Economic feasibility analysis of flexible material handling systems: A case study in the apparel industry

Flexible material handling systems (MHS) have been widely used to enhance productivity involved with product proliferation, and thus far, only fixed-track MHSs such as Eton systems in the apparel industry are commonly used. This paper explores the economic feasibility of a flexible MHS using free-ranging automated guided vehicles (AGV) with a local positioning system (LPS) for the apparel industry. A component-based and modified activity-based costing methodology is proposed to estimate the additional cost of adopting flexible MHSs, and then the internal rate of return (IIR) and payback periods are applied to evaluate the project economic performance. Results show that adopting flexible MHSs has a promising IIR which is larger than 30%.     

Disrupted work: home‐based teleworking (HbTW) in the aftermath of a natural disaster

Natural disasters disrupt the nature of work, promoting an urgent review of where work is performed. Home‐based telework (HbTW), a common form of telework, is increasingly promoted as a means to ensure continuity of operations in an emergency situation. While widely advocated, little is known of the challenges and outcomes of HbTW when employed in disaster situations. This article explores the organisational and employee experiences of HbTW in the aftermath of a disaster, drawing on data from over 240 public sector workers and their managers who worked from home following a series of earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. Findings point to critical factors shaping the experiences and outcomes of HbTW in disaster situations. Significant variation in the experiences and perceptions of HbTW for team leaders highlights their pivotal role and heightened pressures to maintain control in complex disaster situations.     

Strategizing industry structure: the case of open systems in a low‐tech industry

Open systems strategy enables a sponsor to diffuse its technology and promotes standardization in an industry. However, this strategy has been studied in high‐tech settings. We hypothesize that, in a non‐high‐tech industry, a sponsor giving access to its technical knowledge may impact industry structure. Based on a survey of the U.S. tabletop role‐playing game (RPG) industry, our results highlight that the introduction of an open system in a sector creates an entry induction phenomenon and that these new entrants adopt more readily the open system than incumbents. Moreover, the average size of the firms in the industry decreases due to vertical specialization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making networks and (re)making trade union bureaucracy: a European‐wide case study of trade union engagement with the Internet and networking

The Internet increasingly forms part of formal trade union responses to changing economic and political challenges but in quite complex ways, due to the manner in which different constituents harness and mediate its development. The paper shows how networking is the object of competing meanings and interventions, and the subject of a range of issues in terms of organisational hierarchies, competing communities of practice and competing understandings and traditions of the Internet itself.     

(Non‐)Participation in deliberation at work: a case study of online participative decision‐making

Social media are implemented by organisations to enhance productivity and knowledge sharing among employees, but they can also support group deliberation and employee voice. This paper presents a case study of an online deliberation initiative involving the discussion of a contentious internal policy within an organisation of around 550 knowledge workers. The deliberation process lasted 5 weeks and actively involved 167 employees. Different sources of information (user interaction logs, activity patterns, questionnaire responses) were analysed to investigate the impact of participation, or non‐participation, on the level of satisfaction with the deliberation, and on the understanding of the issue discussed. The findings suggest that (1) interest is a driver for participation, but it does not explain active participation, (2) participation, either active or passive, positively influences the understanding of the issue and (3) satisfaction with the outcome is not related to participation, but it may support participation in future initiatives.     

Poverty, food security, and nutrition in Central Asia: a case study of the Kyrgyz Republic

This paper attempts to provide insights into poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition in Central Asia in the period following independence, and presents the available evidence from household-level data in the Kyrgyz Republic. It finds that although some improvement has been made in recent years, significant levels of poverty, food insecurity, and child malnutrition still exist. The paper argues that, in the short run, efforts should be made to protect vulnerable groups by investing in information generation and building capacity to design and implement food security and nutrition policies and programs. Increasing the speed of policy reforms and investment in productivity-enhancing agricultural research and rural infrastructure are fundamental for long-tern sustainable development in Central Asia.     

Changes in the intellectual structure of strategic management research: a bibliometric study of the Strategic Management Journal, 1980–2000

The aim of this paper is to identify the works that have had the greatest impact on strategic management research and to analyze the changes that have taken place in the intellectual structure of this discipline. The methodology is based on the bibliometric techniques of citation and co‐citation analysis which are applied to all the articles published in the Strategic Management Journal from its first issue in 1980 through 2000. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technology‐push,market‐demand and the missing safety‐pull: a case study of American Airlines Flight 587

Through a critical case study of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, this paper draws upon ‘the Social Shaping of Technology’ (SST) approach to offer a reconceptualisation of the technology‐push and market‐demand model for High‐Reliably Organisations (HROs), providing support for a third factor, called here a ‘safety‐pull’. A safety‐pull is defined as organisationally supported reflexivity in which technology innovators and frontline operators collaborate to consider the potential implications of adopting new technologies in HROs and the complex ways this change may impact human operators' work performance, often in risky and unanticipated ways. In contrast to accidents occurring solely as the result of individual operator error, analysing the safety‐pull provides a way to tease out the wide range of factors that can contribute to HRO failures and offers a new SST perspective through which to examine high‐risk operations.     

The role of collective action in the marketing of underutilized plant species: Lessons from a case study on minor millets in South India

Underutilized plant species are generally defined by their unexploited economic potential, making them an appropriate focus for market development. This paper analyses the role of collective action in the process of market development for minor millets, an underutilized plant species, in the Kolli Hills of Tamil Nadu, India. Based on a series of focus group discussions, we analyze the role and involvement of self-help groups in the minor millet marketing chain recently set up by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. We then compare the role of collective action in this new market with the cases of marketing chains for cassava and organic pineapples, two cash crops with expanding production in the same area. Our analysis shows the critical role of collective action as a necessary but not sufficient condition for the successful commercialization of underutilized plant species for the benefit of the poor and the conservation of agro-biodiversity.     

Innovation in the functional foods industry in a peripheral region of the European Union: Andalusia (Spain)

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the relationship between public sector research and industrial development in the functional foods sector in a peripheral region of the European Union: Andalusia (Spain). Results show that the innovation system and its component parts have made a qualitative and quantitative leap forward in the last decade, which means that the gap is diminishing compared to similar regions in the European Union, mainly due to a relatively intense effort from the public research sector. In order to take advantage of the potential of the Andalusian region, the public authorities will have to focus their efforts and funds on fostering relations between regional social players that lead to the creation of durable links; increasing the entrepreneurial spirit of university students/researchers; promoting and improving the quantity and quality of international excellence research groups; and stimulating the creation of scientific and technological parks where spin-off companies can contribute to increasing wealth and employment in the region.