The relationship between national culture and the use of professional services: Evidence from two cross-country studies

Each year, clients spend large sums on professional services, such as accounting services, legal services and consulting services. While research has found significant cross-country differences in organizations’ spending on professional services, we do not know why they occur. Inspired by the organizational buying behavior literature, this paper investigates the influence of national culture on the use of professional services, particularly management consulting services. As the use of professional services involves considerable uncertainties—particularly for the buyer—it can be assumed to be influenced by cultural differences regarding the level of Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism and Masculinity. By drawing on two independent cross-country studies, we show that organizations in high uncertainty avoidance and individualistic cultures use professional services less than organizations in low uncertainty avoidance and collectivist cultures. We found no relationship between Hofstede's dimension of Masculinity and the use of professional services. The findings contribute to the theorizing on how the cultural context influences organizational buying behavior and the purchasing of professional services.     

Offshore outsourcing of professional services: A transaction cost economics perspective

This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships.     

Towards a common understanding of the differences between purchasing, procurement and commissioning in the UK public sector

This paper recognises that commissioning has now become an important term in the lexicon of UK public policy but the term ‘commissioning’ is taking on a different meaning than that traditionally used within the purchasing and supply management community. The frequent inter-changeability of the terms ‘commissioning’, ‘procurement’ and ‘purchasing’ is now causing confusion and means different things to different people. Therefore the academic community needs to help practitioners understand the differences and implications. A document analysis of various UK Central Government departments’ commissioning frameworks was used to establish the key themes and compare commissioning, procurement and purchasing. This paper discusses the similarities and differences, and argues that commissioning is different from procurement, but that commissioning offers major opportunities for Procurement practitioners to make a strategic contribution.     

Changing Trends in Regional Economic Development Policy Governance: The Case of Northern Ontario,Canada

This article analyses the changing trends in regional economic development policy delivery in multilevel governance systems. Although the imperatives of coordination of public policy interventions across multiple levels has generally been recognized, not enough attention has been given to how different political systems actually adapt their institutional and policy designs to effectively operate in the emergent complexity of multilevel governance systems. The article focuses on regional economic development policy governance in the province of Ontario, Canada over the past three decades, drawing insights from new regionalism, organization theory and governance literature to examine the prospects and challenges of policy delivery in politically complex multilevel systems. The case study illustrates how regional economic development policy is increasingly dictated by complex environmental and institutional forces of multilevel governance that are shaped by the particular character of a political system.     

Rethinking the role of private capital in infrastructure PPPs: the experience of Ontario,Canada

Private capital has become a significant feature of infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs) on the premise that it incentivizes diligent risk management among private partners. This paper evaluates this claim by examining the PPP programme in Ontario, Canada, where the amount of long-term private capital in PPPs has been reduced. The paper shows that decreasing the amount of private capital after construction does not undermine performance, while producing cost savings for governments. This was achieved by deploying sophisticated procurement and monitoring strategies. These findings suggest that private capital is one of several tools available to achieve positive value for money in PPPs.     

Associations between workers' health,and non-standard hours and insecurity: the case of home care workers in Ontario,Canada

This article examines associations between home care workers' health, and non-standard hours and insecurity. Health refers to symptoms of stress and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), non-standard hours refer to part-time and casual hours, and insecurity refers to job and employability insecurity. Data come from our 2002 survey of 532 home care workers (nurses, therapists and personal support workers) in a medium-sized city in Ontario, Canada. Path analysis regression results for the conceptual model show that (1) part-time and casual hours and job insecurity are positively and significantly associated with symptoms of stress, (2) the associations between part-time and casual hours and MSDs are mediated by symptoms of stress, and (3) job and employability insecurity are directly associated with MSDs. Results provide evidence that non-standard hours and insecurity must be addressed in order to improve home care workers' health. We show the detrimental effects of non-standard hours and insecurity on workers' health, and the results have implications for employers, human resource managers, trade unionists and government policy-makers.     

The role of university-based industrial extension services in the business performance of small manufacturing firms: case-study evidence from Western New York

This paper investigates the role of university-based industrial extension services in the business performance of small manufacturing firms in an economically declining region of the United States (Western New York). The outreach initiatives of a specific University at Buffalo (UB) programme are described. Particular attention is given to the activities of UB's Centre for Industrial Effectiveness (CIE), an outreach unit with a mandate to improve the product and/or process development efforts of local manufacturing firms. Our data suggest positive returns on investment for firms that have sought technical support under CIE programmes. A key finding is that CIE's services typically entail the transmission of well-established procedures rather than radically new ways of doing things. A further finding is that firms that have used CIE to develop improved products have experienced stronger investment returns than their counterparts that have focused upon process development (although the returns are positive in both instances). More broadly, our data suggest positive correlations between levels of project investment and a variety of commercial outcomes, including sales growth, job-retention, and unit-cost reduction. The implications of these results for regional economic development policy are discussed. The paper also reviews some of the weaknesses that curtail the effectiveness of university-based centres such as CIE.     

Management problems in welfare services: the role of the “social entrepreneur” in home-help for the elderly, the Valby case

This article deals with the management problems of the traditional welfare state. The article is based on observations and interviews with employees in the home-help service for the elderly in Valby, a suburb of Copenhagen. On the basis of observations and interviews, and with reference to various relevant studies, the history of home-help in Denmark is examined as a “narrative” in order to uncover critical problems and incidents. In Valby an attempt has been made to promote flexibility and interaction with clients, rather than a standardisation of the services offered. The practical expression of this approach can be seen in the shape of a new entrepreneurial role in management, what I call the social entrepreneur. I discuss briefly how support for this new role can be institutionalised. At the theoretical level, I analyse the Valby case using the theory of flexible specialisation. However, the Valby case illustrates the contextual limitations of this theory and the need to complement the approach with an understanding of management problems at the practical level.