In his article titled, “The theory of the business,” Peter Drucker suggests that organizations need to frequently challenge the assumptions underlying their theory of the business…
Abstract
Purpose
In his article titled, “The theory of the business,” Peter Drucker suggests that organizations need to frequently challenge the assumptions underlying their theory of the business (TOB) in order to assure that it remains viable. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the repertory grid technique (RGT) and illustrate how it can be used as a strategic planning tool to surface the assumptions underlying an organization's TOB.
Design/methodology/approach
The RGT's merits as a planning tool are demonstrated through a case study involving the president of a Pittsburgh‐based financial services organization. Specifically, this case study describes how the RGT and the organization's competitors were used to surface the assumptions underlying the organization's TOB.
Findings
The paper describes how the assumptions surfaced from this case study can be used to challenge the organization's TOB. Furthermore, guidance is offered as to how the RGT can be integrated into an organization's strategic planning process and a list of resources that one can refer to for further information concerning the RGT is provided.
Originality/value
While the RGT has been used by scholars as a research tool and various authors have suggested that it can be used to address various organizational challenges (e.g., implementing a new system), no one to date has demonstrated its value as a strategic planning tool. Consequently, the paper is a valuable resource for practitioners, as well as academics and consultants who provide strategic planning services to organizations.
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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…
Abstract
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.
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Timothy C. Weiskel and Richard A. Gray
Current news on environmental problems frequently emphasizes the totally unprecedented nature of the ecological crises that beset us in this nation and the Western world as a…
Abstract
Current news on environmental problems frequently emphasizes the totally unprecedented nature of the ecological crises that beset us in this nation and the Western world as a whole. We are told, for example, that the summer of 1988 constituted “the hottest summer on record” in North America. Similarly we hear mat Boston Harbor has never in its history been so polluted, and in European waters seal populations died of an epidemic in 1988 on a scale never before witnessed by man. By stressing this “never before” aspect of events, it is sometimes argued mat the experience of the past is largely irrelevant for policy planners. Since our circumstances are new, so the argument runs, past experience leaves us with little or no instruction for the formulation of a practical public policy for the environment.
Timothy C. Weiskel and Richard A. Gray
The ecological decline of ancient Near Eastern civilizations and the violent and explosive characteristics of post‐Columbian colonial ecologies might well remain comfortably…
Abstract
The ecological decline of ancient Near Eastern civilizations and the violent and explosive characteristics of post‐Columbian colonial ecologies might well remain comfortably remote from us in our twentieth century world were it not for the disturbing parallels that such case histories seem to evoke as we consider our contemporary global circumstance. Just as in ancient times and in the age of colonial expansion, it is in the “remote environments,” usually quite distant from the centers of power, that the crucial indicators of environmental catastrophe first become apparent within the system as a whole. These regions are frequently characterized by weak economies and highly vulnerable ecosystems in our time, just as they were in the past. Accordingly, the environmental circumstances in these regions constitute for the modern world a kind of monitoring device that can provide early warnings of ecological instabilities in the global ecosystem.
Timothy W. Cole and Michelle M. Kazmer
Working with documents in electronic format is inherently different from dealing with materials in print; nor can all electronic formats be considered equivalent. Processing and…
Abstract
Working with documents in electronic format is inherently different from dealing with materials in print; nor can all electronic formats be considered equivalent. Processing and presenting SGML is not the same as processing and presenting materials in other markup or word processing formats. To maximize flexibility and extensibility, SGML is highly modular, which complicates implementation. Its emphasis on content structure rather than appearance enhances searchability but makes consistent and precise display difficult. Mechanisms used to maximize platform and software independence (e.g., entities, link protocols), though effective, can be used incorrectly or in ways difficult to implement on some systems or using certain software. Difficult questions remain for libraries planning to implement SGML.
Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
Abstract
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.
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Timothy R. Hannigan and Guillermo Casasnovas
Field emergence poses an intriguing problem for institutional theorists. New issue fields often arise at the intersection of different sectors, amidst extant structures of…
Abstract
Field emergence poses an intriguing problem for institutional theorists. New issue fields often arise at the intersection of different sectors, amidst extant structures of meanings and actors. Such nascent fields are fragmented and lack clear guides for action; making it unclear how they ever coalesce. The authors propose that provisional social structures provide actors with macrosocial presuppositions that shape ongoing field-configuration; bootstrapping the field. The authors explore this empirically in the context of social impact investing in the UK, 2000–2013, a period in which this field moved from clear fragmentation to relative alignment. The authors combine different computational text analysis methods, and data from an extensive field-level study, to uncover meaningful patterns of interaction and structuration. Our results show that across various periods, different types of actors were linked together in discourse through “actor–meaning couplets.” These emergent couplings of actors and meanings provided actors with social cues, or macrofoundations, which guided their local activities. The authors thus theorize a recursive, co-constitutive process: as punctuated moments of interaction generate provisional structures of actor–meaning couplets, which then cue actors as they navigate and constitute the emerging field. Our model re-energizes the core tenets of new structuralism and contributes to current debates about institutional emergence and change.
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Thomas R. O'Neal, John M. Dickens, Lance E. Champagne, Aaron V. Glassburner, Jason R. Anderson and Timothy W. Breitbach
Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources…
Abstract
Purpose
Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources and money by avoiding new start contracts to produce unforeseen part requests, reducing labor intensive cannibalization actions and ensuring consistent transportation modality streams where changes incur cost. This study explores the effectiveness of the United States Air Force’s current flying hour-based demand forecast by comparing it with a sortie-based demand forecast to predict future spare part needs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a correlation analysis to show that demand for reparable parts on certain aircraft has a stronger correlation to the number of sorties flown than the number of flying hours. The effect of using the number of sorties flown instead of flying hours is analyzed by employing sorties in the United States Air Force (USAF)’s current reparable parts forecasting model. A comparative analysis on D200 forecasting error is conducted across F-16 and B-52 fleets.
Findings
This study finds that the USAF could improve its reparable parts forecast, and subsequently part availability, by employing a sortie-based demand rate for particular aircraft such as the F-16. Additionally, our findings indicate that forecasts for reparable parts on aircraft with low sortie count flying profiles, such as the B-52 fleet, perform better modeling demand as a function of flying hours. Thus, evidence is provided that the Air Force should employ multiple forecasting techniques across its possessed, organically supported aircraft fleets. The improvement of the forecast and subsequent decrease in forecast error will be presented in the Results and Discussion section.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by the data-collection environment, which is only reported on an annual basis and is limited to 14 years of historical data. Furthermore, some observations were not included because significant data entry errors resulted in unusable observations.
Originality/value
There are few studies addressing the time measure of USAF reparable component failures. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that analyze spare component demand as a function of sortie numbers and compare the results of forecasts made on a sortie-based demand signal to the current flying hour-based approach to spare parts forecasting. The sortie-based forecast is a novel methodology and is shown to outperform the current flying hour-based method for some aircraft fleets.
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Based on interviews with 27 victims’ family members and survivors, this chapter explores how memory of the Oklahoma City bombing was constructed through participation in groups…
Abstract
Based on interviews with 27 victims’ family members and survivors, this chapter explores how memory of the Oklahoma City bombing was constructed through participation in groups formed after the bombing and participation in the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. It first addresses the efficacy of a collective memory perspective. It then describes the mental context in which interviewees joined groups after the bombing, the recovery functions groups played, and their impact on punishment expectations. Next, it discusses a media-initiated involuntary relationship between McVeigh and interviewees. Finally, this chapter examines execution witnesses’ perceptions of communication with McVeigh in his trial and execution.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how editors participate in Wikidata and how they organize their work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how editors participate in Wikidata and how they organize their work.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study used content analysis of discussions involving data curation and negotiation in Wikidata. Activity theory was used as a conceptual framework for data collection and analysis.
Findings
The analysis identified six activities: conceptualizing the curation process, appraising objects, ingesting objects from external sources, creating collaborative infrastructure, re-organizing collaborative infrastructure and welcoming newcomers. Many of the norms and rules that were identified help regulate the activities in Wikidata.
Research limitations/implications
This study mapped Wikidata activities to curation and ontology frameworks. Results from this study provided implications for academic studies on online peer-curation work.
Practical implications
An understanding of the activities in Wikidata will help inform communities wishing to contribute data to or reuse data from Wikidata, as well as inform the design of other similar online peer-curation communities, scientific research institutional repositories, digital archives and libraries.
Originality/value
Wikidata is one of the largest knowledge curation projects on the web. The data from this project are used by other Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, as well as major search engines. This study explores an aspect of Wikidata WikiProject editors to the author’s knowledge has yet to be researched.