Larissa Statsenko, Alex Gorod and Vernon Ireland
The competitiveness of mining regions largely depends on the performance of the regional supply chains that provide services to mining companies. These local supply chains are…
Abstract
Purpose
The competitiveness of mining regions largely depends on the performance of the regional supply chains that provide services to mining companies. These local supply chains are often highly intertwined and represent a regional supply network for the industry. Individual companies often use supply chain strategies that are sub-optimal to overall supply network performance. To effectively respond to an uncertain business environment, policy-makers and supply chain participants would benefit by a governance framework that would allow to incentivise the formation of supply networks structures enabling effective operations. The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirically grounded conceptual framework based on Complex Adaptive Systems (CASs) governance principles, which links network governance mechanisms with supply network structure and operational performance to incentivise the formation of adaptive and resilient supply networks in the mining industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method research design and a case study of the South Australian mining sector were used to collect empirical data. Qualitative interviews and network analysis of the SA mining industry regional supply network structure were conducted. The relationships between network parameters were interpreted using CAS theory.
Findings
An empirically grounded conceptual framework based on CAS governance principles is developed. The case study revealed that supply chain strategies and governance mechanisms in the SA mining industry have led to the formation of a hierarchical, scale-free structure with insufficient horizontal connectivity which limits the adaptability, responsiveness and resilience of the regional supply network.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are drawn from a single case study. This limits generalisability of the findings and the proposed framework.
Practical implications
The proposed framework draws the attention of the policy-makers and supply chain participants towards the need for utilising CAS governance principles to facilitate the formation of adaptive, responsive and resilient regional supply networks in the mining industry.
Originality value
The proposed conceptual framework is an attempt to parameterise the governance of the regional supply networks in the mining industry.
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Larissa Statsenko, Alex Gorod and Vernon Ireland
This paper aims to propose an empirically grounded governance framework based on complex adaptive systems (CAS) principles to facilitate formation of well-connected regional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an empirically grounded governance framework based on complex adaptive systems (CAS) principles to facilitate formation of well-connected regional supply chains that foster economic development, adaptability and resilience of mining regions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is an exploratory case study of the South Australian (SA) mining industry that includes 38 semi-structured interviews with the key stakeholders and structural analysis of the regional supply network (RSN).
Findings
Findings demonstrate the applicability of the CAS framework as a structured approach to the governance of the mining industry regional supply chains. In particular, the findings exemplify the relationship between RSN governance, its structure and interconnectivity and their combined impact on the adaptability and resilience of mining regions.
Research limitations/implications
The data set analysed in the current study is static. Longitudinal data would permit a deeper insight into the evolution of the RSN structure and connectivity. The validity of the proposed framework could be further strengthened by being applied to other industrial domains and geographical contexts.
Practical/implications
The proposed framework offers a novel insight for regional policy-makers striving to create an environment that facilitates the formation of well-integrated regional supply chains in mining regions through more focussed policy and strategies.
Originality/value
The proposed framework is one of the first attempts to offer a holistic structured approach to governance of the regional supply chains based on CAS principles. With the current transformative changes in the global mining industry, policy-makers and supply chain practitioners have an urgent need to embrace CAS and network paradigms to remain competitive in the twenty-first century.
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Paul Blyton, Edmund Heery and Peter Turnbull
Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing…
Abstract
Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.
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That the introduction of the Control system should have given rise to a considerable amount of criticism, both appreciative and adverse, was naturally to be expected. The…
Abstract
That the introduction of the Control system should have given rise to a considerable amount of criticism, both appreciative and adverse, was naturally to be expected. The appreciative remarks which have appeared in the press, and those also which have been privately communicated to the directors, indicate that the subject has been intelligently considered, and in some cases carefully investigated and studied. The opinions given are worth having on account of the position and influence of hose who have given them, and on account of the obvious freedom from bias which has characterised them. This is so far satisfactory, and goes to show that the success which has attended the working of the Control system abroad may well be expected to attend it in this country as soon as it is sufficiently well known to be appreciated by the manufacturers and vendors of good and genuine products, and by the general public, whose best interests it cannot but serve.
The digital economy, which heralds the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4), is upon us. What can history teach international business scholars about how firms are…
Abstract
The digital economy, which heralds the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4), is upon us. What can history teach international business scholars about how firms are likely to respond to this new form of technological change? Who are the likely winners or the likely losers? For 30 years, the author has lived through, studied, and written about the Third Industrial Revolution and other major environmental shocks, ranging from new entrants to academia to regional integration to outbreak of war, looking at the fundamental issues of how individuals, firms, communities, and countries respond to and are affected by life-changing events. In this chapter, the author tells seven brief stories about living through and studying “shocks and responses.” Perhaps, some of these stories may provide useful lessons to the scholars of IR4.
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Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and…
Abstract
Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and sale of adulterated and sophisticated products will, to all intents and purposes, be suppressed, and that the Public Analyst and the Inspector will be able to report the existence of almost universal purity and virtue. This optimistic feeling will not be shared by the traders and manufacturers who have suffered from the effects of unfair and dishonest competition, nor by those whose knowledge and experience of the existing law enables them to gauge the probable value of the new one with some approach to accuracy. The measure has satisfied nobody, and can satisfy nobody but those whose nefarious practices it is intended to check, and who can fully appreciate the value, to them, of patchwork and superficial legislation. We have repeatedly pointed out that repressive legislation, however stringent and however well applied, can never give the public that which the public, in theory, should receive—namely, complete protection and adequate guarantee,—nor to the honest trader the full support and encouragement to which he is entitled. But, in spite of the defects and ineffectualities necessarily attaching to legislation of this nature, a strong Government could without much difficulty have produced a far more effective, and therefore more valuable law than that which, after so long an incubation, is to be added to the statute‐book.
Bradley A. Almond and Rich DeJordy
The purpose of this paper is to more closely examine the relationship between traditional cultural practices and the commercial products that are derived from and inspired by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to more closely examine the relationship between traditional cultural practices and the commercial products that are derived from and inspired by them. Existing institutional approaches to the cultural industries have been limited in their scope and empirical focus. This paper seeks to correct those oversights.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilizes a focused historical case study of traditional Irish music, drawing from the myriad resources on the subject housed in the Boston College Irish Music Collection.
Findings
A unique and parallel production system in traditional Irish music was identified – a symbiotic and mutually reinforcing relationship between traditional social practices and derivative commercial products that has not yet been articulated within institutional approaches to the cultural industries.
Research limitations/implications
By applying DiMaggio and Powell's totality of relevant actors criterion in organizational fields the authors identify and describe the significant contributions of a class of social actors, who have been been marginalized in research on cultural industries.
Practical implications
The research has implications for practitioners in cultural industries – whether social entrepreneurs who wish to preserve or propagate traditional social practices or commercial entrepreneurs who wish to profit from them. The paper describes a symbiotic and sustainable relationship between these two classes of social actors and models a type of social entrepreneurship that can potentially be applied in other contexts.
Originality/value
Both empirically and conceptually, the paper offers fresh insights into cultural industries and institutional theory.
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According to John Grant’s New Marketing Manifesto, contemporary consumers “act their shoe size not their age” by resolutely refusing to grow up. They are not alone. Managers too…
Abstract
According to John Grant’s New Marketing Manifesto, contemporary consumers “act their shoe size not their age” by resolutely refusing to grow up. They are not alone. Managers too are adopting a kiddy imperative, as the profusion of primers predicated on children’s literature – and storytelling generally – bears witness. Winnie the Pooh, the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen are the marketing gurus du jour, or so it seems. This paper adds to the juvenile agenda by examining the Harry Potter books, all four of which are replete with references to market‐place phenomena, and contending that scholarly sustenance can be drawn from J.K. Rowling’s remarkable, if ambivalent, marketing imagination.
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David S. Jacobson, Caroline McMullan and Christos Minas
The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between food as a shared good (or public within the household) in the economic sense, and food as a shared meal in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between food as a shared good (or public within the household) in the economic sense, and food as a shared meal in the sociological sense.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative data derived from a household budget survey (HBS) in Cyprus are used to set up questions to which answers are suggested using the qualitative approach of in-depth interviews.
Findings
The main finding is that the relatively high expenditure by elderly couples on food for home consumption may be explained by frequent inter-household, intra-extended family meals in Cyprus.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides evidence that household expenditure on food may not be directly indicative of household consumption of food. Researchers interested in household consumption of food should therefore be aware of the differences between household and extended family and, where extended family continues to be significant, they should be wary of using data from HBSs to analyse food consumption. One limitation is that the results are derived from in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of nine households. It may be appropriate to replicate the study, either in Cyprus or in similar societies where extended family remains significant, at a larger scale.
Practical implications
The evidence that household expenditure may not be indicative of household consumption suggests that questions on social context of consumption should be included in HBSs.
Originality/value
This paper draws together, for the first time, economic ideas on expenditure on food derived from the quantitative research of Ernst Engel on one hand and implications of the theories of Georg Simmel on the sociology of the meal on the other. The paper shows that some issues arising from quantitative analysis of HBSs cannot be explained using data from that source; this is particularly so where consumption of food is inter-household.
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Laurence W. Jacobs, James R. Wills, A. Coskun Samli and William R. Bullard
Presents the results of research designed to measure the effects of the internal organizational source of change, the external environmental source of change, overseas production…
Abstract
Presents the results of research designed to measure the effects of the internal organizational source of change, the external environmental source of change, overseas production and sourcing, and R&D investment in new products on the rate of change in international product life cycles. Offers a model of the effects based on a review of both international and domestic literature and tests this model by confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that the internal organizational source of change and the external environmental source of change have a positive effect on the speed of change of international life cycles. Overseas production and sourcing as well as R&D investment in new products have a slight negative effect on the speed of change of international life cycles.