Karen Ho, Laurence Jacobs and John Cox
In 1988, 998 letters of reservation inquiries were sent to hotels with 250 rooms or more requesting information about hosting a business reception for 20 couples. The study was…
Abstract
In 1988, 998 letters of reservation inquiries were sent to hotels with 250 rooms or more requesting information about hosting a business reception for 20 couples. The study was designed to test the responsiveness of hotels to reservation inquiries made by letter and whether the hotels would miss the opportunity to maximize their revenues by failing to respond effectively to these reservation inquiries. Recently, 100 letters of similar content were again sent to a random sample of hotels with 250 rooms or more located in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The letters of reservation inquiries were sent to test the responsiveness of hotels again and to assess whether the quality of the responses made by the hotels has changed since 1988. The current study found that the responsiveness of hotels to reservation inquiries made by letter has changed little since 1988. Like 1988, many hotels missed the opportunity to maximize their revenues by failing to respond to reservation inquiries made by letter.
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William Ho and Ali Emrouznejad
A binary integer programming model for the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP), which is well known as SALBP‐1, was formulated more than 30 years ago. Since then, a…
Abstract
Purpose
A binary integer programming model for the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP), which is well known as SALBP‐1, was formulated more than 30 years ago. Since then, a number of researchers have extended the model for the variants of assembly line balancing problem. The model is still prevalent nowadays mainly because of the lower and upper bounds on task assignment. These properties avoid significant increase of decision variables. The purpose of this paper is to use an example to show that the model may lead to a confusing solution.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a remedial constraint set for the model to rectify the disordered sequence problem.
Findings
The paper presents proof that the assembly line balancing model formulated by Patterson and Albracht may lead to a confusing solution.
Originality/value
No one previously has found that the commonly used model is incorrect.
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The purpose of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of innovation in a particular setting in Japan, and more specifically to trace a local initiative toward the creation of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of innovation in a particular setting in Japan, and more specifically to trace a local initiative toward the creation of an “innovation ecosystem” in a large city and its surrounding region in Western Japan, with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship and economic revitalization.
Methodology/approach
The analysis in this chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant-observation in meetings and events held to promote entrepreneurship and collaboration in the region, as well as interviews with city officials, managers, and entrepreneurs related to the activities of the creation of the “innovation ecosystem.”
Findings
In the chapter, I show how the emergence of the ecosystem metaphor for business innovation informs practices and imaginaries in which relations, co-creation, and natural growth become central as models of and for innovation processes in a context of crisis, in ways that generate not only innovation but the ecosystem itself.
Originality/value
The chapter provides historical and social context to the metaphor of the innovation ecosystem that is receiving increasing interest globally, and provides insights into how innovation activities and the enacting of the “innovation ecosystem” take place in practice.
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Granting mortgages to customers likely to become insolvent was widespread in Spain during the housing bubble that burst in 2007, resulting in an unprecedented rate of home…
Abstract
Granting mortgages to customers likely to become insolvent was widespread in Spain during the housing bubble that burst in 2007, resulting in an unprecedented rate of home repossessions. The practice was usually legal, but if power relations, structural determinations, and asymmetrical access to information are taken into account, it appears abusive and socially harmful. Several sorts of people were involved in it: bank staff who, under pressure from managers, took advantage of their long-standing relationships with customers; real estate agents and mortgage brokers who saw a business opportunity in people’s aspiration to home ownership; and investment banking executives who devised sophisticated financial products aimed at masking risk. For them, selling risky mortgages was not only a profitable business but also a way to comply with norms, values, and expectations at play in their social settings. This chapter will show how mortgage lending and its evaluation as wrong or acceptable by actors in different social positions has a relational nature, and is based on diverging moral economies that guide economic action in the framework of neoliberalism.
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While financial organisations and systems are becoming global, there still seems to be some country-based differences explained mainly by social dynamics of power and distribution…
Abstract
Purpose
While financial organisations and systems are becoming global, there still seems to be some country-based differences explained mainly by social dynamics of power and distribution of resources. The purpose of this paper is to analyse practices of a wide variety of financial organisations in two very different social environments, namely, the UK and Chile, with special focus on recruitment and promotion procedures and work under the industry.
Design/methodology/approach
From 41 in-depth interviews with practitioners in London, Edinburgh and Santiago de Chile and participant observation of recruitment practices, it was possible to analyse the practices of financial organisations, emphasising on the way they interact with people in global markets and local fields. Interviews and observation were designed to understand organisational procedures in the life course of a set of people working in financial firms and related institutions.
Findings
The paper argues for a field approach since Chile’s peripheral position in global markets and its elite-concentrated local distribution of resources encourage more traditional organisational practices, especially in terms of recruitment, socialisation and staff allocation, while in the UK, organisational processes are more technically designed and competitive, as part of a different field, the one of the main centres of financial activities.
Research limitations/implications
Although organisations are accessed via their workers and not studied directly, the design of the interviews and the findings allow understanding how financial work is structured by organisational procedures.
Practical implications
The paper contributes to highlight the role played by organisational procedures and how policies oriented to decrease inequality should take them into account.
Social implications
It contributes to understanding how inequality is based on organisational practices which are, at the same time, grounded in inequal social structures.
Originality/value
Very few studies have compared, from an in-depth and qualitative perspective, the way organisational procedures are constituted in two very different countries. It covers a wide variety of organisations types and financial products and services. It also tries to make a contribution bridging the current economic sociology literature and organisational studies. Very few articles have also performed systematic fieldwork in two very different countries.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the production of past workplace and organizational ethnographies needs to be better understood in their historical context…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the production of past workplace and organizational ethnographies needs to be better understood in their historical context. Design/methodology/approach – A programme of research work on the history of workplace and organizational ethnography is proposed, and a historiographical discussion outlines the purpose, scope and means by which such a project might be realised. Findings – The article highlights why organizational ethnographers should understand the history of their research practice. Originality/value – The paper suggests that a serious attempt is made to create a body of historical knowledge about workplace and organizational ethnography. The value of this would be to deepen the contribution ethnographic research makes to organization and management studies, and ensure that continuity and change in ethnographic research practices are better understood.
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This chapter analyzes what happens to media use when everyday life is suddenly disrupted, focusing on how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed work, socializing, communication and…
Abstract
This chapter analyzes what happens to media use when everyday life is suddenly disrupted, focusing on how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed work, socializing, communication and everyday living. The empirical case is changing media use in Norway during the pandemic, building on a qualitative questionnaire survey conducted in early lockdown, and follow-up interviews eight months later. Expanding on the ideas of destabilization of media repertoires developed in the former chapter, this analysis discusses transforming media repertoires as more digital, as less mobile (but still smartphone-centric) and as essentially social. The chapter further explains new concepts for pandemic media use practices, such as doomscrolling and Zoom fatigue.