The PMI local site demonstration project: lessons in technical assistance

This paper presents the lessons that were learned in technical assistance during the Preventive Marketing Initiative local site demonstration project in the US. The program has been ongoing for 5 years, with social marketers from the Academy for Educational Development and Porter Novelli using social marketing and behavioral science principles to develop HIV prevention programs for and with local teens. With the success of the program, community-based prevention programs are increasingly being requested since better outcomes resulted from a few dollars of investment. Likewise, funders and prevention researchers were challenged to transfer state-of-the-art prevention technologies for communities to apply it readily. The success achieved by the project, however, provides important lessons that would save time and money for future community-based Prevention Marketing efforts. Among the lessons were the need to seek out or establish conditions in the community that are conducive to success, as well as the need to offer technical assistance that would mobilize communities in developing more effective Prevention Marketing programs.     

Privatization: The theme of the 1990s

Privatization has clearly become the development issue of the 1990s. While not an end in itself, privatization of state owned enterprises should be viewed as a critical element of economic adjustment. Distilled from his extensive involvement with privatization programs, Lieberman identifies the underlying rationale for privatization, presents lessons to be learned in program design, and cautions against pitfalls to successful program implementation.     

Returning to flight: simulation‐based training for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Shuttle Mission Management Team*

Following the tragic loss of Columbia in early 2003, executives at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration implemented a simulation‐based training program to facilitate the development of the Space Shuttle Mission Management Team (MMT). This article discusses the findings from an evaluation of two multi‐day simulation training events. The results of both evaluations suggested that MMT members: (1) possessed shared beliefs in their joint capabilities to execute their corecompetencies; (2) were motivated and ready for their Return to Flight mission; (3) achieved targeted levels of team performance during the simulations; and (4) were both satisfied with the training program and found it useful for facilitating performance improvements. This note concludes with a discussion of lessons learned.     

Implementing Experiential Action Learning in International Management Education: The Global Business Strategic (GLOBUSTRAT) Consulting Program

This paper discusses the theoretical foundations and implementation challenges and outcomes of a unique “hands‐on” global consulting program that is integrated into an international EMBA program for mid‐career and senior American and European managers. It details the challenges for the integration of experiential action learning, double‐loop learning, service learning, and tacit learning into global management education and discusses the value of such integration for the EMBA‐participant's learning experience. The lessons learned from the implementation of the use of integrated global consulting based on an experiential action learning model on EMBA education are discussed. The andragogical model of education used should be a useful guide for designing and implementing experiential action learning based MBA/EMBA programs.     

Customer co-creation projects and social media: The case of Barilla of Italy

This article investigates a social media-enabled, customer co-creation project that employs front-end innovation (FEI) at a well-known, large-scale food manufacturer. It sheds light on the role of social media technology in transforming the characteristics of FEI in terms of boundaries and knowledge distance. What type of exploratory or exploitative innovation ideas does a project of this sort enable? How did the project evolve? What lessons can be learned from this project? A longitudinal case study of Barilla was carried out through two rounds of interviews with marketing, business development and innovation, and digital communication managers. The evidence gathered highlights the emergent evolution of this customer co-creation project from an initial stage of idea exploitation to a more complex and fruitful stage in which both exploitation and exploration were simultaneously accomplished.     

Leading the way: Motivating environmental action through perceived marketplace influence

This research explores the perceived marketplace influence (PMI) belief and its role in explaining behavior. Across three studies, we show PMI to be distinct from other efficacy-based constructs and a powerful predictor of pro-environmental and socially-motivated behavior. Specifically, consumers are motivated to act when they believe their behavior influences other marketplace actors. We develop a ten-item scale for PMI and display its predictive and incremental validity in explaining environmental behavior before showing its power to translate environmental concern into corresponding behavior. We then find that PMI predicts social environmentalism and environmental citizenship behaviors, and that these effects are attenuated by consumer skepticism of marketing. While complementing existing efficacy-related beliefs with its explicit marketplace focus, PMI provides an important tool for marketers operating in environmental and prosocial niches by allowing them to understand and target the consumers most likely to adopt their products or attempt to recruit others in environmentally-motivated efforts.     

Implementing an Organizational Ethics Program in an Academic Environment: The Challenges and Opportunities for the Duquesne University Schools of Business

This paper acknowledges the paucity of attention regarding the development of ethics programs within an academic environment and describes in a case study how the Duquesne University schools of business attempted to introduce, integrate and promote its own ethics program. The paper traces the business school’s attention to mission statements, curriculum development, ethics policy, program oversight and outcome assessment. Lessons learned are offered as suggestions for others seeking to develop and implement an ethics program in their school.     

What Small Countries Can Teach the World

In the past, various great powers have taken the stage as models of economic and social development. Examples such as Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States have had their time in the spotlight that has come and gone as flaws were exposed; and other countries have learned what they did well and what they did poorly. The great powers are not the only models, however. Much can be learned from small countries which are often free to experiment with new institutions and new policies. This paper describes lessons that can be learned from such countries though no one size fits all.     

Group Support Systems and Virtual Collaboration: The HKNET Project

Groupware, and particularly Group Support System (GSS) tools, support organisational co-ordination and interaction between various organisational structures working within a decentralised market that evolves in different times and places. In 1998, 1999 and 2000 an educational project (HKNet) between the City University of Hong Kong (China) and the Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) has shown that remote collaboration can lead to successful problem solving in multicultural groups. This study focused on 178 participants, all of whom were involved in academic courses on software engineering, informatics and management using e-mail, videoconferencing, Internet phone connections and GroupSystems^T for both synchronous and asynchronous interactions. The task was to participate in a joint project on a chosen IT-related subject resulting in a joint report. The HKNet project created a win-win situation for both universities. Throughout the three-year project, GroupSystems^T supported efficient group problem solving, development of new-shared meaning and cultural attitude changes. The groups wrote creative reports that reflected their having worked successfully together. This paper presents selected results in an abbreviated form and the lessons learned from the last three years of the HKNet experience. Special emphasis is given to social and cultural phenomena. Limitations of our study will be discussed before to conclude with future research plans.     

西安北站公网室分系统工程经验及教训

本文重点讲述了西安北站公网室内分布系统引入工程方案及工程建设中的经验和教训。     

An Exploratory Study in Community Perspectives of Sustainability Leadership in the Murray Darling Basin

This article explores the emergence of leadership during implementation of a water saving initiative in the rural community surrounding Barren Box Swamp in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. Qualitative data analysis indicated that the system elements affecting the type of leadership to emerge included the extent to which the groups were engaged in the process, the level of access to resources, and the level of investment in the outcomes of the project. Although these results reinforced key aspects of complex problem-solving through collaboration, they demonstrated varying degrees and types of both engagement and leadership within the case community. Given the current finding that these varying elements can coincide within one system, this case suggests that each community’s characteristics, resources and context will determine the optimal combination of leadership style and level of collaboration needed to facilitate sustainable community development.     

Lean, take two! Reflections from the second attempt at lean implementation

It’s not easy being lean. And for many companies, getting lean right the first time does not always happen. Lean is a management philosophy focused on identifying and eliminating waste throughout a product’s entire value stream, extending not only within the organization but also along the company’s supply chain network. Lean promises significant benefits in terms of waste reduction, and increased organizational and supply chain communication and integration. Implementing lean, however, and achieving the levels of organizational commitment, employee autonomy, and information transparency needed to ensure its success is a daunting task. This article describes in detail two lean implementation projects within the same company: a global manufacturer of food processing machines and equipment. The first project was a failure, while the second is viewed as a success. Examining these projects in detail, the major criteria and conditions that led to either lean failure or lean success are identified. Based on these conditions, we highlight a number of lessons learned, all of which may help other organizations ensure the success of their own lean implementation and improvement efforts.     

China R&D: A High-Tech Field of Dreams1

This study highlights the rapid pace at which new commercial research and development (R&D) centres are being established by foreign investors in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It recounts the motivations behind this growing trend, subtle changes in this trend over time, some lessons learned, and asks what it could mean for future Asia-Pacific relations. The essay emphasizes China's distinct role in attracting R&D through its extensive investment in municipal services, infrastructure and regulatory reforms as well as policy incentives that have helped to spur ever-greater levels of foreign R&D investment over the past decade.     

Barriers to implementing e‐learning: a Kuwaiti case study

The paper reports on a research project that encompasses two key objectives: (1) finding out about the barriers affecting or preventing e‐learning from being adopted by companies as an integral part of their workforce's training and learning processes and (2) establishing a comparison between the barriers and the e‐learning implementation models found in Kuwait and in the practice of Western companies. The practices from Western countries are used as a benchmark for the Kuwaiti experience. The collection of the primary data was carried out through the use of semi‐structured questionnaires with human resources managers as well as IT managers in charge of the e‐learning of 11 of the largest companies in Kuwait. The research results show that the key implementation barriers in Kuwait are (1) lack of management support; (2) language barriers; (3) IT problems; and (4) workload and lack of time. From these, two are common to Western countries (technology and time). The remaining two (management support and language barriers) are specific to Kuwait. Regarding the comparison between the two implementation models, the key finding was that the usual e‐learning development cycle (plan–design–integrate–improve) was not followed in Kuwait. The planning, designing and improving stages were largely ignored, with the emphasis resting almost completely on integrating the e‐learning tools and processes in the rest of the organization. This finding was found to be in line with barrier number one – lack of management support. The key lesson learned from this research is that the problem of e‐learning implementation in Kuwait is not so much one of knowing what the barriers are but one of knowing what the appropriate management processes should be for companies to achieve business success. The paper also provides recommendations for an e‐learning development plan to fit the current business environment in Kuwait.     

物业管理企业核心竞争力的培育和提升

培育和提升核心竞争力是物业管理企业生存和发展的战略选择。以核心竞争力理论为基础,界定物业管理企业核心竞争力的概念和特征,物业管理企业要以顾客价值为导向,以文化创新为动力,以执行功能为目标,以信息化为手段,来培育和提升物业管理企业的核心竞争力。     

Changing the marketplace one behavior at a time: Perceived marketplace influence and sustainable consumption

This study introduces the construct of Perceived Marketplace Influence (PMI) and investigates its role in mediating the relationship between environmental concern and sustainable consumption behavior. A nationwide survey shows that Perceived Marketplace Influence plays an important role in mediating the relationship between concern and behavior, providing an explanation for prior inconsistencies in this relationship. Accordingly, Perceived Marketplace Influence plays a purposeful role in transforming environmental concern into behavior. This project extends previous research on the relationship between values, beliefs, and behavior by showing that one's perception of influence on the marketplace behavior of others significantly influences one's own marketplace behavior. Improved understanding of this relationship provides updated guidance to firms and policymakers for projecting and encouraging sustainable consumption behavior.     

The (missing) subjects of research on gender and global governance: Toward inquiry into the ruling relations of development

Responding to the Special Issue's call for “new thinking” on gender and governance in developing societies, we introduce our research on the social organization of development knowledge and its ethical implications. Our feminist-based approach, institutional ethnography, analyses the ruling relations of development and the standpoints represented in knowledge about development and its governance. Our paper offers an alternative to what we see as “the institutional standpoint” prevailing, but taken for granted, in business and society scholarship addressing development. Instead of theorizing development relationships between institutions and their “stakeholders,” we illustrate what can be learned about the social relations of development beginning from the experiences of local subjects. Our analysis of an environmental research and development project in Uzbekistan shows that being missed is knowledge about development subjects that could have revealed what is locally relevant and needed. Instead, we discover gender inequality being constituted, unknowingly, within this project's institutionally generated knowledge and the activities it authorizes.     

Implementation of yield management practices in service organisations: empirical findings from a major hotel group

This article presents findings on the development and implementation of a centralised yield management project by an international hotel group in its over 160 hotel units. Data were collected over two years from the participant hotel group's three management levels through semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. The research findings reveal that developing and implementing a centralised yield management project is contextually a very complex and challenging task. Major problems and difficulties appear to have originated from the participant company's organisational structure and culture. In addition, a high labour turnover, poor HRM practices, ongoing developments and changes across the company seem to have had an impact on the implementation of yield practices. The existing literature on yield management seems to view yield implementation as a tactical activity and therefore fails to explain the strategic implications of deploying yield practices in service organisations. The overall recommendation of this article are that scholars and practitioners working in this area should view yield implementation more from the perspectives of strategic management and change management fields.