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The case is based on a real supply chain outsourcing management decision at a major manufacturing company. The company has been disguised for confidentiality reasons. The case discusses different types of outsourcing, supply chain management, the benefits and risks of outsourcing, and various pricing models for outsourcing contracts. Students must make a management decision and answer these questions: Is supply chain outsourcing a viable option for DB Toys? What will the return on investment be? What is the best outsourcing model? What is the best pricing model?

Students learn the different types of outsourcing, supply chain management, the benefits and risks of outsourcing, and various pricing models for outsourcing contracts. Students also learn how to calculate the return on investment of supply chain outsourcing. Most important, the case enables students to understand the strategic context of outsourcing, and to decide which outsourcing model and pricing is appropriate.

Due to increasing scandals involving non-halal foods, contamination and fraudulent practices within the halal food supply chain, this paper aims to identify pivotal factors closely tied to halal food traceability and subsequently proposes a comprehensive halal food traceability model rooted in these factors.

The approach involved conducting a content analysis to meticulously gather data from existing scholarly works. Subsequently, the authors analysed this data using a thematic approach.

The extensive literature review yielded the identification of eight pivotal factors for the adoption and implementation of effective halal food traceability systems. These factors encompass consensus on halal food standards, government support, meeting consumer demands, ensuring the authenticity of halal food integrity, leveraging technological advancements, adherence to halal standards and certification systems, fostering stakeholder collaboration and promoting research and educational initiatives. Building upon these factors, this study presents a halal food traceability factorial model that can serve as a foundation for constructing a robust and readily-adoptable traceability system within Muslim countries.

The proposed halal food traceability model offers invaluable insights to stakeholders within both private enterprises and governmental bodies. By taking into account the identified factors, these stakeholders can significantly enhance their prospects for the successful adoption and implementation of traceability systems. Additionally, the paper expounds upon practical recommendations for practitioners and highlights avenues for future research aimed at establishing a robust halal traceability system across Muslim countries.

This paper stands as a significant contribution within the limited body of research addressing the development of an effective and readily-adoptable traceability model, thereby bolstering the integrity and safety of halal food. The outcomes of this paper are expected to catalyse improvements in the adoption and implementation of halal food traceability practices across Muslim nations.

John Williams, senior director of marketing for Microsoft's .NET, was trying to build the .NET brand, a comprehensive family of next-generation connectivity software products. Highlights the challenges of branding and positioning a complex technology offering. The first challenge facing Microsoft was to develop a common definition of .NET, which had been in flux over the prior two years. The second challenge was to choose between an umbrella branding strategy, a sub-branding strategy, and an ingredient branding strategy. The third challenge was to create a value proposition that would appeal to three very different target audiences: business decision makers, IT professionals, and developers.

To analyze the branding and positioning of a complex new technology offering: by defining a new product offering for public understanding and comprehension; evaluating brand strategies for optimal effect, considering possible hurdles to implementation of each strategy; and developing a value proposition attractive to differing audiences.

Extends the notion of informality into the area of illegality, looking at how illegal crack vendors in New York use informality to reduce and pass risk to others. Focuses on the techniques used to avoid detection and arrest and the methods of placing risk of imprisonment on smaller, lower‐income dealers. Suggests that this process of exploitation only makes sense when seen in the broader context of inequality in US society where some have nothing to lose by going to jail.

In an effort to restore investor confidence in the wake of recent financial reporting scandals, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 mandates that audit committees be fully independent and have at least one financial expert. The SEC adopted rules implementing these Sarbanes‐Oxley provisions. This paper contributes to the literature on the association between audit committee characteristics recommended by SOX and the likelihood of fraud in two ways. First, we focus on audit committee composition and the extent of the underlying nature of the firm (e.g., firm size, growth) and the contracting environment (e.g., managerial ownership, leverage) of the firm on the likelihood of fraud. In particular, we find that the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting is negatively related to audit committee independence, number of audit committee meetings and managerial ownership and positively related to firm size and firm growth opportunities. Second, we separately examine firms with totally independent audit committees and fraudulent financial reporting. This sample is interesting because these are firms that had good corporate governance and yet still had fraudulent financial reporting. By separately examining firms with totally independent audit committees, we find that the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting given a totally independent audit committee is inversely related to the level of managerial ownership and the number of audit committee meetings.

Knowledge management has become the latest strategy in increasing organizational competitiveness. Proponents are calling it the only solution for competitive advantage in the new century (Evans, 1997; Hedlund, 1994; Hibbard, 1997; Martinez, 1998; Trussler, 1998) and critics are calling it the worst in passing fads (Hibbard, 1997). Robert H. Buckman, CEO of Buckman Labs, says the purpose of the knowledge management and sharing system at his corporation is to “facilitate communication across all of the organization's boundaries, so that the entire company works together to help everyone to be the best they can be” (Buckman, 1998, p. 11). Buckman Labs has become the first name in knowledge management with its innovative and relatively long‐standing (since 1991) approach to harnessing employees' collective knowledge.

To implement and assess an intervention designed to promote gender equity and organizational change within STEM departments in two Colleges at a single Research High university. Department climate impacts the retention and success of women faculty.

A survey was administered both before and after the department intervention in order to capture departmental change on variables that measure a positive climate for female faculty.

Across all of the science and engineering departments, levels of Collective Efficacy toward Gender Equity significantly increased while levels of Conflict significantly decreased after the department facilitation. In the science departments, the level of Vicarious Experience of Gender Equity among faculty significantly increased while in the engineering departments levels of faculty Dependence significantly decreased. There was a statistically significant decrease in Optimism about Gender Equity among the science faculty.

Organizational change within universities has been documented as slow and labor intensive. Departmental climate, particularly interactions with colleagues, remains an area wherein women continue to feel excluded. The departmental intervention resulted in measurable improvements in key aspects of climate critical to women’s success (e.g., reductions in conflict and dependence; increases in collective efficacy) as well as more realistic view of the effort needed to attain gender equity (decrease in Optimism).

A large literature studies why firms self-regulate and “signal green.” However, it has ignored that regulators have enforcement discretion, and may act strategically. We fill this gap. We build a game theoretic model of whether a firm should signal its type through substantial self-regulation. We find self-regulation is a double-edged sword: it can potentially preempt legislation, but it can also lead regulators to demand higher levels of compliance from greener firms if preemption fails. We show how self-regulatory decisions depend upon industry characteristics and political responsiveness to corporate environmental leadership. We have made a number of simplifying assumptions. We assume activist groups cannot challenge regulatory flexibility in court, and that regulatory penalties are fixed and are not collected by the regulator. Firms with low compliance costs confront a tradeoff regarding self-regulation. They can blend in with the rest of the industry, and take few self-regulatory steps. This reduces the risk of regulation somewhat, and preserves their ability to obtain regulatory flexibility should regulation be imposed. Alternatively, they can step up with substantial self-regulation. This better mitigates the risk of regulation, but at the risk of signaling low costs and becoming a target for stringent enforcement should regulation pass. Recent work has found negative market reactions to corporate claims of voluntary emissions reductions, despite the conventional wisdom that it “pays to be green.” We offer a new explanation to scholars and managers: regulatory discretion may undermine the ability of industry self-regulation to profitably preempt mandatory regulatory requirements.

This chapter celebrates just some of Norman Denzin's many research contributions, outlets and gatherings, and encouragement and support of individuals over the course of his career. I suggest that these contributions can be described as a sustained effort to make and foster a capacious – expansive – inquiry.