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Business Managers (business + managers)
Selected AbstractsThe impact of operational characteristics on firms' EMS decisions: strategic adoption of ISO 14001 certificationsCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010Takuya Takahashi Abstract Firms choose to seek environmental management system (EMS) certifications such as ISO 14001 for a variety of reasons. In this paper we put forward a hypothesis that firms seek ISO 14001 certifications for their establishments when their operations involve low degrees of complexity. Another hypothesis we consider is that firms facing more uncertainty in their operations (and hence more risk) seek ISO 14001 certifications. These hypotheses have not been yet addressed in the literature and are of particular interest to business managers and policymakers. We empirically test these hypotheses using probit and duration models using matched establishment,firm,industry data for large Japanese manufacturers. Our findings support the first as well as the second hypotheses. This suggests that firms tend to certify more routine and less complex operations first, and that firms use ISO 14001 certifications as an insurance scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Multiple Conceptualizations of Small Business Web Use and Benefit*DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2003Kurt A. Pflughoeft ABSTRACT Small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy and there is anecdotal evidence that use of the Web is beneficial to such businesses. There is, however, little systematic analysis of the conditions that lead to successful use of and thereby benefits from the Web for small businesses. Based on the innovation adoption, organizations, and information systems (IS) implementation literature, we identify a set of variables that are related to adoption, use, and benefits of information technology (IT), with particular emphasis on small businesses. These variables are reflective of an organization's contextual characteristics, its IT infrastructure, Web use, and Web benefits. Since the extant research does not suggest a single theoretical model for Web use and benefits in the context of small businesses, we adopt a modeling approach and explore the relationships between "context-IT-use-benefit" (CIUB) through three models,partial-mediator, reduced partial-mediator, and mediator. These models posit that the extent of Web use by small businesses and the associated benefits are driven by organizations' contextual characteristics and their IT infrastructure. They differ in the endogeneity/exogeneity of the extent of IT sophistication, and in the direct/mediated effects of organizational context. We examine whether the relationships between variables identified in the literature hold within the context of these models using two samples of small businesses with national coverage, including various sizes, and representing several industry sectors. The results show that the evidence for patterns of relationships is similar across the two independent samples for two of these models. We highlight the relationships within the reduced partial-mediator and mediator models for which conclusive evidence are given by both samples. Implications for small business managers and providers of Web-based technologies are discussed. [source] Establishing Strategic Objectives: Measurement and Testing in Product Quality and DesignDESIGN MANAGEMENT REVIEW, Issue 4 2000Noel Mark Noël APRODUCT is composed of many dimensions,stimuli that generate perceptions. Noel Mark Noël presents a methodology that allows researchers to gauge consumer perceptions among competing products, dimension by dimension. Reactions are charted on a relative scale so that, for any given dimension, it is easy to identify the product with the strongest consumer impact. Such analysis helps firms to design and target products more accurately, and creates common ground for communications among design and business managers. [source] Metrics: HRM's Holy Grail?HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009A New Zealand case study What gets measured in business is noticed and acted on. The importance of human resource management (HRM) to be noticed as a vital key to business success has been argued profusely by the HRM profession over the last three decades. While the importance of human resource (HR) measurement is not disputed by business managers, the search for meaningful generic HR metrics is like HRM's Holy Grail. The purpose of this research is to investigate the issues confronting a sample of business organisations concerning measurement issues. It examines the current measurement practices used and their HR measurement needs. Developing appropriate HR measures, in terms of adding value, allows organisations to refocus their resources for leverage. Inappropriate measures simply encourage inappropriate behaviours not in the long-term interests of the business. We know that HRM is less prepared than other business functions (like finance or management information systems) to quantify its impact on business performance. Our results suggest that HR metrics as the Holy Grail of HRM remain elusive. This research signals the importance of developing relevant and meaningful HR measurement models, while acknowledging that the actual metrics used (unlike accounting measures) may vary from business to business. [source] Whose job is it anyway?: organizational information competencies for value creationINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000Joe Peppard Abstract. Research highlights that most business managers continue to be dissatisfied with the value they perceive they are deriving from their organization's information systems investments. On examining the literature, the dominant perspective is that creating value through information systems is primarily the responsibility of the IS function. Accordingly, to address this chronic malaise, attention generally focuses on the IS function with proposed prescriptions ranging from re-skilling the IS professional through re-engineering the IS function to the ultimate sanction of outsourcing. This paper examines the problem of value creation from IS investments from an organizational as opposed to an IS functional perspective. Drawing on resource-based theory, the paper argues that the effective deployment and exploitation of information should be viewed as a ,strategic asset'. To leverage value from IS, the paper proposes that organizations must recognize and develop information competencies and that the elements of these competencies are distributed throughout the organization and not solely resident in the IS function. Through a multimethodological approach these information competencies are identified and described. The resultant competencies are then studied in an organizational context. The paper ends by drawing conclusions and articulating further research directions and opportunities [source] Exploring the mismatch between skills and jobs for women in Saudi Arabia in technical and vocational areas: the views of Saudi Arabian private sector business managersINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2002John R. Calvert Saudi Arabia's rapid development has highlighted the shortage of national technical manpower and the subsequent need to recruit non-Saudi technical workers, on the one hand, and the difficulty of replacing these workers with qualified Saudis, on the other. Therefore successive Development Plans have tried to raise the quality and quantity of technical and vocational education for both men and women. In 1995/96 only 5 per cent of Technical and Vocational Education (TEVT) enrolled students were female. This compares with an average of 29 per cent in other Islamic countries and 45 per cent in Japan (UNESCO, 1997, 1999). Part of this may be due to the preferences of female students in education, part due to the structure of TEVT in Saudi Arabia, part due to the availability of technical and vocational jobs available for women after completing their training and part due to the natural place of women in Saudi society. The Seventh Development Plan (2000,2004) assumes that the private sector will play a very significant role in employing a Saudi labour force including both men and women. As part of a comprehensive study concerning the factors affecting women's employment in the Saudi private sector private sector business managers in four large cities were surveyed to see what factors they felt were important. The main factors affecting employment of women in technical and vocational education were seen by the managers as those relating to the structure of TEVT education in Saudi Arabia rather than preferences of women or pressures from society. [source] Role Stress, Exhaustion, and Satisfaction: A Cross-Lagged Structural Equation Modeling Approach Supporting Hobfoll's Loss SpiralsJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2010Daniel ÖRtqvist This study applies Hobfoll's notion of loss spirals to argue for a reciprocal relationship between role stress and 2 of its most commonly studied consequences: exhaustion and satisfaction. By means of structural equation modeling and a cross-lagged design of 116 business managers, the researchers found support for a relationship between role stress and exhaustion. They also found that satisfaction influences role stress, a relationship that the existing literature has not examined. The study contributes a more complex understanding of the relationship between role stress and its modeled outcomes than has been achieved previously. [source] A New Paradigm for the Teaching of Business Law and Legal Environment ClassesJOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES EDUCATION, Issue 1 2006Marc Lampe There is a need to develop curriculum and materials on law-related topics better designed for business students planning a career in business. Except incidentally, business school legal faculty are not teaching future lawyers or paralegals. The world of the business practitioner is very different from that of the lawyer. For most business people the law and lawyers are a necessary nuisance. Furthermore, the legal world is changing. For example, methods of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) have become mainstream. Opportunities for "self-help law" have proliferated. These trends, and other opportunities considered in this article, offer substantial benefits to the business community. To meet the needs of today's business person, college business law and legal environment courses must stress economical, intelligent prevention of legal problems and resolution of conflict. This article is about empowering future business managers by utilizing their class time to educate them to more directly meet these goals. Topical coverage and pedagogical approaches for implementing a new paradigm in a business school introductory law course are detailed. Faculty members should not allow fear of change to deter a needed overhauling of the curriculum, as such procrastination could harm the profession's future standing. [source] An Analysis of the Barriers Hindering Small Business Export DevelopmentJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004Leonidas C. Leonidou Notwithstanding the benefits derived from exporting in an increasingly globalized marketplace, for many smaller-sized manufacturers the internationalization path is beset by numerous obstacles. This article offers a comprehensive analysis of 39 export barriers extracted from a systematic review of 32 empirical studies conducted on the subject. These have been classified into internal (incorporating informational, functional, and marketing) and external (comprising procedural, governmental, task, and environmental) barriers. The impact of export barriers is shown to be situation-specific, largely depending on the idiosyncratic managerial, organizational, and environmental background of the firm. However, certain barriers, such as those relating to information inefficiencies, price competitiveness, foreign customer habits, and politicoeconomic hurdles, seem to have a systematically strong obstructing effect on export behavior. Several conclusions and implications for small business managers, public policymakers, business educators, and exporting researchers are derived. [source] The product differentiation hypothesis for corporate trade creditMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 6-7 2003George W. Blazenko The product differentiation hypothesis for trade credit says that business managers use trade credit like advertising to differentiate their products. Prior studies of this hypothesis conclude that higher profit margins induce firms to increase trade credit and vice versa. We better represent the relation between the cost of bad debts and the price of the product offered on credit. When prices are higher, firms suffer greater losses from non-payment. Our model shows that, contrary to early versions of the product differentiation hypothesis, when managers adjust trade credit and profit margins for a perturbation in marginal cost, optimal profit margin and trade credit may move in opposite directions. A manager maintains revenue for price elastic demand by moderating the price increase, which decreases profit margin. At the same time, the manager also increases trade credit, which serves to maintain revenue by encouraging product demand. We report evidence of a negative relation between corporate receivables and profit margin. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Beyond mistrust and competition,the role of social and personal bonding processes in sustaining livelihoods of rural tourism businesses: a case of the Peak District National ParkINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006Gunjan Saxena Abstract This paper theorises the significance of social and personal bonding processes in promoting sustainable resource-use and equitable tourism development using research on personal and social bonding process and relationship marketing. By looking at small, rural tourism businesses in the Peak District National Park (PDNP) it discusses how in intricate ways, individual business owners/managers are utilising social and kinship ties to increase their visual presence and competitive position in contemporary markets. The paper describes the significance of social and personal bonds as the respondents discuss how their informal affiliations have enabled them to tap into additional resources and develop products embedded in locally specific conventions that are more attractive to visitors, and are also assisting them to monitor each others' progress through informal forms of regulation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||