Large established firms entry into franchising: an exploratory investigation of strategic and operational issues

Although franchising is traditionally associated with newly emerging businesses which need to finance growth, this marketing technique is being increasingly utilized by large established firms as a method of business development. This article analyses the business objectives which led a sample of such firms in the UK to introduce franchising as a means of channel management. The modes of franchising-including the master franchise-selected by these firms as well as their operational and organizational experiences are investigated. In particular, there is an examination of the major managerial/cultural issues which these firms encountered in trying to reconcile the decentralized organization and operating methods implicit in the franchising concept with the centralized decision making and organization of a corporate concern. The implications for management of this dichotomy are explored.     

An empirically based operational definition of strategic purchasing

To develop an empirically based operational definition of strategic purchasing, a definition was first developed from the current literature. The definition was tested by first developing a model based on the current literature in the strategic management and strategic purchasing literature. The model resulted in four hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, survey responses from 739 firms were analyzed. Each of the following factors were positively related to the level of strategic purchasing as defined from the literature: status of the purchasing function; purchasing knowledge and skills; purchasing's willingness to take risks, and; purchasing resources. Therefore, it was concluded that the definition was valid and could include the four underlying characteristics.     

Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the challenges and strategic opportunities

Although global mobility represents an important element of many multinational enterprise's (MNEs) global talent management systems, the two areas of practice have largely been decoupled in research and practice. The current paper aims to build a dialog around the integration of these two important areas of practice and illustrate how the integration of global mobility and global talent management can contribute to the success of the MNE. Human capital and social capital theories are introduced as theoretical frames for the integration of the two areas and global talent pools and routines for managing global staffing flows are introduced as key organizational routines that can maximize the contribution of global mobility to the MNE. The paper also considers challenges and opportunities for the integration of mobility and talent and outlines some directions for future study.     

垃圾里面有黄金--跨国环保企业大举进军中国城市垃圾业

当我们正在为被垃圾所围困的城市而犯愁的时候,从广州传来了跨国外资环保企业大举进军中国城市垃圾业的消息.这真可谓自帚彼珍!     

把云朵变成你的样子——Flogos云朵机升腾你的LOGO

今天，你还能把广告做在哪里？报纸。转瞬即逝的实惠？公交车，满目繁华的破费？还是电视，寸秒寸金的优雅？如果是天空呢？除了上帝应该没人会向你收费吧！     

Turning ideas into products: subjective well-being in co-creation

New services, like fabrication spaces, 3D printer rentals and virtual marketplaces, have made it easier for empowered consumers to co-create innovative products without almost any involvement of traditional companies. Adopting a consumer-grounded view, this work takes a step forward from the existing service literature by investigating the link between psychological motives and happiness in co-creation. Specifically, the study measures how community affiliation, personal growth and utilitarian motives are predictors of subjective well-being (SWB). The results illustrate that community affiliation and personal growth motives predict high scores of SWB, while utilitarian motives do not. In addition, empowered consumers who co-create with others are happier than consumers who create alone. This indicates that direct interactions are not only a powerful platform for service co-creation, but are also predictors of SWB. We discuss the implications for traditional companies and for decision makers regarding the benefits offered by digital fabrication services.     

The strategic and operational roles of human resources an emerging model

Human-resources management may be most effective when decisions are made as close as possible to the point where the decision will be implemented.     

The strategic challenge of the evolving global economy

The world economy is in a period of rapid change. New market forces are emerging as the economic center of gravity continues moving westward toward the Orient. The technological revolution is likely to equal the industrial revolution in its impact on the global economy. How are industrial countries responding to these changing markets and technologies?     

江森自控建筑设施效益业务：工业余热变“废”为宝

公司简介江森自控为全球150多个国家和地区的客户提供服务,是多元化技术和产业的全球领跑者。全球17万名员工为优化能源以及建筑物的运营效率提供优质的产品、服务和解决方案;为混合动力车和电动汽车提供铅蓄电池和高级电池;为全球工作场所提供能效优化解决方案;并提供汽车内饰系统。     

Entrepreneurial strategic posture and learning effort in international ventures: The moderating roles of operational flexibilities

Drawing from the attention-based view, this article extends the study of international entrepreneurship by investigating how the contribution of international ventures’ entrepreneurial strategic posture to their actual learning efforts in foreign markets depends on various flexibilities that underlie their operations. The results from a sample of international Chinese ventures indicate that an entrepreneurial strategic posture enhances international learning effort more to the extent that the ventures possess greater cognitive and political flexibilities. Somewhat paradoxically, greater structural flexibility impedes the translation of an entrepreneurial strategic posture into international learning effort. The findings have important implications for the growing body of research that adopts an international new venture perspective.     

Integrating strength-weakness analysis into strategic planning

Strength-weakness assessment, which must be performed as a part of any strategic planning process, is presented in terms of a process, termed SWA, that involves managers in making the critical informational choices that are implicit in strategic assessments of strengths and weaknesses. The process is illustrated in terms of its underlying premises, their implications, its benefits, and an illustrative substantive framework that can be used to guide the process.     

“转危为机”的底蕴

人们现在常常把"冬天"与国际金融危机相提并论,这容易掩盖一个事实:中国企业遭遇到的冬天并非因金融危机而至,只不过是因后者而加剧。当比较优     

China Makes Breakthrough in Turning Stalk into Bio-oil

Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China said on June 28 they have made a breakthrough in reducing the cost of converting crop stalks, chaff and sawdust into bio-oil, an alternative source of energy.     

Private label: Turning the retail brand threat into your biggest opportunity

Avatars are now appearing as online assistants on transactional websites, yet their scope is still limited. This paper explores their potential roles in providing assistance, a friendlier interface and purchase recommendations. As avatars are at early stages of implementation, the conceptual framework draws upon human-computer interaction research, plus cognate literature on salesperson roles and the use of synthetic characters in other contexts.

The empirical study involved two longitudinal panels of online buyers and an international, online survey of 2114 internet users. Following split-sample principal components analysis and k-means clustering, four categories of role preference are identified. The results inform decisions on the appropriateness of avatars, their adaptation to customer needs and buying contexts, and their possible roles. Hypothesised relationships with age, gender and online buying experience are tested, suggesting scope for avatar role segmentation. Suggestions are offered for marketers and website designers, considering deploying avatars, and for future research directions.     

Turning small business interns into applicants: The mediating role of perceived justice

Internship is a relatively low-risk approach for entrepreneurs to attract and select prospective employees. But what factors can influence interns' intentions to join small businesses? Based on the model of action phases, realistic job preview theory, and organizational justice theory, I hypothesize that interns' post-internship intentions to join can be predicted by their pre-internship job-seeking goal and their during-internship involvement with the host organization. Perceived organizational justice is hypothesized to mediate the relationship between involvement and post-internship intentions to join. Temporally lagged data from 104 small business interns support most hypotheses. In addition, compared to a group of 175 corporate interns, small business interns are more likely to change their minds after the internship, and justice perception has a stronger effect on their post-internship intentions to join.     

粮食流通的物流化思考

随着粮食流通体制的改革也逐步深入，使得我们必须重新审视历史沿革下来的粮食流通，塑造新的体制和机制，以融入市场经济，进而加入到世界粮食市场竞争中。在对粮食流通做重新认识、评价和构造的方法当中，物流（Logistics）思想和技术值得关注。本文愿就物流在粮食流通上的应用提出一些看法和认识，如果能够引起业界换个角度看问题，开阔思路，对实际工作有所帮助的话，本文的目的就达到了。     

五大战略转变再刨营销辉煌——搜狐汽车全面收获上海国际车展

在全球经济危机的大背景下，已经在规模上跃居世界第一的上海国际车展，成为了全球汽车产业的关注核心．60万现场参观人次点燃了车展的激情，