Developing a Continuous Improvement Philosophy in a Marketing Organisation: An Examination of Key Events

This paper examines the process of quality improvement in a service and marketing organisation. This commenced with a number of disparate quality initiatives before the strategic business planning process indicated the need for a more structured approach. This two stage approach and the difficulties it caused are described. The company has faced a number of problems in the introduction of TQM, including a lack of senior management understanding of TQM and involvement, departments failing to follow through agreed actions and objectives, lack of support to teamwork and a failure to match up improvement projects to the skills and resources in the project teams.     

A Note about the Relationship among Transaction Costs,Institutions and Productivity Growth

In order to test the Fuess and van den Berg [I9921 hypothesis on the influence of the increasing transactions sector's costs on the total factor productivity growth rate, the authors perform calculations and estimates of the Solow'S residual for both the total GNP and the non-transactions GNP on Italian data covering the period 1951-89. The results suggest that, as regards the Italian economy, the difference between total and non-transactions productivity growth rate (effect of institutions on material production), rather than having a constant positive sign, as in the findings of Fuess and van den Berg, alternates between negative and positive sign.     

CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPEAN TRADE ORIENTATION AND FDI FLOWS: PREPARATION FOR EU MEMBERSHIP

At the June 1997 Amsterdam Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) the heads of state of the 15 European Union (EU) nations decided to expand to the East. At the Luxembourg IGC in December 1997, they invited the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, and Solvenia from Central and East Europe (CEE) and Cyprus from the Mediterranean region to begin admission talks in early 1998. Efficient involvement in international trade and the division of labor through foreign direct investment (FDI) are two of the most important prerequisites to economic transformation, modernization, and sustained economic growth. Thus, trade reorientation by the CEE nations from the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) region to the OECD region in general and the EU in particu lar, as well as the volume and nature of inbound FDI are among the most reliable indicators of these countries' abilities to meet the EU admission standards. Trade reorientation by the CEE nations and FDI inflows between 1990 1995 have established a sound basis for effective economic transformation and modernization. It has also increased the ability of selected industries to compete in the EU Single Market. By 1997 the CEE nations were in a good position to generate sustained economic growth and to gradually meet the EU admission requirements.     

ECONOMIC TRANSITION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: THE CONSEQUENCES FOR TRADE STRUCTURE AND TRADE VOLUME

The foreign policy literature typically sees Congress abdicating its policy making role to the executive, implying a presidential dominance model is superior to other policy process models (joint participation, congressional dominance, and bureaucratic dominance). This article uses two theoretical approaches to investigate who actually makes U.S. trade policy: a political economy approach and an institutional approach. We look at the 1985 96 period and at individual presidencies: Reagan (1985-88), Bush (1989-92), and Clinton (1993-96). Contrary to the literature, we find strong evidence that Congress is an active participant in the trade policy making process. Using a variety of empirical techniques (crosstabs, the Index of Revealed Comparative Advantage, pairwise correlations, and stepwise logistic regressions), we confirm that the trade policy process for product-industry-specific policies tends to be dominated by Congress whereas the executive branch is more influential in the policy process for country-specific policies. We conclude by noting the advantage of integrating aspects of both the political economy of trade and institu tional literatures to understand the nuances of U.S. foreign trade policy making.     

Social Norms Moderate the Effect of Tax System on Tax Evasion: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey Experiment

Journal of Business Ethics - In this study, we reconcile conflicting findings from the extant literature on the impact of tax system parameters on tax noncompliance. We argue that social norms play...     

Navigating compromise: How founder authenticity affects venture identification amidst organizational hybridity

Founders of hybrid ventures encounter organizational tensions that can compel compromise in both their organizations' and their own personal values. Such compromises may, in turn, undermine founders' identification with their ventures. In a multi-case study analysis we examine why social entrepreneurs differ in their responses to organizational tensions, both at the firm- and individual-level, and how such differences relate to their venture identification. Specifically, our findings reveal that strategic decisions made in the context of values-based complexity are often accompanied by concerns regarding founder authenticity—that is, judgments about the alignment between founders' actions and the commitments or responsibilities associated with their identities as entrepreneurs. Yet, because founders differ in the basis from which they seek to maintain such alignment, these differences shape both hybridity management and subsequent venture identification. By unpacking such differences, our findings contribute new theory, bridging recent scholarship on founder authenticity with longstanding research on organizational identification and hybrid organizing.     

Blockchain in Additive Manufacturing and its Impact on Supply Chains

Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to be a particularly attractive use case for blockchain. This research combines inductive in‐depth interviews with the Delphi method to explore what potentials blockchain technology in AM creates, which adoption barriers firms need to overcome, and how supply chains will be affected by the integration of these two potentially disruptive technologies. The results suggest opportunities that are related to intellectual property (IP) rights management, the monitoring of printed parts throughout their lifecycle, process improvements, and data security. The most important barriers for blockchain adoption in AM are an absence of blockchain‐skilled specialists on the labor market, missing governance mechanisms, and a lack of firm‐internal technical expertise. By addressing important limitations of AM, blockchain is expected to improve the competitiveness of AM in parts’ production, catalyzing the trend toward more decentralized manufacturing resulting in more agile, resilient, and flexible supply chains and reduced logistics costs. Beyond that, blockchain‐based AM platforms are expected to enhance supply chain visibility, drive supply chain digitalization, support supply chain finance, and contribute to the emergence of shared factory systems.     

Dark times for cosmopolitanism? An ethical framework to address private agri-food governance and planetary stewardship

The scholarly tradition of cosmopolitanism (illustrated by the old saying, “I am a citizen of the world”) offers important insights into the examination of agri-food multinational corporations (MNCs) as powerful global actors. Acknowledging that agriculture is the business sector with the highest planetary environmental impact, in this paper, we advance existing discussions around cosmopolitanism and the normative implications of considering agri-food MNCs as political actors. Relying on an integrative literature review, we propose a tripartite ethical framework that gives a new momentum to the ideals and tenets of cosmopolitanism. This novel lens offers an integrated, seamless ethical approach and revolves around three dimensions: culture, morality, and governance. The first dimension examines key agri-food cultural and social-ecological issues, the second acknowledges interdependence and causality as central to understanding MNCs’ ethical responsibilities, and the third outlines several governance parameters around legitimacy, planetary reach and efficiency. Hence, our integrative framework resituates the planetary geographical imagination of cosmopolitanism within the biophysical parameters outlined by the planetary boundaries concept, advancing key issues on private agri-food environmental governance and planetary stewardship.     

Subscriber return, underpricing, and long-term performance of U.K. privatization initial public offers

This study distinguishes between issuer underpricing and subscriber returns, and estimates their magnitudes for U.K. privatization initial public offers (PIPOs). It proposes and tests empirical models which incorporate theoretical, institutional, and other factors which interact to explain subscriber returns and issuer underpricing. The estimates reveal that, on average, issuer underpricing, which is measured relative to the total equity market value on the first day of trading, is 23.62%, whereas the average raw return available to subscribers is up to 41%. Regression analysis shows that underwriters' commission, market volatility, regulatory situation of the company, proportion of share clawback, and demand for shares taken together explain up to 70% of the variation in issuer underpricing and 64% of subscribers' returns. The evaluation of the long-run performance of PIPOs to assess the extent to which initial gains to subscribers persist for longer periods concludes that U.K. PIPOs, on average, provide long-run holding gains to investors, unlike their private sector counterparts.