Strategy for succession in family owned small businesses as a wicked problem to be tamed

Contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help family businesses cope with some of the big problems they face. Owner managers admit that they are confronted with issues, such as those associated with succession and inter-generational transfer that cannot be resolved merely by gathering additional data, defining issues more clearly, or breaking them down into small problems. Preparing for succession is often put off or ignored, many planning techniques don’t generate fresh ideas and implementing solutions is often fraught with political peril. This paper presents a framework to explore the idea of wicked problems, its relevance to succession planning in family businesses and its implications for practice and policy. A wicked problem has many and varied elements, and is complex as well as challenging. These problems are different to hard but ordinary problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques. In this paper we argue that the wicked problem of family business succession requires a different approach to strategy, founded on social planning processes to engage multiple stakeholders and reconcile family/business interests to foster a joint commitment to possible ways of resolution. This requires academics and practitioners to re-frame traditional business strategic planning processes to achieve more sustainable family business futures

Facebook: a blessing or a curse for grocery stores?

Abstract Purpose – Increasingly businesses are using Facebook to communicate and engage their customers. However, there is a dearth of research as to why and how customers interact with businesses on social media in the grocery sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the roles played by online brand communities (OBCs) and social customers in the creation as well as the destruction of value. Design/methodology/approach - Netnography was adopted as an approach to gain insight into the various ways customers engage with grocery stores on their official Facebook pages. Messages posted on Tesco’s and Wal-Mart’s Facebook pages are thematically analysed and critical discussion is linked back to the extant contemporary debate on social media. Findings – This study shows that customers respond to company posts for the following reasons: to communicate with the stores, to converse with other customers, to express their emotions, to share their experiences as employees of the stores with customers, and to share their positive or negative actions with members of the online communities. The study further highlights the role of social media in the co-creation and co-destruction of customer, consumer and supermarket value and builds contemporary theory and informs practice. Practical implications – Retailers should use social media to enrich the customer experience by encouraging customer engagement, co-creation of value and responding efficiently to customer needs in real time. Originality/value - This paper contributes to knowledge by uncovering the various ways customers react with the business. The social customer is both a curse and a blessing to Tesco and Walmart as they can create or destroy value for the business

Trialogue on Facebook pages of grocery stores: Customer engagement or customer enragement?

The pervasiveness of social media is compelling businesses to review their way of managing customer experiences. Businesses use social media to interact and engage with customers. Several studies have studied why businesses have adopted social media. However, there is a dearth of research as to why customers interact with businesses on social media in the grocery sector. This paper aims to explore how and why customers react to corporate messages on Facebook pages of Tesco and Walmart. Netnography approach was adopted to gain an insight into the various ways customers engage with the grocery stores on its Facebook pages. This study reveals that social media empower customers, influence the relationships customers have with grocery stores and generate customer engagement. Findings also show that the social customer is both a curse and a blessing to Tesco and Walmart when they create or destroy value for the business. This paper contributes to knowledge by (1) uncovering how customers react to corporate and customer posts on corporate Facebook pages; (2) showing how value can be created and destroyed; and (3) proposing a model illustrating how the main constructs of the study are interconnected: social media, relationship marketing, customer empowerment and customer engagement

Synthesized grain size distribution in the interstellar medium

We examine a synthetic way of constructing the grain size distribution in the interstellar medium (ISM). First we formulate a synthetic grain size distribution composed of three grain size distributions processed with the following mechanisms that govern the grain size distribution in the Milky Way: (i) grain growth by accretion and coagulation in dense clouds, (ii) supernova shock destruction by sputtering in diffuse ISM, and (iii) shattering driven by turbulence in diffuse ISM. Then, we examine if the observational grain size distribution in the Milky Way (called MRN) is successfully synthesized or not. We find that the three components actually synthesize the MRN grain size distribution in the sense that the deficiency of small grains by (i) and (ii) is compensated by the production of small grains by (iii). The fraction of each {contribution} to the total grain processing of (i), (ii), and (iii) (i.e., the relative importance of the three {contributions} to all grain processing mechanisms) is 30-50%, 20-40%, and 10-40%, respectively. We also show that the Milky Way extinction curve is reproduced with the synthetic grain size distributions.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Earth, Planets, and Spac

Assessing the consequences of including aerosol absorption in potential stratospheric aerosol injection climate intervention strategies

This is the final version. Available on open access from Copernicus Publications via the DOI in this recordTheoretical Stratospheric Aerosol Intervention (SAI) strategies model the deliberate injection of aerosols or their precursors into the stratosphere thereby reflecting incident sunlight back to space and counterbalancing a fraction of the warming due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. This cooling mechanism is known to be relatively robust through analogues from explosive volcanic eruptions which have been documented to cool the climate of the Earth. However, a practical difficulty of SAI strategies is how to deliver the injection high enough to ensure dispersal of the aerosol within the stratosphere on a global scale. Recently, it has been suggested that including a small amount of absorbing material in a dedicated 10-day intensive deployment might enable aerosols or precursor gases to be injected at significantly lower, more technologically-feasible altitudes. The material then absorbs sunlight causing a localised heating and ‘lofting’ of the particles, enabling them to penetrate into the stratosphere. Such self-lofting has recently been observed following the intensive wildfires in 2019-2020 in south east Australia, where the resulting absorbing aerosol penetrated into the stratosphere and was monitored by satellite instrumentation for many months subsequent to emission. This study uses the fully coupled UKESM1 climate model simulations performed for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) and new simulations where the aerosol optical properties have been adjusted to include a moderate degree of absorption. The results indicate that partially absorbing aerosols i) reduce the cooling efficiency per unit mass of aerosol injected, ii) increase deficits in global precipitation iii) delay the recovery of the stratospheric ozone hole, iv) disrupt the Quasi Biennial Oscillation when global mean temperatures are reduced by as little as 0.1K, v) enhance the positive phase of the wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation which is associated with floods in Northern Europe and droughts in Southern Europe. While these results are dependent upon the exact details of the injection strategies and our simulations use ten times the ratio of black carbon to sulfate that is considered in the recent intensive deployment studies, they demonstrate some of the potential pitfalls of injecting an absorbing aerosol into the stratosphere to combat the global warming problem.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Department for Business, Energy and Industrial StrategySilverLinin

Grain Alignment in Molecular Clouds

One of the most informative techniques of studying magnetic fields in molecular clouds is based on the use of starlight polarization and polarized emission arising from aligned dust. How reliable the interpretation of the polarization maps in terms of magnetic fields is the issue that the grain alignment theory addresses. I briefly review basic physical processes involved in grain alignment.Comment: 8 papes, 1 figures, to appear in Zermatt proceeding

Fundamentals of SME Management

Module training materials for Module 1: Fundamentals of SME Management, produced as part of the ERASMUS+ funded FAME project

A revised edition of the readiness to change questionnaire (treatment version)

The UK Alcohol Treatment Trial provided an opportunity to examine the factor structure of the Readiness to Change Questionnaire-Treatment Version (RCQ[TV]) in a large sample (N = 742) of individuals in treatment for alcohol problems who were given the RCQ[TV] at baseline, 3-months and 12-months follow-up. Confirmatory factor analysis of the previously reported factor structure (5 items for each of Precontemplation, Contemplation and Action scales) resulted in a relatively poor fit to the data. Removal of one item from each of the scales resulted in a 12-item instrument for which goodness-of-fit indices were improved, without loss of internal consistency of the three scales, on all three measurement occasions. Inspection of relationships between stage allocation by the new instrument and negative alcohol outcome expectancies provided evidence of improved construct validity for the revised edition of the RCQ[TV]. There was also a strong relationship between stage allocation at 3-months follow-up and outcome of treatment at 12 months. The revised edition of the RCQ[TV] offers researchers and clinicians a shorter and improved measurement of stage of change in the alcohol treatment population

Infrared Emission from Supernova Remnants: Formation and Destruction of Dust

We review the observations of dust emission in supernova rem- nants (SNRs) and supernovae (SNe). Theoretical calculations suggest that SNe, particularly core-collapse, should make significant quantities of dust, perhaps as much as a solar mass. Observations of extragalactic SNe have yet to find anywhere near this amount, but this may be the result of observa- tional limitations. SN 1987A, in the process of transitioning from a SN to an SNR, does show signs of a significant amount of dust forming in its ejecta, but whether this dust will survive the passage of the reverse shock to be injected into the ISM is unknown. IR observations of SNRs have not turned up significant quantities of dust, and the dust that is observed is generally swept-up by the forward shock, rather than created in the ejecta. Because the shock waves also destroy dust in the ISM, we explore the question of whether SNe might be net destroyers, rather than net creators of dust in the universe.Comment: Published in the Springer Handbook of Supernova

UK survey of occupational therapist’s and physiotherapist’s experiences and attitudes towards hip replacement precautions and equipment

Background: Total hip replacement (THR) is one of the most common orthopaedic procedures in the United Kingdom (UK). Historically, people following THR have been provided with hip precautions and equipment such as: raised toilet seats and furniture rises, in order to reduce the risks of dislocation post-operation. The purpose of this study was to determine current practices in the provision of these interventions in the UK for people following primary THR. Methods: A 27-question, self-administered online survey was developed and distributed to UK physiotherapists and occupational therapists involved in the management of people following primary THR (target respondents). The survey included questions regarding the current practices in the provision of equipment and hip precautions for THR patients, and physiotherapist’s and occupational therapist’s attitudes towards these practices. The survey was disseminated through print and web-based/social media channels. Results: 170 health professionals (87 physiotherapists and 83 occupational therapists), responded to the survey. Commonly prescribed equipment in respondent’s health trusts were raised toilet seats (95%), toilet frames and rails (88%), furniture raises (79%), helping hands/grabbers (77%), perching stools (75%) and long-handled shoe horns (75%). Hip precautions were routinely prescribed by 97% of respondents. Hip precautions were most frequently taught in a pre-operative group (52% of respondents). Similarly equipment was most frequently provided pre-operatively (61% respondents), and most commonly by occupational therapists (74% respondents). There was variability in the advice provided on the duration of hip precautions and equipment from up to six weeks post-operatively to life-time usage. Conclusions: Current practice on hip precautions and provision of equipment is not full representative of clinician’s perceptions of best care after THR. Future research is warranted to determine whether and to whom hip precautions and equipment should be prescribed post-THR as opposed to the current ‘blanket’ provision of equipment and movement restriction provided in UK practice