Business Processes and Networks in University Incubators: A Review and Research Agendas

While the technology aspects of university incubators in university science parks (USPs) receive considerable attention and development, as the primary force in the creation of incubator businesses, the business and social inputs (entrepreneurial networks) are less well defined. Anchoring to the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), it is argued that a business process perspective is useful to conceptualize the deployment of key resources in USPs—namely business support and social support (entrepreneurial networks). This paper reviews existing literature in relation to university incubator business processes and networks. In particular, the paper seeks to link the process and network concepts to define research agendas.     

A conceptual framework for developing‐country transnationals: PROTON Malaysia

In this article, we offer guidance for the potential advance of developing‐country transnational corporations (TNCs), often referred to as third‐world multinational corporations. After reviewing the topical literature and establishing the soundness of the case approach for model construction, we examine the case of Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Berhad (PROTON), the Malaysian National Car project. We find insights emanating from the experiences of this firm that are applicable to other developing transnationals, particularly those involved in complex manufacturing. Based upon the theoretical foundation of the literature, in conjunction with the real‐world successes, challenges, and failures of PROTON, we offer a conceptual framework for effective developing‐country TNC emergence and, more important, eventual global competitiveness. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

‘Consuming Responsibility: The Search for Value at Laskarina Holidays’

This paper provides an alternative theoretical conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to further our understanding of prosocial organisational behaviour. We argue that consumption provides a perspective that enables theorists to escape the confines of existing CSR literature. In our view the organisation is re-imagined as an arena of consumption where employees are engaged in a quest for value, constructing and confirming their identities as consumers. Using the award-winning tour operator Laskarina Holidays as an illustrative case, it is suggested that CSR can provide combinations of functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditional value. This new perspective on CSR facilitates the coexistence of a plurality of values that are relativistically constructed and narrativised by organisational stakeholders. Our consumption paradigm provides a thought provoking means of reconciling divergent perspectives and encourages further interdisciplinary research. We argue that future research should begin, not by asking the question of why organisations assume responsibility, but by contemplating the notion of why organisations consume responsibility.     

Network externalities in consumer spending on lottery games: evidence from Spain

We use data from two nationally representative Spanish surveys in 2005 and 2006 to investigate spending on lottery games. Estimates from Tobit and double hurdle models of participation in lottery markets and spending on lottery tickets find that frequent participation in one game is not associated with an increased or decreased probability of participating in other games, but is associated with increased spending on other games. Consumer spending on different lottery games exhibits inter-related consumption decisions. Also, the assumptions underlying the double hurdle model, but not the Tobit model, better describe consumer spending on lottery tickets in Spain.     

Employee benefits and public policy

The first expression of public policy regarding privately sponsored employee benefit programs occurred in 1921 when Congress authorized tax deductions and tax deferrals for employee stock bonus and profit sharing plans. Today, following numerous additional enactments, there is an annual tax expenditure for employee benefits of some $100 billion. Universal availability of privately sponsored employee benefits is clearly a goal of public policy. That goal has not been attained. It is the thesis of this article that the goal will not be attained by means of tax incentives alone; that an inequity exists between taxpayers who enjoy coverage and those who do not; that there are serious problems with our benefit system even for those who enjoy coverage; and that mandated benefits must be considered as a means of fulfilling public policy.     

Lobbying and the responsible firm: Agenda‐setting for a freshly conceptualized field

“Responsible lobbying” is an increasingly salient topic within business and management. We make a contribution to the literature on “responsible lobbying” in three ways. First, we provide novel definitions and, thereby, make a clear distinction between lobbying and corporate political activity. We then define responsible lobbying with respect to its content, process, organization, and environment, resulting in a typology of responsible lobbying, a conceptual model that informs the rest of the paper. Second, the paper provides a thematic overview of the current literature underpinning lobbying and the responsible firm, and the underlying paradigms informing this literature. Third, the paper makes specific suggestions for a future research agenda, ending with a consideration of methodological implications of such research.     

Business Processes and Networks in University Incubators: A Review and Research Agendas

While the technology aspects of university incubators in university science parks (USPs) receive considerable attention and development, as the primary force in the creation of incubator businesses, the business and social inputs (entrepreneurial networks) are less well defined. Anchoring to the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), it is argued that a business process perspective is useful to conceptualize the deployment of key resources in USPs—namely business support and social support (entrepreneurial networks). This paper reviews existing literature in relation to university incubator business processes and networks. In particular, the paper seeks to link the process and network concepts to define research agendas.     

Integrating the critical success factor method into the business process outsourcing decision

This paper outlines a framework that integrates the critical success factor (CSF) method into the outsourcing decision. The framework builds upon the generic outsourcing evaluation methodology and uses the CSF method as a means of evaluating outsourcing at the business process level. The findings from applying the outsourcing framework in a retail bank are presented. The research found the application of the framework delivered positive results in business process outsourcing decisions. As well as linking outsourcing with organisational strategy, it provided a mechanism and language for prioritising which processes require attention through either internal improvement or outsourcing. However, the findings identified a number of challenges with applying the framework including defining processes and understanding complex interdependencies between business processes prior to outsourcing.     

Have the lecturers lost their voice? Involvement and participation in the devolved Further Education sector

One of the key principles underpinning Further Education (FE) college ‘incorporation’ was the notion that good management resides only in the private sector. Hence, if decision-making responsibility were decentralized to local levels, FE managers would have the freedom to experiment with practices borrowed from the private sector such as TQM and HRM. Examining the validity of this assertion, this paper explores: the extent to which participative management approaches (central to TQM and HRM) have been adopted in FE; the antecedents that explain the approach taken; and consequences of the emergent approach. In the event we found no evidence of participation beyond the perceptions of some members of the Senior Management Team (SMT). While obstacles to a more participative approach included the stringent funding regime, work intensification, proletarianization, casualization, remoteness of the SMT and general management competence, role-overload at middle management level was found to be particularly influential. A non-participative management style was also seen as deleterious to the functioning of the college as senior managers were failing to draw on repositories of creativity and expertise lower down the organizational hierarchy.