27 research outputs found
Exploring the use of 25 leading business practices in transitioning market supply chains
Purpose - In the global economy, managers of organizations are constantly innovating with their use of available supply chain management tools. Some tools, like strategic planning and customer segmentation, have gained strong global acceptance while others are less universal. In this study, we focus our contribution on the organizational factors that predict firm usage of supply chain management tools in two Eastern Europe countries, Slovenia and Croatia, while also comparing them to the global use of similar management tools. Design/methodology/approach - This research provides an empirical analysis of supply chain management tool usage from a survey of 155 firms in Slovenia and 185 firms in Croatia while also comparing these findings to results from a global Bain & Company survey. Findings - The 25 most commonly used supply chain management tools in our Eastern European survey were found to be relatively similar to those used across Europe and North America. However, further analysis of five selected tools reveals important differences. Evidence is found to support that particular organizational factors have a significant influence on supply chain management tool usage, of specific importance is the education level of the organization manager. Research limitations/implications - The research study is limited to the research question, selective literature review, and survey sample from Eastern Europe. Practical implications - As firms assess their supply chain management tool usage, the findings presented here might serve as a guide to improve their understanding of why organization managers employ particular tools more consistently than others. Originality/value - The findings are useful for business practice in understanding the influences of organizational factors on supply chain management tool usage. Also, the research is original as previous management literature has not provided a similar approach to researching management tools and their usage
How university’s activities support the development of students’ entrepreneurial abilities: case of Slovenia and Croatia
The paper reports how the offered university activities support the development of students’ entrepreneurship abilities. Data were collected from 306 students from Slovenian and 609 students from Croatian universities. The study reduces the gap between theoretical researches about the academic entrepreneurship education and individual empirical studies about the student’s estimation of the offered academic activities for development of their entrepreneurial abilities. The empirical research revealed differences in Slovenian and Croatian students’ perception about (a) needed academic activities and (b) significance of the offered university activities, for the development of their entrepreneurial abilities. Additionally, the results reveal that the impact of students’ gender and study level on their perception about the importance of the offered academic activities is not significant for most of the considered activities. The main practical implication is focused on further improvement of universities’ entrepreneurship education programs through selection and utilization of activities which can fill in the recognized gaps between the students’ needed and the offered academic activities for the development of students’ entrepreneurial abilities
The 50s cliff: perceptuo-motor learning rates across the lifespan.
We recently found that older adults show reduced learning rates when learning a new pattern of coordinated rhythmic movement. The purpose of this study was to extend that finding by examining the performance of all ages across the lifespan from the 20 s through to the 80 s to determine how learning rates change with age. We tested whether adults could learn to produce a novel coordinated rhythmic movement (90° relative phase) in a visually guided unimanual task. We determined learning rates to quantify changes in learning with age and to determine at what ages the changes occur. We found, as before, that learning rates of participants in their 70 s and 80 s were half those of participants in their 20 s. We also found a gradual slow decline in learning rate with age until approximately age 50, when there was a sudden drop to a reduced learning rate for the 60 though 80 year olds. We discuss possible causes for the "50 s cliff" in perceptuo-motor learning rates and suggest that age related deficits in perception of complex motions may be the key to understanding this result
Current and future use of management tools
This paper examines the use of management tools among Slovenian and Croatian employees,
with the main focus on linkages between the current use of management tools and patterns of its
future use. The authors developed and tested a model for predicting the future use of management
tools based on the current use of tools by employees in organizations, underlying assumptions of
the theory of planned behavior and the information-perception-behavior link. Descriptive statistics
suggest that there are differences in management tools use patterns among Slovenian and
Croatian employees. Among the most used tools, employees in both countries signi
fi
cantly and
differently use (especially) outsourcing, mission and vision statements, knowledge management,
total quality management, and customer segmentation. Using structural equation modeling for
testing the proposed relations in the developed model on samples of Slovenian and Croatian
employees reveals that the current use of tools plays an important role in predicting the future use
of tools in Slovenian organizations, while linkages for the Croatian sample are rather insigni
fi
cant.
More speci
fi
cally, the current use of management tools has a positive in
fl
uence on the future use of
management tools, while the impact of the current percentage of satis
fi
ed users with management
tools is very weak. Further, a comparison of results with international data reveals differences in the
patterns of management tools use between former catching up countries (studied are two former
transition economies) and economies with a longer tradition in the market economy. Based on the
current state of management tools use, linkages between their current and future use, and patterns
of tools use in high-developed economies, the authors speculate about the future pattern of
management tools use in catching up countries based on experiences from high-developed market
economies. Those assumptions represent a building block for boosting the use of management
tools in organizations in catching up economies, and thus helping those organizations to reduce the
gap between them and most developed organizations
Personal values as predictors of managers’ innovativeness – from theory to practice
This paper reports on examination of associations between personal values and personal innovativeness among managers in organizations. Study draws upon the innovations and behavior theories and analyzes answers of 405 managers from Slovenia and Austria. The results of this study revealed strong and positive impact of openness to change and weak positive impact of self-transcendence values on manager’s innovativeness, what is in accordance with theoretical presumptions. Surprisingly, conservation values also support manager’s innovativeness, although these values are not recognized as supportive for innovativeness in previous studies. Oppositely, self-enhancing values strongly and negatively impact on manager’s innovativeness. In terms of control variables, results disclose significant associations between manager’s positions, organizational size and country of origins and attained manager’s innovativeness. Conceptual implications indicate a need for additional study of cause-and-effects relationships between changing of personal values and personal innovativeness of individual managers. Practical implications outline complementary actions for development of personal values, awareness about importance of personal values among managers, and attention to personal values’ in decisions of managers
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Intellectual agility and innovation in micro and small businesses: the mediating role of entrepreneurial leadership
The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between intellectual agility, entrepreneurial leadership (measured through future orientation and community building) and the innovativeness of micro and small businesses in an efficiency-driven economy. Building on nexus of entrepreneurial leadership, human capital and economics of innovation literature, a theoretical model has been developed and tested empirically on a sample of 110 micro and small businesses from Serbia, a country with an emerging efficiency-driven economy by means of the structural equation modelling. Intellectual agility of employees positively influences the innovativeness of micro and small businesses, but this effect is strongly mediated through entrepreneurial leadership. Future orientation contributes significantly to innovativeness and the ability to build community links; in turn it is affected by the intellectual agility. The main theoretical contribution of this research lies in the emphasized role of intellectual agility of employees in micro and small businesses’ innovativeness, in the context of the emerging concept of entrepreneurial leadership. The findings are useful for managers and owners of micro and small businesses in their efforts to enhance the innovation of their firms, which will rely on the potential of intellectual agility of employees and the central role of entrepreneurial leadership in the future