Parvaneh Westerlund, Ingemar Andersson, Tero Päivärinta and Jörgen Nilsson
This paper aims to automate pre-ingest workflow for preserving digital content, such as records, through middleware that integrates potentially many information systems with…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to automate pre-ingest workflow for preserving digital content, such as records, through middleware that integrates potentially many information systems with potentially several alternative digital preservation services.
Design/methodology/approach
This design research approach resulted in a design for model- and component-based software for such workflow. A proof-of-concept prototype was implemented and demonstrated in context of a European research project, ForgetIT.
Findings
The study identifies design issues of automated pre-ingest for digital preservation while using middleware as a design choice for this purpose. The resulting model and solution suggest functionalities and interaction patterns based on open interface protocols between the source systems of digital content, middleware and digital preservation services. The resulting workflow automates the tasks of fetching digital objects from the source system with metadata extraction, preservation preparation and transfer to a selected preservation service. The proof-of-concept verified that the suggested model for pre-ingest workflow and the suggested component architecture was technologically implementable. Future research and development needs to include new solutions to support context-aware preservation management with increased support for configuring submission agreements as a basis for dynamic automation of pre-ingest and more automated error handling.
Originality/value
The paper addresses design issues for middleware as a design choice to support automated pre-ingest in digital preservation. The suggested middleware architecture supports many-to-many relationships between the source information systems and digital preservation services through open interface protocols, thus enabling dynamic digital preservation solutions for records management.
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Petra Nilsson, Ingemar H. Andersson, Göran Ejlertsson and Margareta Troein
In workplace health promotion, enhancing resources are less explored than risk factors. The aim of this paper is to explore the usability of the sense of coherence (SOC) theory to…
Abstract
Purpose
In workplace health promotion, enhancing resources are less explored than risk factors. The aim of this paper is to explore the usability of the sense of coherence (SOC) theory to identify considerable and positively perceived work‐related factors and processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study had a salutogenic approach to workplace health promotion. A total of 13 focus group interviews were conducted with hospital employees in Sweden. A deductive analysis was made with the SOC theory as a framework.
Findings
Work‐related specific enhancing resources (SER) were identified and analysed into the three components of SOC: comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. SER's implication in daily performance is explained by employee expressions. Through increased understanding and awareness, SER could contribute to savoring positive experiences, and enhance SOC among employees. Antonovsky's concept Generalized Resistance Resources is suggested to be enlarged based on the expressed significance of concrete daily positive work occurrences to increase one's SOC.
Research limitations/implications
Not all hospital professions were represented in the study. Further studies are required to involve physicians, paramedics, managers, as well as other settings, to compare and complement with additional experiences of workplace resources.
Practical implications
The study presents an opportunity to explore, understand, and foster workplace resources through assistance from the SOC theory. The SER presented in this study may serve as initial examples in workplace discussions about work‐related resources contributing to a sense of coherence.
Originality/value
This study contributes to public health research and workplace health promotion with a salutogenic focus on how to explore enhancing work‐related resources with the assistance of the practical SOC theory.
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This study aims at providing exploratory insights into the initiative and capabilities of Chinese SMEs to develop and utilize diverse networks to support internationalization…
Abstract
This study aims at providing exploratory insights into the initiative and capabilities of Chinese SMEs to develop and utilize diverse networks to support internationalization. Such network development and utilization efforts are fundamental to the analysis and explanation of Chinese firms’ internationalization patterns and outcomes. Extending from the existing network studies in the Chinese context that generally put emphasis on strong‐tie and ethnic‐oriented networks, this paper investigates and explains explicitly the use and effects of both strong‐ and weak‐tie networks in the international development of Chinese SMEs. Indepth case studies on four rapidly internationalized Chinese SMEs are conducted. The case findings demonstrate that weak‐tie networks are essential to the firms’ business development in foreign markets; and were proactively developed and utilized in the course of the firms’ development. The cases also provide alternative perspectives to the beliefs and values underpinning strong‐tie networks presumed in existing literature. The findings draw attention to the changing business values and approaches of the Chinese firms aiming at developing internationally. Managerial implications concerning the significant influence of effective networking on internationalization are pinpointed.
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Sumit K. Kundu and Maija Renko
In explaining international expansion and performance, the traditional explanation in international business literature has mainly offered country, and firm-level structural…
Abstract
In explaining international expansion and performance, the traditional explanation in international business literature has mainly offered country, and firm-level structural explanations for performance. Moreover, this literature has been biased toward larger, established multinational manufacturing companies (Dunning, 1958; Hymer, 1960; Aharoni, 1966; Vernon, 1966). This was understandable as, for much of the 20th century, manufacturing occupied the dominant share of the economy. However, by the early 1960s, the service sector already accounted for more than half of the domestic economic activity in developed nations. Today, even in international operations, the share of services is rapidly increasing. For example, the share of services in U.S. exports in 1997 had grown to 27%, and to 16% in U.S. imports (Contractor, 1999). Moreover, in sectors such as information technology, telecommunications or biotechnology, recent years have seen a proliferation of entrepreneurial start-up companies, where the characteristics of their founders and leaders appear to have as much, or greater, impact on performance, as traditional firm-level explanations. Since the late 1980s, the growth of venture capital markets and rise in entrepreneurship have been observed in technology-driven industries (The Economist, 1993; Gupta, 1989; Mamis, 1989). Could entrepreneurial and leadership factors assume greater importance in explaining performance, especially international performance, of younger companies in such sectors? This is the broad hypothesis pursued in this study.
To provide an Asia‐Pacific viewpoint of the key constraints associated with large geographic distances for smaller westerns firms entering central and eastern Europe (CEE)…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide an Asia‐Pacific viewpoint of the key constraints associated with large geographic distances for smaller westerns firms entering central and eastern Europe (CEE), described as a turbulent transitional environment.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory study was used within a qualitative methodology, using eight case studies across multiple industries. Semi‐structured interviews were the main method of data collection conducted in 2003/2004. Open, axial and selective coding was used for the analysis to identifying issues.
Findings
Key internal constraints for smaller western firms (mindset of western management and middle management in CEE; and lack of management in CEE with decision‐making authority) related to managements' inability to recognize geographic and psychic distance as major external constraints. Largely overcome by enhancing communication between various functional groups; adapting organizational structure; maintaining frequent communicational; developing partnerships in international joint ventures; finding reliable distributors and commitment from re‐sellers and working with government. While no single international business theory adequately explains this process, there is overwhelming support for the network perspective and international entrepreneurship.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited by small sample size. The explanatory phase is proposed with further western companies, such as the UK, operating in CEE to identify geographic distance, and additional CEE markets to verify dimensions in this environment.
Practical implications
The paper provides a checklist of strategies for overcoming constraints facing managers of smaller firms, entering emerging markets with geographic distance.
Originality/value
Previous studies, using a European or Nordic viewpoint, fail to identify the constraints associated with large geographic distances. This paper provides practical assistance to managers starting out in CEE from the Asia‐Pacific.
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Svante Andersson, Gabriel Baffour Awuah, Ulf Aagerup and Ingemar Wictor
This study aims to investigate how mature born global firms create value for customers to achieve continued international growth.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how mature born global firms create value for customers to achieve continued international growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a case study approach to investigate the under-researched area of how mature born globals create value for customers and, by doing so, contribute to their continued international growth. This in-depth examination of how three born globals developed over time uses interviews, observation and secondary data.
Findings
The findings indicate that the entrepreneurs of born global firms, that continued to grow, created a culture in the early stages that supported value creation for foreign customers. These firms have built a competitive position by developing international niche products. They have also implemented a combination of proactive and reactive market orientation to facilitate the creation and delivery of value to customers. To maintain growth, they further invest the revenues earned on additional international marketing activities and continuously enhance their focal products.
Research limitations/implications
The study relies on three cases. We therefore recommend that future studies extend the scope of the research to several companies in various industries and countries, in which the theoretical arguments can be applied. In addition, further studies that test the propositions developed in this study, in different contexts, are highly recommended.
Practical implications
To gain international growth, managers should create an organizational culture that facilitates satisfying international customer needs. Firms should continuously invest in sales and market development (e.g. social media marketing, personal selling) and undertake technology development of niche rather than new products. To achieve international growth, managers need to standardize part of the offer to achieve economies of scale and adapt the other part to international customers' needs.
Originality/value
Research on born globals has focused on the early stages of their internationalization processes, while largely neglecting the later stages (mature born globals) or the factors that lead to continued international growth. To address this gap, this study explores what happens when born globals ‘grow up’. This study contributes to the literature by capturing the factors and processes underlying how mature born globals create value for customers, for international growth. In particular, the study shows that the culture and strategies developed in the born globals' early stages also lead to international growth in later stages. The mature born globals have also invested in niche products, brand building, and effective market channels and adopted a combination of proactive and reactive market orientations.
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Ingemar Bengtsson and Fredrik Kopsch
The purpose of this paper is to establish measurable factors that can be used as early indicators of which neighborhoods are most likely to undergo a process of gentrification in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish measurable factors that can be used as early indicators of which neighborhoods are most likely to undergo a process of gentrification in a reasonably near future.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 1990 data on key demographic variables for 128 neighborhoods in Stockholm, Sweden a model that allows both for testing of spatial clustering and for spatial spillovers between neighborhoods is estimated. It is hypothesized not only that gentrification depends on inter-neighborhood characteristics but also that gentrified neighborhoods will cluster and preferably be located in proximity to existing high income neighborhoods.
Findings
The findings confirm the stated hypotheses. Among the results, it is shown that neighborhoods that gentrified between 1990 and 2012 were more likely to have been poor in 1990 and located closer to the CBD, they were also more likely to be close to neighborhoods with lower proportions of low income residents. It is also found that gentrified neighborhoods tend to cluster over space.
Originality/value
Much of the previous literature on gentrification has concerned the actual driving forces behind gentrifying neighborhoods. This paper is more concerned with indicators that can be used to spot neighborhoods that are likely to undergo a gentrification process in the future. Such information can be valuable for real estate developers in the private sector, as it may lead to more successful investments. It may also be useful for city developers at the municipal organization.
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Gerry Larsson, Leif Carlstedt, Jens Andersson, Lars Andersson, Erna Danielsson, Ann Johansson, Eva Johansson, Ingemar Robertsson and Per‐Olof Michel
The aim was to describe the development of a theoretical model for leader evaluation and development, an instrument based on this model, and a strategy for large scale…
Abstract
The aim was to describe the development of a theoretical model for leader evaluation and development, an instrument based on this model, and a strategy for large scale implementation in the Swedish armed forces. The model rests on an interactional person by situation paradigm. It emphasises “developmental leadership”, which is inspired by transformational and functionalistic leadership approaches. The developmental leadership questionnaire (DLQ) was operationalised from the model and refined through structural equation modelling. The model and the DLQ will be used for three purposes: yearly evaluation of all personnel in the Swedish armed forces; yearly planning dialogues between each employee and his or her nearest supervisor; and a tool for leadership training. The implementation strategy includes an initial course in developmental leadership for all colonels. This is followed by the selection and training of local trainers, who, in turn, initiate the comprehensive programme locally. The system should be fully implemented by 2005.
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Karin Fröding, Jonny Geidne, Ingemar Elander and Charli Eriksson
A vehicle to reduce health inequalities and improve public health has been provided by programmes at a neighbourhood level. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development…
Abstract
Purpose
A vehicle to reduce health inequalities and improve public health has been provided by programmes at a neighbourhood level. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development processes in four municipalities for achieving sustainable structures in area‐based development programmes during and after a formal partnership period.
Design/methodology/approach
A case‐study database was compiled based on the strategic and local work of four municipalities and four municipal housing companies who cooperated in the Partnership for Sustainable Welfare Development 2003‐2009. The case‐study database includes nine in‐depth studies with interviews (n=68), participant observations (n=125), a survey (n=1,160), and documents. The data are analysed using three theoretical concepts: political support, alliances, and citizen participation.
Findings
Political support, alliances, and citizen participation are important building blocks in neighbourhood development work. However, when the partnership ended there was little left that could function as a sustainable structure. Political support seems to be a means to reach the target, including ensuring a consistent approach and allocation of resources. However, the support must continue also after the intervention period, when the formal partnership collaboration ends, otherwise the established structure will soon decompose. Citizen participation is another precondition for a sustainable structure able to continue despite reduced municipal support. Alliances have the best chance of forming sustainable structures when they involve both the strategic and the operational level.
Originality/value
Even though many evaluations have been conducted to capture the process of interventions, little attention has been given to the challenges facing the outcomes of the intervention when it comes to making permanent the activities for reducing health inequalities. This paper is an attempt to deal with these challenges.