Clive M.J. Warren, Julia Simmons and Nick Trumble
The purpose of this paper is to establish a benchmark measure of attitudes to property held by major corporations within Australia. The paper aims to show how workplace use is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a benchmark measure of attitudes to property held by major corporations within Australia. The paper aims to show how workplace use is predicted to change in the near future and the implications of that change for managers of those assets.
Design/methodology/approach
The research in this paper is based on a survey of senior corporate property managers throughout Australia. Using Likert scale responses participants' attitudes to emerging asset management issues were examined.
Findings
The research reveals that there exists a divergence between corporate property managers' perceptions of the role of property to the organisation and the perceived role by business managers. The research also reveals that workplace use is expected to change in the near future with greater need for flexibility in design, contracts and employee behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The survey response was limited to a small number of senior property executives. Future iterations of the research can seek to establish a broader response from industry. The research establishes a baseline from which future changes in the management of corporate property can be measured.
Practical implications
The paper is important in that it highlights the divide between efficient and effective asset management and the perceptions of asset and business managers. It also indicates the growing need for flexible workplace design supported by flexible property contracts.
Originality/value
The paper provides a basis for evaluating the use of property assets by large corporations within Australia. It will be of practical use to all practitioners and service providers involved in the delivery, design and management of property assets for large corporations.
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Vivianna Fang He and Gregor Krähenmann
The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities is not always successful. On the one hand, entrepreneurial failure offers an invaluable opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about…
Abstract
The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities is not always successful. On the one hand, entrepreneurial failure offers an invaluable opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about their ventures and themselves. On the other hand, entrepreneurial failure is associated with substantial financial, psychological, and social costs. When entrepreneurs fail to learn from failure, the potential value of this experience is not fully utilized and these costs will have been incurred in vain. In this chapter, the authors investigate how the stigma of failure exacerbates the various costs of failure, thereby making learning from failure much more difficult. The authors combine an analysis of interviews of 20 entrepreneurs (who had, at the time of interview, experienced failure) with an examination of archival data reflecting the legal and cultural environment around their ventures. The authors find that stigma worsens the entrepreneurs’ experience of failure, hinders their transformation of failure experience, and eventually prevents them from utilizing the lessons learnt from failure in their future entrepreneurial activities. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for the entrepreneurship research and economic policies.
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The purpose of this case study is to report on the activities and outcomes of a facilitated group of new librarians in one Australian university. The aims of the librarians are to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this case study is to report on the activities and outcomes of a facilitated group of new librarians in one Australian university. The aims of the librarians are to increase professional networking, to promote career development, to enhance job satisfaction and retention of motivated staff, to grow participants' sense of responsibility for organisational progress, and to develop willingness to take initiative in presenting good ideas for service improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary author was the initiator of, and facilitator for, the New Professionals' Group and was able to influence approaches taken. A variety of learning experiences were utilised including an action learning project. Monthly meetings were held face‐to‐face and an online group was used as an additional communication avenue. The progress of the group was monitored by facilitator observation, by a participant survey after several months of operation, and by feedback and analysis after one year.
Findings
Participation in the New Professionals' Group had positive impact on networking activity, career advancement, contribution to the organisation and job satisfaction. No significant impact on staff retention was established.
Research limitations/implications
Self‐report was the only means of identifying the level of influence coming from participation in the group as compared with the impact of prior capabilities and attitudes.
Originality/value
Induction and socialisation of new employees commonly covers organisational structure, policies and procedures as well as job‐specific training. An emphasis on career advancement strategies and being a positive and effective voice for organisational improvement are distinctive in the reported work.
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Vania Ceccato, Emrah Ercin, Julia Hazanov, Sara Elfström and Adriana Sampaio
In this study, the authors report visitors' and personnel's safety experiences and concerns in order to understand the safety conditions of a library.
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the authors report visitors' and personnel's safety experiences and concerns in order to understand the safety conditions of a library.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on answers from a small sample survey of library visitors, interviews with the personnel and incidents recorded in a library in Stockholm the capital of Sweden.
Findings
Dealing with visitors under influence of drugs/alcohol or feeling intimidated by groups of young individuals are examples of situations in which the staff feel most unsafe. Visitors declare witnessing problems of public disturbance and disorderly conduct, fights and other types of aggression. Although the vast majority of visitors declare feeling safe in the library, their perceptions vary according to the library's environment and their individual characteristics, including their previous victimization.
Practical implications
The study is novel because it indicates the importance of the environment to ensure the safety conditions of the library for both visitors and staff. Finally, research on safety in libraries is often from North America and Western European contexts, while this study contributes to the international literature by illustrating libraries in a Nordic European context.
Social implications
The study indicates that more social control, both formal and informal, is at the top of the list of recommendations for visitors. Among personnel, recommendations include the need for cooperation with other local actors to solve problems in surrounding areas as well as better education for librarians in dealing with the current safety challenges of libraries as multifunctional public facilities.
Originality/value
Combine visitors' and personnel's safety experiences to better understand the safety conditions of a public library.
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This study aims to understand the lasting relationship between luxury fashion and art. The purpose of the paper is to explore whether the application of art, the cooperation with…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the lasting relationship between luxury fashion and art. The purpose of the paper is to explore whether the application of art, the cooperation with artists, the implementation of experiential strategies focusing on retail spaces and shows embedded in the strategic concept of a luxury brand lead to a competitive advantage and to a sustained value creation for luxury brands.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the literature, the strategic role of art and the importance of experiential marketing for the value creation of European luxury fashion brands was explored through empirical data collection, consisting of 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The gained data have been analysed through a thematic analysis approach and triangulated to avoid bias.
Findings
The exploratory study revealed that when art is applied as a strategic tool, it is of relevance to achieve an authentic fit to the brand. When integrating art consistently and authentically within the whole value chain system, it leads to a higher brand equity.
Practical implications
The paper provides a guide for both academics and marketers as theoretical frameworks are examined, analysed and future recommendations are given, which are suited to be applied within the brand management principles.
Originality/value
The outcome contributes to a wider delineation regarding the future of luxury brands. The study reveals novel viewpoints concerning the integration of arts in luxury brand marketing and adds to existing literature.
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Abrar Faisal, Julia N. Albrecht and Willem J.L. Coetzee
This paper aims to respond to the strong calls for interdisciplinary solutions to address the many and varied challenges that major disasters create in urban (tourism) spaces, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to respond to the strong calls for interdisciplinary solutions to address the many and varied challenges that major disasters create in urban (tourism) spaces, and provide a holistic conceptualisation of organisational responses to disruptions in the external business environment. It argues that organisations need to actively (re)formulate a sustainable business proposition to passively adapt to environmental conditions and modify the selective environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative approach to introducing and examining the concepts and theoretical constructs underpinning the proposed conceptual schemata. The content-driven inductive approach used here is based on an extensive review of the disaster recovery, crisis management, entrepreneurial strategy and urban tourism literature with a focus on organisational perspectives. It systematically brings together the theories and research findings from these separate strands of literature.
Findings
While the extant literature focuses on the importance of effective adaptability to survive and thrive in environmental uncertainties, some aspects of the relevant evolutionary processes are not addressed in the context of urban tourism. Indeed, a systematic approach that questions how urban tourism and hospitality businesses react to crises has been long overdue. This paper, therefore, introduces niche construction theory (NCT) as an alternative and proposes an integrated framework to understand the environmental conditions of urban tourism and organisational evolution during post-disaster turbulence.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed model emerging from a multidisciplinary literature review acknowledges boundary conditions in the tourism industry-specific interpretation of a crisis situation. The tenets of NCT need to be adopted flexibly rather than as part of a strictly prescriptive process to allow for all aspects of the related business responses to play out and become exposed to the emerging selection pressures.
Practical implications
The argument underpinned by the theoretical constructs of niche construction encourages and offers a framework for practitioners to actively (re)formulate business proposition and (re)construct organisational niche to survive post-disaster turbulence in the business environment and exert influence over their own evolution.
Originality/value
This paper offers different angles, filters and lenses for constructing and interpreting knowledge of organisational evolution in the context of crisis management. The conceptual schema (Figure 2) emerged as a novel contribution itself providing a necessary lens to interpret the empirical data and understand the complexities of the organisational responses to the disruptive post-disaster turbulence in an urban tourism business environment.
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The local property tax is the oldest tax in the United States, as well as being the only substantial tax on landed wealth, a major part of the housing expense of most American…
Abstract
The local property tax is the oldest tax in the United States, as well as being the only substantial tax on landed wealth, a major part of the housing expense of most American families, and the most important revenue source for local governments. It is also increasingly limited by state law. This chapter presents a synthetic review of the literature on property tax limitation laws. Property taxation is a crucial resource for local governments because it is primarily a tax on real estate, and land is the least mobile tax base. A tax on the market value of real estate may have the effect of transmitting real estate price shocks to individual land users. Property tax limitation laws provide some homeowners with social protection from such market-induced economic shocks, but they do so at the price of a substantial reduction in state capacity. A meta-regression analysis of published studies finds that property tax levy limitations, on average, reduce local government budgets by as much as 5%. The potential implications for provision of other public goods, including social protection for other groups, are discussed.
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Julia Morinaj, Kaja Marcin and Tina Hascher
Current challenges in the educational sector along with age-related changes during early adolescence contribute to an increased sense of school alienation (SAL) among students…
Abstract
Current challenges in the educational sector along with age-related changes during early adolescence contribute to an increased sense of school alienation (SAL) among students. Some of the central concerns of SAL are failure to participate in classroom and socially deviant behaviors. This study examined the change in and cross-lagged relationships among alienation from learning, teachers, and classmates, and different self-reported learning and social behaviors across 508 secondary school students spanning a one-year interval from Grade 7 to Grade 8. The results revealed a slight increase in SAL and a decline in classroom participation. Earlier SAL predicted students’ later in-class participation and delinquent behavior, but not vice versa. The three alienation domains were shown to have different relationships with targeted learning and social behaviors: Alienation from learning and from teachers negatively predicted student classroom participation. Alienation from teachers and from classmates contributed to subsequent delinquent behavior. The study results emphasized the importance of SAL for students’ participation in classroom activities as well as in disruptive behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for educational research and practice are discussed.
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Marianne Bradford, Julia B. Earp and Paul F. Williams
The purpose of this paper is to determine what types of sustainability activities companies are reporting and whether persons external to the companies understand how those…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine what types of sustainability activities companies are reporting and whether persons external to the companies understand how those reported activities correspond to the companies’ narratives about sustainability. That is to ascertain how people interpret the meaning of the activities included in the sustainability reports.
Design/methodology/approach
From a sample of sustainability reports prepared by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, the authors identified the distinct activities reported. The authors prepared a survey comprised of these activities and asked a sample of people knowledgeable about business and investing to evaluate each activity on the extent to which they are relevant to sustainability performance. The responses were then factor analyzed to identify the most important dimensions of sustainability these persons employed to relate the activities to sustainability.
Findings
The dimensions employed by the subjects differed in some significant ways from those dimensions used to construct the GRI format. Subjects evaluated sustainability efforts as primarily efforts of being a good citizen with sustainability an end in itself rather than as constraint to be respected in achieving profitability goals.
Research limitations/implications
The study is a first attempt so results are preliminary, i.e. suggestive but not definitive. Though preliminary an intriguing implication is that closure on a sustainability reporting structure would be premature. More effort needs to be devoted to provide more clarity on the concept of corporate sustainability and what its implications are for corporate behavior.
Practical implications
Given the results that sustainability be regarded as a corporate end, what is the role of the corporation in society seems still to be disputatious. Sustainability may not be something achievable without changes in corporate law.
Originality/value
The study is an early attempt to assess the potential alternative narratives about corporate sustainability. Its value lies in providing insights into the age-old question of what should be the role of the corporation in a free society.