Search results

The purpose of this study is to explore the formative development of construction supply chain guidelines or proposals in a UK region's schools' estates procurement process to more effectively address a forthcoming increase in investment.

The research approach is interpretive. Using an action research approach, repeated semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders are conducted.

The current construction supply chain in schools' estate procurement has many difficulties, not least given the highly fragmented and disconnected nature of the projects. Synergies are being missed and there is little or no continuous improvement. Drawing on these findings, the research iteratively develops a range of proposals and guidelines to address this situation.

This research adds weight to the current focus on pressing for change in the construction industry. It presents potentially valuable insights into the benefits of partnering arrangements and how these might usefully be incorporated into schools' estate supply chain.

A set of guidelines is developed to guide the public procurement of schools' estate in a UK region. These guidelines are set within the context of the Modernising and Rethinking Construction agenda.

The action research approach enabled the researchers to gain a unique insight into how public procurement and contractor personnel interact and to establish effective practical guidelines.

The aim of this study is to explore the nature of the expectations of operations managers (OMs) and the enacted roles of management accountants (MAs) and to understand how MAs construct roles around these expectations.

A qualitative design draws upon company documentation and 36 semi-structured interviews with MAs and OMs. The study uses role theory as a theoretical lens with its core concepts of role expectations, role conflict and role ambiguity. The design draws from role theory’s original development and testing to pair particular roles of MAs with particular roles of OMs in operational settings.

The findings indicate that there are a number of different forms of OMs’ expectations giving rise to role conflicts and role ambiguity for the roles of MAs. OMs’ expectations were identified as conflicting expectations, ambiguous expectations, overloaded expectations and underloaded expectations. MAs construct roles in different ways around these OMs’ expectations, including prioritising the line function, competence deployment, non-accommodation and communication. Factors moderating OMs’ expectations are also identified, including characteristics of the OM and the role of the finance manager.

The study is based on an in-depth investigation of a small number of roles of MAs paired with OMs, and no assurances can therefore be given regarding generalisability of the findings.

The results provide an understanding of the varied nature of expectations that OMs have of MAs and mechanisms through which MAs can address these expectations. It suggests ways in which both MAs and OMs in operational settings can reduce conflicts and ambiguities.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the expectations of OMs in relation to the roles of MAs and contributes to the literature on the roles of MAs using role theory. It shows how different forms of OMs’ expectations have related mechanisms used by MAs to navigate these expectations through role constructions.

Considers the concept of the “listening” organisation and its influence on service and business performance. Specifically reports on empirical research which investigated the link between service quality information practices, the listening organisation and service and business performance. In this respect, builds on an earlier model of service management developed by the London Business School and Warwick Business School in the UK. This extended model employs two composite performance indexes as moderator variables. Surveyed 438 service organisations in the Republic of Ireland; the loglinear model used to analyse the data shows a clear pattern. By taking listening practices, including information technology, as a holistic view of a constellation of information‐related practice type factors, demonstrates that there is a close relationship with service performance, which in turn influences business performance. Furthermore, technology type and competitive intensity, moderate this relationship. Establishes that the relationship between listening practices and service performance is much more important for the sophisticated task technology sector and that competitive intensity has a very minor interactive effect on the relationship. The results of the survey mirror recent empirical research in market orientation and organisational learning.

On 2 September 2015, it was announced that Tom Ford would again be ‘dressing James Bond’, Daniel Craig, in Spectre (Mendes, 2015) after tailoring his suits for Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) and Skyfall (Mendes, 2012). Ford noted that ‘James Bond epitomises the Tom Ford man in his elegance, style and love of luxury. It is an honour to move forward with this iconic character’.

  With the press launch of ‘Bond 25’(and now titled No Time to Die) on 25 April 2019, it is reasonable to speculate that Ford will once again be employed as James Bond’s tailor of choice, given that it is likely to be Craig’s last outing as 007. Previous actors playing the role of James Bond have all had different tailors. Sean Connery was tailored by Anthony Sinclair and George Lazenby by Dimitro ‘Dimi’ Major. Roger Moore recommended his own personal tailors Cyril Castle, Angelo Vitucci and Douglas Hayward. For Timothy Dalton, Stefano Ricci provided the suits, and Pierce Brosnan was dressed by Brioni. Therefore, this chapter will analyse the role of tailoring within the James Bond films, and how this in turn contributes to the look and character of this film franchise more generally. It aims to understand how different tailors have contributed to the masculinity of Bond: an agent dressed to thrill as well as to kill.

Examines the complex relationship between listening and training practices and service performance by deconstructing an earlier model of service management developed by the London Business School and Warwick Business School in the UK. This research hypothesizes that the nature of the practice‐performance relationship is far too complex to be represented by a total aggregated index of practice. Hence the composite practice index is decomposed into a listening and a training index. The concept of the “listening” organisation is employed as one facet, and training climate measured by employee training activities is a second facet. These two facets are related to service performance. Reports on empirical research, which investigated the link between listening, and training practices and service performance. The data obtained from a survey of 143 service organisations in the Republic of Ireland show a clear pattern. By taking listening practices, including information technology, as a holistic view of a constellation of information‐related practice type factors, demonstrates that there is a close relationship with service performance. Extensive training activities enhance this relationship.

Travellers who love to try different foods and who frequently follow up on food-related news and topics consider themselves to be “foodies”. The main aim of this research was to identify the relationships among food consumption motivations, experiential values and well-being of foodies.

A questionnaire survey was distributed to foodies from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao in March–May 2019 who were aged 18 and above and who had visited Taiwan within the prior two years. Some 480 valid responses were received based on intercepts at airports and the data, based on a conceptual model, were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM).

Three paths among the key variables showed significant and positive relationships. Additionally, the mediating effect of food experiential values on emotions and well-being was identified.

The findings provide insights for food and hospitality scholars and the related literature since “foodie” is a rather new concept that is lacking in sufficient empirical and conceptual research. The research examines the relationships among experiential values, motivations and emotions and their influences on the well-being of foodies. In past studies on food consumption motivations and emotions, food experiential values were not included as a variable of potential influence. The research subjects were confined to foodies from the Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong and Macao) who were in Taiwan. Hence, the generalisation based on the sample may be limited.

This research produces useful information on the behaviour of Chinese foodies when they are travelling. Preparers of food and beverages and tourism retailers should supply food that represents local cultural characteristics and design relevant local food souvenirs with the appropriate packaging.

Communities need to realise that not all visitors are alike and that some have a deeper interest in local foods and their historical and cultural roots.

Although numerous studies on the behaviours of Chinese tourists have been conducted, the research on their food consumption characteristics is limited. To date, no empirical studies have examined the relationships among foodies, food consumption motivations, food experiential values, emotions and well-being of mainland Chinese tourists, which is a knowledge gap in understanding this important market segment.

This study proposes a new model, called the Integrated Human Health Model (IHHM), to improve the design and effectiveness of Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) interventions.

Eighteen participants were purposefully selected from 44 participants in a 2.5-day WHP intervention targeting multiple health behaviours (MHB). The intervention has shown to improve quality of life and health-related behaviours in rigorous studies. Qualitative data collection methods were observations, repeat semi-structured interviews and weekly e-journals collected over three months. Template analysis was used to develop the IHHM describing participants' experiences.

The IHHM describes the health behaviour change process using eight themes: facilitation, assessment, desired life, barriers, knowledge and skills, insights, action planning, and monitor and support.

With the paucity of evidence informing WHP intervention effectiveness, this study provides a preliminary model serving practitioners to design more effective interventions and scholars to improve evidence.

This study proposes a practical comprehensive model for practitioners and leaders to more effectively design and evaluate successful MHB WHP interventions compared to existing models.

The purpose of this paper is to produce a critical history of MP3 technology in an effort to show how its stature as the digital music format of choice had nothing to do with music or associated industries and that its configuration as a product to be bought and sold was unintended.

The approach is reminiscent of Michel Foucault's critical histories, which sought to problematise our current understanding of existing cultural arrangements by unearthing the conditions that made the production of knowledge and their accompanying artefacts possible.

The paper documents how MP3s emerged by outlining the conditions that made its production viable, showing how before MP3s were profiled as commodities to be bought and sold online, the composite of technologies making up the standard MPEG1‐Layer III were objects of knowledge within the fields of electrical engineering and psychoacoustics, and later a process of compression used mainly by audio broadcasting professionals. The paper concludes by examining MPEG1‐Layer III's reconstitution as MP3: its formal configuration and valuation, first as a license for the broadcasting industry to compress sound and then as a “free‐ware” application distributed online.

The paper problematises the taken for granted status of commodities, in this case, MP3s, as digital music to be bought and sold, by revealing how they emerged. At a more parochial level, it produces a competing history of MP3 technology which until now has not been told.

If we are to help diminish some of the negative schooling experiences and behaviour often manifested in Black boys, such as frequent displays of anger, defiance to authority, low self-esteem, and their deployment of coping strategies, which further contributes to their disengagement or expulsion from school, we have to ensure that their health and emotional well-being in schools is optimised. Black boys in the UK comprise the largest proportion of young people who have been excluded from secondary schools, and they are often among one of the lowest groups of underachievers in the UK. It is against these bleak backgrounds of underachievement and disengagement from the mainstream education system that this present study posits the argument for increased targeted intervention, not only to improve academic performance but also to improve the emotional well-being in Black boys. Drawing upon case studies of targeted intervention strategies employed in schools and the community over a period of nearly two decades, by the education charity called Excell3, this chapter argues that greater levels of targeted interventions can result in higher levels of social aspiration, educational attainment, self-esteem and emotional well-being among Black boys.