Alberto Martinez-Corral, Mercedes Grijalvo and Miguel Palacios
Since Howe (2006) first used the term crowdsourcing to define the outsourcing of activities by companies to individuals through the use of the internet, a growing literature has…
Abstract
Purpose
Since Howe (2006) first used the term crowdsourcing to define the outsourcing of activities by companies to individuals through the use of the internet, a growing literature has developed on the subject. Its emergence as a new paradigm in problem solving and value creation in the digital innovation ecosystem has produced significant publications in the management field, but publications about some aspects of organisations are still missing. Such is the case regarding the impact that these crowdsourcing initiatives have on organisations. This paper advances in that direction by proposing a new approach for the review of these activities through a detailed model of the elements of organisational levels that describe the crowdsourcing processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Crowdsourcing models in the literature are reviewed to propose the new model, complemented by a survey of scholars and practitioners to validate the approach introduced.
Findings
The results provide a detailed link between the two fields: crowdsourcing models and organisational levels, developed through the connection of the elements of organisational levels and the dimensions of different crowdsourcing models. The identification of the elements that constitute each organisational level, their inclusion in a new model and the order of relevance of the different elements in the crowdsourcing initiatives could have an implication for academics and practitioners involved in implementing crowdsourcing.
Originality/value
The originality of this research is the introduction of a new approach for the analysis of crowdsourcing initiatives, establishing a new framework model to connect crowdsourcing models and organisational levels for new organisations.
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Hector Bajac, Miguel Palacios and Elizabeth A. Minton
The purpose of this paper is to understand how congruence influences product evaluations in an international Latin culture context, as moderated by the public vs private nature of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how congruence influences product evaluations in an international Latin culture context, as moderated by the public vs private nature of the product and user-image vs product-personality congruence.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were recruited from two universities in Spanish-speaking, Latin cultures: Spain – Latin Europe (n=340) and Uruguay – Latin America (n=400). All participants were asked to indicate product-personality congruence (i.e. congruence between one’s self and the product) and user-image congruence (i.e. congruence between a product’s typical user and the product) for two private and two public products.
Findings
Two types of congruence (product-personality and user-image) positively influence brand evaluations more for publicly consumed than for privately consumed brands for consumers in both Latin cultures, with effect sizes being greater than prior research in other cultures.
Research limitations/implications
This research supports congruence theory in showing that similarity between a consumer and a brand leads to more favorable attitudes. Limitations include the sole use of student subjects and examination in only two countries of Latin culture.
Practical implications
Regardless of a brand’s personality, brands should seek consumers with similar personality traits, especially in Latin cultures.
Originality/value
This research addresses several limitations in prior research by examining both publicly and privately consumed products in one study, exploring congruence across Latin cultures, and testing products not confounded by addictive properties.
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S. Venkataraman, Saras D. Sarasvathy, Bidhan L. Parmar and Gosia Glinska
The case chronicles the development of Lumni, Inc., an international start-up offering innovative mechanisms for financing higher education. It focuses on: the details of decision…
Abstract
The case chronicles the development of Lumni, Inc., an international start-up offering innovative mechanisms for financing higher education. It focuses on: the details of decision making required to transform an idea into a viable business; building partnerships; the challenge associated with raising venture capital; and the challenges of creating a new market where human capital can be traded to finance higher education.
Details
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Keywords
Sujith Nair, Arsalan Nisar, Miguel Palacios and Felipe Ruiz
The strategic management literature lacks a comprehensive explanation as to why seemingly similar business models in the same industry perform differently. This paper strives to…
Abstract
Purpose
The strategic management literature lacks a comprehensive explanation as to why seemingly similar business models in the same industry perform differently. This paper strives to explain this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The model is conceptualized and accompanied by a case study on the airline industry to explain knowledge brokerage that creates value from the effective utilization of knowledge resources acquired from intra‐ and inter‐firm environments.
Findings
The model explains a cyclical view of business model flexibility in which the knowledge‐based resource accumulation of the business model is spread across the intra‐ and inter‐firm environments. Knowledge brokerage strategies from the inter‐ and intra‐firm environments result in improved performance of the business model. The flexibility that the business model acquires is determined by how efficiently resource accumulation is aligned with its external environment.
Originality/value
The paper effectively integrates the concepts of knowledge brokerage and business models from a resource accumulation‐based view and simultaneously arrives at the performance heterogeneity of seemingly similar business models within the same industry. It has performance implications for firms that start out without any distinct resources of their own, or that use an imitated business model, to attain better performance through business model evolution aligned with successful knowledge brokerage strategies. It adds to the resource accumulation literature by explaining how resources can be effectively acquired to create value.
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Antonio-Miguel Nogués-Pedregal
This paper aims to show that tourism is one of the most perfect creations of the capitalist mode of production insofar as not only does it consume places and territories and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show that tourism is one of the most perfect creations of the capitalist mode of production insofar as not only does it consume places and territories and perpetuate dependency relations, but in the expressive dimension, it also produces feelings and meanings and generates a new relationship of the past with the present and future (chronotope).
Design/methodology/approach
The study was carried out using a socio-anthropological approach with participant observation over several decades.
Findings
The modes of time are described and how the tourism chronotope shapes the historic centre of a consolidated tourist destination. The case study, analysed with the model of the “conversion of place through the mediation of tourism space”, illustrates the prevalence of instrumental and commercial values over one’s own aesthetic-expressive values in tourism contexts. This fact encourages the emergence of local political projects and the incorporation of uniformities outside the local place. These processes end up uprooting the anchors from collective memory. The definition of territories according to visitors’ imaginaries and expectations encourages the abusive occupation of public space and the adoption of new aesthetic attributes of urban space.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach and methodologies, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test both the model and the propositions further.
Originality/value
This study approaches the relationship of the idea Tourism with the idea Development based on the anchors of memory.
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The purpose of this study is to illustrate that Reformism dominates much of Arab thought, and it has continued to be a major source of inspiration for contemporary Islamic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to illustrate that Reformism dominates much of Arab thought, and it has continued to be a major source of inspiration for contemporary Islamic philosophy. Thereafter, it shows that Amin Elkholy was a pioneer of reformism whose innovative thinking led Abd-el-Jabaar Elrefa’I and others to recognize him as the first hermeneuticist in the history of Islam.
Design/methodology/approach
The research traces Islamic Reformism's rise and development, evaluates its status in the map of modern Arab/Islamic thought and determines its main figures until arriving at Amin Elkholy. Then, it shows that through evolutionism and a comprehensive evolutionistic approach, Elkholy undertook renewal in Islamic reformism as a multidimensional innovation. So, the interaction between traditional renovation and Western evolutionism produced a highly fruitful philosophy of innovation and progress.
Findings
First, Islamic Reformism contains potential for continuous advancement and development. Second, Amin Elkholy has introduced a model of Islamic Reformism and achieved the situation of authenticity/modernization in a way that seems very compatible with our postmodernism era and postmodernist philosophy.
Research limitations/implications
The research framework has been Modern Arab Thought and Contemporary Islamic Philosophy since the beginning of the 19th Century. The approach entails some future expectations.
Practical implications
The approach entails some future expectations and suggests topics for further research.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first time to notice some compatibility between Islamic Reformism and postmodernism.
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Robert Feicht and Wolfgang Stummer
We perform a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation analysis of a variant of the nonstationary continuous-time stochastic growth model with Cobb–Douglas technology developed in…
Abstract
We perform a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation analysis of a variant of the nonstationary continuous-time stochastic growth model with Cobb–Douglas technology developed in Feicht and Stummer (2010), where for every (short-term, middle-term, long-term) time horizon the corresponding dynamic transitional sample path values were derived explicitly, that is, in closed form.
In particular, we study how much the outcoming (e.g., German empirical data adjusted) economy values are affected by changes of the involved economically meaningful parameters. Furthermore, we obtain realistically low savings rates, as well as a reasonably fast speed of recovery in situations where the abovementioned model economy is suddenly and considerably disturbed by a “crash” (macroeconomic disaster).
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Marie-Anne Lorain, Raquel Pérez Estébanez, Miguel-Angel Villacorta, Monica Santos, Elisa Cano, Manuela Cañizares Espada, Gracia Rubio-Martin, Pilar López Sánchez, Alberto Martinez de Silva, Mercedes Ruiz de Palacios and Elena Urquia-Grande
The main goal of this study is to develop accounting students’ solidarity with and sensitivity to cooperation for sustainable development. This study also aims to analyze the role…
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of this study is to develop accounting students’ solidarity with and sensitivity to cooperation for sustainable development. This study also aims to analyze the role of participatory learning activities in developing the dimensions of involvement, critical reflection and thinking analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical study analyzes a case study activity conducted in accounting seminars with students from different universities in Spain. After completing the activity, the students completed a questionnaire divided into four areas: sociodemographic information, involvement, critical reflection and creativity. Students also answered an open-response question that asked them to propose new activities to enhance their learning experience and contribute more to sustainable development. The study thus used mixed methods, complementing quantitative analysis with qualitative data.
Findings
The multivariate analysis obtained significant results showing that female students were more willing to help and that most students said they were more sensitive to these issues after the participatory learning activity. Furthermore, the items and dimensions analyzed revealed a positive impact of involvement, critical and creative thinking and participatory learning on accounting students’ commitment to cooperation for sustainable development. When students answered the open-response question, they proposed more activities to enhance their learning and improve the functioning of the Non-Governmental Organization’s (NGO’s) beneficiary. HEIs must design more transversal courses aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals in their social science degrees.
Originality/value
The study not only examines university education in sustainable development but goes a step further in trying to involve students in a real development project from a financial and accounting point of view. The study also focuses on education for sustainability, and the project invites the students to think critically, reflect and assess real situations.
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Luis Fernando Pérez and Miguel I. Gómez
The purpose of this research is to study the Colombian avocado export industry, identify key insights associated with creating and sustaining the avocado value chain, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to study the Colombian avocado export industry, identify key insights associated with creating and sustaining the avocado value chain, and to understand the impact of the public policies affecting this industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach consists of two case studies to shed light on the opportunities and challenges of developing a sustainable avocado value chain in Colombia. One case deals with a vertically integrated business (Arcángel Miguel) while the other focuses on an association of small growers (Asohass). The analysis was informed by a series of interviews with key actors along the avocado supply chain to uncover the business strategies to move avocados to destination markets. The authors compare and contrast approaches to business development, international expansion, and role of public policies.
Findings
The authors found that the strategies followed by these organizations differ in means but aim for the same objective: maximize profits, improve environmental performance, and enhance the social wellbeing of growers. The authors found that each type of business model requires distinct public policies to succeed and different strategies to appropriately allocate efforts. The findings are relevant to other high-value crops and other Latin American countries with similar geographical and social characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
These insights underscore the need of public policies tailored to the specific needs of the different actors in the value chain. The current emphasis on certifications and export markets works well for large agribusinesses, but smallholder growers need policies tailored to new investments in physical, human, and social capital.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on avocado value chains in Latin America, emphasizing the challenges faced by the emergent Colombia avocado sector, a country that only began exporting this commodity in 2010.
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José Belso-Martinez, Daniel Palacios-Marqués and Norat Roig-Tierno
There is a growing research interest in the relationships between networks and the firm’s assets and between networks and innovation. Studies have shown the complexity and…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing research interest in the relationships between networks and the firm’s assets and between networks and innovation. Studies have shown the complexity and idiosyncrasies of these relationships for firms in clusters. The way firms in clusters build certain organizational resources and capabilities, however, remains underexplored. Based on the assumption that most of these organizational assets rely on human resources, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on the mechanisms through which a set of managerial practices (the human resource management (HRM) system) enhances innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Micro-level data were collected for 139 firms located in three Spanish industrial clusters. Next, the main constructs were developed. A multiple mediator model was then used to examine how HRM systems influence innovation through strategic vision, embeddedness in local networks, the implementation of enterprise systems, and cluster characteristics.
Findings
The effect of HRM systems on innovation performance was indirect rather than direct. All four mediating variables included in the model were found to be relevant mechanisms through which HRM systems affect innovation performance. The statistical significance of these variables, however, varied depending on the type of innovation (product, process, organizational, or marketing).
Practical implications
Greater attention should be paid to the structure and sophistication of HRM systems. Top-level managers should be aware of the linkages between HRM systems and mediators. Greater human resource orientation in strategic planning, enterprise system design, and networking practices reinforces the association between HRM systems and innovation.
Originality/value
This study advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between HRM systems and innovation. From an academic perspective, this study enriches the cluster literature by better integrating human resources with innovation processes. Furthermore, this study creates research opportunities by disentangling the role of different managerial practices and refining the operationalization of the mediating variables. The findings can also help managers develop human resources and innovation strategies.