Business & Economics
Integrating social media and CSR into strategic planning for a competitive advantage
The current theory for strategic planning involves assessing the business environment and identifying key assets within an organisation. Social media and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are currently considered unnecessary in strategy formulation. However, research conducted by Dr Gordon Bowen, associate lecturer at Northumbria University amongst other institutions, indicates that incorporating social media and CSR into an organisation’s strategy can allow […]
Customer experience of product quality: A new metric
Henry Ford famously said that quality means doing it right when no one is looking. That is certainly what customers hope has happened in the production of the durable products they purchase, from cars to smartphones. But what do we really mean by product quality and how should it be measured? Professor Marcel Paulssen and Dr Ramesh Roshan Das Guru […]
Intergenerational mobility and school inequality in the US
Children of different income groups attend schools of different quality. To understand how unequal school opportunity contributes to differences in social mobility and human capital, Professor Jean Hindriks, Head of the Economics School of Louvain at UCLouvain, Belgium, and Dr Andreu Arenas, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona, have extended the classical Becker-Tomes-Solon parent-child transmission model to […]
Going back to the drawing board: Harnessing the potential of the design process to effectively change organizational routines
Many organizations face challenges when trying to create effective and lasting strategic change. Dr Vern Glaser, Associate Professor in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management at the University of Alberta, studies how organizations change their routines to accomplish strategic objectives. In his paper “Design Performances: How Organizations Inscribe Artifacts to Change Routines”, Dr Glaser presents a case study of […]
The extraordinary ups and downs of Bitcoin: Understanding the cryptocurrency’s market behaviour
Understanding the relationship between Bitcoin values and underlying economic drivers has challenged traditional perceptions of how currency and other financial asset dynamics work. Dr Dimitrios Koutmos of Texas A&M University, Texas examines the Bitcoin phenomenon and offers valuable insight into this most volatile of newcomers to the investment scene, and its short but dynamic life so far. There has perhaps […]
Homelessness and the American dream: An inconvenient truth
The widely accepted narrative around homelessness places the blame on poor life choices, conveniently absolving society of responsibility. However, at Eastern Washington University, Dr Matthew Anderson and Dr Stephen Tsikalas, with graduate students Elijah C. Hansen and Zachary Arms, are highlighting large-scale political, economic, and social drivers of the problem, which is inextricably linked to capitalism. In Portland, developers collaborate […]
Creating social value in online communities through digital activism
Dr Petros Chamakiotis, Associate Professor of Management at ESCP Business School, Dr Dimitra Petrakaki, Reader in Information Systems at the University of Sussex Business School, and Prof Niki Panteli, Professor of Digital Business at Royal Holloway University of London, investigate social value creation in online communities. They explore the types of social value emerging from the online health community MedicineAfrica […]
‘Rock Star’ Theory: How to explain and predict entrepreneurial success
G. Christopher Crawford, PhD is Assistant Professor of Professional Practice of Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Management at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick. His research focuses on entrepreneurship and new venture growth, with a particular interest in studying how the largest, fastest growing companies develop and evolve. In recent work, he models the emergence of outliers – whom he […]
An African champion on the global stage: Openness, innovation and entrepreneurship in Nollywood
Nigeria’s booming film industry, colloquially known as Nollywood, has become one of the most influential in the world, and one of Nigeria’s largest economic sectors. University of Ottawa Professor Dr Chidi Oguamanam, working as part of the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network, examines Nollywood as an example of how innovation, openness and entrepreneurship have unfolded in this unique […]
How African knowledge-based enterprises seek scale: Research findings from 10 countries
Innovation is a vital practice in the knowledge economy. Also vital is finding ways to scale innovations so that they can have significant impact. The Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network has collected data in numerous African innovation settings over the past decade, and has, in the process, developed a four-pillar taxonomy of scaling practices. As outlined in its […]