Paul Thompson, Terry Wallis and Jorg Flecker
Most contemporary business developments can, if you try hard, be linked to 1992 and the single market. With takeovers you don't even have to try. The official Cecchini Report…
Abstract
Most contemporary business developments can, if you try hard, be linked to 1992 and the single market. With takeovers you don't even have to try. The official Cecchini Report makes clear that mergers and acquisitions to eliminate smaller and supposedly less efficient units will be the driving force of intensified competition and restructuring to exploit economies of scale.
Roger Clive Birchmore, Terri-Ann Berry, Shannon L. Wallis, Steve Tsai and German Hernandez
New Zealand’s historical housing stock comprises largely single-storey detached houses, characterised by poor winter comfort with high air infiltration. Challenges with…
Abstract
Purpose
New Zealand’s historical housing stock comprises largely single-storey detached houses, characterised by poor winter comfort with high air infiltration. Challenges with affordability and land use are shifting New Zealand’s housing stock towards double-storey, conjoined medium-density housing (MDH). Reduced external surfaces in this typology should reduce winter heat loss and infiltration, improving winter comfort and health. New concerns arise, however, regarding summertime overheating and poor indoor air quality.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study was undertaken where temperature, humidity, airtightness, particulate matter (PM) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) were measured in two unoccupied, newly built double-storey, conjoined houses, for several weeks over summer.
Findings
The reduced surface area of this typology did not reduce infiltration and demonstrated significant periods of overheating. Internal PM concentrations generally exceeded outdoor concentrations but did not exceed annual average outdoor PM10 guidelines of 20 µg m-3. Infiltration factors (Finf) were closer to more traditional houses. TVOC readings varied widely, but frequently exceeded international guidelines.
Research limitations/implications
The small sample limits the applications of conclusions more widely. Recommendations to investigate a wider sample in different locations with more detailed VOC analysis over all seasons are made.
Practical implications
Improvements to internal environments cannot be guaranteed by housing typology changes alone and must still involve thoughtful environmental design.
Social implications
Housing typology changes may not improve internal living environments.
Originality/value
A move to the new MDH typology may not achieve expectations of airtightness and thermal improvement. New challenges arise from significant overheating and high TVOC levels, which may lead to new negative health effects.
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Consideration of the fast‐growing number of food hygiene prosecutions up and down the country, almost all of them of a most serious nature, shows that it is the food preparing…
Abstract
Consideration of the fast‐growing number of food hygiene prosecutions up and down the country, almost all of them of a most serious nature, shows that it is the food preparing room, the kitchen, which is indeed the hub of the matter. Most of the charges result from its condition and the practices carried on within its walls, all‐too‐often enclosing a cramped space, ill‐equipped and difficult to keep clean. Its state in many prosecutions clearly contrasts badly with the soft lights and alluring elegance of the dining rooms in hotels and catering establishments. Yet, who would say that the kitchen is not the most important room in the home, in the hotel and every food‐preparing place? It has been so from time immemorial. House design has suffered severely with the need to cut building costs and the kitchen has suffered most; in small houses, it seems little more than a cupboard, a box‐room, an alcove. Is it surprising, then, that age‐old kitchen arts have degenerated? In the farmhouse, the country homes of the affluent, the “downstairs” of the town house, the kitchen was among the largest rooms in the house, as befitted all the activity that went on there. In the USA, the modern, comfortable home even of relatively humble folk the kitchen is phenomenally large; room for everything and everyone.
Loukas N. Anninos, Alexandra Paraskevi Chytiri and Leonidas Chytiris
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the level of narcissism and its individual traits in students who study business, in the particular context of a regional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the level of narcissism and its individual traits in students who study business, in the particular context of a regional country such as Greece; and, second, to test how several demographic variables are related to narcissism levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The study consists of a theoretical part on narcissism in business education and an empirical part that was based on a survey conducted with the use of a questionnaire. The analysis includes hypothesis testing and basic statistical tests.
Findings
Findings suggest that sex, study levels, years of business experience and (personal/family) income do impact specific narcissistic dimensions, which may be a cause for concern both for employers and higher education providers.
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted in a regional country, the participants were students of public higher education institutions only and the questionnaire was self-reported, which could lead to likely social desirability effects.
Practical implications
The investigation of narcissism in the Greek business education might be of interest to business education providers (for providing curriculum that help future managers/leaders to deploy the positive characteristics of narcissism and avoid or not to develop the negative ones) and to future employers to apply more effective human resource practices, i.e. selection, training, rewarding.
Originality/value
The study at hand aimed to investigate the presence of narcissism and its individual (narcissistic) behavioral dimensions in students studying business in Greece.
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Jozefina Simova, Colin M. Clarke‐Hill and Terry Robinson
The changes in the Czech Republic brought by the transition process had a significant impact on all sectors of the economy and none more so than on retailing. Presents the initial…
Abstract
The changes in the Czech Republic brought by the transition process had a significant impact on all sectors of the economy and none more so than on retailing. Presents the initial findings of a long‐term longitudinal study of clothing retailing in the Czech Republic examining the retail format and merchandise assortment structure of clothing retailing in the period of 1994‐1999. The research focused on Czech towns and specifically excluded the capital city of Prague. From the analysis of the retail format development two broad conclusions emerge. First, the smaller towns appear to be more conservative in terms of structural change. Second, there appears to be more extensive changes in retail format patterns occurring in the larger towns. .
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Lode De Waele, Liselore Berghman and Paul Matthyssens
The discussion about public sector performance is still present today, despite the profound research that has already tried to address this subject. Furthermore, theory links…
Abstract
Purpose
The discussion about public sector performance is still present today, despite the profound research that has already tried to address this subject. Furthermore, theory links negative effects on organizational performance with increased levels of organizational complexity. However, literature thus far did not succeed to put forward a successful theory that explains why and how public organizations became increasingly complex. To answer this question, we argue that increased organizational complexity can be explained by viewing public organizations as the hybrid result of different institutional logics, which are shaped by various management views. However, former research mainly concentrated on the separate study of management views such as traditional public management (TPM), NPM, and post-NPM. Although appealing, research that approaches hybridity from this perspective is fairly limited.
Methodology/approach
We conducted a literature review in which we studied 80 articles about traditional public management, NPM, and post-NPM.
Findings
We found that these management views essentially differ on the base of three fault lines, depending on the level of the organizational culture. These fault lines, according to the management view, together result in nine dimensions. By combing dimensions of the different management views, we argue that a public organization becomes hybrid. Furthermore, in line with findings of contingency theory, we explain the level of hybridity might depend on the level of tight coupling for a given organization. Finally, we developed propositions that explain hybridity as the result of isomorphic forces, organizational change, and organizational resistance to change and that link hybridization with processes of selective coupling.
Originality/value
The value of this chapter lies in its real-life applicability.
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Ion Sterpan and Paul Dragos Aligica
This paper explores the interface between institutional theory and Austrian theory. We examine mainstream institutionalism as exemplified by D. C. North in his work with Wallis…
Abstract
This paper explores the interface between institutional theory and Austrian theory. We examine mainstream institutionalism as exemplified by D. C. North in his work with Wallis and Weingast on the elite compact theory of social order and of transitions to impersonal rights, and propose instead an Austrian process-oriented perspective. We argue that mainstream institutionalism does not fully account for the efficiency of impersonal rules. Their efficiency can be better explained by a market for rules, which in turn requires a stable plurality of governance providers. Since an equilibrium of plural providers requires stable power polycentricity, the implication goes against consolidating organized means for violence as a doorstep condition to successful transitions. The paper demonstrates how to employ Ostroms’ Bloomington School Institutionalism to shift, convert, and recalibrate mainstream institutionalism's themes into an Austrian process-oriented theory.
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Ross Jones, Jim Nielsen and Rowan Trayler
This paper examines the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) approach to market definition in light of bank mergers within the country of Australia. It…
Abstract
This paper examines the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) approach to market definition in light of bank mergers within the country of Australia. It considers whether or not the ACCC’s approach is consistent with the actual bank selection criteria of a nationwide sample of 2,500 business firms. Empirical evidence reveals that a regulatory approach of defining bank markets based on distinct products may only be serving the interest of large business firms. The interest of small business firms may be better served under the more traditional approach of defining bank markets based on product clusters.
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Amy E. Hurley, Stefan Wally, Sharon L. Segrest, Terri Scandura and Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld
Literature on tournament mobility in internal labor markets (ILMs) is reviewed revealing a paucity of studies examining the promotion patterns of late entrants into internal…
Abstract
Literature on tournament mobility in internal labor markets (ILMs) is reviewed revealing a paucity of studies examining the promotion patterns of late entrants into internal promotion systems. An investigation of 502 managers in a large corporation indicated that late entry into the ILM organization was significantly and positively related to career attainment, supporting the “clean slate effect”. In addition, experience in the corporate office was positively related to managerial career attainment, while being female was negatively related to career attainment. In contrast to the tournament model theory, the number of years to reach middle management was positively related to career success. While no effect for race was found, this may be due to the relatively low representation of minorities in the firm studied. Moderating effects of late entry on gender, race or corporate experience were also not found.
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Als der Rhonegletscher einen Teil der heutigen Schweiz überflutete, standen die Eismassen über der Ebene des heutigen Genfersees etwa tausend Meter hoch. Im langsamen…
Abstract
Als der Rhonegletscher einen Teil der heutigen Schweiz überflutete, standen die Eismassen über der Ebene des heutigen Genfersees etwa tausend Meter hoch. Im langsamen Zurückweichen liess er unter anderem bei Les Avants eine Moräne liegen, was eben darauf schliessen lässt, wie hoch das Eis war. Dann füllte sich diese Ebene zwischen dem Wallis und Genf allmählich durch die Flüsse und Bäche mit Wasser, aber der gebildete See, «Lacus Lemanus» der Römer, ging zurück bis Villeneuve.