Herbert A. Simon on What Ails Business Schools: More than ‘A Problem in Organizational Design’

We critically examine Herbert Simon's 1967 essay, ‘The business school: a problem in organizational design’. We consider this essay within the context of Simon's key ideas about organizations, particularly those closely associated with the ‘Carnegie perspective’ on organizations and how they influenced the reinvention of American business schools in the post‐Second World War era, and were deeply influenced by the post‐War context and also were appropriated by the Ford and Carnegie Foundations to reform business school teaching and research. We argue that management educators misappropriated Simon's concept of an intellectually robust and relevant research and educational agenda for business schools that has in part contributed to the intellectual stasis that now characterizes business education research and its capacity to inform management practice.     

Home and away: preparing students for multicultural management

University business schools are key providers of future managers, and in the UK, business and management students are an increasingly international and diverse body. How do their learning experiences draw on these resources of diversity and multiculturalism to prepare students for working in a global economy? This article draws on two studies of business and management undergraduate students at a new UK university. Each was in a different university school, using different research methods. Both came to similar conclusions; that strongly ethnocentric attitudes prevailed among home, UK students, systematically leading to feelings of exclusion and disadvantage among international students, whatever and wherever their origins. However, in terms of gaining understanding and skills in the field of multiculturalism, it was the international students who had the advantage. The implications for preparation of students for careers in the global economy are explored, and the positive results of some subsequent initiatives discussed.     

套牢问题与企业边界的关系探讨

关于企业边界的研究,最有影响力的工作集中于套牢问题。目前为止,至少存在三种学派对此做出了研究:契约经济学流派、交易费用经济学流派、新产权经济学流派。本文旨在综述这三个主要学派的观点,并比较它们的研究切入点和彼此之间的不同点并进行评论。研究表明,三个学派基本认同套牢问题产生的根源为:人的有限理性、契约不完全以及资产专用性投资,但是在治理措施上分别产生了契约治理、长期动态(声誉考虑)治理、组织治理等。     

供应商管理绩效综合评价模型研究

供应商管理工作的优劣对企业经营业绩有着重要的影响,这个现象越来越受理论界和企业界的重视。首先阐述了供应商管理的重要性,其次对有关供应商管理研究成果进行了归纳、分析及总结,最后建立了以供应商管理理念、管理制度、供应商评价选择、沟通管理、严格执行力、激励机制和发展战略为指标的供应商管理绩效综合评价模型,帮助企业正确认识自身供应商管理的优劣状况,从而达到强化供应商管理的目的。     

基于流程节点的知识集成研究

文章根据流程的层次性对业务流程进行分解,给出流程节点的定义,并对流程节点中的知识活动进行分析,在此基础上构建基于流程节点的企业知识集成框架模型,实现组织流程管理与知识管理紧密结合。     

Transfer of marketing knowledge to Catholic primary schools

While the role and importance of marketing have grown in nonprofit organizations, marketing knowledge in nonprofit education organizations, specifically primary schools, is sparse. This paper reports the research findings of an exploratory study designed to examine the transfer of marketing knowledge to Catholic primary schools. It identifies and explores what school leaders know about marketing, how they acquire that knowledge, and what factors contribute to or impede its development. Qualitative data gathered from Catholic school educational leaders reveal that while marketing is viewed in schools as an important management function, marketing knowledge is slow to transfer. Findings reveal that marketing knowledge is primarily developed unintentionally, as a result of trial and error, and that a lack of formal marketing training results in a heavy dependence on volunteers. Findings also indicate that school leaders have minimal autonomy under the Diocese, which, along with economic, cultural, and structural barriers, functions to limit marketing knowledge development. It was also found that, although cross‐sector cooperation is desired among educational leaders, it is not pursued, further limiting the transfer of marketing knowledge. Theoretical and managerial implications for resource‐strapped primary schools in competitive environments are discussed.     

60 Years of March and Simon’s Organizations: An Empirical Examination of its Impact and Influence on Subsequent Research

We provide an analytic and systematic review of the impact of March and Simon’s seminal Organizations on management research and discuss the book’s value for current research and propose future applications of it. Building on bibliometric and text‐mining approaches, our empirical analysis reveals that although Organizations was contextually based in the industrial milieu of the 1950s, its concepts have found ongoing resonance with scholars. Further, we find that much of this resonance appears to be driven by the ability of scholars in different ‘schools of thought’ to find useful insights from March and Simon’s generalized theoretical structure. However, we also observe that scholars have been selective in their usage of ideas from the book over the last 60 years. Based our analysis, we propose a particular set of future research areas, including a focus on new organizational forms and extending March and Simon’s ideas to multi‐level research, which can benefit from more holistically drawing on Organizations and connect its original ideas to address current management problems.     

The Business School ‘Business’: Some Lessons from the US Experience*

US business schools dominate the business school landscape, particularly for the MBA degree. This fact has caused schools in other countries to imitate the US schools as a model for business education. But US business schools face a number of problems, many of them a result of offering a value proposition that primarily emphasizes the career‐enhancing, salary‐increasing aspects of business education as contrasted with the idea of organizational management as a profession to be pursued out of a sense of intrinsic interest or even service. We document some of the problems confronting US business schools and show how many of these arise from a combination of a market‐like orientation to education coupled with an absence of a professional ethos. In this tale, there are some lessons for educational organizations both in the US and elsewhere that are interested in learning from the US experience.     

The influence of perceived management skills and perceived gender discrimination in launch decisions by women entrepreneurs

Our study answers the call for a better understanding of female entrepreneurs in Morocco and the role families play in launch decisions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of perceived management skills and perceived gender discrimination in obtaining funds on women entrepreneurs’ propensity to start their businesses with or without family members. Drawing upon the family embeddedness and institutional economics theoretical frameworks, perceived high management capabilities are found to increase the likelihood that a female entrepreneur will set up her business with family members. However, when the entrepreneur perceives gender discrimination in obtaining funds, this will negatively moderate this relationship and will make it more likely that a woman will start her business alone or with nonrelatives. This research contributes to the literature by advancing knowledge of the socio-cultural factors, embedded in the family-oriented contextual framework, that affect women entrepreneurs’ ways of starting their businesses. Implications affecting the success of women-owned start-up businesses and public policy implications are discussed.     

基于认识论的案例教学法——美国商学院的经验

案例教学是美国商学院重要的教学手段,以建构主义认识论为理论基础。本文以此认识论为基础,致力于探讨美国商学院案例教学中教师与学生的不同角色定位,倡导商学院教育应注重传授缄默知识,并具体分析了美国商学院案例教学对我国的借鉴意义。     

Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations

Scholars and practitioners across fields increasingly recognize that business models for the circular economy may be an effective lever for solving ecological persistent problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing natural resource scarcity. Despite a growing interest in the potential of circular business models, interconnections between the organizational dimensions of firms and their business model innovation processes remain underexplored. Based on problem‐centered expert interviews with business consultants experienced in circular business development, this study creates a conceptual model that offers structured knowledge about why firms steadily reproduce linear BMs and how incumbents manifest themselves as a constant linear‐oriented value creation system. The model also demonstrates organizational conditions and management strategies that frustrate the reproduction of linear BMs and, thus, enable initial moves towards CBM innovation. Building on this, the article provides a set of propositions on how an organizational transition management may be configured and what incumbents require to successfully navigate circular business model innovation. The findings provide a foundation for a contemporary understanding of circular business model transition management, which simultaneously serve as impulses for future research investigations.     

现代企业呼唤知识管理

知识管理是以知识为核心,运用集体智慧提高应变和创新能力,通过知识共享,全面实现对企业的管理,文章主要讨论了现代企业新的管理理念知识,知识管理在现代企业管理中的重要性及实施等内容。     

国内高等教育人才培养模式研究对高职高专创新型人才培养的启示

高等学校在培养民族创新精神和培养创新型人才方面肩负着特殊的历史使命;关键是要构建一个科学的创新型人才培养模式。我国高等职业教育人才培养模式类型分别有定向委培模式、产学研结合模式、就业导向模式和双证书模式等;其共同特征是专业设置以市场需求为导向,教育目的以提高毕业生素质、提高就业率为出发点,教学设计以培养学生职业能力为宗旨,企业参与学校办学。     

加拿大商学院管理类课程教学方法的实证分析

商学院主要培养应用型专业人才,这些人才需要具备很强的职业能力,比如公众演讲能力、语言表达能力、独立决策能力、以及团队合作能力。加拿大一些顶级商学院在培养这种应用型专业人才方面有很多成功的经验。本文就以加拿大的一所商学院为例初步分析了该学院管理类主干课程的授课方法,并且通过对这些课的《课程简介》中的数据进行分析发现了不同的教学方法在培养学生的不同能力方面所起的不同作用。最后借鉴该学院先进的教学方法对我国商学院教学提出几点建议。     

Transdisciplinary Study of Sustainable Enterprise

Our research explores more holistic ways of understanding and creating sustainable enterprises. Enterprises and business school scholars are two primary actors in this research endeavor. Enterprises are moving towards sustainability but with a partial and selective understanding of global sustainability. Business school scholars generally study sustainability in their respective functional areas, such as management, accounting, finance and marketing, with some notable exceptions. We suggest that transdisciplinarity offers a unique real‐world problem‐solving framework that crosses disciplinary boundaries and the academic–practitioner divide. We explore the nature of transdisciplinarity and its application to corporate sustainability. We argue that enterprise sustainability requires trans‐functional, trans‐disciplinary, trans‐stakeholder, trans‐aesthetic and trans‐human knowledge that is possible through transdisciplinarity. We provide an example of transdisciplinary work in art and sustainable enterprise. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

The Challenges of March and Simon’s Organizations: Introduction to the Special Issue

March and Simon pushed the study of organizations into the mainstream of academic writing about business. We outline central ideas discussed by the book and its pioneering role in studying cognitive processes underlying boundedly rational human beings. Through their representational approach, March and Simon defined and explicated key mechanisms of individual and organizational decision‐making. Organizations provided an empirically‐based understanding of human behavior and coordination, and set up core scientific criteria for creating the cumulative body of management and organization research. We summarize the papers presented in this special issue and point out contributions by Organizations that have been understated, forgotten or ignored in management studies.     

烟草建设项目知识管理研究

烟草建设的大型化、复杂化,给项目管理的知识共享带来极大的挑战,如何应用现代管理手段,实现知识的收集、积累、挖掘、总结和共享,是当前项目管理工作亟待解决的问题。本文基于烟草建设项目的工程实践,对知识管理在烟草建设项目管理中的应用作了一定的研究,分析了知识管理的对象和实施机理,提出了知识管理的措施。     

企业管理新模式:虚拟经营

加入WTO后如何提升企业经营管理水平已成为亟待解决的问题。本文从虚拟经营产生的背景入手 ,指出虚拟经营是适应知识经济时代要求的新型企业管理经营模式 ,对虚拟经营的主要运作方式进行了分析 ,并结合实际案例指出实施虚拟经营的难点以及解决对策     

A literature review on business process modelling: new frontiers of reusability

Business process modelling (BPM) has become fundamental for modern enterprises due to the increasing rate of organisational change. As a consequence, business processes need to be continuously (re-)designed as well as subsequently aligned with the corresponding enterprise information systems. One major problem associated with the design of business processes is reusability. Reuse of business process models has the potential of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of BPM. This article critically surveys the existing literature on the problem of BPM reusability and more specifically on that State-of-the-Art research that can provide or suggest the ‘elements’ required for the development of a methodology aimed at discovering reusable conceptual artefacts in the form of patterns. The article initially clarifies the definitions of business process and business process model; then, it sets out to explore the previous research conducted in areas that have an impact on reusability in BPM. The article concludes by distilling directions for future research towards the development of apatterns-based approach to BPM; an approach that brings together the contributions made by the research community in the areas of process mining and discovery, declarative approaches and ontologies.     

A project management research framework integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and influencing factors

The increasing projectification of the business world corresponds with a high diversity of theoretical perspectives used in project management research. This diversity is reflected by a variety of influencing factors, which have been the subject of empirical studies. This article aims to systemize the different streams of research on the basis of a literature review and at developing a research framework by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and influencing factors. We elaborate on the crosslinks between the perspectives and identify fundamental elements of a project management theory. The framework consists of three dimensions: design, context, and goal. Its purpose is to support the combination of different perspectives and the development of strategies for further research.