Parol Evidence Rules and the Mechanics of Choice

Scholars have to date paid relatively little attention to the rules for deciding when a writing is integrated. These integration rules, however, are as dark and full of subtle difficulties as are other parts of parol evidence rules. As a way of thinking about Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller’s The Choice Theory of Contracts, this Article suggests we would do better with tailored integration rules for two transaction types. In negotiated contracts between firms, courts should apply a hard express integration rule, requiring firms to say when they intend a writing to be integrated. In consumer contracts, standard terms should automatically be integrated against consumerside communications, and never integrated against a business’s communications. The argument for each rule rests on the ways parties make and express contractual choices in these types of transactions. Whereas Dagan and Heller emphasize the different values at stake in different spheres of contracting, differences among parties’ capacities for choice — or the “mechanics of choice” — are at least as important

How costumers’ way of life influence the value co-creation

Purpose: This article is a contribution to the understanding of how value arises in wellestablished markets, and under which circumstances actors integrate resources from different service ecosystems to generate value. To understand this phenomenon, it is fundamental to consider which practices are performed by customers to co-create value and how they do so. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a qualitative approach, the study provides fresh empirical insight into well-established market processes of value creation. After a literature review an ethnographic approach was chosen in order to understand how co-creation processes occur in the empirical setting of an international restaurant chain. Several observations, conversations and semi-structured interviews were undertaken concerning the analysis of the topic under study. Findings: The results show that even in a well-established market, a provider must consider individual customers’ distinct needs, present in their daily practices, to be able to assist them in the value creation process. It is argued that the practice styles are the building blocks for prevailing ways of life that actors assume, according to the context in which they are, to integrate resources. Practical implications: The study includes implications for service providers of a wellfounded market for facilitating value co-creation along with customers and fulfils the need to better understand this phenomenon. Originality/Value: Recent studies call for empirical evidence on co-creation processes in mature markets, accordingly, this study brings an additional understanding on how actors, depending on the context, adopt different ways of life that require unique resources, which activate to achieve what they want, in order to establish room for co-creation.peer-reviewe

A novel framework for the use of workflow system in the integration of supply chain tiers

The global competition has imposed challenges to supply chain integration, mainly, during the process of obtain information to make demand management decisions. This paper proposes an integrated framework for data collection, analysis and results dissemination in the supply chain management (SCM), contributing to research and alternatives for \u201cThe Bullwhip Effect\u201d issue. In this sense, it is necessary to discuss the integration of supply chain management, Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) functionality and others systems, to enlarge this scope to the total supply chain players. The ERP web-based tool and Workflow Systems (WS) can contribute to solve issues related to supply chain management. Starting from a detailed analysis of the research background regarding current SCM definitions and integration problems, Information Technology and Communication (ITC) development and WS in order to map and ensure flow fluency; the paper proposes a model to increase the overall integrations and an application in a case study for supporting the decisions that are aligned with the company\u2019s strategic objectives. This paper is divided in: research background; proposed model of the SC integration; case study, conclusions and future research

The moral muteness of managers: an Anglo-American phenomenon? German and British managers and their moral reasoning about environmental sustainability in business

Several studies in the Anglo-American context have indicated that managers present themselves as morally neutral employees who act only in the best interest of the company by employing objective skills. The reluctance of managers to use moral arguments in business is further accentuated in the now common argument presented as a neutral fact that the company must always prioritise shareholder value. These and other commercial aims are seen as an objective reality in business, whilst questions about sustainability, environmental problems or fair trade are seen as emotional or moral ones; a phenomenon described as ‘moral muteness’. This research explores whether this ‘moral muteness’ is an Anglo-American phenomenon and/or whether managers in other countries - in this case Germany - might express themselves in a different way. The focus is on moral arguments around environmental sustainability and the implications of this study for cross-cultural management. This article is based on a qualitative, comparative cross-cultural study of British and German managers in the Food Retail and Energy Sectors. In line with the studies mentioned above, British managers placed a strong emphasis on their moral neutrality. In contrast, German managers tended to use moral arguments when discussing corporate greening, often giving such arguments more weight than financial arguments. Overall, the study suggests that the ‘moral muteness’ of managers is a British phenomenon and quite distinct from the German approach. The article ends in a short exploration of how this understanding can help managers better manage people, organisations and change across cultures

Correlating Architecture Maturity and Enterprise Systems Usage Maturity to Improve Business/IT Alignment

This paper compares concepts of maturity models in the areas of Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Systems Usage. We investigate whether these concepts correlate, overlap and explain each other. The two maturity models are applied in a case study. We conclude that although it is possible to fully relate constructs from both kinds of models, having a mature architecture function in a company does not imply a high Enterprise Systems Usage maturity

A Resource-Based View Of International Human Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities

Drawing on organizational learning and MNC perspectives, we extend the resource-based view to address how international human resource management provides sustainable competitive advantage. We develop a framework that emphasizes and extends traditional assumptions of the resource-based view by identifying the learning capabilities necessary for a complex and changing global environment. These capabilities address how MNCs might both create new HR practices in response to local environments and integrate existing HR practices from other parts of the firm (affiliates, regional headquarters, and global headquarters). In an effort to understand the nature of such capabilities, we discuss aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital that might be linked to their development. Page

Changing the Architectural Profession - Evidence-Based Design, the New Role of the User and a Process-Based Approach

The construction industry is characterised by ever-changing projects that constantly involve new clients, teams and people. This results in the need to build up new sets of relationships each time. Within these relationships the perspective of the users of space is mostly neglected, partly due to the ephemeral nature of the industry, but partly also because of the character and culture of the architectural profession. In contrast, this paper argues that the architectural profession needs to make a double turn: firstly, the needs and wishes of the user need to be in the centre of the architectural business. Secondly, the whole industry may change from a project-centred one into a process-based one where the process of finding out what the client needs, of engaging the users, proposing a design solution, managing the project, and evaluating its use and appropriation in the end in order to learn from it, is nearly as important as aesthetics, form and function. This involves a lot more intelligence and research about cultures and characteristics of the client, may it be a private person, a city council or a corporation, hence architectural and organisational research may play a new role in the architectural professional culture

The Continuity of Statutory and Constitutional Interpretation: An Essay for Phil Frickey

This Essay seeks to honor Phil by exploring the contributions of his Legal Process approach to a problem near and dear to his heart: the uses and legitimacy of canons of statutory construction. I focus, as Phil did in his most recent work, on the canon of constitutional avoidance—that is, the rule that courts should construe statutes to avoid significant ―doubt as to their constitutionality. This Essay largely supports Phil‘s defense of the avoidance canon, but links that defense to another set of canons that Phil has criticized: the various clear statement rules of statutory construction that Phil and Bill Eskridge memorably labeled ―quasi-constitutional law. These rules require that Congress make its intent especially clear when it legislates in areas of particular constitutional sensitivity—for example, by intruding on the prerogatives of the states. This Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I develops two problems in statutory construction—the canon of constitutional avoidance and judge-made clear statement rules—by reference to some major cases decided in the Supreme Court‘s 2008 Term. Part II elaborates the Legal Process School‘s approach to these sorts of problems of canonical construction, with particular emphasis on Professor Frickey‘s work in this vein. Part III then develops the central Legal Process insight that rules of construction are part of constitutional interpretation as a means of interpreting and protecting the broader structural aspects of the Constitution, namely, federalism and separation of powers

A model for cost efficient Workforce Organizational Dynamics and its optimization

This paper presents a workforce planning model scalable to an entire hierarchical organization. Its main objective is to design a cost optimal target which leverages flexible workforce solutions while ensuring an efficient promotional flux. The value of this paper lies in its proposal of an adequate flexibility rate using various solution types and in its discussion about external hiring ratios. The mathematical structures of the models are analyzed and numerical simulations illustrate the theoretical background