Peter Ekman, Peter Thilenius, Steven Thompson and Jonathan Whitaker
While much existing research on multinational corporation (MNC) digital transformation has followed a linear design and implementation logic using cross-sectional data, the…
Abstract
Purpose
While much existing research on multinational corporation (MNC) digital transformation has followed a linear design and implementation logic using cross-sectional data, the multiple and divergent needs of headquarters (HQ) and subsidiaries suggest that MNC digital transformation actually involves a more iterative journey. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theoretical perspective of embeddedness to better define the complexities of MNC digital transformation, and identify how HQ and subsidiaries can navigate the complexities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a longitudinal multi-case study of five Forbes Global 2000 firms that are HQ in Europe with large subsidiaries in the USA. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 26 senior executives at HQ and subsidiaries over a 15-month period.
Findings
The process of digital transformation is significantly influenced by internal embeddedness (relationship of HQ with subsidiaries and across subsidiaries) and external embeddedness (relationship of subsidiaries with their local markets), and also by strategy, financial and technology considerations. While HQ and subsidiaries have different perspectives, an understanding of these influences can help HQ and subsidiaries navigate digital transformation.
Research limitations/implications
HQ and subsidiaries can apply insights from this research to navigate the complexities of digital transformation.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates that embeddedness is a useful theory to understand the complexities of MNC digital transformation.
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James B. Shein, Matt Bell and Scott T. Whitaker
Jonathan Miller appeared in September 2009 on “Shark Tank,” the ABC television reality show featuring entrepreneurs versus angel investors in a discussion of the business value…
Abstract
Jonathan Miller appeared in September 2009 on “Shark Tank,” the ABC television reality show featuring entrepreneurs versus angel investors in a discussion of the business value proposition and to win a negotiation for an investment from one of the 4 Sharks. The company he founded, Element Bars, a maker of custom energy bars, needed investment capital. Prior to appearing on the show, Miller had considered several financing options available to entrepreneurs: loans and other debt capital and equity capital, each of which are evaluated in the case. Miller had a good feel for the different types of capital to use for this new venture, having started several ventures in the past and winning the Kellogg School of Management business plan competition, the Kellogg Cup, in 2008. The case includes Miller's decision to forego the investment offer he won on television, instead he pursued lower cost of capital equity.
Students several aspects of raising capital, including raising equity and debt capital. Students need to learn to know as much or more about fundraising as the professionals who provide the capital-in fact, entrepreneurs have to understand the interaction among combinations of capital within their enterprise-whether debt and/or equity in different combinations. Often, teaching about equity relates to teaching how venture capital investment professionals look at deploying funds. Receiving equity into the entrepreneurial firm has much different attributes and issues. Teaching about debt often occurs at much higher volumes in typical MBA courses; this entrepreneurial debt must occur at a much smaller dollar value. This protagonist, Jonathan Miller, has exceptional preparation habits, which teaches students the value of the skills to prepare themselves and their businesses for investment.
Jayme Lemke and Jonathan Lingenfelter
What can the applied economist do? In order to explore issues playing out in the “real world” of the past or present, the applied social scientist has to make a series of…
Abstract
What can the applied economist do? In order to explore issues playing out in the “real world” of the past or present, the applied social scientist has to make a series of decisions about what they will accept as the facts of the situation. Particularly for research questions in which the beliefs, plans, and motivations of individuals matter – such as institutional analysis – this task requires the development of some degree of intersubjective understanding, or verstehen. For over 50 years, the Bloomington School of Institutional Analysis has been using fieldwork and deep archival history to conduct meaningful institutional analysis that takes interpretation and the quest for understanding seriously. As such, those who wish to take up the call for economists to take an “interpretive turn” can gain a great deal of insight and practical advice from the study of the Bloomington School’s methods and approach.
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Anne E. Zald and Cathy Seitz Whitaker
Despite the title of this bibliography, there was not a truly underground press in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. The phrase is amisnomer, reputedly coined on the…
Abstract
Despite the title of this bibliography, there was not a truly underground press in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. The phrase is amisnomer, reputedly coined on the spur of the moment in 1966 by Thomas Forcade when asked to describe the newly established news service, Underground Press Syndicate, of which he was an active member. The papers mentioned in this bibliography, except for the publications of the Weather Underground, were not published by secretive, covert organizations. Freedom of the press and of expression is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, although often only symbolically as the experience of the undergrounds will show, and most of the publications that fall into the “underground” described herein maintained public offices, contracted with commercial printers, and often used the U.S. Postal Service to distribute their publications.
MR. JONATHAN HUTCHINSON, the eminent consultant, has just put forward a statement of the utmost importance with respect to the probable existence of a direct connection between…
Abstract
MR. JONATHAN HUTCHINSON, the eminent consultant, has just put forward a statement of the utmost importance with respect to the probable existence of a direct connection between the consumption of arsenic‐contaminated food and the occurrence of cancer. He points out that certain modern “improvements” in processes of production have led to the contamination of various food‐products with small amounts of arsenic, and observes that “if, as seems proved, the continuous use of arsenic in small medicinal doses can predispose the skin to multiple cancer there seems no reason for doubting that it may do the same for the other tissues, and for the mucous membranes and the viscera,” while there must necessarily also be “the constitutional tendency, the appropriate age, and, in some cases, the local irritation.” Mr. HUTCHINSON refers to the recent successful tracing of the Manchester outbreak of “peripheral neuritis” to the use of arsenic‐contaminated beer as an example of what may be caused by the habitual ingestion of minute doses of arsenic. It is a remarkable fact that the increase in the occurrence of cancer may be looked upon as almost synchronising with the increasingly extensive adoption of those “improved” modern methods of manufacture, not only of beer but of other food‐products, which open the door to arsenic‐contamination; together with the great increase in the use of arsenic in medical prescriptions.
Natalie Elizabeth Boulton, Jonathan Williams and Robert S.P. Jones
There is limited evidence regarding clinical effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Previous research has highlighted…
Abstract
Purpose
There is limited evidence regarding clinical effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Previous research has highlighted challenges regarding adaptation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for people with ID. Central to ACT is a focus on living in congruence with individual core values. The concept of values is abstract and difficult for people with a limited verbal understanding to comprehend, and yet this approach holds much promise for people with ID. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study outlines the adaptations undertaken to facilitate making the concept of values more accessible to people with ID. It also explores the feasibility of the adapted approach to the values component.
Findings
This trial has shown that it is possible to isolate a single component of ACT and adapt it for use with people with ID. The findings highlight the potential feasibility of a value-based approach for people with ID augmented through the use of participant-produced photography to enhance conceptual understanding of the values component of ACT.
Research limitations/implications
Findings were reliant on self-report data, which may result in inaccurate reporting and may be influenced by social demands. Given the diverse and unique presentations of people with ID, the inclusion and exclusion criteria limits the extent to which the current findings may be generalised to people with ID more widely.
Practical implications
Participant-produced photography may be directly applied to clinical practice, with implied benefits of improving access to, and meaningful engagement with psychological therapies for people with ID. Development of (and ability to articulate) a readily available and easily accessible values system, during times of adversity, represents a key implication arising from the current trial.
Originality/value
The current study shows that people with intellectual disability can be helped to appreciate abstract concepts such as personal core values. It also shows the potential to work through the medium of personal photography to explore the feasibility of the adapted approach to the values component – potentially a logical preliminary step towards an ACT-ID evidence base. To the authors’ knowledge, this novel approach is the first of its kind in the ID literature.
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Bernard Gallagher, Nadia Wager, Victoria Gall, Barbara Gilroy, Lara F. Hudspith, Manisha Singh, Joseph Sykes and Vicky Whitaker
Rough sex - or what is referred to in this chapter as ‘consensual aggression and violence during sex’ (CAVS) - has been the focus, in the United Kingdom and internationally, of…
Abstract
Rough sex - or what is referred to in this chapter as ‘consensual aggression and violence during sex’ (CAVS) - has been the focus, in the United Kingdom and internationally, of some attention and also concern. The latter derives especially from criminal justice proceedings relating to incidents where male suspects have seriously or fatally injured another individual, usually female, and then made claims - that are widely believed to be false - that the incident was a ‘sex game gone wrong’. Despite the importance of this subject, there is little or no understanding of the state of knowledge surrounding CAVS. This chapter outlines results from what is believed to be the first scoping (literature) review of CAVS in the general population. The review was based largely on a search, during June and July 2021, of 15 major databases using 18 search terms, which was conducted in accordance with the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. A total of 74 sources were identified. The research reviewed covered a quite large number and diverse range of areas in respect of CAVS, comprising: conceptualization; attitudes; extent; context, dynamics and nature; explanations; CAVS-related pornography; effects; alleged CAVS; policy and practice responses; methodological weaknesses; and future research needs. Overall, the review highlights two distinct perspectives on CAVS: in the first, individuals chose to take part in CAVS, which they like and enjoy; in the second, individuals, especially women and girls, have experiences of CAVS that are non-consensual or unwanted, and which they find upsetting, frightening or scary.
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Lusanda Mdibi, Robert Van Zyl, Michael Kosch and Jonathan Ward
The purpose of this paper is to design, build and test a low power high frequency (HF) transmitter that can be received by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) radar…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design, build and test a low power high frequency (HF) transmitter that can be received by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) radar installed at SANAE IV, the 4th South African National Antarctic Expedition Station. It is proposed that it may be possible to do propagation studies using the radar and the fixed frequency, ground-based HF transmitter beacon. Interpretation of the measurements can be used to study the ionosphere, especially Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances, which are signatures of atmospheric gravity waves.
Design/methodology/approach
In the absence of the actual deployment of the HF transmitter beacon in Antarctica, extensive simulations have been done to evaluate the expected performance of the transmitter in relation to the SuperDARN. A field trial has been executed between Hermanus (34.4241° S, 19.2247° E) and Pretoria (34.0558° S, 18.4589° E) in South Africa. In future, the beacon will be placed at the South Pole with its antenna radiating towards SANAE IV.
Findings
The HF transmitter conforms to the power and frequency stability requirements both during propagation tests conducted between Hermanus and Pretoria, as well as when the device was exposed to temperatures that ranged from +40°C to −45°C in a thermal chamber. Propagation in Antarctica is expected to differ from the field tests conducted due to the differences in density and dynamics of the polar ionosphere, compared to the mid-latitude ionosphere.
Originality/value
Space weather research, including forecasting atmospheric gravity waves and determining the expected electron density profile of the ionosphere, is of great scientific interest. The data received from the HF beacon can be used to study and characterize the ionosphere of the region between the South Pole and SANAE IV. Parameters of the ionosphere, such as electron density, geomagnetic storm effects, ionospheric motions and sky wave propagation paths will be better understood from analysing the signal received from this transmitter after it has been reflected and refracted by the ionosphere.