Nasiru Zubairu, John Dinwoodie, Kannan Govindan, Lise Hunter and Saeyeon Roh
The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate supply chain strategies (SCSs) that drive financial performance to guide practitioners, especially in liquefied natural gas…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate supply chain strategies (SCSs) that drive financial performance to guide practitioners, especially in liquefied natural gas (LNG) networks, to review and adopt SCSs that drive competitiveness and value creation for investors.
Design/methodology/approach
Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was deployed to prioritise SCSs according to their relative impact on financial performance in LNG networks. Interviews with experts were analysed using template analysis to establish latent drivers of financial performance specific to LNG networks.
Findings
Results support the significant role of SCSs in improving financial performance. Although findings prioritised collaborative strategy as the most important driver of financial performance in LNG networks, to fully optimise financial outcomes, all the SCSs should be implemented across LNG networks as no single strategy in isolation is a standalone driver of financial performance.
Practical implications
The AHP model provides a novel ranking for SCSs and measures to guide decision-makers. LNG practitioners may exploit the results to make informed decisions.
Originality/value
The study extends previous literature by proposing a framework and a new LNG empirical model that facilitates understanding of how SCSs contribute positively to financial performance and support practitioners in making strategic supply chain decisions.
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Drawing on entrepreneurship as a social process, the purpose of this paper is to proposes a model of entrepreneurial learning where contextual social and economic structures gain…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on entrepreneurship as a social process, the purpose of this paper is to proposes a model of entrepreneurial learning where contextual social and economic structures gain relevance through experiential learning. Concrete experience underpins the emotions, values and interests that support the cognitive and conative processes required to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set. Empirical study undertaken in Kenya and Tanzania explores perceptions of entrepreneurship education (EE) and identify approaches to a social perspective of entrepreneurial learning that is applicable.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a multi-phase approach consisting of desk research, semi-structured interview and a participatory workshop. Entrepreneurship programmes in 18 universities are benchmarked against accepted standards and 68 participants are purposively selected within key stakeholders for the semi-structured interviews and participatory workshop.
Findings
The findings indicate that entrepreneurship as a value creation process is a shared assertion but the social context informs a construct of learning outcomes, and specifically what characterises an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial learning is multi-layered and its provision necessitates an engagement with the social context in order to gain relevance for the learners. The learning content should enable learners to develop an understanding of the world alongside knowledge of entrepreneurship. Learning tools should be flexible and action-based, to achieve learning for entrepreneurship as opposed to learning about the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Ultimately, the value creation process can only happen when learning supports the individual and collective capabilities to transform the social context. Particularly in Kenya and Tanzania, meeting job creation and growth aspirations will require the providers such as universities to work closely with businesses of all sizes, including the informal sector, and the use of innovative learning techniques such as local languages where applicable. These findings have policy and practice implications for HEIs and policy-makers in curriculum design and inclusive learning methods.
Research limitations/implications
The study comes short on entrepreneurial orientation and its impact on learning outcomes. Further investigation could establish if necessity entrepreneurs differ from opportunity entrepreneurs in the way they learn, so that national policy and curriculum can respond accordingly. With high levels of unemployment in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, entrepreneurship often presents the only choice for employment or a paid job.
Practical implications
The study findings indicate the need for educators to develop learning approaches that are informed by the contextual realities of the learners. Policy-makers should also foster the development of curriculum informed by contextual realities, so that learners can make sense of their entrepreneurial world.
Social implications
Through the adoption of action learning as essential for the process of creation and transformation, the study makes the case for individual motivations in exploring the realities of the local context.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a deeper understanding of EE from a social context, and proposes a model of entrepreneurial learning which could benefit learners and the community. The informal sector is brought to light as a significant actor in entrepreneurial learning and a considerable source of new knowledge.
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Guoqing Zhao, Jana Suklan, Shaofeng Liu, Carmen Lopez and Lise Hunter
In a competitive environment, eHealth small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) barriers to survival differ from those of large enterprises. Empirical research on barriers to…
Abstract
Purpose
In a competitive environment, eHealth small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) barriers to survival differ from those of large enterprises. Empirical research on barriers to eHealth SMEs in less prosperous areas has been largely neglected. This study fills this gap by employing an integrated approach to analyze barriers to the development of eHealth SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data through semi-structured interviews and conducted thematic analysis to identify 16 barriers, which were used as inputs into total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to build interrelationships among them and identify key barriers. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) was then applied validate the TISM model and classify the 16 barriers into four categories.
Findings
This study makes significant contributions to theory by identifying new barriers and their interrelationships, distinguishing key barriers and classifying the barriers into four categories. The authors identify that transcultural problems are the key barrier and deserve particular attention. eHealth SMEs originating from regions with cultural value orientations, such as hierarchy and embeddedness, that differ from the UK’s affective autonomy orientation should strengthen their transcultural awareness when seeking to expand into UK markets.
Originality/value
By employing an integrated approach to analyze barriers that impede the development of eHealth SMEs in a less prosperous area of the UK, this study raises entrepreneurs’ awareness of running businesses in places with different cultural value orientations.
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The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the role of a group facilitator when taking a dialogical stance. A special interest is facilitator’s processual responsiveness and its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the role of a group facilitator when taking a dialogical stance. A special interest is facilitator’s processual responsiveness and its potential for supporting a dialogic approach to process facilitation.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the article is based on dialogue and dialectic relationship theory. Empirically, it is based on pragmatic analysis of excerpts from audio recordings of a two-day process facilitation with an organizational group called KUDIAS.
Findings
The analysis highlights the importance of processual responsiveness of the facilitator in terms of focused attention to the process as well as to the interpersonal relations between the participants in the process. Being processually responsive, the facilitator supports the process in becoming dialogic toward all participants’ perspectives and in creating a climate characterized by curiosity, wondering, exploration and recognition. However, facilitator’s processual responsiveness also requires the ability to balance the process between support and confrontation.
Originality/value
Processual responsiveness is developed and discussed theoretically as well as empirically.
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Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier…
Abstract
Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.
Wireless communication, comprising telecommunication industry products and services which move voice, video, data, and graphics at the speed of the electron, is the back bone of…
Abstract
Wireless communication, comprising telecommunication industry products and services which move voice, video, data, and graphics at the speed of the electron, is the back bone of the Internet. We have today a wireless world which two Chief ‘Ntrepreneur Officers (CNOs)‐American Sam Ginn (AirTouch) and Britisher Chris Gent (Vodafone)‐created by their Memory Management during the 16 years between Olympics in Los Angeles (1984) and Olympics in Sydney (2000).
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Kjell Tryggestad, Lise Justesen and Jan Mouritsen
The purpose of this paper is to explore how animals can become stakeholders in interaction with project management technologies and what happens with project temporalities when…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how animals can become stakeholders in interaction with project management technologies and what happens with project temporalities when new and surprising stakeholders become part of a project and a recognized matter of concern to be taken into account.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a qualitative case study of a project in the building industry. The authors use actor‐network theory (ANT) to analyze the emergence of animal stakeholders, stakes and temporalities.
Findings
The study shows how project temporalities can multiply in interaction with project management technologies and how conventional linear conceptions of project time may be contested with the emergence of new non‐human stakeholders and temporalities.
Research limitations/implications
The study draws on ANT to show how animals can become stakeholders during the project. Other approaches to animal stakeholders may provide other valuable insights.
Practical implications
Rather than taking the linear time conception for granted, the management challenge and practical implication is to re‐conceptualize time by taking heterogeneous temporalities into account. This may require investments in new project management technologies.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the literatures on project temporalities and stakeholder theory by connecting them to the question of non‐human stakeholders and to project management technologies.
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THE traditional division of information services into science and technology on the one hand and the humanities on the other, does nothing to improve the provision of information…
Abstract
THE traditional division of information services into science and technology on the one hand and the humanities on the other, does nothing to improve the provision of information in a multi‐disciplinary subject such as planning. The proposal to make separate provision, within the national framework, for the social sciences, which was put forward by J. E. Pemberton in the November issue of this journal, would only serve to further fragment the sources of information in planning.