Discretionary technology bootlegging tensions in institutional healthcare work

We explore individuals who take some of their technology use ‘underground’, described as ‘bootlegging’, to enhance healthcare work. We find that healthcare professionals’ informal use of mobile applications in healthcare work sometimes ‘sticks out’ and this produces professional identity tensions: (1) conflict with perceptions of professional behaviour, and (2) defilement of expert judgment. Our analysis, moreover, reveals that identity work (i.e. ‘accepting’ and ‘sensemaking’) provides a coping mechanism to deal with these unresolved professional identity tensions. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the constitutive entanglements and two‐way interactions of discretionary technology bootlegging, professional identity and autonomy in institutional healthcare work.     

Is productive inefficiency a fatal disease? The effects of technical and scale efficiency in firm exit: the case of the Greek rubber and plastic industry

This article presents an integrated framework for testing the effects of productive efficiency, i.e. technical efficiency (TE) and scale efficiency (SE), on firm exit, facilitating the identification of the effects, causing a firm's operation at increasing or decreasing returns to scale. A panel data set of firms in the plastics and rubber industry of the Greek manufacturing sector is used to study the effect that TE and SE may have on a firm's probability to exit. Results reveal that technical efficiency is the most critical factor influencing firm exit, while SE exerts a quadratic effect on the probability to exit.     

Conflicting concerns over the privacy of electronic medical records in the NHSnet

The privacy and security of computerised medical data have become a major concern in Britain since the launch of the national electronic network for the National Health Service (NHSnet). A stakeholder analysis approach helps identify the wide range of the concerns which are involved, and this contributes to understanding the broader context within which technological developments take place and ethical concerns arise. The author is a member of the Information Systems Department of London School of Economics and Political Science [LSE], Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England; email A.Pouloudi@lse.ac.uk     

The role of productive efficiency on entry and post‐entry performance under different strategic orientation: the case of the Greek plastics and rubber industry

The present study formulates and empirically tests the hypothesis that the post‐entry performance and growth of new firms is affected by the way in which crucial resources are combined during the decision‐making process to enter the industry or not. Further, the study empirically tests the hypothesis that multifaceted productive efficiency influences both the entry decision and the entrants' post‐entry performance. The proposed analytical framework allows for testing these hypotheses under different strategic orientations assumed to be followed by entrants. Results of the estimated partial observability model provide support to these hypotheses in almost all of the examined cases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Market Concentration and Multifaceted Productive Efficiency

Developing the analytical framework of the decision making process of a possible entrant, a reduced form system equations model is estimated in order to examine the market concentration – productive efficiency relationship in an endogeneity context. Technical and scale efficiency estimates are obtained from an inter-industry stochastic production frontier using a panel dataset regarding the seven most energy intensive manufacturing industries in Greece over the period 1980–96. Several new versions of the concentration – efficiency relationship, may be derived from the alternatives of the entrant considering the possible conduct character of incumbents’ technical efficiency and excess capacity, which is depicted on their scale efficiency, on market concentration.     

Measuring advertising intensity and intangible capital in the Greek food industry

The objective of the present paper is to examine market conduct and its determinants in the Greek food industry and to measure how and to what degree the industry and the firm's structural characteristics affect advertising intensity. An advertising intensity model giving emphasis to intangible capital is formulated. Data from ICAP have been used on a four-digit classification for the food industry during the 1990–1997 period. The empirical results indicate that intangible capital positively affects the advertising intensity of the firm and plays an important role in strategies that affect total cost, demand and structure of the market.     

Export Diversification in the Gulf: The Kuwait Experience

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Exports and Economic Growth: Some Evidence from the GCC

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Fuel-Mining Exports and Economic Growth: Evidence from the UAE

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Privacy in the Information Age: Stakeholders, Interests and Values

Privacy is a relational and relative concept that has been defined in a variety of ways. In this paper we offer a systematic discussion of potentially different notions of privacy. We conclude that privacy as the freedom or immunity from the judgement of others is an extremely useful concept to develop ways in which to understand privacy claims and associated risks. To this end, we develop a framework of principles that explores the interrelations of interests and values for various stakeholders where privacy concerns have risen or are expected to rise. We argue that conflicts between the interests and values of different stakeholders may result in legitimate claims of privacy/transparency being ignored or underrepresented. Central to this analysis is the notion of a stakeholder. We argue that stakeholders are persons or groups with legitimate interests, of intrinsic value, in the procedural and/or substantive aspects of the privacy/transparency claim and subsequent judgements on that basis. Using the principles of access, representation, and power, which flow from our framework of analysis, we show how they can facilitate the identification of potential privacy/transparency risks using examples from the British National Health Service.