Amy Allen, Carey Stewart and Mason Engelhardt
Recent scholarship has called for researchers to recognize the urgency of place-based education as a critical component of social studies pedagogy. This study seeks to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent scholarship has called for researchers to recognize the urgency of place-based education as a critical component of social studies pedagogy. This study seeks to understand better the relationship between place-based education, sacrificial listening and difficult history.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative, arts-based research study, collaging is used to investigate how students use the theory of sacrificial listening while trying to make sense of difficult histories during a place-based history education experience. Students enrolled in a PBE experience received instruction about the theory of sacrificial listening at the beginning of a two-week course on the lasting impact of the civil rights movement. Students created a collage and responded to a reflection prompt about the course after engaging in course experiences, including travel to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama.
Findings
Findings in the study demonstrate how sacrificial listening appeared, both explicitly and implicitly, in the ways students processed difficult history during a place-based education experience. Ultimately, the study found, though students organized their thoughts in distinct ways, they all leaned on the theory of sacrificial listening to make sense of what they learned.
Originality/value
Few studies have applied the theory of sacrificial listening as a pedagogical framework. Future research should build on this work, further investigating the theory as a pedagogical framework in conjunction with both place-based history education as well as other instructional settings.
Details
Keywords
Eric E. Otenyo and Parwez Besmel
The leadership of the Iraq and Afghanistan war has been criticized for reported cases of contractor corruption. This chapter examines the extent to which these wars have played…
Abstract
The leadership of the Iraq and Afghanistan war has been criticized for reported cases of contractor corruption. This chapter examines the extent to which these wars have played out in the political agendas of candidates for President. The hypothesis is that while the two wars continue to be a key campaign issue in election cycles, the corruption narrative is a neglected part of the discourse. There are possible reasons for the disjuncture between United States (U.S.) positions against corruption by foreign governments and contractor behaviors within the defense industry, namely the impact of corruption on voters, candidates and other stakeholders. The chapter closes with lessons about the effects of corruption on agenda setting while also contributing to research on evaluation of private-public partnerships in public policy implementation and governance.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to assess how innovative organizational culture and innovative leadership generate market flexibility for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess how innovative organizational culture and innovative leadership generate market flexibility for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector to enhance their competitiveness. Both organizational culture and leadership are seen as firm-level resources capable of influencing the flexibility of the firm in periods of market turbulence. The study argues that SME service firms must use their internal resources to develop their flexibility capability which is more valuable, rare, inimitable and not substitutable.
Design/methodology/approach
SME service firms from Ghana are used to test the study’s hypotheses through robust standard regression analysis. A sampling frame was developed from an online database of small and medium enterprises operating in the service sector.
Findings
The findings suggest that although organizational culture and leadership may influence a service firm’s competitiveness, it is more viable to use these firm-level resources to create market flexibility capability to amplify the effect. This means, when culture and leadership propel the flexibility drive, the service firm is able to connect, coordinate and synchronize functional units to take advantage of new product and market opportunities. Additionally, market flexibility emanating from organizational culture and leadership wields enough power and resource support to tackle the turbulent market conditions better than firms with less support.
Practical implications
The managerial implication from this study is that firms should use their organizational culture and leadership to create flexible organizations that afford them the opportunity to adapt to the environmental dynamics. If both leadership and culture work together, they are able to create strong market capabilities such as flexibility which determines how well the firm will respond to the competition, customer demand and all other external pressures. It is, therefore, the view of this paper that SMEs should use their organizational culture and leadership to build a market-flexible organization to create a competitive advantage.
Originality/value
This paper shows how internal resources/assets such as culture and leadership generate the needed flexibility to create a competitive advantage for SMEs. This paper explains the two dimensions of Volberda’s flexibility from a firm-level resource perspective and highlights flexibility as a second-order capability whose cultivation and effectiveness are dependent on a firm’s culture and leadership. Evidence of how a firm’s market flexibility is fuelled by organizational leadership and culture is demonstrated. Finally, this paper shows how resource-poor SMEs in emerging African economies can enhance their market competitiveness through internal systems and processes.
Details
Keywords
Kamakshi Mehta and Shikha Sharma
Given the pace of global environmental degradation, companies and individuals alike are exploring ways and means of protecting the environment. In this context, the attitudes of…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the pace of global environmental degradation, companies and individuals alike are exploring ways and means of protecting the environment. In this context, the attitudes of hoteliers and their employees toward sustainability are key to the successful implementation of these practices. This paper aims to consider the impact of attitude development and COVID-19 on the sustainability performance of hotels. The study also explores contributions made by hotels to environmental sustainability and society more generally.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on interviews and survey questionnaires completed by employees of five-star hotels in India, and qualitative methods were used to process the data.
Findings
The findings of this study confirm the devastating impact of COVID-19 on both economic and societal sustainability in what otherwise would be a profitable sector of the economy.
Practical implications
The study has implications for hoteliers, the government, environmental agencies and for employees and could assist with the formulation of recovery packages by government and in the development of new standard operating procedures to enable hotels to step-up on the self-recovery path.
Originality/value
The paper provides an analysis of the direct effects of the pandemic on financial sustainability and its mediating impact on the efforts of hotels to attain sustainable environment.
Details
Keywords
Marlei Pozzebon, Ryad Titah and Alain Pinsonneault
Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric…
Abstract
Purpose
Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric of closure and that such closure, although mutually constructed by suppliers, consultants and managers, has had several adverse consequences in terms of organizational change and results. Stimulates a critical thinking regarding the persistence of successive waves of new IT fashions and the consequences of closure on practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical framework informed by political views within the social shaping school combined with Habermas' theory of communicative action. Illustration of the argument is based on 22 semi‐structured interviews (senior practitioners from client‐firms, software suppliers and consulting‐firms working on ERP projects).
Findings
Outlines the nature of the “chain reaction” produced by rhetorical closure from individual practices to the segment level. Identifies occasions for breaking down rhetorical closure at the three levels of analysis. At the individual level, opportunities are related to daily users' practices. At the organizational level, opportunities are related to ongoing organizational decisions and negotiations regarding IT adoption. At the segment level, opportunities are related to forming coalitions, networks and groups of users.
Originality/value
Adopts an original perspective, examining the concept of rhetorical closure from a combination of two approaches: social shaping of technology and communicative action theory. Connects different types of closure to different types of rationality, and recognizes the specific validity claims underlying them. Calls into question current decision‐making processes that sustain IT pervasiveness and taken‐for‐granted assumptions of inevitability associated with new IT fashions.
Details
Keywords
Richard Oloruntoba and Gyöngyi Kovács
This paper aims to provide a commentary and an overview of developments in the field of humanitarianism that could impact theoretical understanding of agility in humanitarian aid…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a commentary and an overview of developments in the field of humanitarianism that could impact theoretical understanding of agility in humanitarian aid supply chains over the past decade.
Design/methodology/approach
Authors review papers published on agility in humanitarian aid supply chains from 2006 to 2015 in the four leading Emerald-published logistics and supply chain management journals. These are: Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (SCMIJ); International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management (IJPDLM); International Journal of Operations and Production Management (IJOPM); and Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (JHLSCM). This paper presents an overview and update of developments that have the potential to influence current thinking and understanding about agility in humanitarian aid supply chains, and humanitarian aid supply chains in general.
Findings
Humanitarianism and the environment of Humanitarian organisations are evolving. Such evolution has potential impacts on theoretical discussions and understanding of agility in humanitarian aid supply chains and humanitarian aid supply chains in general.
Research limitations/implications
This is not a critical literature review but an overview. The paper is based on four logistics and supply chain management journals only. However, the paper is based on the work published over a decade.
Practical implications
Points scholars and practitioners to the impacts of Humanitarian Organisations using the relief-development continuum on supply chain design decisions including the pursuit of agility.
Social implications
It may be the time to consider the relief-development continuum in fresh light and its implications for agility in humanitarian aid supply chains.
Originality/value
This paper seems to be the first paper that highlights the influence of the relief-development continuum model on humanitarian aid supply chain design strategies.
Details
Keywords
Huub Ploegmakers and Friso de Vor
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the specification of hedonic pricing models can be improved by using insights generated from qualitative research. In doing so, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the specification of hedonic pricing models can be improved by using insights generated from qualitative research. In doing so, it seeks to address one of the main problems in the specification of hedonic models, namely that theory yields little guidance in the selection of the characteristics that should be included on the right-hand side.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the behavioural tradition in real estate research, this paper introduces a research approach that integrates insights from qualitative analysis in an econometric model of land values. The empirical segment explores the way in which asking prices of building plots for industrial purposes are determined in The Netherlands. It draws from interviews with municipal land developers, who dominate supply in this market. The information secured during these interviews relates to the characteristics considered important and the kind of information used in the valuation process. Based on these qualitative data, an econometric model is developed and estimated.
Findings
The estimation results confirm qualitative evidence that the typical developer considers only a limited number of features of the land in the valuation process and that the primary source of information in setting asking prices relates to the prices charged in neighbouring municipalities.
Originality/value
This paper represents a novel attempt to examine the determination of land and property values by merging qualitative and quantitative, econometric analyses.
Details
Keywords
Jorieke H.M. Manders, Marjolein C.J. Caniëls and Paul W.Th. Ghijsen
The conceptualization of flexibility in organizations historically emerged from three views which relate to economic, to organizational and to manufacturing perspectives. Despite…
Abstract
Purpose
The conceptualization of flexibility in organizations historically emerged from three views which relate to economic, to organizational and to manufacturing perspectives. Despite the growing number of publications about supply chain flexibility in the area of supply chain management, there is a lack of consensus on how to define and to conceptualize supply chain flexibility from a management point of view. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of the literature on the supply chain flexibility perspective and contributes to our understanding of the current state of research and its future development.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology used is the systematic literature review. In total 92 articles were selected from databases of well-known journal publishers in the field of economics, business studies and management sciences as well as grey literature to cover the topic of supply chain flexibility.
Findings
A limited number of studies in the field of supply chain flexibility apply theories and define the term supply chain flexibility. Instead they focus on a particular part or dimension of the supply chain. Based on the analysis, a distinction is made between flexibility in the supply chain and supply chain flexibility. Based on the function and characteristics of the supply chain, the authors selected 30 flexibility dimensions that cover supply chain flexibility by concentrating on the different business areas involved.
Research limitations/implications
The results support researchers and practitioners by identifying relevant trends and gaps in the field of supply chain flexibility.
Originality/value
The authors review the dimensions and aspects of supply chain flexibility that are currently taken into account in the literature. In this way, the authors provide an overarching perspective on the flexibility literature relating to supply chains.