research on topics related to reading, digital audiobooks and streaming subscription services.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the concept of remediation, this paper covers four messy issues for audiobook researchers, primarily by developing the concept of reading by listening and then exploring the different remediations of the audiobook, clarifying the audiobook as a book and exploring the context of streaming subscription services.
Findings
Reading is here conceptualised according to the human sense used when making meaning from text, with reading by listening suggested for reading done with the help of the ears. Three different forms of remediation can be seen in subscription-based audiobooks, related to format, content and sense. Audiobooks simultaneously follow traditions of reading aloud, remediates the printed book and previous audiobook formats. It is suggested that the content is what makes an audiobook a book. The concepts library model and bookshop model are introduced to understand different audiobook subscription service models.
Originality/value
This is a research area on the rise with several messy issues and the concepts and clarifications in this paper may benefit future research.
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This article explores, identifies and conceptualises everyday audiobook reading practices amongst young adults.
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores, identifies and conceptualises everyday audiobook reading practices amongst young adults.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Swedish audiobook users aged 18–19. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis and focused on their audiobook use during an average weekday, as this was the time that they listened the most. The theoretical framework consists of theories on practice, time and everyday routine.
Findings
Five timespaces emerged when audiobook practices were most prevalent: morning routines, commuting routines, school routines, after school routines and bedtime routines. Within these timespaces, several practices could be identified and conceptualised. Three mobile practices were commute listening, exercise listening and chore listening while more stationary practices were homework listening, schoolwork listening and leisure listening. An unexpected finding was how audiobooks routinely were used to aid respondents’ wellbeing. This wellbeing listening was used to alleviate stress, loneliness and help listeners relax or fall asleep. Furthermore, respondents switch between Music, Audiobooks and Podcasts, which is conceptualised as MAP-switching.
Originality/value
There is a scarcity of research on audiobook use, and this paper contributes with new knowledge on audiobook reading practices, how audiobooks fit into everyday routine and provides concepts to aid further research on audiobook practices.
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Managerial accounting education generally insists that managers should never consider sunk costs. This suggestion seems inconsistent with a common mode of thinking about future…
Abstract
Purpose
Managerial accounting education generally insists that managers should never consider sunk costs. This suggestion seems inconsistent with a common mode of thinking about future rewards: quasi-hyperbolic discounting. This paper aims to explore the conflict between sunk cost consideration and quasi-hyperbolic discounting and to illustrate when sunk cost consideration may be appropriate.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted three numerical experiments, i.e. simulated experiments based on analytical models, to demonstrate how it can be beneficial to consider sunk costs in some circumstances. All three numerical experiments assume quasi-hyperbolic discounting. First, the author tested considering sunk costs with future rewards that are certain. Second, the author tested considering sunk costs with uncertain future rewards. Finally, the author tested two different educational interventions to change decision-makers’ thought patterns.
Findings
The author found that considering sunk costs worsens decisions when there is bad news and improves them when there is good news. The author found that an educational intervention that partially dissuades managers from considering sunk costs improves decisions when bad news arrives and worsens them when good news arrives. The author also found that an educational intervention that reduces uncertainty improves decisions when bad news arrives and does not worsen these decisions when good news arrives.
Originality/value
The author provided numerical examples of situations in which considering sunk costs is valuable. The findings on educational interventions provide information about the tradeoffs of teaching that sunk costs should never be considered.
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Susanne Ollila and Anna Yström
This chapter asks how we can understand the managerial practices in open innovation, a recently popularized way of organizing innovative work. Open innovation implies opening up…
Abstract
This chapter asks how we can understand the managerial practices in open innovation, a recently popularized way of organizing innovative work. Open innovation implies opening up the borders of the organization, creating a context where conventional steering and managerial tools no longer apply. Utilizing a collaborative research approach, following an open innovation collaboration over 8 years, this chapter outlines the managerial practices that direct the collaboration. These practices are important for meaning making and identity creation in the collaboration and can be understood as a form of authorship, a continuous intervention strategy to manage, develop and change the organizational context.
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Valentina Lazzarotti, Gloria Puliga, Raffaella Manzini, Salvatore Tallarico, Luisa Pellegrini, Mohammad H. Eslami, Muhammad Ismail and Harry Boer
The study aims to test the success of university-industry (U-I) collaboration in terms of innovation process efficiency. Then, this study explores the moderating role of a set of…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to test the success of university-industry (U-I) collaboration in terms of innovation process efficiency. Then, this study explores the moderating role of a set of organizational routines in the U-I relationship, which can help in overcoming the issues undermining the collaboration success.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on an international Open Innovation (OI) survey. The survey investigated the items to build the main variables of the conceptual framework, measured through seven-point Likert scales. Steps to ensure the reliability and validity of the variables were conducted. Then, hypotheses were tested with an ordinary least squares regression.
Findings
Results show that the higher the collaboration intensity (depth) with universities, the higher the innovation process efficiency. Furthermore, organizational routines aimed at improving firms' assimilation absorptive capacity further strengthen the positive effects of intensive collaboration on innovation process efficiency.
Practical implications
Findings indicate that R&D managers should strive to build deep collaborations with universities to enhance process efficiency and invest in the quality of these relationships. Managers should create and maintain an internal environment that further enhances the positive effects of intensive collaboration on innovation process efficiency.
Originality/value
The OI literature has not reached a shared view on the positive contribution of universities toward industrial firms' innovation performance. The study adopts a process-efficiency view, rarely used by other OI studies usually focused on output indicators; this study unpacks, respectively, the role of the intensity of collaboration and the organizational routines, thus disclosing the benefit of U-I collaboration on innovation efficiency.
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The responsible leadership movement may be seen as part of the wider sustainability revolution. Sustainability was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development…
Abstract
Purpose
The responsible leadership movement may be seen as part of the wider sustainability revolution. Sustainability was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as “economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Since then, guiding principles have been formulated and a growing number of business leaders have issued a call to action. Still one expert, Orr, recently concluded that “virtually no indicator of planetary health is moving in a positive direction, and we should ask why.” The purpose of this paper, heeding the admonition to “ask why”, is to examine what it means to be responsible as a leader at this time, in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
A consensus view of the context and the accountabilities it implies is gleaned from an analysis of sustainability principles. A psychological approach to conceptualizing leader responsibility as a variable in personal development is elaborated under the normative construct of generativity. A new model for coaching developing leaders and promoting leader responsibility is proposed. It is based on recent advances in psychoanalytic psychology, and aspects of its theory base and method are illustrated in a case example.
Findings
Development of responsibility is found to hinge on personal value commitments that can best be awakened and cultivated through professionally‐relevant personal development in conjunction with experiential development strategies such as stretch assignments and action learning.
Originality/value
The approach offers a practical, developmental pathway for promoting leader responsibility.
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Lena Horne, Lorna Campbell and Carolyn Scholz
This paper uses the criteria for defining market segments by George Day to analyse older females as a market segment for well‐fitting clothing. This market can be identified by…
Abstract
This paper uses the criteria for defining market segments by George Day to analyse older females as a market segment for well‐fitting clothing. This market can be identified by the physical characteristics of older females and their chronic dissatisfaction with ready‐to‐wear. The growing proportions of older consumers and their life expectancy render this market substantial and durable. Retail trade statistics and family expenditure surveys can be used to measure the market segment. Research pertaining to older females' behaviour towards clothing is limited; therefore, the distinctiveness of older females as a market segment for clothing is far from conclusive. Research implications include clothing expenditures and the behavioural dimension of older consumers.