Search results

1 – 10 of 309
Per page
102050
Citations:
Loading...
Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Julian D. Booker, Richard Lock, Sam Williamson and Jon Freire Gómez

Concept design practices in engineering are not common across industry or academia. There are a number of well-known tools and methods acknowledged as useful in facilitating…

193

Abstract

Purpose

Concept design practices in engineering are not common across industry or academia. There are a number of well-known tools and methods acknowledged as useful in facilitating concept designing, that is, to assist idea generation, aid evaluation and final selection of one winning concept from many. Combinations of these popular concept design tools and methods provide various systematic methodologies by which practitioners propose to conduct or teach concept designing. In this paper, effective practices and trends are observed through the application of a specific concept design methodology over a range of different projects in electromechanical systems design.

Design/methodology/approach

The concept design methodology utilised in this study has been developed through the adoption of various tools and methods shown to be beneficial to concept designing, supported by previous positive experiences and successful utilisation associated with electromechanical systems research projects in academia. Each stage of the methodology is discussed and six case studies are presented, which are used to explore effective practices for concept designing.

Findings

Analysis of the case study data reveals the most popular criteria for the selection of concepts in electromechanical systems design, the number of selection criteria and number of initial concepts ideally required to converge on a final winning concept more efficiently, that is without the need for a more detailed second stage of selection using performance metrics.

Originality/value

Rarely are detailed studies undertaken in concept design, first, to address the justification for the concept design methodology adopted and, second, to show how effective practices emerge through the analysis of non-subjective data over a number of concept design projects. Although the paper uses only six case studies in electromechanical systems design, it is hoped that the approach presented promotes the possible future development of a framework for verification of concept design methodologies across different products, sectors and user groups.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 March 2024

Keanu Telles

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some…

1737

Abstract

Purpose

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

Design/methodology/approach

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

Findings

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

Originality/value

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

Access Restricted. View access options

Abstract

Details

Advances in Agricultural Economic History
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-001-2

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

Brian Williamson and Sam Wood

The purpose of this paper is to integrate mobile supply and demand on an economic basis and to model the economic value of additional data capacity, spectrum demand and data…

234

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate mobile supply and demand on an economic basis and to model the economic value of additional data capacity, spectrum demand and data growth under a range of parameter and policy assumptions.

Design/methodology/approach

The modelling requires an iterative solution to find an equilibrium between supply and demand, which allows data demand to be bootstrapped, i.e. determined endogenously within the model.

Findings

The sensitivity of the model to input parameter changes differs from a modelling approach where data demand is assumed to be exogenous, whilst in some instances, the sign of the relationship is reversed, e.g. the response of economic value to mobile site cost changes.

Research limitations/implications

The approach suggests a research agenda to estimate willingness to pay for data and the price elasticity of data demand, and may also suggest new explanatory variables to test econometrically in relation to spectrum value.

Practical implications

The approach provides a different route to spectrum valuation and allows estimation of the economic impacts of a range of policy questions.

Originality/value

This paper provides the integration of supply and demand and endogenous estimation of data demand and economic value, coupled with quantitative assessment of a range of policy questions.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Helmut M. Dietl, Anil Özdemir and Nicolas Schweizer

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain why some professional sports organizations outsource their sponsorship-related activities to sports marketing agencies…

1116

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain why some professional sports organizations outsource their sponsorship-related activities to sports marketing agencies, whereas others purposely retain these activities in-house.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper applies transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource-based view (RBV) to outsourcing of sports sponsorship activities. It examines the extent determinants descending from these theories influence the sourcing choice of professional sports organizations.

Findings

This paper argues that determinants derived from TCE and the RBV are useful to understand the factors likely to influence an outsourcing decision and to analyze which sponsorship-related activities are more or less likely to be outsourced. However, these determinants are insufficient to shed light on why sports organizations arrive at different conclusions about their internal and external environments. With recourse to contingency theory, the authors propose two additional contingencies that affect the sourcing decision: a sport organization’s size and its degree of professionalism. This integrative conceptual framework improves the understanding of sports sponsorship outsourcing, makes several propositions, and paves the way for future empirical research in sports sponsorship.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to apply classical theoretical concepts to outsourcing sports sponsorship activities. As a conceptual paper, it hopes to stimulate further research on outsourcing in sports sponsorship and on the relationship between sports organizations and sports marketing agencies.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 23 September 2021

Brady Lund and Jinxuan Ma

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the types and sources of information sought by older adults along with their motivations in the Midwestern United…

1425

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the types and sources of information sought by older adults along with their motivations in the Midwestern United States.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were conducted with 30 older adults residing in rural communities around the Midwestern United States during late-summer (July/August) 2020, using a protocol based on Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology. The resulting data was analyzed using standard content analysis procedures, guided by the theoretical frameworks based on Dervin's Sense-Making and Williamson's Ecological Model of Information Behavior. Implications of COVID-19 for the normative behaviors described in these models are discussed.

Findings

Findings show that older adults were concerned primarily with health and political information during this period, but that this information was not necessarily sought only to address an informational need, but also to satisfy the need to maintain social and emotional connections in coping with isolation and loneliness. Sources of information that allowed for social interaction with people were favored. Wider personal networks (community members) were strained by the social distancing measures and closures. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for considering the impact of social restrictions on information seeking behaviors of older adults in a time of crisis.

Originality/value

This study is the first, known to the authors, that applied the two adopted theoretical frameworks to explore information seeking behaviors of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 74 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 February 2024

Vladislav Valentinov and Constantine Iliopoulos

Transaction cost economics sees a broad spectrum of governance structures spanned by two types of economic adaptation: autonomous and cooperative. Stakeholder theorists have drawn…

1772

Abstract

Purpose

Transaction cost economics sees a broad spectrum of governance structures spanned by two types of economic adaptation: autonomous and cooperative. Stakeholder theorists have drawn much inspiration from transaction cost economics but have not paid explicit attention to the centrality of the idea of adaptation in this literature. This study aims to address this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a novel conceptual framework applying the distinction between the two types of economic adaptation to stakeholder theory.

Findings

The authors argue that the idea of cooperative adaptation is particularly useful for describing the firm’s collaboration with primary stakeholders in the joint value creation process. In contrast, autonomous adaptation is more relevant for firms interacting with secondary stakeholders who are not directly engaged in joint value creation and may not have formal contractual relationships with the firm. Accordingly, cooperative adaptation can be seen as vital for resolving team production problems affecting joint value creation, whereas autonomous adaptation addresses how the firm maintains legitimacy within the larger stakeholder environment.

Originality/value

Similar to its significance for transaction cost economics, the distinction between the two types of adaptation equips stakeholder theory with a new systematic understanding of a potentially broad spectrum of firm–stakeholder collaboration forms.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 19 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 18 October 2019

David Dunlop Williamson and Erling Rasmussen

The purpose of this paper is to present a narrative history of the birth of human resource management in the New Zealand hotel sector. This historical development is analysed…

997

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a narrative history of the birth of human resource management in the New Zealand hotel sector. This historical development is analysed through the influence of changes in the national economic and employment relations context, the demise of national corporatist structures and individual and enterprise level agency. Thereby, the paper provides a new explanatory framework for the origins of human resource management in hotels and also presents this unique birth of human resource management as a microcosm of the wider social, political and economic “big bang” that fundamentally changed the course of employment relations in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s.

Design/methodology/approach

The data for this paper were gathered as part of a larger historical study of employment relations in the New Zealand hotel sector from 1955 to 2000. The sources for the study included semi-structured interviews and archival research, which were interpreted using manual thematic analysis.

Findings

The paper presents an original explanation of the birth of human resource management in New Zealand hotels by drawing on historical changes in national frameworks, corporatist approaches and individual agency, and thereby, it illustrates the uniqueness and intensity associated with the implementation of human resource management in New Zealand hotels.

Originality/value

This paper makes a significant contribution to the scant literature on the historical origins of human resource management. It also explains the historical and contextual embeddedness of various employment relations approaches in New Zealand hotels.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 19 August 2009

W. Scott Sherman and Valrie Chambers

Corporate scandals at Enron, Tyco, and MCI highlight the issue of opportunistic management behavior. The US Congress responded to these scandals by passing the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act…

605

Abstract

Corporate scandals at Enron, Tyco, and MCI highlight the issue of opportunistic management behavior. The US Congress responded to these scandals by passing the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). SOX imposes additional management responsibilities and corporate operating costs on companies trading under SEC regulations. This paper examines three options for US corporations responding to SOX: compliance with SOX, taking a company private, or moving to a non‐ SEC‐regulated exchange, such as an international exchange. The paper then examines potential corporate governance options using Transaction Cost Economics (TCE; Williamson 1985) to develop propositions regarding which options firms may select.

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 11 January 2016

Jack L. Winstead, Milorad M. Novicevic, John H. Humphreys and Ifeoluwa Tobi Popoola

The purpose of this paper is to explore the congruencies and incongruences between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry to provide insights for…

459

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the congruencies and incongruences between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry to provide insights for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Ms McMurry was the entrepreneurial force behind the founding of Trumpet Records, a unique, Mississippi Delta Blues record label in the 1950s.

Design/methodology/approach

The examination of this historical case study is grounded in the theoretical examination of the tensions between Lillian McMurry’s felt moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities. Using an analytical archival historical method, a narrative explanation of how these tensions influenced the success and, ultimately, the failure of Trumpet Records are developed.

Findings

The accounting records highlighted a number of issues hampering the commercial profitability of Trumpet Records. Moreover, the archival and documentary sources examined also proved revealing as to conflicts between Ms McMurry’s personal character and mercantile determination as an entrepreneur.

Research limitations/implications

The approach of using analytically structured historical narrative as a research strategy is but one method of explaining the tensions between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry.

Practical implications

The proponents of virtue ethics suggest that this Aristotelian personal character perspective is more fundamental than traditional, act-oriented consequentialist teleological and deontological ethical decision-making approaches. A perspective of moral accountability exceeding the norm of the obstructionist stance is required to maintain a sound balance between entrepreneurial accountability and moral accountability.

Originality/value

This paper adopts a mercantile perspective, using the accounting and related business records of Trumpet Records, to examine the leadership characteristics of Lillian McMurry. Practical lessons learned for entrepreneurs facing the moral dilemma of competing accountabilities and advance questions to spur future research in this area are drawn.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

1 – 10 of 309
Per page
102050