Creating Reciprocal Value Through Operational Transparency

We investigate whether organizations can create value by introducing visual transparency between consumers and producers. Although operational transparency has been shown to improve consumer perceptions of service value, existing theory posits that increased contact between consumers and producers may diminish work performance. Two field and three laboratory experiments in food service settings suggest that transparency that 1) allows customers to observe operational processes and 2) allows employees to observe customers not only improves customer perceptions, but also increases service quality and efficiency. In our fully specified models, the introduction of reciprocal operational transparency contributed to a 22.2% increase in customer- reported quality and reduced throughput times by 19.2%. Laboratory studies revealed that customers who observed employees engaging in labor perceived greater effort, better appreciated that effort, and valued the service more. Employees who observed customers felt that their work was more appreciated and more impactful, and thus were more satisfied with their work and more willing to exert effort. We find that transparency, by visually revealing operating processes to consumers and beneficiaries to producers, generates a positive feedback loop through which value is created for both parties

Quality Management in Supply Chain Networks - The Case of Poland

In this article we suggest that rising quality requirements are key factors for the redesign of food chains. We argue that the food supply proceeds through pyramidalhierarchical strategic networks coordinated by powerful focal firms. These firms choose a quality strategy and employ chain quality management concepts by exerting managerial discretion to achieve the super-ordinate network aims. We introduce and elaborate upon two types of chain quality management: strategic and operative. The theoretical findings have been tested using evidence from the Polish dairy market. Semi-structured interviews were conducted across the various hierarchical levels of the 19 largest Polish dairy cooperatives during the spring of 2006. The results show that the firms’ activities are generally aligned with current market opportunities for optimal enterprise performance. Thus, we determined that manufacturers of well-branded products create an advanced network structure and apply strategic quality management. Networks that have a focal company acting as an external customer of a processor use operative quality management. Some Polish dairies are still not embedded in any supply chain networks; no chain quality management concepts can be installed in these chains because they have no powerful focal firm.chain quality management, dairy cooperatives, network theory, Poland, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics,

A sub-regional management framework for South Pacific longline fisheries

The principal objective of this study was to determine if additional net benefits can be derived from the sub-regional longline fishery by the introduction of a new management agreement that would centre on the provision of licensing arrangements that would allow access by eligible longline vessels to multiple Exclusive Economic Zones, i.e. Multi-zone Access. [90pp.

A System Dynamics Approach to Analysing the Effect of Clientelism on Public Organizations Performance in Italy

This paper tries to analyse the effects of political clientelism on the performance of public utilities and organizations in Italy. Shortly, clientelism consists in a series of reciprocal convenience-based relationships between politicians and individuals, commanding unequal resources and involving mutually beneficial transactions in terms of economic, social and political consequences. The motivation of this research stems from the fact that analysing the effect of clientelism may contribute in (1) improving the quality of electoral strategies and the resulting public policies and (2) managing the performance of public organizations according to a sustainable perspective. Hence, the key issues of the paper are the following: is clientelism a sustainable mechanism to enlarge the consensus of a given party? How does clientelistic practice impact on public organizations management and subsequent performances? What should public managers do to limit the effect of clientelism and maintain satisfying performance results in providing services towards citizens? In the light of the above questions, the paper points out the cause-and-effect relations among those variables underlying such clientelistic practices by using a System Dynamics approach which allows one to frame a complex system and understand its development over time.clientelism; consensus; public actions sustainability; performance management; System Dynamics.

Chain Management: All about Success

Nowadays food products are produced in vertically collaborating networks. The questions of how such chain networks have to be designed and which governance structure fits best have been addressed in several well known articles. However, questions dealing with chain strategy and management are not discussed satisfyingly. Neither is the understanding of what is success of chain management distinguished.Chain management, Network goals, Success, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Fabricating management practices : "Responsible Care" and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Purpose this study focuses on the policy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) launched in the chemical industry in the 1980s and known as “Responsible Care”. The debate surrounding this issue prompts us to question the ever-changing nature of this policy and the way to measure the performance achieved. Methodology Our findings are drawn from analysis of a double set of data including a longitudinal survey and a current case study. Blending these two data sets allows a better understanding of the ongoing building process of “Responsible Care” and, more broadly, of corporate social responsibility. Findings this paper asserts that, contrary to the common wisdom developed in research, companies do not simply react to stakeholder pressure. Companies autonomously develop ways to protect their environment and so contribute to changing Society's expectations. Thus, performance cannot be read without a dynamic perspective in mind. Research limitations/implications Our findings lead us to reconsider the assessment of companies' sustainable performances by taking into account the fabricating process of sustainable activities. The main limitation of this research stems from the single unit of analysis considered. Broader studies will be necessary to enrich our understanding of corporate policies. Originality/value of the paper Our paper stands apart from the traditional view of organizations as cynical actors and attempts to provide a more complex picture of the behaviours observed.Performance management; Performance measurement; “Responsible Care”; Corporate Social Responsibility;

The knowledge domain of chain and network science

This editorial paper aims to provide a framework to categorise and evaluate the domain of Chain and Network Science (CNS), and to provide an envelope for the research and management agenda. The authors strongly feel that although considerable progress has been made over the past couple of years in the development of the CNS domain, a number of important and exciting challenges are still waiting to be tackled. This paper provides a definition of the object of study of CNS, its central problem area, the organisation and governance of chain and network co-operation, and the relationships between chain organisation and technology development, market dynamics, and the economy and society at large. It indicates relevant sources of knowledge among the various academic disciplines. It touches upon CNS problem solving by identifying areas for knowledge development and CNS tool construction

Leveling transparency via situated intermediary learning objectives (SILOs)

When designers set out to create a mathematics learning activity, they have a fair sense of its objectives: students will understand a concept and master relevant procedural skills. In reform-oriented activities, students first engage in concrete situations, wherein they achieve situated, intermediary learning objectives (SILOs), and only then they rearticulate their solutions formally. We define SILOs as heuristics learners devise to accommodate contingencies in an evolving problem space, e.g., monitoring and repairing manipulable structures so that they model with fidelity a source situation. Students achieve SILOs through problem-solving with media, instructors orient toward SILOs via discursive solicitation, and designers articulate SILOs via analyzing implementation data. We describe the emergence of three SILOs in developing the activity Giant Steps for Algebra. Whereas the notion of SILOs emerged spontaneously as a framework to organize a system of practice, i.e. our collaborative design, it aligns with phenomenological theory of knowledge as instrumented action

The apparatus of digital archaeology

Digital Archaeology is predicated upon an ever-changing set of apparatuses – technological, methodological, software, hardware, material, immaterial – which in their own ways and to varying degrees shape the nature of Digital Archaeology. Our attention, however, is perhaps inevitably more closely focussed on research questions, choice of data, and the kinds of analyses and outputs. In the process we tend to overlook the effects the tools themselves have on the archaeology we do beyond the immediate consequences of the digital. This paper introduces cognitive artefacts as a means of addressing the apparatus more directly within the context of the developing archaeological digital ecosystem. It argues that a critical appreciation of our computational cognitive artefacts is key to understanding their effects on both our own cognition and on the creation of archaeological knowledge. In the process, it defines a form of cognitive digital archaeology in terms of four distinct methods for extracting cognition from the digital apparatus layer by layer

Corporate governance and profit manipulation: a French field study

Profit manipulation has been largely studied through Positive Accounting Theory (PAT). However, the weakness of the results obtained would suggest using different theoretical and methodological approaches to examine this subject. In France, management controllers play a central role in profit manipulation. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of their profit manipulation practices. Using results from 32 interviews in 13 companies, we argue that the spread of Anglo-Saxon corporate governance model has fostered such behaviour. Far from the opportunism hypothesis supported by Positive Accounting Theory, profit manipulation is used as a tool by management controllers to gain broader legitimacy within organisations and/or to adopt what they claim to be ethical behaviour.profit manipulation; management controllers; corporate governance; field study