Thomas Abraham and Viet T. Dao
Sustainability innovation systems (SIS) refer to the investment in information systems (IS) to enable business sustainability within stages of sustainability maturity. A prior…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability innovation systems (SIS) refer to the investment in information systems (IS) to enable business sustainability within stages of sustainability maturity. A prior framework proposes that the roles played by IS to support sustainability depend on the stage of sustainability maturity achieved. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine these propositions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts longitudinal case studies of six companies across three industries. Data were collected from the companies’ Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports over a six-year period from 2009 to 2015.
Findings
The study provides initial empirical support for the proposition of the SIS framework that companies follow a staged path to sustainability maturity and that IS play specific roles as companies mature.
Research limitations/implications
The findings encourage future research to take a longitudinal and holistic view of sustainability and IS. Future research could also collect a more comprehensive data set for statistical analysis.
Practical implications
The study provides guidelines for practitioners in making decisions about companies’ investments in IS for sustainability, particularly within individual stages of sustainability maturity.
Social implications
The study goes beyond environmental sustainability to empirically show that companies are deploying IT assets for social sustainability too.
Originality/value
The multiple-longitudinal case study approach provides an intimate understanding of companies’ actual usage of IS resources to enable sustainability. The study is also among the very early research using GRI reports for research on IS and sustainability, showing that these reports are a rich secondary data source for IS scholars.
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This paper aims to elucidate responsible leadership as a construct with strong moral and ethical underpinnings, as well as a focus on multiple stakeholders and the triple bottom…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to elucidate responsible leadership as a construct with strong moral and ethical underpinnings, as well as a focus on multiple stakeholders and the triple bottom line. This paper also highlights the interdependence of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of a business to achieve corporate sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper is the outcome of analysing and synthesizing the findings of the literature review on three main constructs: responsible leadership, triple bottom line and corporate sustainability. This review enabled the development of logical associations among these constructs.
Findings
The literature revealed logical associations between responsible leadership, the triple bottom line and corporate sustainability. All three constructs embody the three dimensions of economic, social and environmental sustainability, which form the basis of the associations.
Practical implications
Responsible leadership, grounded in stakeholder theory, goes beyond the traditional dyadic leader–follower relationship to influence multiple stakeholders within and outside the organization and achieve positive outcomes for both the organization and society. Multiple levels of outcomes and higher levels of organizational performance for businesses are the hallmarks of responsible leadership.
Originality/value
This paper highlights the importance of responsible leadership and triple bottom-line performance for corporate sustainability. Responsible leadership has the potential to create significant impact on business and society, to achieve long-term corporate sustainability. A conceptual model of responsible leadership is also proposed to show the association between responsible leadership, the triple bottom line and corporate sustainability.
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Molly Smith and Nancy R. Gartner
Purpose – This chapter gives an overview of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on institutional corrections in the United States and the responses correctional…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter gives an overview of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on institutional corrections in the United States and the responses correctional institutions have taken to lessen those impacts.
Methodology/Approach – A review of the extant literature was conducted to gather information on COVID-19 and the institutional corrections systems within the United States.
Findings – The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on correctional institutions within the United States were more pronounced due to the demographic characteristics of inmates and facility challenges. Responses to outbreaks or potential outbreaks in jails and prisons in the United States included screening measures, restricted inmate movement and visitation, and decarceration efforts.
Originality/Value – This chapter builds upon literature by discussing the challenges posed to correctional institutions in the United States in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and summarizing the measures taken to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on inmates, institutional staff, and community members alike.
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Purpose – During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian jurisdictions have varied in terms of their reporting of COVID-19 cases among prisoners and prison staff. Engaging with…
Abstract
Purpose – During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian jurisdictions have varied in terms of their reporting of COVID-19 cases among prisoners and prison staff. Engaging with literatures on the policing of criminological knowledge and prison opacity, this chapter examines how multiple approaches to newsmaking criminology including blog posts, op-ed writing, report publishing, and expert commentary can challenge state secrecy in ways that help generate proactive disclosure of additional information about the impact and management of the coronavirus behind prison walls.
Methodology/Approach – The authors explore how “flooding the zone” of public debates on pandemic management with the limited, incomplete data made available by authorities works as a knowledge mobilization and research strategy.
Findings – The analysis in this study reveals how a newsmaking criminology approach can help researchers access previously unpublished information from Canadian prison authorities that is crucial to understanding prison policy, practice, and outcomes related to COVID-19.
Originality/Value – This chapter highlights the value of newsmaking criminology as a means of communicating and mobilizing criminological knowledge, as well as generating data in the service of emancipatory research and advocacy.
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Popular constitutionalists seek to recover the popular sovereignty foundations of American constitutionalism, bringing the people in as active participants in the constitutional…
Abstract
Popular constitutionalists seek to recover the popular sovereignty foundations of American constitutionalism, bringing the people in as active participants in the constitutional enterprise as they create and refashion the Constitution by “majoritarian and populist mechanisms” (Amar, 1995, p. 89). The result is to recover an understanding, in FDR's words, of constitution as a “layman's document, not a lawyer's contract” (Kramer, 2004, p. 207). This understanding has deep roots in American constitutionalism, tracing its lineage back to the founding and, as popular constitutionalists insist, finds powerful expression in the likes of The Federalist and Abraham Lincoln (Ackerman, 1991; Tushnet, 1998). In exercising popular sovereignty, the people founded the Constitution, but they did not simply retreat from the trajectory of constitutional development. Rather, as Bruce Ackerman argues, since the Constitution of 1787 the people have spoken in a manner that has re-founded the Constitution giving us a “multiple origins originalism” (Kersch, 2006a, p. 801; see also Amar, 1998 and 2005). In turning to founding era thought and the notion of constitutional foundations, popular constitutionalists like Ackerman and Amar make common cause with conservatives who turn to original intent, but then they seek to synthesize this understanding with democratic expressions of popular will by emphasizing both formal and informal constitutional change, giving us layered “foundings,” and a more complex version of “living constitutionalism.” Such constitutional change, however, can only legitimately come from an authentic expression of “We the People.”
Kirstin Abraham, Huw Thomas and Alyson Bryden
The dermatology service on the islands of Orkney, with a population of approximately 22,500, was taken over by National Health Service (NHS) Tayside in August 2018. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The dermatology service on the islands of Orkney, with a population of approximately 22,500, was taken over by National Health Service (NHS) Tayside in August 2018. This paper aims to provide an overview of the planning and review of a highly efficient and effective dermatology service for a rural island population.
Design/methodology/approach
The service includes visiting dermatology consultants, enhanced electronic referral vetting, skin surgery services, a General Practice (GP) with extended role (GPwER) in dermatology, specialist virtual clinics, urgent advice for inpatients at the local district general hospital and remote systemic therapy monitoring. A new phototherapy service has been set up in an island GP practice.
Findings
Local GPs and consultant dermatologists find the enhanced vetting service useable, efficient and educational. Between August 2018 and November 2022, there have been 1,749 referrals. Of these referrals, 60% were seen in clinic or a GPwER surgery, with 40% managed remotely by providing advice back to the referring GP. The number of consultations performed by the GPwER has grown over the past 3 years, and in the last year, it accounted for more than 50% of patient appointments. The waiting time has been significantly reduced using this model.
Originality/value
This remote service uses an integrated approach of teledermatology (TD) whilst offering continual in-person services using local capabilities including a GPwER and island general surgeons. New treatment facilities are provided to the island population. Continual educational feedback to the primary care referrer is provided, and it enhances relationships that greatly aid the high-quality dermatology service provided.
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Yohannan Abraham, Thomas Holt and Yunus Kathawala
The Japanese practice of Kanban (Just‐in‐time — JIT), has won a lot of converts in recent times in the US and elsewhere. Literature is rife with success stories, though mostly…
Abstract
The Japanese practice of Kanban (Just‐in‐time — JIT), has won a lot of converts in recent times in the US and elsewhere. Literature is rife with success stories, though mostly from the users' side. The strategic implications of this emerging management philosophy on the large number of suppliers on whom depends the very survival of hundreds of JIT buyers are examined.
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Yohannan T. Abraham, Thomas Holt and Yunus Kathawala
The Japanese practice of Kanban (Just‐in‐time – JIT),has won a lot of converts in recent times in the US and elsewhere.Literature is rife with success stories, though, mostly from…
Abstract
The Japanese practice of Kanban (Just‐in‐time – JIT), has won a lot of converts in recent times in the US and elsewhere. Literature is rife with success stories, though, mostly from the users′ side. The strategic implications of this emerging management philosophy on the large number of suppliers on whom depends the very survival of hundreds of JIT buyers are examined.
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The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive…
Abstract
The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.
This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.
The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.
This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.
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Abraham Pizam, Fevzi Okumus and Joe Hutchinson
The purpose of this paper is to report on how the University of Central Florida's (UCF's) Rosen College of Hospitality Management (RCHM) has established a long‐term and successful…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on how the University of Central Florida's (UCF's) Rosen College of Hospitality Management (RCHM) has established a long‐term and successful partnership with the hospitality and tourism industry in Central Florida.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach was followed and the findings and examples reported in this paper were drawn from official documents and the authors' personal experiences.
Findings
The RCHM, one of the leading hospitality and tourism colleges in the world, has established and maintained successful partnerships with hospitality and tourism organizations in the Central Florida region. Over the years, industry partners have committed significant resources to the RCHM. In return, the RCHM has supported the industry by providing trained students and graduates, along with numerous research and consultancy projects. These successful partnerships were accomplished through mutual trust, an understanding of each other's needs and expectations, and successful collaboration between key industry owners/executives and senior administrators of the RCHM and UCF.
Research limitations/implications
This study implies that the establishment of strong partnerships between hospitality and tourism organizations and hospitality colleges requires college administrators to work closely with industry owners/executives to build mutual trust, personal friendships, and a common understanding of industry needs and expectations. Future studies may investigate similar successful industry‐university partnerships.
Practical implications
This study provides examples on how a hospitality college can form long‐term and successful partnerships with hospitality and tourism organizations.
Originality/value
There are few studies that provide evidence of successful partnerships between hospitality colleges and hospitality and tourism organizations.