Irwin L. Goldstein and Harold W. Goldstein
The training challenges facingorganisations resulting from changesover the next several decades aredescribed. These include a decreasingnumber of persons available for entrylevel…
Abstract
The training challenges facing organisations resulting from changes over the next several decades are described. These include a decreasing number of persons available for entry level positions including a growing proportion of undereducated young people. Also, jobs will become more complex as a result of technological developments and yet will require more interpersonal interaction between individuals who have different values and who come from different cultures. These changes will result in the need for training systems to maximise the potential of each individual, including basic skill and support programmes for unskilled young people who will need to perform more cognitively complex tasks. Training will also be necessary to help managers work with a more diverse workforce including helping individuals understand how to provide support for persons who have not traditionally been a part of their work organisation.
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Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these…
Abstract
Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these shortages are very real and quite severe.
The author attempts to examine the existence and pattern of coalitions in international relations across countries, and investigates whether international relations of coalition…
Abstract
Purpose
The author attempts to examine the existence and pattern of coalitions in international relations across countries, and investigates whether international relations of coalition partners influence a country's enaction of agricultural non-tariff measures (NTMs).
Design/methodology/approach
The author adopts a machine learning technique to identify international relation coalition partnerships and use network analysis to characterize the clustering pattern of coalitions with high-frequent records of global event data. The author then constructs a monthly dataset of agricultural NTMs against China and international relations with China of each importer and its coalition partners, and designs a panel structural vector autoregressive (PSVAR) model to estimate impulse response functions of agricultural NTMs with regard to international relation shocks.
Findings
The author finds countries to establish coalition partnerships. Two major clusters of coalitions are noted, with one composed of coalitions primarily among “North” countries and the other of coalitions among “South” countries. The United States is found to play a pivotal role by connecting the two clusters. The PSVAR estimation reveals reductions of NTMs against China following improved international relations with China of both the importer and its coalition partners. NTM responses are more substantial for measures that are trade restrictive. These results confirm that coalitions in international relations lead to coordination of agricultural NTMs.
Originality/value
The author provides international political insights into agricultural trade policymaking by showing interactions of NTM enaction across countries in the same coalition of international relations. These insights offer useful policy implications to predict and cope with hidden barriers to agricultural trade.
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David K. Goldstein and Michael H. Zack
This paper examines the impact of information supply and distribution on managerial information processing using a model derived from the organizational information processing…
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of information supply and distribution on managerial information processing using a model derived from the organizational information processing (OIP) framework developed by Daft and Weick. The model suggests that more supply and distribution of information will lead to greater information use and the acquisition of more knowledge, given that the organization's information processing capabilities match its requirements. The model was extended to include the influence of social factors (i.e., culture and power) and the level of knowledge in the organization. Product managers in two consumer goods organizations providing different levels of information technology support were studied to compare the effect of different approaches to supplying and distributing information. The focused comparison case research method was used, in which sites are selected differing only on the dimensions of interest, namely information supply and distribution. The cases provided evidence to support the model. The company which had more data and analytic tools available for its product managers used more information and knew more about the factors that influenced the marketing of its products. In addition, organizational culture and the level of knowledge at the companies affected their approach to information supply, information use, and knowledge acquisition. The results suggest that the effective use of information technology requires a combination of managing the organization culture and fitting the characteristics of information supply and distribution mechanisms to information requirements.
The introductory chapter includes how to design-in good practices in theory, data collection procedures, analysis, and interpretations to avoid these bad practices. Given that bad…
Abstract
The introductory chapter includes how to design-in good practices in theory, data collection procedures, analysis, and interpretations to avoid these bad practices. Given that bad practices in research are ingrained in the career training of scholars in sub-disciplines of business/management (e.g., through reading articles exhibiting bad practices usually without discussions of the severe weaknesses in these studies and by research courses stressing the use of regression analysis and structural equation modeling), this editorial is likely to have little impact. However, scholars and executives supporting good practices should not lose hope. The relevant literature includes a few brilliant contributions that can serve as beacons for eliminating the current pervasive bad practices and for performing highly competent research.
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The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that provides insights into major environmental and organizational forces underlying greater levels of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that provides insights into major environmental and organizational forces underlying greater levels of organizational responsiveness to the environmental sustainability imperative by a growing number of firms, worldwide.
Methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual in its focus, and the proposed framework builds on extant literature from multiple literature streams.
Findings
Societal progress toward environmental sustainability is a shared responsibility of consumers, corporations, and the government at various levels. A potential avenue for societal progress toward environmental sustainability is fostering a macroenvironment that is conducive to the elimination of consumption certain products, reduction in consumption certain other products, and redirection of consumption of still other products from ecologically more harmful to ecologically less harmful substitute products (and relatedly, demand elimination, demand reduction, and demand redirection).
Research and practical implications
An implication for corporate sustainability responsibility is that firms while planning and formulating strategies for increasing their market footprint must also concurrently plan and formulate strategies for decreasing their environmental footprint. An implication for government sustainability responsibility is that even under conditions of high levels of commitment by a large and growing number of firms and consumers to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviors, in the absence of supporting infrastructure for engaging in such behavior, they may find it necessary to engage in environmentally unsustainable behaviors.
Originality/value
Issues relating to environmental sustainability have been the focus of a large body of recent research in a number of academic disciplines including marketing. A cursory examination of numerous articles published in scholarly journals on issues pertaining to environmental sustainability, and in the business press pertaining to the myriad environmental sustainability initiatives of firms worldwide is indicative of its growing importance.
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James J. Zhang, Eddie T. C. Lam and Daniel P. Connaughton
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between general market demands and consumption levels of professional sport consumers. This study was accomplished…
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between general market demands and consumption levels of professional sport consumers. This study was accomplished through: (a) validating the theoretical constructs of general market demand variables by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis, (b) examining the predictability of general market demand factors to consumption levels of live and televised sporting events, and (c) investigating the relationships between sociodemographic and general market demand factors. Five hundred and twenty-five residents of a major southern US city were interviewed using a questionnaire that included eight sociodemographic variables, 12 market demand variables under three factors (Game Attractiveness, Economic Consideration, and Marketing Promotion), and 10 professional sporting event consumption variables. The factor structure of the general market demand variables was confirmed. Regression analyses revealed that market demand factors were positively (p < .05) predictive of professional sport consumption. Sociodemographic variables were significantly (p < .05) related to the market demand factors. The findings imply that professional sport teams should highlight the market demand variables and adopt differential marketing procedures for various sociodemographic segments in their marketing practice.