Budgetary control within the hotel industry

This paper is divided into two distinct parts and within these parts it follows the following lines of progression. The major division in the paper is between a look at the accepted theory that underpins any research in this area with comments on its likely effects on the organizations under scrutiny, and a look at the case studies that were constructed as a result of undertaking research into several hotel and leisure companies with the aim of gaining a representative cross-section of the industry and its budgetary control techniques.     

Trends in the technology and economics of air transport

The past half-century of developments in air transport are assessed and the current state of air technology and the economics of air transport assessed, particularly the trends since the 1973 ‘oil crisis’. The role of government in the industry in viewed as critical for its future health.     

Awareness as a foundation for developing effective spatial data infrastructures

The development of an effective spatial data infrastructure (SDI) often occurs in a fragmented organizational environment requiring a high level of inter-organizational collaboration. Different organizations from various jurisdictions need to work together closely when agreeing on how they will jointly register, store, use and share data and how they will make their data available to the wider society. However, this collaboration is generally regarded as very difficult. For example people often resist data sharing across organizational boundaries due to loss of control, power and independency. Organizational issues are thus considered one of the fundamental constraints to inter-organizational sharing of spatial data.     

Accidental,unprepared, and unsupported: clinical nurses becoming managers

To what extent have hospitals developed their skilled clinicians to perform the administrative and human resources (HR) manager role of the ward manager? We consider this research question through an analysis of an acute hospital called ‘The Hospital’ where the executive team is aiming to adopt a form of high-performance work system (HPWS). We focus primarily on explanations in terms of conditions, rather than the personalities of individual managers, which are most powerful in shaping their behaviour. There has long been a failure of hospitals (and other employing organisations) to develop fully the skills required by employees before they become line managers. Line managers are a critical link in the high-performance chain and this study illustrates that, despite their rhetoric, hospitals may still have much potential for implementing schemes to develop nurses further to prepare them for line-manager positions and to support them after they move into such roles. We infer from this study that such hospitals may not yet have completed the journey to having HPWS. Hence, there is still much scope for such hospitals to progress and enjoy the benefits that proponents claim for HPWS.     

Predictors of Usage Intentions of Pirated Software

The purpose of this study is to investigate the salient factors influencing consumers’ attitudes and usage intentions towards pirated software. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study investigates the relationships between three sets of factors, i.e. personal, social and perceived behavioural control onto attitudes towards pirated software. Through a multiple regression, only personal factors have shown significant relationship with attitudes towards software piracy. Further results from this study have supported that favourable attitudes towards pirated software is likely to result in stronger intentions to use pirated software. It was found that computer proficiency acts as a predictor for intentions towards pirated software, rather than a moderator as originally postulated.     

The Influence of Managerial Relations on Waves of Employee Involvement

One of the most enduring issues in the debate about employee involvement (EI) and workers' participation is how it survives over time, and to what extent the dynamics of EI is linked with labour-management relations. In this article, which draws upon data collected in a two-year study of 25 organizations, it is suggested that managerial relations is a significant factor in explaining waves of EI, and one that is frequently overlooked. Waves of EI can be assessed in terms of the twin concepts of centrality and prominence, terms that are amplified below. The introduction of EI techniques is motivated by a number of forces, but one of the most important is a desire by managers to be noticed, to engage in ‘impression management’, via the creation of new schemes. Despite having high-profile introductions, these schemes soon tend to fade in importance, to a large extent because of problems within management such as internal political rivalries, low supervisory commitment to schemes, inadequate training provision or the downgrading of EI by management arising from conflicting priorities.     

Corporate strategy as a source of ideas

This paper looks at a number of others which bear on the interface between Corporate Strategy and R&D Planning to see if a more systematic approach can suggest a sequence to be followed so that Corporate Strategy can be seen as a source of ideas for R&D.
The purpose of R&D is defined in terms of contributing to the competitiveness of the Company or Business Unit being served. The areas of competition or threats from the external environment are then explored using a model taken from Porter's book 'Competitive Strategy'. Each area of competition is considered in turn and strategies identified which might enable the company to maintain its competitive edge. Sub-objectives for the R&D function can then be determined allocating resources and time for their completion.
It is the performance of the R&D function inj fulfilling these sub-objectives which can be the basis of measuring the effectiveness of R&D.     

TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING POLICY CHOICE: REPLY

Taylor (1992) argues that accounting policy choices in any year are not assessed independently of policy choices adopted in previous years. This independence assumption is a maintained hypothesis of Anderson and Zimmer (1992). Although Taylor acknowledges that our results remain robust to his suggested adjustments for non-independence, we argue in this reply that such adjustments are unnecessary because temporal independence of accounting policy choices is consistent with the implications of costly contracting between the firm and its claimholders. We develop the arguments that (1) accounting choices are temporally independent and our research design is therefore, appropriate (2) to the extent that there is an independence problem of the type proposed by Taylor (1992) it also applies to cross-sectional studies of accounting policy choice.     

The new product development process: past evidence and future practical application, Part 1.

This article conducts a review of the research work into the process of product development and the way in which it has progressed over nearly forty years. It also shows that much of the work is unknown to many product development managers. The article goes on to show why the application of past research evidence has been restricted and describes attempts at translating the results into effective action.