Diane M. Holtzman, Ellen M. Kraft and Emmanuel Small
The purpose of the study was to determine if representatives of small and large businesses in New Jersey believe portfolios would be valuable for evaluating applicants as part of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to determine if representatives of small and large businesses in New Jersey believe portfolios would be valuable for evaluating applicants as part of the hiring process and whether portfolios would help applicants in the hiring process.
Design/methodology/approach
Representatives from 109 small and 71 large businesses in New Jersey were surveyed about using portfolios in the hiring process.
Findings
Representatives from both small and large businesses believe that the submission of a portfolio of exemplary work may help the applicant and the employer in the hiring process.
Research limitations/implications
The study limitations are that the respondents had different definitions of ePortfolio, it was a convenience survey, and the researchers used two sets of data. For future research, conducting a study in a major region of the world would be a significant contribution to learning about the views of business representatives globally regarding the use of ePortfolios in the hiring decision process.
Practical implications
The authors recommend that educational institutions encourage students to create portfolios as part of their career preparation to gain an edge as applicants in the job market. EPortfolios are an emerging tool to help employers in the hiring decision process.
Social implications
EPortfolios would provide evidence of the employee's fit to the position, thus eliminating a mismatch of the employee's skill set and qualifications to the job. The ePortfolio aids the employer in seeing the candidate's skills for the position.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the limited research about the emergence of ePortfolios having a role in human resource decision making.
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Alton Y.K. Chua and Dion H. Goh
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine a flagging but yet‐to‐be abandoned knowledge management (KM) project at a healthcare organisation in Asia through a case study approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews with a variety of stakeholders familiar with the project were conducted. Additionally, archival data in the form of email correspondences, presentation materials and web sites were collected to triangulate against the responses given by the interviewees.
Findings
The findings which are validated against a theoretical KM failure framework afford a nuanced perspective of how the failure factors identified in the framework were germane to the case.
Practical implications
By exposing these factors, administrators and managers in the healthcare industry who intend to implement KM projects can be better informed of the risks involved. For researchers, this paper serves as a call for a greater inquiry into KM projects in the healthcare industry that are facing impending failures.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that KM project failure is a reality with which administrators, managers and researchers have to reckon.
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Unequal Exchange (L'échange inégal) by Arghiri Emmanuel attempts a Marxist treatment of trade between poor and rich countries. Published with it are four appendices in which…
Abstract
Unequal Exchange (L'échange inégal) by Arghiri Emmanuel attempts a Marxist treatment of trade between poor and rich countries. Published with it are four appendices in which Charles Bettelheim and Emmanuel debate the issues raised by the main work, and a fifth appendix in which Emmanuel replies to other critics. Emmanuel aims, he says, to address himself “to economists of all tendencies in a common language” (p.323). This aspiration, which is reprehended by Bettelheim (p.349) — either you stand on Marxist ground or you don't — makes the book a particularly interesting one for the non‐Marxist interested in the same range of issues. Though some of the terms used are Marxist or have a peculiarly Marxist meaning, the approach — again to Bettelheim's dismay (p.284) — is through analytical models whose internal logic and empirical realism can be rigorously discussed.
Jaime A. Morales Burgos, Markus Kittler and Michael Walsh
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capital budgeting decision-making of Canadian and Mexican entrepreneurs in small businesses in the food sector. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capital budgeting decision-making of Canadian and Mexican entrepreneurs in small businesses in the food sector. The objective is to understand the capital budgeting decisions through the lens of bounded rationality and how these decisions are affected by different (national) contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a comparative study in which the use of constructivist grounded theory allowed deep conversations about capital budgeting decisions. Data was collected from forty semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs/managers in two regions, Mexico and Canada.
Findings
Insights from this study suggest that entrepreneurs’ capital budgeting decisions are not only taken under conditions of bounded rationality but also suggest a prominent role of context in how bounded rationality is applied differently towards investment decisions.
Research limitations/implications
While the findings cannot simply be generalized, exploring how capital budgeting decisions are made differently across two regional contexts adds to the understanding of the nexus of context, bounded rationality and capital budgeting decision-making.
Practical implications
Using a bounded rationality lens, this study contrasts and explains similarities and differences in the entrepreneur’s capital budgeting decision-making within small businesses. The insights add to the body of knowledge and help entrepreneurs to reflect on their approach to decision-making.
Originality/value
The paper uses a less commonly applied approach to understand two under-researched regional contexts. We use constructivist grounded theory to explore entrepreneurs’ capital budgeting decision-making in small businesses in two regions, Canada and Mexico. The comparative approach and the findings add to the understanding of decision-making, highlight the prominent role of context and also challenge some insights from previous research.
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Ishmael Mensah and Emmanuel Twumasi Ampofo
Drawing on the upper echelons theory, the study examines the effects of environmental attitudes of hotel managers on the waste management practices of small hotels in the context…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the upper echelons theory, the study examines the effects of environmental attitudes of hotel managers on the waste management practices of small hotels in the context of a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey involving 246 managers of small hotels in the Accra Metropolitan Area was undertaken using a questionnaire that was based on the Waste Management Hierarchy and the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scales.
Findings
Results of the study showed that environmental attitudes of managers significantly influence the waste management practices of hotels, specifically, the anti-anthropocentricism, anti-exceptionalism, eco-crisis and balance-of-nature dimensions of the NEP scale. The study also found that all the environmental attitude dimensions had more significant effects on the waste disposal option because usually in developing countries, small hotels by their nature are more predisposed to undertaking this option.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should use longitudinal data to make causal inferences and consider the use of a rigorous statistical test such as common latent factor analysis.
Practical implications
Waste management problems in small hotels require softer sustainability strategies geared towards creating environmental awareness and inculcating the right environmental values in hotel managers in order to change the way managers view the environment.
Originality/value
Results of the study indicate that in the context of small hotels in developing countries, managers with eco-centric attitudes are more likely to engage in less expensive waste management practices rather than the most environmentally-friendly options.
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Lexis Alexander Tetteh, Amoako Kwarteng, Emmanuel Gyamera, Lazarus Lamptey, Prince Sunu and Paul Muda
The paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance in the relationship between small businesses financing choice decisions on the business performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance in the relationship between small businesses financing choice decisions on the business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper was situated within the financial growth cycle theory and stewardship theory and survey approach was adopted for data collection. The statistical analysis was conducted by using partial least square structural equation modelling.
Findings
The results indicate that the interaction of corporate governance and financing choice decisions strengthens the performance relationship. Further, corporate governance mediates the positive relationship between financing choice decisions and performance. Thus, suggesting that corporate governance can carry the effect of the financing choice decisions to business performance.
Practical implications
The findings of our research reveal that, small businesses who follow solid corporate governance procedures should expect higher business performance. This is because financing decisions alone will not assure positive business performance unless they are tied to a broader perspective of effective corporate governance practices.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the small business financing choice and performance literature by combining the strengths of financial growth cycle theory and stewardship theory to explain the financing choice decisions and, in particular, the role of corporate governance in the relationship. Further, the study is unique in its nature because it presents a successful model for small businesses in emerging economies to concentrate more on the role of corporate governance in enhancing business performance.
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Elen Riot, Emmanuelle Rigaud and Ilenia Bua
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to describe the attempt of a family champagne house to redefine its business organization as a family in a large family of families. This choice involves defining their activities as entrepreneuring in a specific time and space that all actors experience as their sensible reality. To describe the whole process, the authors call this ensemble a “chronotope,” including the same space and time as part of a common story. The authors assess this narrative strategy in reference to both past conflict in the champagne business and to the present crisis caused by the pandemic in addition to a series of social, economic and environmental changes in the environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the paper corresponds to the case of a champagne family house in its environment with a longitudinal, processual approach of the family business venture before and especially after its sale and buyback by the family. The authors use Bakhtin to insist on the fictional nature of the account of most events as most protagonists adopt different perspectives. The Taittinger family, at the head of the trade house, creates a story that fits in all these perspectives and makes sense to overcome key issues in the business.
Findings
Our findings illustrate the role of the chronotope as a way to broaden the scope of inter- and intra-family relations. This concept also shows the importance of shared experiences, stories and crafted practices to sustain collective work and the meaning associated with the result of this work, in this case, champagne wine. The authors also show the different styles of chronotopes and their role in binding together actors in relation to the transformation of their activities.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations are of two kinds. The first limitation comes from the choice to focus on the Taittinger family house, as it tends to focus the analysis on their point of view. The second limitation is due to the persistence of the pandemic situation that makes it difficult to test the chronotope idea as it is quite recent. Because of the current pandemic, it is complicated to anticipate what the future could look like and therefore, to imagine the future dimension of the chronotope. To overcome this limit, the authors suggest different scenario that leaves open different possibilities.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper could be to see how family business entrepreneurs may benefit from designing their strategy as a rich personal fiction in reference to a chronotope instead of referring to storytelling, communication and brand management or even competition strictly speaking. In turbulent times and to face grand challenges, long-term collaborations require stronger ties and imagination without leaving out emotions. Yet the entrepreneurs may become a victim of their own fictions if stakeholders perceive contradictions or if they were to dislike the new episodes the family invents.
Social implications
The social implications of this case study show the role of business relations built on fiction reflecting strong ties and shared processes such as entrepreneuring in the world of heritage goods where sustainability and endurance matter. This perspective insists on a shared story and it contrasts with more discontinued approaches based on disruptive innovation, opportunism and competitiveness in turbulent times. The chronotope does not ineluctably evolve in different ways, making actors’ perspective shrink, expand or exile. Family entrepreneuring may actively influence this transformation and they may also be framed by it.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper comes from the description of a family business in its environment as a chronotope. Reflecting how related actors in a business field like champagne co-construct a representation, the authors looked for a concept that would accurately reflect this vision, researchers chose the concept of “chronotope,” borrowing from narrative approaches. This approach is transdisciplinary. It is also an attempt to bring researchers at work closer to what actors in the field experiment with and find inspiration in.
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Emmanuel Raju, Chandni Singh and Hanna Geschewski
This conversation presents reflections on heatwaves, vulnerability and adaptation in South Asia.
Abstract
Purpose
This conversation presents reflections on heatwaves, vulnerability and adaptation in South Asia.
Design/methodology/approach
This is based on the Nordic Asia Podcast on Temperatures on the Rise: Adapting to Heat Extremes in South Asia.
Findings
Main themes discussed in this conversation include vulnerability and adaptation, livelihoods and cascading disasters.
Originality/value
This conversations adds value to the ongoing discussions on climate justice, loss and damage.
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France's reform agenda.
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB246387
ISSN: 2633-304X
Keywords
Geographic
Topical
Christopher Amoah, Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei and Fredrick Simpeh
COVID-19 came as a surprise to the global economy and devastated many sectors worldwide, including the construction sector. Small construction firms are believed to be an engine…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 came as a surprise to the global economy and devastated many sectors worldwide, including the construction sector. Small construction firms are believed to be an engine of growth in many developing countries, including Ghana; thus, their survival cannot be trivialized. This study explored the impact of the COVID-19 on the businesses of the small confirms in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study. Open-ended interview questions were distributed via email to 45 small construction firms (D3K3 and D4K4) purposefully selected. Thematic contents analysis was used to analyze 30 interview questions received.
Findings
This study has revealed that the COVID-19 has severely affected small construction firms in Ghana. Small construction firms are struggling in their finances; their cash flow/payments for work done are severely affected; they cannot secure contracts and management site efficiently. Their worker's productivity level has dwindled, which has subsequently escalated their project cost and completion time. These effects identified are significantly affecting the survival of these small construction firms.
Research limitations/implications
The study included small construction operating in the Central, Western and Greater Accra regions of Ghana during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings may be applicable to construction sites outside these regions.
Practical implications
The implication is the COVID-19 pandemic hugely impacts the small construction firm's business operations. Therefore, they must be mindful of the new norm (COVID-19) and institute strategies to help them overcome the challenges and sustain their businesses.
Originality/value
The study gives insight into the effects of the COVID-19 on the businesses of small construction firms in Ghana and proposes strategies that they must implement to overcome their challenges and sustain their businesses.