The wisdom of crowds: The potential of online communities as a tool for data analysis

Online communities have become an important source for knowledge and new ideas. This paper considers the potential of crowdsourcing as a tool for data analysis to address the increasing problems faced by companies in trying to deal with “Big Data”. By exposing the problem to a large number of participants proficient in different analytical techniques, crowd competitions can very quickly advance the technical frontier of what is possible using a given dataset. The empirical setting of the research is Kaggle, the world?s leading online platform for data analytics, which operates as a knowledge broker between companies aiming to outsource predictive modelling competitions and a network of over 100,000 data scientists that compete to produce the best solutions. The paper follows an exploratory case study design and focuses on the efforts by Dunnhumby, the consumer insight company behind the success of the Tesco Clubcard, to find and lever the enormous potential of the collective brain to predict shopper behaviour. By adopting a crowdsourcing approach to data analysis, Dunnhumby were able to extract information from their own data that was previously unavailable to them. Significantly, crowdsourcing effectively enabled Dunnhumby to experiment with over 2000 modelling approaches to their data rather than relying on the traditional internal biases within their R&D units.     

A vision-led approach to management restructuring

After evidence of increased self-management and problem-solving capabilities of the work force, and with the stimulus of the division manager, a plant task force developed a phased plan to be implemented over three years. The plan was to remove two levels of the plant hierarchy, increase substantially supervisory spans of control, integrate the quality, development, and production activities at a lower level of the organization, structurally combine the production and maintenance organizations (except for some specialized maintenance functions), and open up new career path possibilities for managers and professionals. The plan was implemented on schedule. These changes achieved increased responsiveness, improved effectiveness, and better management development. Although decreased salaried personnel costs were not the primary motivation, they were a welcome benefit.     

Urban class conflict in Africa and Latin America

Cet article adopte une perspective mondiale sur la base des travaux d'Amin, Frank et Wallerstein pour comparer les aspects de la lutte des classes urbaines en Afrique et en Amérique Latine. Le développement de pays spécifiques (Mexique et Nigéria) est décrit, avec une discussion plus détaillée des villes de Monterrey et de Kano. L'analyse est faite sur une base historique et cherche à établir que la nature de la lutte des classes urbaines s'explique dans une grande mesure par la façon dont une région est incorporée à l'économic mondiale. Les changements de relations entre les états semi-périphériques et une capitale multinationale située dans un état-noyau peuvent s'opérer avec succès de point de vue de ce dernier, mais ils entraǐnent une intensification de la lutte des classes qui gomme les avantages gagnés par les classes locales alliées ainsi à la capitale.     

Pre‐packin' in the UK

A pre‐pack administration is one where a deal has already been agreed prior to the company entering administration. The company's business will commonly be sold to the incumbent management team immediately the company is placed into administration. The business survives relatively intact but will have managed to jettison its unsecured debt. The business is saved and jobs are saved. The pre‐pack will usually require the support of the company's bankers. Recent research suggests that pre‐packs may constitute between 50% and 80% of all insolvent going concern sales. The UK version of a pre‐packaged administration appears to have been rare until the administration process under the Insolvency Act 1986 was significantly amended in 2002, permitting a company to be placed into administration without a court order. The UK version of pre‐packaged administration does not involve any plan being approved by different classes of creditor nor for the court to be involved in approving activities of the administrator before or after the plan is put into effect. The paper considers whether or not pre‐pack administrations fit into the statutory framework of the Insolvency Act, the professional ethics requirements of being an insolvency practitioner and the equitable rules governing fiduciaries. Some aspects of the policy underpinning pre‐packs are also considered in particular the decision to allow insolvency practitioners to claim pre‐appointment fees as an expense of the administration. This decision appears to herald a change in government policy. This policy change is also considered. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Shaping of a Society’s Economic Ethos: A Longitudinal Study of Individuals’ Morality of Profit-Making Worldview

This study investigates the processes involved in the shaping of a society’s economic ethos. The discussion of ethics and economics has a very long history across multiple disciplines. The founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, likewise had a keen interest in this topic. However, with the development of economic science, scholarly assessment has shifted toward positive analysis while normative analysis has been left mainly to philosophers. By utilizing the newly developed morality of profit-making scale (MPM), the authors sought to understand how respondents’ economic ethical worldview shifts over time. Specifically, we theorized that the news media’s copious negative coverage of the gasoline price crisis of 2006 would significantly impact individuals’ MPM worldview. The results show that respondents’ explicit attitudes toward MPM were significantly impacted. However, respondents’ more deeply held, implicit economic ethical worldview was only slightly impacted. The authors argue that only patient, long-term explanation and argumentation can permanently affect a society’s economic ethos. Implications and future research directions for business researchers are outlined.     

New Conglomerates and the Ecosystem Advantage

It is the purpose of this paper to explore the emergence of a new form of web-based company and how the new organisational form is able to access multiple-markets and industries by exploiting the benefits of a platform ecosystem business model. Internet-based companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple were referred to as the ＂Gang of Four＂ in May, 2011, by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google. These 21st century companies are leading an internet-based consumer revolution which is having a disruptive impact on a broad range of industries and markets. Using their platform-based ecosystems, the internet-based corporations are able to leverage these core competencies and enter industries that appear unrelated to their core businesses. This has given rise to a new form of conglomerate business model that contrasts with the Western industrial conglomerates of the 1960s and early 1970s. Most of these corporations were broken-up in the early 1980s and the remaining core businesses resorted to focused strategies. The paper also analyses why the new internet-based firms do not follow the positioning school of strategy and seek monopolistic rents--profits arising from market power--by locating in attractive industries. Instead, these firms leverage core competencies and achieve Ricardian economic rents--profits arising from superior resources--through strategies of stretch and leverage. By adopting a core competency tree configuration, a core competency platform is leveraged which allows the internet-based firms to enter multiple markets using asset-light business models. This new form of competitive advantage is based on having a superior ecosystem that uses data as the key resource instead of capital; capital being the main resource underpinns the success of the traditional Western conglomerates of the 1960s and early 1970s.     

Urban Conflict and Social Movements in Poor Countries: Theory and Evidence of Collective Action

This paper evaluates the perennial question of whether the urban poor in developing countries are autonomous political actors or co-opted tools of patronage. I develop a theoretical interpretation of urban politics, arguing that collective action is shaped by changing configurations of state, economy and civil society. Collective action is expressed in struggles over labor, public goods and political rights — issues of varying salience in different periods of development. The theoretical framework generates a set of propositions which I evaluate with reference to a wide range of secondary evidence. At bottom, the data indicate that collective action varies in form and intensity (militance) with specifiable conditions. Illustratively, clientism did predominate during the ‘developmental decades’ (1960–80) that followed earlier (1930–60) experiences of militant labor conflict and yielded in the current period of neoliberalism to struggles for political rights. Cet article évalue l’éternelle question de savoir si les pauvres des villes dans les pays en voie de développement sont des participants politiques autonomes ou des instruments de patronage cooptés. Je développe une interprétation théorique des politiques urbaines soutenant que l’action collective est formée par les configurations changeantes de l’état, de l’économie et de la société civile. L’action collective s’exprime dans les luttes pour le travail, les biens publics et les droits politiques — des problèmes dont l’importance varie suivant les périodes de développement. Ce modèle théorique engendre un ensemble de propositions que j’évalue par rapport à une variété de preuves secondaires. En fin de compte, les données indiquent que la forme et l’intensité (activisme) de l’action collective varient selon des conditions qui peuvent être spécifiées. Pour illustrer, le clientisme prédominait durant les ‘décennies de développement’ (1960–1980) qui suivirent les experiences précédentes (1930–1960) de conflits des travailleurs militants et a donné lieu, dans la période actuelle de néo-libéralisme, aux luttes pour les droits politiques.