New methods of evaluating physical demand at work areas

The manufacturer's requirement of increasing productivity results in the need to design work stations that are increasingly more effective and specialized. However, this procedure can bring about an overloading of the worker, a lack of motivation, and, consequently, a reduction in productivity.Ergonomics adapts the work station to the worker with the object of improving his welfare and satisfaction at his post. One aspect that this science concerns itself with is the evaluation of physical demands connected to productive tasks. Mechanical movements are also studied in order to perform tasks efficiently.We here propose a new method of physical demand analysis that determines the risk factor for muscular skeletal lesion. This method uses, as a base, the system of predetermined times, MTM-UAS. It includes a computer system that allows us to easily analyse the operations at a work station and generates charts similar to those of UAS, but, instead of times, it measures the quantity of mechanical work necessary for each movement.The information that the method provides can be used by different divisions within companies in making decisions about improvements at work stations.     

Managing digital business platforms: A continued exercise in balancing renewal and refinement

Central to the evolution of a digital business platform is the organization’s ability to balance exploration (renewal) and exploitation (refinement) simultaneously. Drawing on prior research—including digital platforms, contradictory tensions, and organizational ambidexterity—and our own experience investigating digital business platforms in organizations, this article provides insights into how executives can manage this evolution successfully. More specifically, we present a framework recognizing three pairs of organizational capabilities (i.e., identifying-nourishing, expanding-legitimating, and augmenting-embedding) that enable balancing renewal and refinement of the platform over time. We close by providing critical managerial practices that executives can use in anticipating, adjusting, and evaluating the evolution of a digital business platform over time, including its initiation, development, and growth.     

Cooperative Credit in Spain: An Analysis of Credit Sections of Cooperatives

The long history and deep-rooted tradition of co-operative credit in Spain (credit co-operatives and credit sections of co-operatives) and the lack of detailed studies of the latter suggest the need to reflect on them and highlight their potential. This study examines the ways in which the credit sections can access the financial markets, describes their financial and economic structure and the sources of their income and expenditure and analyses their competitiveness in terms of efficiency.     

Implications of perceived competitive advantages,adaptation of marketing tactics and export commitment on export performance

The aim of this exploratory paper is to fill an important gap in the international marketing literature by examining the influence of firm behavior in foreign markets (export commitment and adaptation of marketing tactics) on perceived competitive advantages and export performance. Using a sample of 150 Spanish export firms, the study found that firms that are more committed to their foreign markets are more willing to adapt elements of the marketing program. These firms also perform better in foreign markets. Moreover, the results also point out that adapting marketing tactics does not have direct effects on export performance, although it does have on the achievement of perceived competitive advantages in foreign markets, which positively influence export performance.     

Is globalisation undermining the welfare state?

This paper analyses the evolution of the welfare states in themajority of OECD countries during the pre-globalisation (1946–80)and globalisation (1980–2000) periods. Our purpose isto find out whether globalisation has produced a convergencetowards a smaller welfare state, funded increasingly by non-mobilefactors such as labour, property and consumption rather thanby mobile factors such as capital. The data presented here challengethe claims about such a convergence, showing that social publicexpenditures and public employment have continued to expandduring the globalisation period in most OECD countries. We alsoshow that the welfare states remain rooted in the politicaltraditions that have governed them.     

Social structures that promote change in a complex world: The complementary roles of strangers and acquaintances in innovation

In this paper we offer insights about the type of societies that are more likely to generate and promote innovation. In particular, we present results from a study of innovation through computational social simulations to focus on a structural aspect of societies: their degree of separation and how this social characteristic may be related to what, how and why new ideas and solutions can replace existing wide-spread practices in a society. We focus on the work of design practitioners and sustainable design as an example to illustrate these insights.     

Value co-creation among hotels and disabled customers: An exploratory study

This study examines how service supplier and buyer value co-creation influences buyers' attitudes toward service providers. Service-dominant logic is a prevalent concept in the services industry, providing an important marketing theory in which intangible resources, co-creation of value, and relationships are the keys to determining marketing exchanges. This research describes a model for analyzing value co-creation management in the hotel industry, focusing on the specific market segment of disabled customers. This framework helps foster value co-creation to increase the benefits for participants during each stage of their relationship. The paper also presents the managerial implications of the research findings.     

The Influence of Improvements in Accounting Standards on Earnings Management: The Case of IFRS

This article examines the effect of improvements in the quality of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the level of earnings management. In order to achieve this aim, we study the accounting quality of German listed companies through discretionary accruals yielded from 1998 to 2006. We assess the effectiveness of efforts by the International Accounting Standards Board to improve IFRS by using two indices that consider the revision process of the standards, and their mandatory application. Our results indicate that the improvement of accounting standards quality significantly reduces the level of reported negative discretionary accruals of the German listed firms during the period of analysis, once incentive variables are controlled. Further, companies gradually assume the quality of the new standards from the moment they can be voluntarily applied.     

POLICY PAPER: The Technical Process of Bank Privatization in Mexico

This paper describes the process of Mexican bank privatization that took place in 1991. We show that the Mexican government was very careful to ensure due process and transparency through the entire bank privatization process. However, the lack of a legal and regulatory framework and lax oversight shadowed the success of the technical process. Hence, the financial system in Mexico had to deal with a banking crisis shortly after their privatization, in 1994.     

Linking Exploration with Exploitation through Relationship Memory*

Companies that are able to help clients make better decisions and enhance their business capabilities to flourish. However, there is often poor rapport between operating personnel who are in touch with end customers and executive personnel who make decisions. Through exploration and exploitation processes, new ideas and actions flow from the individual (i.e., operating personnel) to the organization (i.e., the rest of individuals and groups that form part of the organization). This paper examines the relative importance and significance of “the relationship memory” as a bridge between “exploration” and “exploitation” processes and its effects on the creation of “customer capital” through an empirical investigation of 139 small to medium‐sized enterprises in the Spanish optometry sector using structural equation modeling validated by factor analysis.