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The paper sets out to provide a better understanding of the interfaces between second‐order change initiation by the “initiator” and the organizational contexts. It is an individual level study, and hence involves the dynamics experienced by the “initiator”. The type of second‐order change initiation under consideration is the book‐keeping model of cognitive replacement, i.e. a gradual and incremental replacement of the old cognitive framework.

A framework was developed using principles of complexity science to crystallize the thinking of the dynamics involved at the individual level initiation and organizational contexts. This formed the basis for the development of four research questions, explored using seven real world individual cases, taken from a variety of industry backgrounds.

The framework was refined using the case studies. The “initiator” goes through several stages in the gradual and incremental replacement of their cognitive framework. Four specific stages were observed: “embedded”, “embedded discomfited”, “scripted”, and “unscripted”. In each of the stages, issues in the interface with the organizational context were observed.

Although saturation was reached after five individual cases, the research is limited by the number of individual cases.

Four practical avenues to nurture creativity in an organizational context are discussed: nurturing appropriate levels of contradiction in the organization, nurturing and encouraging creativity in others, developing self‐containment in individuals, and forming “opportunity‐finding teams” at middle level management.

The understanding of the interfaces between individual level initiation and organizational context is limited. This research provides insights into this phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of national culture on the structured knowledge transfer from a US‐based (onshore) technical support center to an offshore support center in China.

The research was conducted as an interpretive case study. Three techniques (i.e. document review, participant observation, and semi‐structured interviews) were employed for data collection in the field.

The findings identify that knowledge tacitness, knowledge gaps, cultural and communication difficulties and weak relationships were the critical barriers to successful knowledge transfer in a cross‐cultural knowledge transfer context. It was found that, when a provider and a recipient are located in different individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions, there will be a reduced likelihood of successful knowledge transfer in a structured knowledge transfer process. However, peer‐to‐peer help, close relationships and proactive learning may assist in decreasing the knowledge transfer difficulties.

The research was limited to one organization in one industry (the IT support industry) and in one country (China). There could be both industry‐specific issues and national cultural issues that may affect the findings and conclusions. However, the paper has important practical implications for organizations that are trying to carry out transfer of organizational knowledge or to acquire organizational knowledge in a cross‐cultural business context.

The findings provide insight into the cultural issues implicated in the structured knowledge transfer process, when a knowledge provider and a recipient are from different cultural dimensions, as well as offering more general insight into the mechanism of knowledge transfer in the cross‐cultural business context.

The terminologies organizational learning and learning organization were once used interchangeably. However, in the mid‐1990s there was a bifurcation into two streams. Organizational learning became the descriptive stream and dealt mostly with the learning processes in the organization. This stream had its roots in social and cognitive psychology with a strong academic focus. Learning organization became the prescriptive stream with a strong practical focus. A broad theoretical framework is presented that links the two streams. In the implementation of learning organization prescriptions, enormous practical difficulties were encountered, making implementations less than successful. The barriers involved in transfer of learning to all levels in the organization (i.e. individual, collective, organizational, and inter‐organizational) and the absence of a link to the learning processes are identified as the major issues in implementation failures. It is postulated that these are the reasons for the gap between the two streams.

This study is motivated by the question “how do organizational routines influence the three knowledge management processes of acquisition, creation, utilization and sharing?” and accordingly it seeks to address this issue.

A theoretical framework is first built by linking absorptive capacity (a routine‐based capability) with knowledge management processes. A literature search guided by the theoretical framework, and evidence from two case studies, were used to address the objective of the study.

The study elicited the organizational routines that influence the three knowledge management processes. These routines were then clustered into five key organizational themes: systemic knowledge; strategic engagement; social networking (external and internal); cultural context; process and structural context.

Several implications for research are suggested. More specifically, the study offers five propositions that can be further tested. The key limitation of this study is the use of only two case studies for empirical data, and therefore further testing is needed.

The study shows that, although leadership behavior is critical for knowledge management, its impact depends on the platform of routines and processes built for it. The identified routines and their influence on knowledge management are invaluable for knowledge management practitioners.

The paper furthers understanding of how organizational routines influence the three knowledge management processes of knowledge acquisition, creation, utilization and sharing. This aspect has been little studied and is of value to both academics and practitioners.

Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on the subjects retrospectively to 1985 and approximately 1,100 references are listed.

New asymptotic approximations are established for the Wald and t statistics in the presence of unknown but strong autocorrelation. The asymptotic theory extends the usual fixed-smoothing asymptotics under weak dependence to allow for near-unit-root and weak-unit-root processes. As the locality parameter that characterizes the neighborhood of the autoregressive root increases from zero to infinity, the new fixed-smoothing asymptotic distribution changes smoothly from the unit-root fixed-smoothing asymptotics to the usual fixed-smoothing asymptotics under weak dependence. Simulations show that the new approximation is more accurate than the usual fixed-smoothing approximation.

Measurement of diminishing or divergent cross section dispersion in a panel plays an important role in the assessment of convergence or divergence over time in key economic indicators. Econometric methods, known as weak σ-convergence tests, have recently been developed (Kong, Phillips, & Sul, 2019) to evaluate such trends in dispersion in panel data using simple linear trend regressions. To achieve generality in applications, these tests rely on heteroskedastic and autocorrelation consistent (HAC) variance estimates. The present chapter examines the behavior of these convergence tests when heteroskedastic and autocorrelation robust (HAR) variance estimates using fixed-b methods are employed instead of HAC estimates. Asymptotic theory for both HAC and HAR convergence tests is derived and numerical simulations are used to assess performance in null (no convergence) and alternative (convergence) cases. While the use of HAR statistics tends to reduce size distortion, as has been found in earlier analytic and numerical research, use of HAR estimates in nonparametric standardization leads to significant power differences asymptotically, which are reflected in finite sample performance in numerical exercises. The explanation is that weak σ-convergence tests rely on intentionally misspecified linear trend regression formulations of unknown trend decay functions that model convergence behavior rather than regressions with correctly specified trend decay functions. Some new results on the use of HAR inference with trending regressors are derived and an empirical application to assess diminishing variation in US State unemployment rates is included.

There is significant amount of literature tackling different issues related to the port industry. The present chapter focuses on a single business unit of seaports aiming at the documentation of works related to container terminals.

An effort to review, collect and present the majority of the works present in the last 30 years, between 1980 and 2010, has been made in order to picture the problems dealt and methods used by the authors in the specific research field. To facilitate the reader, studies have been grouped under five categories of addressed problems (productivity and competitiveness, yard and equipment utilization, equipment scheduling, berth planning, loading/unloading) and four modelling methodologies (mathematics and operations research, management and economics, simulation, stochastic modelling).

The analysis shows that most works focus on productivity and competitiveness issues followed by yard and equipment utilisation and equipment scheduling. In reference to the methodologies used managerial and economic approaches lead, followed by mathematics and operations research.

In reference to future research, two fields have been identified where there is scope of significant contribution by the academic community: container terminal security and container terminal supply chain integration.

The present chapter provides the framework for researchers in the field of port container terminals to picture the so far works in this research area and enables the identification of gaps at both research question and methodology level for further research.

In 2001, the US moved to regulate internal control reporting by management and auditors. While some jurisdictions have followed the lead of the US, many others have not. An important question, therefore, is the relevance of internal control to stakeholders. The more specific issue of the benefits of US-style regulation of internal control reporting is also topical. We review studies on the determinants of internal control quality and its economic consequences for stakeholders including investors, creditors, managers, auditors and financial analysts. We extend previous reviews by focusing on US studies published since 2013 as well as all non-US studies investigating IC quality including countries regulating IC disclosure as well as unregulated settings and both developed and developing economies. In doing so, we identify research questions where evidence remains mixed and new directions in which there are research opportunities.

Three main insights arise from our analysis. First, evidence on the economic consequences of internal control quality suggests that the quality of internal control can have a significant effect on decision making by users of financial information. Second, the results of research on the empirical association between ownership structure, certain board characteristics and internal control quality is generally mixed. Empirical evidence concerning the association between audit committee characteristics and internal control quality generally supports a positive and significant association. Finally, while studies in non-US jurisdictions are increasing, opportunities remain to explore the determinants and consequences of internal control in other jurisdictions. Our review provides evidence for policy makers of whether there are benefits from requiring management and auditors to report on internal control over financial reporting.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.