Multilateralism and the Multinational Enterprise

How do multilateral institutions influence the strategic choices and actions of international managers? This paper addresses the question by exploring the impact of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) decision-making process on multinational enterprises (MNEs). We discuss the three phases of the WTO decision-making lifecycle - the formulation of trade rules, the implementation of those rules, and the enforcement of the rules – and propose a strategic adjustment framework for understanding how companies alter their strategies and structures in response to the WTO's rules and operations. We argue that the increased relevance of multilateral rules and enforcement mechanisms – embodied in the WTO - is an important influence on MNE strategies and structures because of the increasing embeddedness of the WTO in national levels of regulation. We illustrate this through examples taken from the pharmaceutical, textiles and sugar industries sectors that have witnessed substantial multilateral regulation.

Accounting and business students' approaches to learning: A longitudinal study

This study reports the results of an investigation into the learning approaches of undergraduate accounting and business students from three universities in Ireland who were exposed to a learning environment, namely the case study method, which aimed to encourage a deep approach to learning. In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, the ASSIST research instrument was used to investigate changes in students’ approaches to learning over time. Consistent with previous research, this study considers whether gender is related to students’ approaches to learning over time and if there are differences between students majoring in accounting or business in their approaches to learning. The results of the study indicate that the case study intervention was successful in some respects. However, contrary to expectations, an overall statistically significant increase in students’ surface approach to learning was found. Additionally, it is reported that changes in students’ approaches to learning over time are not associated with gender or degree program. The results of this study offer insights to accounting educators developing educational interventions to encourage deep approaches to learning.

The journey of a ‘green’ micro-enterprise – The Green Planet

This teaching case explores the longitudinal evolution of a small environmental micro-enterprise, The Green Planet retail store. Exploring two decades of business history it analyses the development of this business as sustainability issues and greener consumer goods mainstreamed in society. The case presents one of the first explorations of the individual trade-offs that owners make between economic, environmental and social criteria, alongside an exploration of the role that the personal values of the owner played in the evolution of this business. Also presented is a sample of other environmental enterprises profiled alongside The Green Planet in the early 1990s. This additional dataset provides a rich resource for readers, and a number of indicative discussion themes are identified. Readers interested in topics such as marketing, business strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and environmental management will find this case a valuable addition to their teaching resources.

Coordination of palliative cancer care in the community: "unfinished business"

Goal: This study assessed the degree to which services in south-central Ontario, Canada, were coordinated to meet the supportive care needs of palliative cancer patients and their families. Participants and method: Programs within the region that were identified as providing supportive care to palliative cancer patients and their families were eligible to participate in the study. Program administrators participated in a semi-structured interview and direct-care providers completed a survey instrument. Main results: Administrators from 37 (97%) of 38 eligible programs and 109 direct-care providers representing 26 (70%) programs participated in the study. Most administrator and direct-care respondents felt that existing services in the community were responsive to palliative care patients' individual needs. However, at a system level, most respondents in both groups felt that required services were not available and that resources were inadequate. The most frequently reported unmet supportive care need identified by both respondent groups was psychological/social support. Most administrator (69%) and direct-care (64%) respondents felt that palliative care services were not available when needed. The majority of administrator and direct-care respondents were satisfied with the exchange of patient information within and between programs, although direct-care staff identified a deficit in information transferred on palliative care patients' social/psychological status. Conclusions: The study demonstrated the value of a theory-based approach to evaluate the coordination of palliative cancer care services. The findings revealed that service programs faced significant challenges in their efforts to provide coordinated care. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.

Towards Utilizing Model-Driven Engineering of Composite Applications for Business Performance Analysis

Composite Applications on top of SAPs implementation of SOA (Enterprise SOA) enable the extension of already existing business logic. In this paper we show, based on a case study, how Model-Driven Engineering concepts are applied in the development of such Composite Applications. Our Case Study extends a back-end business process which is required for the specific needs of a demo company selling wine. We use this to describe how the business centric models specifying the modified business behaviour of our case study can be utilized for business performance analysis where most of the actions are performed by humans. In particular, we apply a refined version of Model-Driven Performance Engineering that we proposed in our previous work and motivate which business domain specifics have to be taken into account for business performance analysis. We additionally motivate the need for performance related decision support for domain experts, who generally lack performance related skills. Such a support should offer visual guidance about what should be changed in the design and resource mapping to get improved results with respect to modification constraints and performance objectives, or objectives for time.

Development of small and medium-sized enterprise horizontal innovation networks: UK agri-food sector study

Within the management literature, there is an emergent discourse on horizontal collaboration among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whereby individual rivalries are overcome by the need for more resources and innovation, leading to increased competitiveness through joint product development. In particular, a number of these horizontal collaborations between SMEs have occurred within the agri-food sector. As a consequence, this article aims to explore the longitudinal development of horizontal innovation networks within an artisan bakers’ network as part of the UK SME agri-food sector. An interpretivist research approach was used, whereby the development and evolution of an artisan bakers’ horizontal network was studied over a 27-month period. The findings, as summarised in conceptual models which draw upon knowledge-based open innovation and social network constructs, illustrate that a complex three-stage life cycle development occurred within the bakers’ horizontal network.

Towards utilizing Model-Driven Engineering of Composite Applications for business performance analysis

Composite Applications on top of SAPs implementation of SOA (Enterprise SOA) enable the extension of already existing business logic. In this paper we show, based on a case study, how Model-Driven Engineering concepts are applied in the development of such Composite Applications. Our Case Study extends a back-end business process which is required for the specific needs of a demo company selling wine. We use this to describe how the business centric models specifying the modified business behaviour of our case study can be utilized for business performance analysis where most of the actions are performed by humans. In particular, we apply a refined version of Model-Driven Performance Engineering that we proposed in our previous work and motivate which business domain specifics have to be taken into account for business performance analysis. We additionally motivate the need for performance related decision support for domain experts, who generally lack performance related skills. Such a support should offer visual guidance about what should be changed in the design and resource mapping to get improved results with respect to modification constraints and performance objectives, or objectives for time.