From iconic business leader to Russian icon museum founder: Bridging business and the arts across cultures

This case study portrays Gordon Lankton, a highly successful U.S. executive who, drawing upon the relationships he had built during two decades of doing business in Russia, succeeded in having Moscow's renowned State Tretyakov Gallery lend priceless icons to his new museum in a small Massachusetts town. We demonstrate how a charismatic and gently determined executive‐turned‐museum founder exhibited transformational leadership while bridging business and the arts across cultures. The case study includes an interview with Gordon Lankton and is followed by a commentary that features an interview with Kent dur Russell (the Museum of Russian Icons curator) and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Lankton's leadership style. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ambulatory care registered nurse performance measurement

On March 1-2, 2010, a state-of-the-science invitational conference titled "Ambulatory Care Registered Nurse Performance Measurement" was held to focus on measuring quality at the RN provider level in ambulatory care. The conference was devoted to ambulatory care RN performance measurement and quality of health care. The specific emphasis was on formulating a research agenda and developing a strategy to study the testable components of the RN role related to care coordination and care transitions, improving patient outcomes, decreasing health care costs, and promoting sustainable system change. The objectives were achieved through presentations and discussion among expert inter-professional participants from nursing, public health, managed care, research, practice, and policy. Conference speakers identified priority areas for a unified practice, policy, and research agenda. Crucial elements of the strategic dialogue focused on issues and implications for nursing and inter-professional practice, quality, and pay-for-performance.     

Uncertainty and monetary policy

The experience of monetary policy making in an uncertain environmenthas encouraged increased attention to the concept of model uncertainty,that is, uncertainty as to which is the best model. A particulardifficulty has been the need to operationalise the concept inorder to yield definitive policy recommendations. If this typeof uncertainty is unquantifiable, then a policy rule determinedby a single model may not in fact be the best approach; pluralismof method and the exercise of judgement offer a potential solution.A rigorous foundation for such an approach is available in Keynes'sphilosophical analysis of decision making under uncertainty.It is concluded that more analytical attention needs to be devotedto agents’ own model uncertainty, and to judgement. Butultimately the scope for synthesis between the model uncertaintyand Keynes uncertainty approaches rests on whether or not thesubject matter is such that knowledge of it is best representedby one formal model.     

The emergence of corporate governance in Russia

This article tracks the emergence of corporate governance through four stages of the Russia’s transition to a market economy from the mid-1980s to the present: commercialization, privatization, nomenklatura, and statization. For each stage, the government’s economic objectives are summarized, as well as the foundations for the development of and inhibitors to corporate governance. The problems of nondisclosure and nontransparency that made Russia one of the riskiest countries for investment are discussed. The article emphasizes the substantial progress made recently, culminating in the 2002 Corporate Code of Conduct. The article concludes with prospects for corporate governance to be considered by investors, including foreign executives and managers interested in direct investment in Russia.     

Does Asian management research need more self-confidence? Reflections from Russia

This commentary on Klaus Meyer’s article, “Asian Management Research Needs More Self-confidence,” in the Asia Pacific Journal of Management (2006), discusses the need for Asian management research to look beyond the pressures for publication in top-tier, Western scholarly academic journals. We reflect on our nearly two decades of research on Russian management to illustrate many of Meyer’s ideas and insights in a different transition economy. We support his call for more context-specific research that can also offer contributions to global management knowledge as well as indigenous management practice.

A structural model to assess international visitors' perceptions about local foods in Tanzania

Interest in the use of local food in tourism and hospitality is growing in both industry and academic circles. Most research on local food has focused on its potential to enhance local community development, while relatively little research has examined the way tourists perceive local foods in developing countries. This study applies image theory to evaluate perceptions of international tourists regarding local foods in Tanzania. Data were collected between June and August, 2014 using a survey method. The study population consisted of 520 international tourists departing from Kilimanjaro International Airport. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with EQS 6.2. The results demonstrated that cognitive/perceptual and affective evaluations are two interdependent psychological constructs which, taken together, play a key role in understanding individuals’ overall perception about local foods. The cognitive/perceptual evaluations formed by individuals as a result of accumulated knowledge and beliefs about local foods influence the way individuals perceive local foods. Likewise, the affective evaluations (feelings) about local foods significantly influenced individuals’ overall perceptions about local foods. The results also show that many hotels where tourists stayed did not provide sufficient varieties of, or information about, local foods. Recommendations arising from the research relating to food policy and regulation are presented.     

‘Professionals who understand’: Expertise,public interest and societal risk governance

This paper applies ideas from Beck, Power and Collins & Evans to investigate why crises triggered by societal risks heighten tension between self-regulated experts and the state, and why this increased tension threatens professional self-regulation. Using an Irish case of the regulation of professional auditors, we find that Beck helps us to understand the accounting bodies’ view of their own position as experts and their role in mitigating risk. Beck’s idea of a closed organizational roof, Collins and Evans (2002) work on waves of risk and expertise, and Power’s insights on the significance of public perception of risk are deployed as a framework to explore why these bodies lost power to a non-expert state which more clearly grasped the importance of lay power in a time of crisis. We propose the idea of professional regulation as a form of societal risk governance; this provides a frame to investigate why the state was able to harness a growing public disquiet to assert more control in their relationship with the professional bodies, and underscores the precedence of public interest over expertise in the self-regulatory debate. An analysis of the perspectives of government, profession and civil society illustrates inherent vulnerabilities in the authority of a self-regulated professional body excessively reliant on its own expertise.