Jessica M. Blomfield, Ashlea C. Troth and Peter J. Jordan
Sustainability is an emotional issue. It is also an issue that is gaining prominence in organizational agendas. In this chapter, we outline a model to explain how employees…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability is an emotional issue. It is also an issue that is gaining prominence in organizational agendas. In this chapter, we outline a model to explain how employees perceive change agents working to implement sustainability initiatives in organizations. Using this model, we argue that organizational support for sustainability can influence how employees respond to sustainability messages. We further argue that the intensity of emotions that change agents display, and how appropriate those emotions are within the organizational context, will influence how employees perceive those individuals and the success of their efforts to influence green outcomes.
Research implications
We extend the Dual Threshold Model of emotions (DTM: Geddes & Callister, 2007) to assess the impact of displays of emotional intensity on achieving sustainability goals. Our model links emotional propriety to change agent success. By exploring variations of the DTM in terms of contextual factors and emotional intensity, our model elaborates on the dynamic nature of emotional thresholds.
Practical implications
Using our framework, change agents may be able to improve their influence by matching the emotional intensity of their messages to the relevant display rules for that organization. That is, change agents who are perceived to express emotion within the thresholds of propriety can enhance their success in implementing green outcomes.
Originality/value
This chapter examines sustainability initiatives at the interpersonal behavior level. We combine aspects of organizational behavior, emotion in organizations, and organizations and the natural environment to create a new model for understanding change agent success in corporate sustainability.
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Edwin Muchapondwa and Thomas Sterner
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether community‐based wildlife conservation can potentially be added in rural farmers’ investment portfolio to diversify and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether community‐based wildlife conservation can potentially be added in rural farmers’ investment portfolio to diversify and consequently reduce agricultural risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The correlation coefficient is computed from national data on the rates of return on agricultural production and wildlife conservation, to find out whether wildlife conservation is a feasible hedge asset.
Findings
The correlation coefficient between the returns to agricultural production and wildlife conservation for the period 1989‐1999, for which data exist for both activities, is inferior to unity indicating that rural farmers could use wildlife conservation to reduce the risk they face by engaging in agricultural production only.
Research limitations/implications
Data on communal agricultural production and community‐based wildlife conservation potentially suffer from at least three limitations. First, wildlife is a unique resource that does not require the usual cash investment to acquire and as such the rates of return on wildlife conservation will likely be overstated. Second, some benefits from wildlife are public and non‐monetised; this results in depressed rates of return on wildlife conservation. Lastly, both the data on agricultural production and wildlife conservation are likely to understate physical and human capital investments; this potentially results in abnormally high rates of return.
Practical implications
Even though the paper makes a case for community‐based wildlife conservation at a national level, the benefits of diversification into wildlife conservation are likely to be high only in those rural areas that can sustain wildlife populations sufficient to generate adequate returns from wildlife activities such as tourism, trophy hunting, live animal sales and meat cropping.
Originality/value
This paper empirically investigates whether the risk that rural farmers face could potentially be managed through diversification into community‐based wildlife conservation and provides paramount evidence that wildlife conservation is a hedge asset in rural Zimbabwe. More investment in community‐based wildlife conservation would also help efforts to conserve wildlife.
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Over the past eight years, the MELVYL catalog has become one of the largest public access catalogs in the world, and now plays a central role in providing access to the library…
Abstract
Over the past eight years, the MELVYL catalog has become one of the largest public access catalogs in the world, and now plays a central role in providing access to the library resources of the University of California. Currently, under heavy load, the MELVYL catalog supports many hundreds of simultaneous terminal connections, servicing over a quarter of a million queries a week and displaying more than two million records a week to its user community. This article discusses the history of the network that has supported the MELVYL catalog from the early days of its prototype to the present. It also describes both the current technical and policy issues that must be addressed as the network moves into the 1990s, and the roles that the network is coming to play in integrating local automation, the union catalog, access to resource databases, and other initiatives. Sidebars discuss the TCP/IP protocol suite, internet protocol gateways, and Telenet and related inter‐operability problems.
Morry Ghingold and David T. Wilson
The make‐up, structure, functioning and outputs of multi‐person buying decision‐making units, commonly referred to as “buying centers,” have received substantial attention in the…
Abstract
The make‐up, structure, functioning and outputs of multi‐person buying decision‐making units, commonly referred to as “buying centers,” have received substantial attention in the business marketing literature. Although most business buying decisions are non‐static in nature, theorists and researchers have been hard pressed to effectively capture the dynamic nature of business buyers’ decision‐making processes. This paper presents a synthesis of recent buying center research and reports the findings of a study which attempted to capture “process effects” in buying center structure during the buying process. Study findings affirm the widely held belief that buying centers change over time and provide interesting insights regarding how these decision‐making units change in structure and make‐up over time. The resulting implications and caveats of these findings for business marketers are discussed.
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Stephanie Perkiss and Lee Moerman
The purpose of this paper is to present a forward-looking case of climate change induced displacement in the Pacific Islands as a multidimensional phenomenon with a moral…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a forward-looking case of climate change induced displacement in the Pacific Islands as a multidimensional phenomenon with a moral dimension. Instead of seeking to provide a definitive solution to an imagined problem, the authors have identified the complexity of the situation through an exploration of the accounts of place and accountability for the consequences of displacement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores displacement from a sociological perspective. The authors use the sociology of worth (SOW) to anchor explicit and competing moral claims in an evaluation regime that considers questions of justice and the common good. The public accounts of place in the Pacific Islands provide the empirical material for a consideration of a situated crisis. While SOW is generally adopted for current crises or disputes, this study explores the pre-immigrant story and a future case of displacement. Bauman’s (1998, 2012) perspective on globalization is used to narrate the local conditions of place in a global context as reflective of a dominant social order.
Findings
Since place is a multidimensional concept and experienced according to various states of being including physical, functional, spiritual and emotion or feeling, displacement is also felt at a multidimensional level. Thus to provide an account of a lived experience and to foster a moral accountability for climate induced displacement requires a consideration of multiple accounts and compromises that need to be considered.
Research limitations/implications
As with the majority of accounting research that is concerned with the suffering of those at a distance, we too must tackle this conundrum in a meaningful way. As members of a society that is the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gas, how do we speak for our drowning neighbors? The paper concludes with some insights from Boltanski (1999) as a way forward.
Originality/value
The paper presents a forward-looking scenario of a looming crisis from a sociological perspective. It adds to the literature on alternative accounts by using stories, media, government reports and other sources to holistically build a narrative grounded in a current and imaged social order.
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The purpose of this paper is to bridge the knowledge gap in designing MBA strategy between China and the West by examining the content, context and process of MBA delivery. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bridge the knowledge gap in designing MBA strategy between China and the West by examining the content, context and process of MBA delivery. This paper challenges the assumptions and pedagogical approach underpinning the current design and delivery of MBA programmes that were originally moulded with Western management history and development in the era of globalization. There is consensus that MBA was used to train business managers; however, nowadays, people are inclined to state that MBA is used to develop global business leaders or full-fledged global competitors. How can we develop global business leaders without a global vision when designing MBA strategy?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on extensive literature review and critical analyses through the strategic management approach, this paper examines the status quo of current MBA programmes in the West and in China. This paper presents a conceptual framework that draws on the current MBA literature and on-going debates around management education and development in the West and in China.
Findings
The designing strategy of MBA has been originally strongly influenced by Western ideology and ethos. Therefore, the difficulties of management knowledge transfer are often explained through culture acclimatization and emphasize has been on cultural divergence rather than convergence. With synthesis between Western and Eastern management identified, we argue that the appropriateness and effectiveness of the traditional philosophy of MBA designing strategy based on Western management history has been challenged in the 21st century. The perception has fuelled criticism of business schools in the post-recession. They have come under fire for allegedly failing in their obligations to educate socially responsible business leaders (Barker, 2010). This leads to rethinking of the philosophy and vision underpinning the MBA designing strategy. A new philosophical approach – integration of Western management with Eastern philosophy has been under scrutiny, which is necessary in business education to enable future business leaders to become full-fledged competitors in the global market.
Originality/value
The output of this discussion helps to establish a conceptual framework which will provide strategic insight in enabling business/management school and MBA providers to address the current deficiency in MBA teaching and learning strategy and develop more appropriate arrangement when considering the design and development of a successful MBA programme in the 21st century.
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Retailers act as assemblers of merchandise, selecting goods from among a wide range of available products in order to enhance customer value and loyalty. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Retailers act as assemblers of merchandise, selecting goods from among a wide range of available products in order to enhance customer value and loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Chinese retail buying system, focusing on the buying committee, which is defined as a group of individuals from different positions that have the authority to make final judgments and decisions regarding such matters as adding or eliminating new products.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a survey administered to retail buyers.
Findings
Results of independent t‐tests support the hypothesis that the influence of guanxi will be greater in the retail firms without a buying committee. State‐owned enterprises are more likely to use a buying committee than non‐state‐owned enterprises.
Research limitations/implications
Although the sample represents buyers from many regions in China it is not a random sample; this limits the generalizing of results.
Practical implications
Suppliers wishing to sell to Chinese retailers need to know how selling to a retailer using a buying committee will affect their access to buyers.
Originality/value
This is the only paper describing research that focuses on the internal structure of a buying committee within a Chinese retail store. Data of this nature are extremely difficult to obtain.
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Zahid Hussain, Abdul Jabbar and Kai Kong
The purpose of this paper is to expose the playout of power dynamics when a new business intelligence (BI) system is implemented in a central pharmacy department in a National…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to expose the playout of power dynamics when a new business intelligence (BI) system is implemented in a central pharmacy department in a National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The authors aim to explore the assumptions, experiences and actions of organisational stakeholders and ascertain how different professional groups obtain influence, power and control during this process.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research the authors employ structuration theory (ST), to establish how and where domination is achieved. To achieve this, the authors investigate the production and reproduction of structure as part of a longitudinal assessment using interviews and questionnaires.
Findings
Constant renewal and evolution are crucial in the implementation of a BI system. During the process of implementation and change many stakeholders resent the change. Disempowering these users leads to new power structures led by BI analysts.
Practical implications
The findings from this paper can help strengthen implications of BI systems implementation and better understand the impact these systems have on wider stakeholders. With coherent communication and an engaged attitude new BI systems can be implemented without alienating the key user stakeholders.
Originality/value
This paper differs from other papers by advocating that new systems and processes alter individual power structures in organisations, disrupting internal dynamics and introducing new aspects of control and dominance.