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Business Sector (business + sector)
Selected AbstractsFrom financial to sustainable profitCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2002Prof. Jacqueline Cramer This article explains why sustainable business has caught the spotlight at this particular time. Main drivers are the shift in power relationships between states, firms and households, the emergence of civil regulation and the communication through networks. The implication of this trend towards sustainable business is that firms will consciously need to focus on creating value not only in financial terms, but also in ecological and social terms. The challenge facing the business sector is how to set about meeting these expectations. Firms will need to change not only in themselves, but also in the way they interact with their environment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Militarization of the Market and Rent-Seeking Coalitions in TurkeyDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2005rat Demir This article analyses the role of historically-determined institutional and political characteristics in determining both the nature of the adjustment process, and its economic and political outcomes, in Turkey. In particular, the author explores the degree to which the formation of rent-seeking coalitions has contributed to the failure of neo-liberal economic reforms in the country. The analysis suggests that the Turkish experience since the early 1980s offers a unique case for studying the relationships between the state bureaucracy, the military, the business sector, civil society, and international economic actors. Unlike previous research in this area, this article focuses especially on the role of the military as an interest group in the process of economic liberalization in Turkey. [source] HAS WAL-MART BURIED MOM AND POP?: THE IMPACT OF WAL-MART ON SELF-EMPLOYMENT AND SMALL ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE UNITED STATESECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008RUSSELL S. SOBEL This paper explores the widely accepted view that Wal-Mart causes significant harm to the traditional, small "mom and pop" business sector of the U.S. economy. We present the first rigorous econometric investigation of this issue by examining the rate of self-employment and the number of small employer establishments using both time series and cross-sectional data. We also examine alternative measures and empirical techniques for robustness. Contrary to popular belief, our results suggest that the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has had no statistically significant long-run impact on the overall size and profitability of the small business sector in the United States. (JEL L81, D59, C21) [source] Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both?ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2006James Austin Entrepreneurship has been the engine propelling much of the growth of the business sector as well as a driving force behind the rapid expansion of the social sector. This article offers a comparative analysis of commercial and social entrepreneurship using a prevailing analytical model from commercial entrepreneurship. The analysis highlights key similarities and differences between these two forms of entrepreneurship and presents a framework on how to approach the social entrepreneurial process more systematically and effectively. We explore the implications of this analysis of social entrepreneurship for both practitioners and researchers. [source] 360-degree Feedback: Possibilities for Assessment of the ACGME Core Competencies for Emergency Medicine ResidentsACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 11 2002Kevin G. Rodgers MD The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has challenged residency programs to provide documentation via outcomes assessment that all residents have successfully mastered the six core competencies. A variety of assessment "tools" has been identified by the ACGME for outcomes assessment determination. Although rarely cited in the medical literature, 360-degree feedback is currently in widespread use in the business sector. This tool provides timely, consolidated feedback from sources in the resident's sphere of influence (emergency medicine faculty, emergency medicine residents, off-service residents and faculty, nurses, ancillary personnel, patients, out-of-hospital care providers, and a self-assessment). This is a significant deviation from both the peer review process and the resident review process that almost exclusively use physicians as raters. Because of its relative lack of development, utilization, and validation as a method of resident assessment in graduate medical education, a great opportunity exists to develop the 360-degree feedback tool for resident assessment. [source] Work and Employment in Small Businesses: Perpetuating and Challenging Gender TraditionsGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2000Susan Baines More and more women and men are becoming dependent on some form of small business activity for all or part of their livelihoods but there is little research offering insight into gender and working practices in small businesses. In this article we assess some theoretical approaches and discuss these against an empirical investigation of micro-firms run by women, men and mixed sex partnerships. In the ,entrepreneurship' literature, with its emphasis on the individual business owner, we find little guidance. We argue that in the ,modern' micro-business, family and work are brought into proximity as in the ,in between' organizational form described by Weber. The celebrated ,flexibility' of small firms often involves the reproduction within modernity of seemingly pre-modern practices in household organization and gender divisions of labour. This is true in the Britain of the 1990s in a growing business sector normally associated neither with tradition nor with the family. Tradition, however, is never automatic or uncontested in a ,post-traditional society'. A minority of women and men in micro-enterprises actively resist traditional solutions and even traditional imagery of male and female behaviour. For this small group alone new economic conditions seem to bring new freedom. [source] ,But everyone else is doing it': a closer look at the occupational taxpaying culture of one business sectorJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Julie S. Ashby Abstract When individuals embark on their careers they not only become acculturated into their occupational sectors' day-to-day norms and practices, but also their taxpaying ones. Although the research on taxpaying cultures is still in its infancy, understanding more about taxpaying cultures could improve our understanding of the processes underlying tax compliance. To this end, this study aimed to build a detailed picture of the taxpaying culture (i.e. the norms and values) of one business sector,the hairdressing/beauty industry. Nineteen small business and self-employed hairdressers/beauticians were interviewed and a variant of Grounded theory was used to uncover the main themes that ran through the interviews as a whole. The main themes that emerged,which appear to characterize this sector's culture,include a reliance on accountants/tax advisors, the notion of an acceptable level of cash-in-hand payments, and the use of different mental accounts for different types of income. Although some of these themes have already arisen in the small business literature they have often been couched in individualistic terms. We build a case that these issues are more cultural than individual,they are tied to occupational group membership as they are socially constructed within occupational groups and are a key component of the group's taxpaying culture. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The multifaceted influence of gender in career progress in nursingJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 7 2007CATHERINE TRACEY PhD The complex web of gender influence in the workplace results from a multifaceted interplay of factors [Walby et al. (1994) Medicine and Nursing. Sage Publications, London]. Literature reports that in nursing men's success compared with that of women is disproportionate and substantial evidence of gender-based disadvantage is found [Women in Management Review13 (1998) 184]. However, studies have not addressed the specific reasons for this and little is known of how or what influences nurses' career decisions and developments [Journal of Advanced Nursing25 (1997) 602]. Those studies which examine career developments and patterns are mainly found in the private business sector. [source] Playing to win: Biological imperatives, self-regulation, and trade-offs in the game of career successJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2005Nigel Nicholson The article applies evolutionary theory to the concept of career success, to argue the primacy of ,objective' outcomes, utilities such as status and wealth, and to analyze why the relationship with subjective career success is not stronger. Although there are grounds for expecting subjective evaluations to be sympathetic secondary accompaniments of objective success and failure, there are substantial numbers of paradoxically ,happy losers' and ,unhappy winners' in the career game. These are explored theoretically as adaptive outcomes of self-regulation and sense-making processes. The nature of that game is then explored by a closer examination of the interrelations and decay functions of the major objective success outcomes. This is undertaken as a theoretical exercise, and also by reference to the evidence in the literature. Both approaches support the existence of close linkages among most of these outcomes, though empirical data reveal variations that highlight the importance for careerists to be aware of trade-offs and risks in career strategies. Context mediates these relationships, especially key contingencies such as individual differences, gender, career stage, culture, and business sector. The implications are discussed; in particular the role of careers theory and research in helping to cut through some of the ideological aspects of ,subjective' careers in order to help raise the awareness of actors in the labor market about objective career realities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Higher Education, Pedagogy and the ,Customerisation' of Teaching and LearningJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 1 2008KEVIN LOVE It is well documented that the application of business models to the higher education sector has precipitated a managerialistic approach to organisational structures (Preston, 2001). Less well documented is the impact of this business ideal on the student-teacher encounter. It is argued that this age-old relation is now being configured (conceptually and organisationally) in terms peculiar to the business sector: as a customer-product relation. It is the applicability and suitability of such a configuration that specifically concerns this contribution. The paper maintains that the move to describe the student-teacher relation in these terms is indeed inappropriately reductive, but not straightforwardly so. The problem arises in that we remain unsure of the contemporary purpose of education. We lack any firm educational ideals that, in themselves, cannot be encompassed by the business paradigm. Indeed, the pedagogical critique of education (broadly, that education is only of use in as much as it is of use to society) extends further than has yet been intimated and prevents one securing any educational ideal that does not immediately succumb to critique. This pedagogical logic is unassailable in any linear way but, when pressed, precipitates an aporetic moment that prevents it from assuming any totalising hold over education. We draw on the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida to consider whether one might yet imagine an educational ,quasi-ideal' that will enable practitioners and institutions to counter the effects of customerisation. [source] WHAT DETERMINES INDUSTRIAL R&D EXPENDITURE IN THE UK?,THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 1 2008BETTINA BECKER In this paper we identify some of the factors behind the comparatively poor R&D performance of the UK in the 1990s, when R&D intensity in the business sector declined consistently. We estimate an econometric model of R&D using a panel of UK manufacturing industries. Our results highlight the importance of industry characteristics such as sales and profitability, product market competition, macroeconomic factors such as interest and exchange rates, and the composition of R&D expenditure and funding. A rise in the share of government-funded R&D or the share of foreign R&D is found to have a positive impact on aggregate R&D expenditure. [source] ,LONG SLOW BOOM'?: MANUFACTURING IN NEW ZEALAND, 1945,70AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 2006Article first published online: 8 MAR 200, Jim McAloon industrialisation; management; New Zealand; productivity change Many studies of post-war New Zealand economy are highly critical both of economic policy and of the business sector, emphasising protection, complacency and sclerosis. This article argues that such accounts are excessively simplistic and, by analysing the structure and performance of New Zealand manufacturing during 1945,70, suggests that there was considerable innovation in both technological and organisational spheres. The result was that, to a greater extent than current accounts allow, New Zealand manufacturing pursued efficiency and international competitiveness. [source] Performance Decline and Turnaround in Public Organizations: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis,BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2005Pauline Jas Public sector performance is currently a significant issue for management practice and policy, and especially the turnaround of those organizations delivering less than acceptable results. Theories of organizational failure and turnaround derive largely from the business sector and require adaptation to the public service. The performance of public organizations is more complex to measure, is related to institutional norms, and the idea of ,failure' is problematic. Empirical findings from a real-time, longitudinal study of poorly performing English local authorities are used to develop an initial theory of performance failure and turnaround suited to public organizations. The paper argues that the typical performance of public organizations over time is cyclical. Where cognition and leadership capability are absent, organizations fail to self-initiate turnaround. In this situation authoritative external intervention is necessary. The strategies applied are principally concerned with building a leadership capability that engages senior politicians and managers in order to overcome inertia and collective action problems. The theory is presented in the form of seven propositions that provide a basis for further research across the public sector. [source] Business, environmental reform and technological innovation in Hong KongBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2004Peter Hills Within a framework of ecological modernization theory this paper focuses on the process of environmental reform in Hong Kong. It argues that there is significant inertia within the environmental policy process in Hong Kong, but that with leadership from the business sector there exists the potential for positive change. We identify ways to further drive the process of environmental reform through an emphasis on the role of the business sector and technological innovation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Developing a successful sector sustainability strategy: six lessons from the UK construction products industryCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2008Ian Holton Abstract Sector sustainability strategies can provide frameworks to help business sectors identify and manage economic, environmental and social risks in an integrated way, and unlock opportunities to improve competitiveness and enhance reputation. They can also help trade associations to become more effective champions for their members; however, little research has been undertaken on their development. Current best practice guidance simply provides frameworks for managing the strategy development process. To add to this guidance, the context, purpose, process and content of three strategies from the UK construction products industry have been investigated. Strategy context and content were found to be unique; it is therefore not considered feasible to develop a generic sector sustainability strategy. However, six lessons have been identified with respect to strategy purpose and process, which may improve the chances of success of a sector sustainability strategy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Regrounding the ,Ungrounded Empires':localization as the geographical catalyst for transnationalismGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2001Yu Zhou The emerging literature on transnationalism has reshaped the study of immigration in the USA from ,melting pot' and later ,salad bowl', to ,switching board', which emphasizes the ability of migrants to forge and maintain ties to their home countries. Often under the heading of ,transnationalism from below', these studies highlight an alternative form of globalization, in which migrants act as active agents to initiate and structure global interactions. The role of geography, and in particular, localization in transnational spaces, is central to the transnationalism debate, but is yet to be well articulated. While it has been commonly claimed that transnationalism represents deterritorialized practices and organizations, we argue that it is in fact rooted in the territorial division of labour and local community networks in immigrant sending and receiving countries. We examine closely two business sectors engaged in by the Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles: high-tech firms and accounting firms. Each illustrates, respectively, the close ties of Chinese transnational activities with the economic base of the Los Angeles region, and the contribution of local-based, low-wage, small ethnic businesses to the transnational practices. We conclude that deeper localization is the geographical catalyst for transnational networks and practices. [source] A House Divided: How Nonprofits Experience Union DrivesNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 3 2000Jeanne B. Peters Drawing from forty in-depth interviews as well as personal experiences, the researchers identify the areas for argument in unionization drives among nonprofit organizations. The topic is placed in the context of the nonprofit sector's ongoing discussion of its relationship with, and distinction from, the government and business sectors. [source] | ||||||||||||||||