School of Management (SoM)

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Open Access
1% for 10%: Executive Strategies for Customer Care
(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2006-03-01T00:00:00Z) Kakabadse, Andrew P.; Savery, Lawson; Kakabadse, Nada K.; Lee-Davies, Linda
This paper avoids the linear route to establishing where the biggest impact on customer service lies and instead examines the influences on the quality of the customer experience from all angles in an organization. From the culture and policies of the organization itself, to the front-line individuals and their managers, it is evident that customer satisfaction is influenced at many levels and this directly affects organizational success and competitive standing. The Cranfield Top Executive Leadership studies, across 12 countries, examine senior managers' commitment to customer focus. The sample's division, into three distinct groups according to their customer focus commitment levels, highlights a range of arguments about individual, management and corporate dedication to levels of customer satisfaction with hints at where these may conflict with each other. By taking a rounded look at the customer focus process from all its pivots within an organization, potential bottlenecks in the process are also highlighted. Most interestingly, it is concluded that there is actually little difference between the groups in pure quantitative terms, but it is that small difference indeed which makes all the difference to a substantial increase in positive customer experience.
Open Access
15 steps to peak performance
(2013-10-01T00:00:00Z) Denyer, David
The transformation of British cycling from near bankruptcy to a dominant global force offers insights for any business looking to improve their performance.
Open Access
The 1988 Local Government Act and compulsory competitive tendering
(1990) Parker, David
Open Access
1992 : an investigation of strategies for management development
(1991) Tyson, Shaun
Open Access
The 2002 Female FTSE Report: Women Directors moving Forward
(2002-11-01T00:00:00Z) Singh, Val; Vinnicombe, Susan
FTSE 100 COMPANIES THE GOOD NEWS: After two years of slippage, there is evidence that companies are again taking advantage of the diversity and talent that women directors can bring to their boards, by appointing new women. 61 companies now have women directors, up from 57 companies in 2001, but still not yet reaching the post-election “mini-boom” year 1999 when 64 companies had female directors. It is good to see that more companies have women executive directors, who now hold 3% of all executive board seats. In fact, women executive director numbers have increased by 50% since last year, up from 10 to 15. THE BAD NEWS: 88 of the UK’s top 100 companies still have no women executive directors. Chairmen and CEOs must take more responsibility for recruitment and development of their corporate talent pool to include women and diverse groups, to improve decision- making and bring variety and new voices into the boardroom. Indirectly, women directors act as powerful role models to younger, more junior female man
Open Access
The 2012 Olympic leadership agenda
(2012-08-31T00:00:00Z) Burke, V
Open Access
The 3 Ts of highly effective supply chains
(Sckc Cranfield University, 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z) Wilding, Richard D.
In recent years the recognition that the supply chain, is a source of competitive advantage has driven organisations to pursue the dual goals of achieving both value advantage and operational excellence. Customer responsiveness is generally the key differentiator in markets today. Globalisation is resulting in many organisations experiencing market pressures that are forcing a fundamental rethink of the way business is conducted. Trade- offs between for example labour costs, transportation costs, inventory costs and response time to customer are becoming increasingly complex. It is no longer seen as possible only to focus on one’s individual organisation to gain competitive advantage. It has been recognised that the success of the individual organisation is dependent on the performance and reliability of its suppliers and also customer
Open Access
30 years on - what have we learned about careers?
(1996-01-01T00:00:00Z) Adamson, Stephen; Doherty, Noeleen; Viney, C.
In everyday conversation, the term ‘career’ is generally understood to refer to the sequence of work-related experiences an individual has over the course of their working lifetime. For many people, a ‘career’ is distinct from a job’, since it also conjures up images of steady, even logical, progression up organisational hierarchies. It is not simply about what one does for a living, but about what an individual has done, does now, and might do in the future; the notion of career therefore embraces the dimension of time. In the light of widespread organisational restructuring and economic uncertainty since the late eighties, many of the taken for granted assumptions which have underpinned traditional notions of career, and in particular the organisational career, no longer seem valid. Both individuals and organisations are finding it increasingly difficult to conceptualise the idea of a logical ( long term) sequence of work-related experiences; there is no longer a clear and mutual understanding of what the career means to both individuals and organisations. This paper argues that both individuals and organisations can meaningfully redefine the notion of career by reconsidering its broader theoretical unde
Open Access
Academic entrepreneurs?
(1989) Birley, Sue; McMullen, Ed; Myers, Andrew
Entrepreneurial education has exploded over the past ten years in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the USA there are now more than 50 institutions seeking academics to fill endowed posts; in the UK, there are more than 200 courses in small business in institutions of Higher and Further Education. The reasons for the growth has been essentially the same in both countries - in time of economic decline, with large firms shedding labour, new firms and small firms have been seen as a significant strand in future strategies. As a result, academic institutions have been forced to respond to a demand from both students and potential entrepreneurs, a demand fanned by a growing band of “academic entrepreneurs” . . . ..but are they?
Open Access
Accidental activists: headhunters as marginal diversity actors in institutional change towards more women on boards
(Wiley, 2016-05-06) Doldor, Elena; Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
We present a qualitative study that examines the role of headhunters as actors in a broader institutional change process aiming to increase gender diversity on corporate boards. We draw on institutional and diversity management theories to conceptualise their change agency in the broader field of women on boards. We describe their role as ‘accidental activists’ and theorise two micro-processes that define their change agency in this field: voluntaristic framing of intentionality and role redefinition by drawing on competing logics. This conceptualisation does not match the heroic image of the institutional entrepreneur driving institutional change, or that of the tempered radical championing diversity, but rather casts light into a marginal and previously neglected change role. We demonstrate the opportunistic and precarious nature of this role with regard to both institutional change and diversity management and discuss its possibilities and perils.
Open Access
Accomplishment in adversity : a study of practitioner learning in social work
(Cranfield University, 1991-05) Jones, Martyn; Jordan, B.; Paley, J.
This study is about how people learn to be good social workers. It is based on thirty-seven tape-recorded interviews with practitioners who were selected by -their, peers and each other as doing the job well. The analysis adopts the view that interviews be seen as situated encounters in which interviewees attempt to provide morally adequate accounts of themselves and their actions. This approach is used as a means of making sense of both the 'interview talk' and of the cultural features to which appeal-is made in producing an adequate account. - The analysis is set in a discussion of new theories of adult learning; a crique of professional literature on theory and practice in social work; and, an appraisal of organisational studies of social work. Whilst the professional literature can be criticised for paying scant attention to the organisational settings of social work, the sociological studies can be criticised for failing to comprehend the accomplishments of social workers. This study aims to avoid both of these shortcomings. The literature from new theories of adult learning provides some promising developments in this regard, and the recent trends in the re-organisation of professional training are subjected to scrutiny. On examining the social workers' accounts, it was seen that there were certain central features in common. They were all structured so as to relate the social worker's identity to his or her role, and to relate learning to experience. The differences as well as the similarities in how this is done are clarified by the analysis. In constructing their versions of good social work, the practitioners differed according to their managing of the tension between the formal dimensions of their practice (law, policy, procedure) and their informal, discursive interactions within the everyday worlds of their clients. The accounts of learning given by the social workers refer predominantly to the place of experience, and to membership within collegiate teams. This is viewed as consistent with their ways of constructing good practice, but it is in marked constrast to the versions of learning dominant within the professional literature and educational methods. Ultimately, however, the social workers' own accounts of their learning falter, as they are unable to construct an adequate version for the rigours of formal rationality. The argument is made that this is due to the suppresion of a different reading of social work: social work as 'practice', a practical activity, and a cultural practice. Finally, the implications of this different reading of social work are considered, and reference made to recent major changes in legislation.
Open Access
Accountability for public sector it projects and the senior responsible owner: a theoretical background and research agenda
(2005-06-03T18:32:25Z) Lupson, Jonathan; Partington, David
The history of public sector IT capital projects is littered with examples of projects that have been delivered late, or have exceeded their budgets, or have proved unsuitable for their intended use. Such projects include the computerised passport processing system, the National Insurance Recording System and the Libra project (Comptroller and Auditor General, 1999,2001, 2003). Other projects such as the Benefits Card Payment project (Comptroller and Auditor General, 2000) have been cancelled prior to completion after the expenditure of significant sums of public money, having made little progress over an extended period of time. These project failures and their consequent negative impacts on the delivery of public services have been widely reported in an almost continuous stream of newspaper headlines. This succession of revelations about the problems of public sector IT capital projects has been accompanied by high levels of political and public concerns that the benefits of the projects are lost and that large sums of public money are being wasted. In the first part of the paper we argue that there has been a historical focus on institutional accountability at the expense of research into individual accountability. We explore how and why the traditional doctrine of civil servant accountability has declined, with a resultant increased emphasis on both the accountability of civil servants and on managerial performance. We examine the effects of managerialism on the changing subject of civil servant accountability and on the emergence of the SRO role. We formalize our arguments by developing two propositions that illustrate the basic flaws in the SRO concept that arise from subjective and cognitive aspects of understanding. In the second part of the paper we explore the potential and limitations of five different approaches to the study of SRO accountability that might take into account its cognitive and subjective components. We conclude that one of the five - experientialism, or phenomenography - offers to overcome the limitations of the others. We present three further theoretical propositions using phenomenographic principles to illustrate the argument for the existence of a range of understandings of SRO accountability. We conclude that the subjective and cognitive limitations outlined open the way for further research into the field of accountability and the management of IT projects across the public sector.
Open Access
Accounting analyses of momentum and contrarian strategies in emerging markets
(Taylor & Francis, 2017-01-30) Nnadi, Matthias Akandu; Tanna, S.
We analyse the momentum and contrarian effects of stock markets in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) using accounting data. The five markets show different characteristics with the Indian market having the strongest momentum effect. Stock markets in China and Brazil show significant short-term contrarian profit and intermediate to long-term momentum profit while South Africa shows short-term momentum effect and intermediate to long-term contrarian effect. The Russian stock market reveals largely insignificant momentum portfolio returns. We also find evidence that the contrarian profits in South Africa and China are caused by relatively high loser returns while positive momentum profit in India results from relatively high winner returns.
Open Access
Accounting for competitive advantage: The resource-based view of the firm and the labour theory of value
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z) Bowman, Cliff; Toms, S
This article uses accounting concepts to assist the field of strategic management in its search for a theory of value, competitive advantage and superior profitability. Specifically, it argues that the resource-based view of the firm requires a labour theory of value creation. Using the circuit of capital as an organizing framework this article integrates RBV and Marx's value theory, by introducing the notion of value as socially necessary labour time, into the analysis of resource-based advantage. This enables us to identify the impact of particular sources of competitive advantage as they become diffused through an industry. Some resource-based advantages, when eventually imitated lead to an overall reduction in industry profitability, and other advantages lead to increases in industry average profitability.
Open Access
Achieving Customer Satisfaction through Integrated Products and Services: An Exploratory Study
(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013-11-01T00:00:00Z) Raja, Jawwad Z.; Bourne, Dorota; Goffin, Keith; Cakkol, Mehmet; Martinez, Veronica
Much of the research on satisfying customer needs is strongly influenced by the product or service dichotomy. Customer solutions however represent a type of offering that integrates products and services. Thus, solutions provide a special context that requires research attention. In this paper, we conducted an exploratory study of four customer organisations using solutions. Using the repertory grid technique we conducted 33 interviews with participants and identified 29 attributes. The data was analyzed using the Honey technique to identify which attributes are important for users and buyers of customer solutions. The findings identify relational dynamic between customers and the solution provider to be a complex and multifaceted set of dependencies that involves a number of key attributes identified. These closely related attributes included: knowledge, innovation, control, access and contract in satisfying the needs of users and buyers. The lesson that providers need to be aware of in designing NPD/NSD for solutions is that in the customer organization buyer and user attributes may vary as the two groups may have different needs. Therefore, providers of solutions need to cater for both groups when designing offerings. Importantly, the solutions context entails both product (good) and service elements that require closer attention.
Open Access
Achieving Excellence in Customer Relationship Management
(School of Management, Cranfield University, 2002-12) Clark, Moira; McDonald, Malcolm; Smith, Brian
This report covers the work of the Cranfield CRM Research Formn for the first year of its operation Directed and funded by a group of organisations across many sectors, the goals of the Forum are to enable excellence in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by defining and understanding this important management process.
Open Access
Achieving high response rates : a survey of postal research
(1989) de Chernatony, Leslie
Open Access
Achieving manufacturing excellence through the integration of enterprise systems and simulation
(Elsevier, 2016-02-24) Rashid, Asif; Tjahjono, Benny
This paper discusses the significance of the enterprise systems and simulation integration in improving shop floor’s short-term production planning capability. The ultimate objectives are to identify the integration protocols, optimisation parameters and critical design artefacts, thereby identifying key ‘ingredients’ that help in setting out a future research agenda in pursuit of optimum decision-making at the shop floor level. While the integration of enterprise systems and simulation gains a widespread agreement within the existing work, the optimality, scalability and flexibility of the schedules remained unanswered. Furthermore, there seems to be no commonality or pattern as to how many core modules are required to enable such a flexible and scalable integration. Nevertheless, the objective of such integration remains clear, i.e. to achieve an optimum total production time, lead time, cycle time, production release rates and cost. The issues presently faced by existing enterprise systems (ES), if properly addressed, can contribute to the achievement of manufacturing excellence and can help identify the building blocks for the software architectural platform enabling the integration.
Open Access
Achieving sustainable development goals through common-good HRM: Context, approach and practice
(SAGE, 2024-05-04) Aust, Ina; Cooke, Fang Lee; Muller-Camen, Michael; Wood, Geoffrey
This introduction to the special issue Achieving Sustainable Development Goals through Common-Good HRM: Context, approach and practice draws the links between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the concept of Common-Good HRM and the practice of human resource management (HRM) to extend intellectual and empirical insights into this important field. Particular attention is accorded to the collective social and environmental dimensions of SDGs and the place of HRM in contributing to the ‘common good’ within and beyond the workplace. Firms may create space and incentives for HRM to promote sustainability, or actively work to constrain meaningful action in this regard. This collection brings together a broad cross-section of articles dealing with the SDGs and HRM, identifying emerging common ground and contestation as a basis for future HRM theory building, empirical enquiry and practice.
Open Access
Achieving the paradox of concurrent internationalization speed: Internationalizing rapidly in both breadth and depth
(Springer, 2021-09-10) Batsakis, Georgios; Theoharakis, Vasilis
In this paper, we draw on the notions of breadth and depth of internationalization speed in an attempt to examine the performance implications for multinational enterprises (MNEs) that rapidly and concurrently internationalize in new and existing foreign markets. Specifically, we examine the organizational paradox which suggests that firms which grow internationally by concurrently expanding rapidly in both new foreign markets (breadth) and in foreign markets they currently operate (depth), are better off than firms which do not adopt such an approach. Since past research has not examined the interaction between the breadth and depth of MNE internationalization speed on firm performance, we contribute to the temporal dimension of the internationalization process by developing a novel, yet paradoxical approach. Our analysis is based on a longitudinal sample of the world’s largest retail MNEs covering the period 2003 – 2012, which includes the 2008 financial crisis that had a significant effect on the global economy. We find that concurrent internationalization speed positively relates to firm performance during periods of stability. Further, we draw from the upper-echelons theory and find that the aforementioned relationship can be strengthened by the level of CEO international experience and CEO education.