Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy (E-Journal)
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Stereotyping Effects on Cities: Measurement Scales for City's Warmth and Competence
Get PDFIn the endeavor of analyzing urban development perspectives, the current paper aims to find out how warmth and competence stereotypes would operate in the case of a city, predicting its future, as a direct consequence of people's positive or negative feelings and actions. Results of such analyses would be of strategic importance, knowing that various aspects of urban development (from tourism to business, well-being, active population growth and talents retention) depend on people’s decisions to visit that city, to invest, to work, to study, to settle down there, or to simply spread positive opinions about it. Therefore, relying on the well-known SCM -stereotype content model, the paper adapts previous warmth and competence scales, and develops a customized research instrument for analyzing connections between people's perceptions and the mental labels attached to a specific city. Considering warmth and competence dimensions, as well as the other variables of interest such as status, cooperation and competition, we use an exploratory procedure for item selection followed by a Q-sorting analysis for scale content validation. The paper adds to the literature in two main ways. It firstly advances an integrative view that connects the theories from social psychology, communication and branding with those from urban development. Secondly, it offers a content validated measurement instrument, as a necessary departure point for future analyses meant to identify challenges and to predict the potential for development of smart and sustainable cities
One Dimensional ‘Social Values’ in the Globalized World: Empirical Evidence from Netherland, Singapore, Zimbabwe and Rwanda
Get PDFThe ‘global shift’ of trade, worldwide integration of investment policies, and proliferation of information technology immensely contribute to connecting people in a way where a common shared culture has become indispensable. Hense, diversity of culture is, as often argued in recent times, about to face an extinction and a uni-dimensional ‘social values’ worldwide is about to surface. The study seeks to develop a theoretical framework to explain the reasons of the global culture and analyze the latest World Value Survey (WVS) data of the array of the pronounced social values prevalent in both high-income nations (i.e. Netherland, Singapore) and low-income countries (i.e. Zimbabwe, Rwanda) to obtain some evidences in regard to this argument. Analyzing certain prevailing ideologies, the research indicates that societies globally are making scientific and technical progress and moving towards a unidimensional social value. Evidence suggests that the 'Global culture' is less likely to preserve the traditional values and more likely to favor the unconventional and the revolutionary forces that work as the instruments of change. The invocation of progressive transition and the faith in technological progress are bringing an extensive level of value shifts
Museums as Theme Parks - A Possible Marketing Approach?
Get PDFMuseums compete increasingly more with very diverse entertainment providers, such as theme parks, despite the fact that their offer is mainly cultural. Museums have had to be more active and they have had to diversify their offer, in order to be more popular, therefore to better achieve their complex cultural missions. They should be more “market oriented” and aim to develop their programs according with their visitors’ needs and desires, as well as with the evolutions in the contemporary society. One answer to this challenge would be the controversial theme parkisation of museums. The paper discusses in what extent the market approach of theme parks could be a viable marketing strategy for museums. It underlines several differences and similarities between the marketing approaches of museums and theme parks, in order to better understand how a museum could preserve its cultural functions, while obtaining economic success. Only the latter would allow it to better develop its cultural activity and thus to better serve its visitors and the community
Facebook Usage as Social Screening. Exploring the Approach of Admissions Officers from Management Colleges
Get PDFThe online social networks allow individuals to continuously create and model their self-presentations and representations. Facebook stands for a relevant example as people are given the uncensored opportunity to unfold their online selves according to their interests, preferences, goals and expectations. As a social networking site, Facebook is particularly used for reasons related to social documentation (social searching) and maintaining preexisting close relationships (bonding social capital) that imply knowledge of new information about persons met offline, and less for social exploration (social browsing) that refers to using Facebook to initiate new contacts. The extant recent literature often approach the usage of Facebook as a pre-employment screening tool with a view to select the fittest candidates for the job. Still, there are few studies which address the professors’ endeavor to use social media, in general and Facebook, in particular, as a complementary criterion when selecting future students. At this level, Facebook profiles are liable to stand for cogent indicators for the prospects’ personalities and potential, for their predispositions and professional perspectives. Starting from this point, the current research aims at investigating the approaches on the aforementioned issue of several professors from Management colleges in Romania who are in charge of settling the evaluation reference points of the college admissions procedure. The research is the more relevant so as the future graduate managers should possess some key characteristics which may be anticipated or pre-assessed based on their Facebook profile cues. In order to test the subjects’ openness to consider the implications of Facebook usage as a thorough social documentation tool, nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted. The findings show that there is a high degree of skepticism towards using Facebook as a source of reliable information
The Evaluation of Global Accuracy of Romanian Inflation Rate Predictions Using Mahalanobis Distance
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to emphasize the advantages of Mahalanobis distance in assessing the overall accuracy of inflation predictions in Romania when two scenarios are proposed at different times by several experts in forecasting or forecasters using data from a survey (F1, F2, F3 and F4). Mahalanobis distance evaluates accuracy by including at the same time both scenarios and it solves the problem of contradictory results given by different accuracy measures and by separate assessments of different scenarios. The own econometric model was proposed to make inflation rate forecasts for Romania, using as explanatory variables for index of consumer prices the gross domestic product, index of prices in the previous period and the inverse of unemployment rate. According to Mahalanobis distance, in 2012 and 2013 F1 registered the highest forecasts accuracy distance. The average distance shows that F1 predicted the best the inflation rate for the entire period. F2 provided the less accurate prognoses during 2011-2013. According the traditional approach, based on accuracy indicators that were evaluated separately for the two scenarios, F1 forecasts provided the lowest mean absolute error and the lowest root mean square error for both versions of inflation predictions. All the forecasts of the inflation rate are superior as accuracy of naïve predictions. However, according to U1 Theil’s coefficient and mean error, F3 outperformed all the other experts and also the forecasts based on own econometric model
Challenges for the University Intellectual Capital in the Knowledge Economy
Get PDFUniversities have always been fundamental institutions in any society due to their enduring mission of creating new knowledge through research, of training generations of professionals, and providing service for community. They have a long life cycle and need to adapt continuously to their changing environments. In the last decades, the emergence and development of knowledge society put forward new challenges to universities and to managing their intellectual capital. The purpose of this paper is to present three main challenges for the university intellectual capital in the knowledge economy, and to discuss how these challenges can be achieved. These challenges are the following: 1) to unfold the Gordian knot of the canonical model of intellectual capital; 2) to go beyond the Newtonian logic in intellectual capital evaluation and reporting; and 3) to integrate intellectual capital in the strategic thinking of the university. All of these challenges are strongly related to the university performance
Developing Strategic Thinking in Business Education
Get PDFThe new business environment becomes more and more turbulent with rapid and unpredictable changes. Operational management focusing on present issues and profit maximization is not able to look into the future and anticipate market dynamics. Companies need to develop strategic management as an overarching framework able to search into the future and construct strategies for achieving a competitive advantage. That needs a new way of thinking and decision making. The core of that process is strategic thinking. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the content of strategic thinking and to investigate how it is developed in business education. I shall analyze the content of strategic thinking using a metaphorical approach and considering a spectrum of monochromatic thinking models based on some determinant features. For the second part I performed a survey based on a questionnaires addressed to 5000 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs of economics and business from the main schools of economic sciences in Romania. The questionnaire contains 47 items able to reveal the dimensions of the strategic thinking pattern we consider of being significant for the managers in this new knowledge economy. Results show the need for improving the content of business education curriculum, and the teaching approach
Abnormal stock market returns to announcements of M&A banking deals in Greece 1996-2013
Get PDFThis study has undertaken a comprehensive empirical analysis of the wealth effects of bank M&As in Greece over the period 1996-2013. The purpose is to measure the performance of merger participants over the acquisition period as a deviation of how shareholders’ actual returns differ from expected returns conditional on the particular process of M&A. The authors develop a conceptual framework that integrates theoretical perspectives from economics, finance, organization theory, strategic management and human resource management to offer a broader process-oriented integrative model of the empirical evidence and theories suggested to explain acquisitions. The empirical analysis reports insignificant abnormal gains for acquiring banks, significant positive abnormal returns at 7,44% for acquired banks, and 2,91% positive abnormal returns for the combined entity, in the event window [-10;+1]. The findings indicate that, on average, the Greek bank mergers neither create nor destroy shareholder wealth. This result is consistent with the findings of other Greek event studies and the bulk of US and European event studies on M&A wealth effects. On average, acquired firm shareholders gain at the expense of the acquiring firm and market value of the combined entity appears to have little improvement around the announcement of the transaction. The conceptual framework explicitly describes that wealth effects of bank M&As in Greece over the period 1996-2013 may be a result of macroeconomic theory and perfectly competitive market, lack of strategic relatedness and synergy realization, managerial hubris, or unethical behavior of managers derived from expense preference approach of agency theory
Going Global: Key Insights from Two Mexican Companies
Get PDFThis paper explores how Mexican companies in different industries have achieved international expansion, while at the same time preserving local elements in executing their strategies. For this initial stage of research, the analysis focuses on two companies: a) Grupo Bimbo, the number one company in the bakery industry worldwide and b) KidZania, one of the world’s top indoor family entertainment centers. The research methodology is based on in-depth interviews with CEOs and key executives from the two companies done over a period of more than ten years. We have also used secondary data such as press releases and case studies. By contrasting their strategies and comparing them with those of other multinationals like Ford Motor Company and Santander Bank, we identified major issues that we condensed into 10 key insights. Understanding how these companies have struggled and succeeded in gaining international markets can help other companies tailor their own strategies. Our argument is that the typical simplified international expansion process is insufficient when companies need to compete in the global arena. Becoming an MNC implies handling an entire ecosystem: building local presence, establishing joint ventures or alliances with local companies, recruiting local talent, developing new business models, reshaping the value proposition, developing new brands or introducing traditional ones with a local flavor, and understanding the supply chain and routes to market. Therefore, a number of aspects have to be taken into consideration beyond just simply selecting a market. For certain companies in emerging markets, making the decision to grow internationally was not initially in their strategic vision, but economic liberalization in their home country and the threat of being purchased by an MNC from a developed country triggered the decision. There is a learning process in international expansion, and trial and error is common and useful. The challenge for companies after conquering new markets is how to successfully transfer the enhanced processes and new skills acquired to strengthen the whole organization, both locally and abroad
Project Organizations and Their Present and Preferred Culture
Get PDFAlthough several research has investigated organizational culture (Schein, 2010; Alvesson, 2013), less research has been conducted on the comparison of present and preferred cultures in project context. This paper aims to fill this gap by focusing on project managers and on the investigation of the present and the preferred culture profile of their project organizations. Based on Cameron and Quinn's (2011) Competing Values Framework using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument a quantitative survey was conducted. The questionnaire used gathered data from project managers working in various industries and organizations. The sample consisted of 695 respondents. The empirical study by focusing on project organizations hypothesizes that four project organization groups can be revealed based on their dominant cultural orientation. To test this hypothesis cluster analysis was used. The study also hypothesizes that the present and preferred culture profiles of project organizations do not show significant difference. To prove this statement paired samples t-test was chosen. The results showed that instead of four groups of project organizations with one dominant culture type, there are only three project organizations with the domination of one culture type. Continuing the investigation with these three project organizations, the present and preferred project culture profiles were compared. The results showed that in all three project organizations there are differences between the present and preferred project culture profiles. These differences are manifested mainly by the change of the dominant culture type but the remaining culture types determining the culture profile of the project organizations also show differences