A processual analysis of the purchasing and supply organization in transition: the impact of offshoring

Many companies have resorted to offshoring in order to reduce costs and grow their global market presence. Yet it remains unclear what impact the offshoring strategy has on the purchasing and supply organization (PSO) of these companies. In this paper the nature and type of changes offshoring organizations make within the PSO are examined, i.e. how new purchasing and supply management (PSM) structures and practices emerge, are maintained or are discarded as production operations are relocated. The processual perspective is used to analyze empirical data from a rich, in-depth case study within a global engineering company. Results suggest that in line with the law of requisite variety the PSO changes thoroughly when the company relocates its production activities through the captive offshoring mode, but does so in a more disjointed and non-linear manner than the current stage models would suggest. The offshoring process provides momentum for PSO change and influences where and how the change happens. We present five propositions for further research and conclude that offshoring provides managers with opportunities to: (i) change and influence the strategic direction of PSM in their organizations, and (ii) build viable strategies of retaining and managing knowledge and PSM competencies in global operations.     

The Bologna process: how student mobility affects multi-cultural skills and educational quality

We analyze the two goals behind the European Bologna process of increasing student mobility: enabling graduates to develop multi-cultural skills and increasing the quality of universities. We isolate three effects: (1) a competition effect that raises quality, (2) a free-rider effect that lowers quality, and (3) a composition effect that influences the relative strengths of the two previous effects. The effects lead to a trade-off between the two goals. Full mobility may be optimal only when externalities are high. In this case, student mobility yields inefficiently high educational quality. For moderate externalities, partial mobility is optimal and yields an inefficiently low quality of education.      

“The Unbearable Lightness of Cleaning”: Representations of Domestic Practice and Products in Good Housekeeping Magazine (UK): 1951–2001

In this paper we begin to open the black box that constitutes the organisation of domestic cleaning and consumption in the latter half of the twentieth century. We focus specifically on change and continuity in the manner in which cleaning practices and cleaning products are represented in the UK woman's magazine Good Housekeeping, in the late modern period. After a discussion of the modern history of cleanliness, we proceed with a rationale for why this magazine was chosen for our analysis, followed by a summary of our methodology. We then argue that three phases of representation may be delineated in the time period we investigated. The first phase, which is apparent in the 1951 and 1961 issues, we have named “pride in domestic practice” and it covers a period when, what we call “the women's lobby”, speaks in a uniform voice about the tasks of the housewife and the purpose of domestic cleaning. The second phase, manifest in the 1971 and 1981 issues, is termed “domestic dreaming”, and it heralds a period when Good Housekeeping calls its readership to dream about the potentials of a transformed consumer culture. The third phase, which is evident in some respects in 1981, but which is more clearly present in 1991 and 2001, we have called “modern advising in a late modern world”. During this period, Good Housekeeping settles into a new role as a modern advisor of cleaning products and practices within the context of a world that poses significant complexities. Our discussion also focuses on how three values of cleanliness; that associated with germs, aesthetics and efficiency/ease are present in the magazine. Our analysis is contextualised in relation to the cultural silencing of cleanliness in this period and related to social and cultural changes associated with feminism and consumer culture.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: Management in Africa in the Global Context 1

ABSTRACT

The primary focus of this introductory article is to provide a synoptic peek into the challenges and opportunities facing the countries of Africa in today's global economy and in their attempts to develop their national economies to achieve what is commonly termed the Millennium Development Goals. While foreign direct investment (FDI) is seen as a way to attain these goals, FDI flows to African countries remain extremely low. If Africa is to attract diversified FDI inflows, not just those focused on extractive/natural resources, African countries need to develop a system of management that is effective and efficient, internationally oriented and nationally focused, culturally inclusive and institutionally supportive and reliable, and one that promotes business growth and economic development with a sense of social responsibility.     

The Conflict of Ethos and Ethics: A Sociological Theory of Business People’s Ethical Values

This article develops a sociological theory of ambivalence to explain several puzzling and contradictory ethical attitudes of business people: (1) a simultaneous disposition to comparatively more self-interested and more charitable behavior than many other occupational groups and (2) a moderate level of receptiveness to inculcation of moral principles through social channels such as higher education. We test the theory by comparing the way that business students rate the ethical acceptability of various ethically challenging scenarios with the way that criminal justice students rate these same scenarios. We also explore the malleability of ethical views by measuring differences between the responses of sophomores and seniors. The data generally support hypotheses based on a theory of ambivalence. At the same time, however, we also report on findings that suggest alternative explanations to ambivalence.     

The Relationship Between Father Involvement in Family Leisure and Family Functioning: The Importance of Daily Family Leisure

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fathers’ involvement in family leisure and aspects of family functioning from both a father and young adolescent perspective. The sample consisted of fathers and their adolescent child from 647 families throughout the United States. Results from both the father and youth perspective indicated significant relationships between father involvement in both core and balance family leisure with family cohesion, family adaptability, and overall family functioning. Satisfaction with core family leisure that included the father's involvement was the single strongest predictor of all aspects of family functioning from both perspectives highlighting the importance of regularly occurring home-based family activities such as eating dinner together, participating in hobbies and informal sports or yard activities together, watching television together, or playing board games and video games together. Discussion and implications for fathers, families, practitioners, and future research are presented.     

News or Noise? Using Twitter to Identify and Understand Company‐specific News Flow

This study presents a methodology for identifying a broad range of real‐world news events based on microblogging messages. Applying computational linguistics to a unique dataset of more than 400,000 S&P 500 stock‐related Twitter messages, we distinguish between good and bad news and demonstrate that the returns prior to good news events are more pronounced than for bad news events. We show that the stock market impact of news events differs substantially across different categories.     

Organic and local food consumer behaviour: Alphabet Theory

Semi‐structured interviews are conducted to understand why consumers buy organic and/or local foods. The interview findings are consistent with existing theoretical frameworks for explaining environmentally significant behaviour: Value‐Belief‐Norm (VBN) theory and Attitude‐Behaviour‐Context (ABC) theory. Findings show that organic food shoppers in particular are motivated by values, beliefs and the creation of norms. However, the interviews indicate that knowledge (K), information seeking (IS) and habit (H) are also important in understanding why consumers choose organic and local foods. Incorporating demographics (D) as well, the resulting VBN‐ABC‐D‐K‐IS‐H or ‘Alphabet Theory’ is presented as a new framework to explain organic and local food purchase behaviour.     

Evidence on paid sick leave: Observations in times of crisis

A large number of governments in all regions of the world have recognised the need for paid sick leave although the benefit schedules vary widely. International data show that the incidence of paid sick leave is closely associated with overall economic developments. What are the patterns of paid sick leave and its incidence around the world, and how have these been affected by the recent economic crisis?