Gil Gutiérrez and Alfonso Durán
Looks at empirically evaluated information technology (IT) utilization in the logistics process in the Spanish detergents and electrical appliances sectors, focusing on the issues…
Abstract
Looks at empirically evaluated information technology (IT) utilization in the logistics process in the Spanish detergents and electrical appliances sectors, focusing on the issues around information integration with third‐party logistics providers. IT utilization was higher among larger companies. The outsourcing level was significantly correlated with the utilization of electronic data interchange; it was also significantly but negatively correlated with the level of satisfaction with the information integration currently achieved. Surprisingly, satisfaction was also negatively correlated with the overall utilization of IT. This is attributed to the raised expectation levels in the larger, more sophisticated companies.
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Different higher education initiatives derived from the Bologna Process (BP) agenda have been recontextualised in each country depending on their starting points, their needs…
Abstract
Different higher education initiatives derived from the Bologna Process (BP) agenda have been recontextualised in each country depending on their starting points, their needs, their governments' political orientation and different institutions currently in power. This has led to discrepancies in the interpretation of BP objectives. In the case of the BP in Spain, the social dimension discourse (inclusion, equity and social justice) has prevailed in official documents, but pedagogical practices, driven by the actual process, have resulted in some detrimental outcomes. The educational approaches implemented involve student-centred teaching and learning to facilitate the adaptability of future professionals in the neoliberal context. The main interest in this chapter is in different student profiles: traditional students and those whose profile does not match the traditional student profile (because of being of an older age, concurrently working or having family commitments). The main objectives of this chapter are to analyse the effects of student-centred learning approaches related to the BP on different student profiles in terms of engagement, student experiences and academic results, as well as analyse their differential access to higher education. Quantitative analyses of two data sets have been conducted, including relevant data from Via Universitaria II (2018) report and the database of the Spanish Ministry of Education covering the timeframe between academic years 2015–2016 and 2020–2021. While the data from the latter source suggest the decrease of enrolment of non-traditional students (in terms of social class and age) over time, complementary data from the former source, that confirm these results, question the suitability of the so-called innovative student-centred learning approaches for all, as they seem to put traditional students in a more privileged position with regard to opportunities for academic progress. This analysis is essential for shedding light on the educational inequalities regarding non-traditional students in Spain in the framework of the BP.
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Maria Moreno-Luzon, Maria Gil-Marques, M. Begoña Lloria and Andres Salas-Vallina
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of quality-oriented human resource practices (QHRP) on organizational ambidexterity. Furthermore, the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of quality-oriented human resource practices (QHRP) on organizational ambidexterity. Furthermore, the mediating role of ambidextrous culture in the relationship between QHRP and organizational ambidexterity was assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on data from 350 green agro-food companies with two respondents in each company, structural equation models were used.
Findings
This paper has been drawn up to provide some responses to the needs of the companies to be ambidextrous while applying QHRP. The findings show that there is a positive effect of QHRP on organizational ambidexterity. In addition, ambidextrous culture mediated the relationship between QHRP and organizational ambidexterity.
Practical implications
This research reveals key managerial aspects for QHRP implementation that facilitate firms to be more ambidextrous, and thus more efficient and innovative.
Originality/value
The authors illustrate the connection between quality-oriented human resource practices (QHRPs) and organizational ambidexterity under the dynamic capabilities theory. The findings contribute to the empirical evidence on the antecedents of organizational ambidexterity, and suggest that these specific QHRPs influence an organization's baseline beliefs and values and support the development of ambidextrous capabilities by means of an ambidextrous culture.
研究目的
本文擬探討以質量為本的人力資源實務對組織雙元性的影響; 本文亦擬評定雙元性文化在以質量為本的人力資源實務與組織雙元性之間的關係上所扮演的中介角色。
研究設計/方法/理念
數據取自350間綠色農產食品公司,而每間公司則有兩名應答者; 研究人員以結構方程模型進行分析。
研究結果
草擬本文的目的,是要為那些於採用以質量為本的人力資源實務時需要成為雙元性的公司提供回應。我們的研究結果顯示,以質量為本的人力資源實務,對組織的雙元性是有積極和正面的效應。研究結果亦顯示,雙元性文化在以質量為本的人力資源實務與組織雙元性之間的關係上,起著中介調和的作用。
實務方面的啟示
本研究展現了、若企業欲推行以質量為本的人力資源實務,以促進其雙元性,繼而成為更有效率和更具創新能力的企業,它們需致力於哪些關鍵性的管理事務呢?
研究的原創性/價值
我們闡明了在動態能力理論下,以質量為本的人力資源實務與組織雙元性之間的關聯。我們的研究結果,就組織雙元性的先例,提供了經驗性證據,就此,研究作出了貢獻。研究結果亦暗示,有關的特定以質量為本的人力資源實務,不僅會影響組織的基線信念和價值觀,還會通過雙元性文化,為雙元能力的發展提供支援。
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Maria Beatriz Gonzalez-Sanchez, Cristina Gutiérrez-López and Mercedes Barrachina Palanca
There is an increasingly growing interest in treading beyond the traditional university goals of teaching and research to focus on their contribution to society through knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
There is an increasingly growing interest in treading beyond the traditional university goals of teaching and research to focus on their contribution to society through knowledge transfer (KT) performance activities. This paper aims to determine how performance management systems (PMSs) encourage lecturers to engage in the transfer of knowledge from higher education institutions (HEIs) to society.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a sample of 3,812 Spanish university lecturers surveyed about different PMS tools – strategic plans, budgeting, meetings and reward systems – and different KT activities – research and development contracts, patents, extended patents, licenses, services and spin-offs – for the 2011–2016 period. A logit model was applied for the statistical analyzes.
Findings
As expected, enabling the use of these tools generally increases the probability of producing KT while only in some cases does coercive use reduce it. Moreover, combining enabling and coercive uses does not increase the likelihood of KT performance.
Practical implications
University policymakers and managers should reduce the gap between KT and research and teaching by, for example, examining the effects of their performance management practices on scholars’ perceptions and their subsequent behavior.
Originality/value
Despite previous literature states that coercive use decreases performance, the authors reveal that this is not the case for KT performance in HEIs. According to the findings, a specific record of KT, i.e. a coercive strategic plan tool, has a consistently positive effect on all four KT activities as follows: R&D contracts, patents, extended patents and licenses.
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Liqing La, Feifei Xu, Mingxing Hu and Chengling Xiao
The purpose of this study is to compare the spatial distribution of Airbnb and hotels in London and examine the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic and environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to compare the spatial distribution of Airbnb and hotels in London and examine the relationship between demographic, socioeconomic and environmental factors and the supply of these two types of lodging supply.
Design/methodology/approach
Local information of Airbnb listings in London was collected through Insideairbnb.com. Gathered data were examined using geo-spatial auto-correlation analysis and spatial econometric models.
Findings
The results indicate that Airbnb predominates in the areas around popular tourist attractions and the peripheral areas of the city, while in the downtown area Airbnb and hotels are in the state of coexistence. The mono-centric model and the agglomeration model could be extended to the context of peer-to-peer accommodation. The location of Airbnb and traditional hotels capitalizes on different factors.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on secondary data due to data availability. And, it is based on the case of London, so the findings may not reflect the situation of small cities and rural destinations.
Practical implications
This study not only gives suggestions for local councils to regulate the location of hotels and Airbnb but also provides professional landlords with reference to choosing Airbnb location.
Originality/value
This study extends the hotel location theoretical models into the context of Airbnb and sheds lights on the distinction between these two business models in terms of location factors.
爱彼迎和酒店的位置:空间分布和关系
目的
本研究旨在比较伦敦Airbnb和酒店的空间分布, 并探讨人口、社会经济和环境因素与这两类住宿供给的关系。
设计/方法/方法
伦敦Airbnb房源信息通过Insideairbnb.com网站收集, 采用地理空间自相关分析和空间经济计量模型进行分析。
研究发现
结果表明Airbnb主要集中在旅游景点周边和城市周边地区, 在市中心地区, Airbnb与酒店处于共存状态。单中心模型和聚集模型适用于共享住宿情境。Airbnb和传统酒店的空间分布影响因素的重要性存在差异。
独创性
本研究将酒店区位理论模型扩展到Airbnb情境下, 并揭示了这两种商业模式在区位因素方面的区别。
研究局限性
本研究采用二手数据。案例地为伦敦, 因此研究结果可能无法反映小城市和乡村旅游目的地的情况。
实际意义
地方政府应更加重视专业公司的劳动力保障并限制旅游景点周边的短期租赁。
Ubicación de los hoteles y preferencias: distribución espacial y relaciones
Propósito
El propósito de este estudio es comparar la distribución espacial de Airbnb y los hoteles en Londres y examinar la relación entre los factores demográficos, socioeconómicos y ambientales y la oferta de estos dos tipos de oferta de alojamiento.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
La información local de los anuncios de Airbnb en Londres se recopiló a través de Insideairbnb.com. Los datos recopilados se examinaron mediante análisis de autocorrelación geoespacial y modelos econométricos espaciales.
Resultados
Los resultados indican que Airbnb predomina en las zonas aledañas a los atractivos turísticos populares y las zonas periféricas de la ciudad, mientras que en la zona centro Airbnb y los hoteles se encuentran en estado de convivencia. El modelo monocéntrico y el modelo de aglomeración podrían extenderse al contexto de la acomodación entre pares. La ubicación de Airbnb y los hoteles tradicionales se basa en diferentes factores.
Originalidad
Este estudio amplía los modelos teóricos de ubicación de hoteles en el contexto de Airbnb y arroja luz sobre la distinción entre estos dos modelos comerciales en términos de factores de ubicación.
Limitaciones de la investigación
El estudio se basa en datos secundarios debido a la disponibilidad de datos. Y se basa en el caso de Londres, por lo que los hallazgos pueden no reflejar la situación de las ciudades pequeñas y los destinos rurales.
Implicaciones practices
Los hallazgos sugieren que las autoridades locales deberían prestar más atención a la seguridad laboral de las empresas profesionales y restringir los alquileres a corto plazo alrededor de las atracciones turísticas.
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Francisco J. García-Rodríguez, Esperanza Gil-Soto, Inés Ruiz-Rosa and Desiderio Gutiérrez-Taño
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role that the sociocultural, family and university environment play in the entrepreneurial intention of young people in a peripheral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role that the sociocultural, family and university environment play in the entrepreneurial intention of young people in a peripheral and less innovative region.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted the perspective of the theory of planned behavior and made an empirical study with a sample of 1,064 Spanish university students who voluntarily participated in the GUESSS Project answering an online questionnaire. A methodology based on structural equations was used employing the partial least squares structural equation modeling estimation technique.
Findings
The results show that the university environment directly influences attitude, self-confidence and motivation, and indirectly the students’ entrepreneurial intention. The social context also exerts a weak direct influence on the perceived attitudes or desires toward the option to start a business and indirectly on the intention.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper seems to confirm what previous literature highlighted in the terms of regional specificities on the link between innovation systems, the impact of entrepreneurial potential and economic development. In this sense, the university context can play an important role in generating improvements in the entrepreneurial intention’s antecedents of young people with greater potential for innovation in peripheral regions. Therefore, when it comes to defining policies to improve entrepreneurship in these regions, it seems that the establishment of entrepreneurship education and motivation programs in universities is a very effective tool to increase perceived attitude toward the option to start a new business.
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Sergio Baragetti, Riccardo Gerosa and Francesco Villa
7075-T6 is the most widespread structural aluminium alloy due to its high mechanical strength. However, use of this alloy in critical aeronautic, maritime, and automotive sectors…
Abstract
Purpose
7075-T6 is the most widespread structural aluminium alloy due to its high mechanical strength. However, use of this alloy in critical aeronautic, maritime, and automotive sectors is limited by the susceptibility of T6 treatment to cracking and pitting corrosion. To improve fatigue behaviour in aggressive environments, several authors have proposed the use of different coatings to protect the substrate. Studies have investigated the application of thin hard coatings on light alloys by physical vapour deposition (PVD). Different contributions of residual stresses, thermal modification of the substrate, and mechanical interaction between the coating and aluminium substrate were investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rotating bending fatigue behaviour (R=−1) of 7075-T6 PVD diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated specimens in air and in a corrosive environment. Tests were conducted at different applied stresses. Scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface are provided to investigate the influences of mechanical and environmental driving forces on the failure mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper conducted an experimental study of the fatigue resistance of DLC coatings on a 7075-T6 substrate for corrosion protection at long and short fatigue lives, which includes rotating bending fatigue tests, step-loading fatigue test procedure, tests in aggressive environment (methanol), tests at high and low fatigue lives, analysis of the fracture surface, and analysis of the driving forces.
Findings
Tests performed in air showed that the coating anticipates crack nucleation for high applied loads, whereas for lower loads, the difference among fatigue curves decreases. This result is very interesting from an industrial standpoint because the obtained material shows improved corrosion and wear resistance, without the fatigue resistance loss generally associated with hard coatings. The methanol environment accelerates crack nucleation and propagation, resulting in a sensible deterioration of the fatigue behaviour. A minimum soaking time seems to be necessary before the damaging effect of the environment begins. The coating has a certain protective effect against the environment, but this protection is insufficient for the specimen to achieve fatigue limits beyond those of the uncoated specimens. This deficiency can be related to small pores or defects in the coating, which allow contact between the substrate and the environment. Further tests are necessary to verify whether there exists a load under which the fatigue behaviour of the coated specimens is better than that of the uncoated specimens. Crack nucleation due to fatigue occurs close to the outer surface for all observed samples. For coated samples tested at the lowest stress level, crack nucleation seems to be located below the surface. This observation means that premature coating cracking, which characterises the nucleation mechanism at higher loads, did not occur at lower stress levels. The fracture surface of uncoated samples was clearly damaged by the aggressive solution, justifying the poor fatigue resistance.
Research limitations/implications
The obtained data do not represent actual S-N curves, which would necessitate a larger number of tests with proper statistics. Nevertheless, some indications of the DLC effects on 7075-T6 specimens in air and methanol environments can be deduced. The step-loading technique seems to be critical for tests in corrosive environments, probably because the total soaking time in the corrosive environment is generally higher than it is for the single-run test.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper lies in the application of the step-loading test procedure to quickly detect the mechanical and chemical driving forces that control the damage and structural integrity of light alloys components in very aggressive environments.
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Inés Ruiz-Rosa, Desiderio Gutiérrez-Taño, Francisco J. García-Rodríguez and Esperanza Gil-Soto
The present research focuses on an understudied field in the entrepreneurial process: the events that transform intention into effective entrepreneurial behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
The present research focuses on an understudied field in the entrepreneurial process: the events that transform intention into effective entrepreneurial behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper a comparative analysis, using the t-test on related samples, is made of the perceptions of these triggering events of a group of graduates who showed entrepreneurial intention in higher education but, up to now, had not taken the decision to start a business with those of a group who had started a business. To do this, a sample of 227 graduates from a medium-sized European University located in Spain, with manifest entrepreneurial intention was used.
Findings
The results show that there are important differences between perceptions of entrepreneurship triggering events of potential entrepreneurs who have yet to start a company compared to entrepreneurs who have actually started a company. In this sense, the overevaluation by those who have not yet become entrepreneurs of events related to access to finance and the greater relevance for those with entrepreneurial experience of having a good team and contacts consisting of other entrepreneurs, mentors and advisers stand out.
Research limitations/implications
Some of the limitations observed in this work are related to the size of the sample analyzed. In the future, the study should be broadened, and different entrepreneurial behavior by academic specialization, gender, sector and/or type of activities should be investigated.
Originality/value
Our study focuses on the phase of the entrepreneurship process in which intention becomes action and, more specifically, on those events that favor this change in behavior.
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Francois Bernard Duhamel, Isis Gutiérrez-Martínez, Sergio Picazo-Vela and Luis Luna-Reyes
Collaborations between public administrations and private sector represent a specific challenge to manage contractual and organizational relationships among partners with…
Abstract
Purpose
Collaborations between public administrations and private sector represent a specific challenge to manage contractual and organizational relationships among partners with different goals, working cultures, norms, rules and processes. Therefore, the main research question of this paper is: What are the antecedents of effective collaboration in public-private IT outsourcing relations? Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of collaborative interface characteristics as scaffolding structures to manage public-private IT outsourcing relations effectively.
Design/methodology/approach
Two cases of public-private IT outsourcing relationships in Mexico were used to compare and contrast the main antecedents of collaborative interface characteristics. Case selection was based on the success in each case, as perceived by the collaborating members involved. A successful case and a less successful case of application development for the provision of public services from two state administrations in Mexico were chosen. Data gathering took place via face-to-face interviews.
Findings
The quality of the organizational interface depends on the interactions between exchange of knowledge and mutual trust, along with the commitment between partners. Trust, commitment and knowledge sharing interacted to enhance interface characteristics that have an impact on public and political values.
Research limitations/implications
This paper used and extended an outsourcing technology enactment model to emphasize the quality of organizational interfaces as a main antecedent for the success of public-private IT outsourcing relations.
Practical implications
Effectively designing work practices and contracts implies the development of flexible contracts, objects and routines to adjust project requirements to fulfill better public-private goals. Such flexible contracts and practices are only possible in a trusting environment where participants shape their mutual understanding of the project.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on public-private IT outsourcing relationships by offering a theoretical framework on key antecedents and processes of success of these relationships.
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Joanne Belknap and Alejandra Portillos
This chapter defines and provides examples of activist criminology methods (ACM). Although many examples of ACM studies are provided, to date, no publications use this…
Abstract
This chapter defines and provides examples of activist criminology methods (ACM). Although many examples of ACM studies are provided, to date, no publications use this identification. The authors begin by questioning not only the feasibility but also the desirability of the ‘neutral scientist’. The authors then summarise the predecessors and contributors to ACM: ‘activist research’, participatory action research, and public criminology. The components of ACM are (1) including the public; (2) using reflexivity; and (3) ensuring the findings are relayed to the public and ideally, used to create change. Including the public has two subsections, the victims/survivors and the activists resisting the injustice studied. The authors discuss some of the challenges in conducting ACM, including academic marginalisation of this scholarship (and thus the difficulty of pursuing it, particularly if untenured), securing collaboration with activists and/or survivors, reflexivity on the power differences when collaborating with marginalised communities, and the near impossibility of achieving all the goals of ACM in one study. Although unnamed until now, ACM, as we describe them, has been conducted for hundreds of years around the world. The growing number of scholars historically kept out of academia due to race, gender, sexuality, class, and criminal history is no doubt related to the vastly increasing frequency of studies employing ACMs, as well as discussions and advancement of these methods.