Coaching knowledge, learning and mentoring in the Australian Football League

Understanding the work of Senior and Assistant Coaches in the AFL is important to better develop the next generation of performance coaches. Hence the focus of this research was to examine the knowledge, competences and learning of senior and assistant coaches in the Australian Football League. Specifically, the research sought to understand the ways in which Senior and Assistant Coaches in the AFL have come to know their “craft” with the particular aim of enhancing future coaching practice. Performance coaching is generally regarded as a cognitive activity and therefore “getting inside the heads” of AFL coaches will assist in our understanding of the complex coaching work in which they are engaged. In-depth interviews provided coaches an opportunity to reflect on their practices and how they learned their craft. Fundamental to this research was an understanding that the AFL and each club within the league be regarded as learning organizations and workplaces where learning takes place. Moreover the process of mentoring is regarded as a central learning process and a significant factor contributing to improved professional coaching practice. This applied research aims to inform coach development in Australian football, the annual review process (quality of performance) of employed coaches, and the recruitment of coaches in the AFL. Improving the quality of coaching in the AFL will, in turn, improve the performance of the players and teams, and subsequently enhance the continued development and sustainability of the game.

Customer Value of Website Communication in Business-to-business Relationships

During past years, we have witnessed the widespread use of websites in communication in business-to-business relationships. If developed appropriately, such communication can result in numerous positive implications for business relationships, amplifying the importance of designing website communication that meet customer needs. In doing that, an understanding of value of website communication for customers is crucial. The study develops a theoretical framework of customer value of website communication in business-to-business relationships. Theoretically, the study builds on the interaction approach to industrial marketing, different approaches to customer value and inter-organisational communication theory. The empirical part involves a case study with a seller and nine different customer companies in the elevator industry. The data collection encompasses interviews and observations of representatives from the customer companies, interviews with the seller and an analysis of various reports of the seller. The continuous iteration between the theory and the case study resulted in the integrated approach to customer value and in the holistic theoretical framework of customer value of website communication in business-to-business relationships. The framework incorporates and elicits meanings of different components of customer value: website communication characteristics that act as drivers of customer value, customer consequences – both benefits and sacrifices, customer end-states as the final goals that lead customer actions, and different types of linkages between these components. Compared to extant research on customer value, the study offers a more holistic framework of customer value that depicts its complexity and richness. In addition, it portrays customer value in the neglected context of website communication. The findings of the study can be used as tools in any analysis of customer value. They are also of relevance in designing appropriate website communication as well as in developing effective website communication strategies. Nataša Golik Klanac is associated with the Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS) at Hanken.

Multidimensionality of Actors in Business Networks: The Influence of Social Action in Pharmacy Networks in Finland

In the markets-as-networks approach business networks are conceived as dynamic actor structures, giving focus to exchange relationships and actors’ capabilities to control and co-ordinate activities and resources. Researchers have shared an understanding that actors’ actions are crucial for the development of business networks and for network dynamics. However, researchers have mainly studied firms as business actors and excluded individuals, although both firms and individuals can be seen as business actors. This focus on firms as business actors has resulted in a paucity of research on human action and the exchange of intangible resources in business networks, e.g. social exchange between individuals in social networks. Consequently, the current conception of business networks fails to appreciate the richness of business actors, the human character of business action and the import of social action in business networks. The central assumption in this study is that business actors are multidimensional and that their specific constitution in any given situation is determined by human interaction in social networks. Multidimensionality is presented as a concept for exploring how business actors act in different situations and how actors simultaneously manage multiple identities: individual, organisational, professional, business and network identities. The study presents a model that describes the multidimensionality of actors in business networks and conceptualises the connection between social exchange and human action in business networks. Empirically the study explores the change that has taken place in pharmaceutical retailing in Finland during recent years. The phenomenon of emerging pharmacy networks is highly contemporary in the Nordic countries, where the traditional license-based pharmacy business is changing. The study analyses the development of two Finnish pharmacy chains, one integrated and one voluntary chain, and the network structures and dynamics in them. Social Network Analysis is applied to explore the social structures within the pharmacy networks. The study shows that emerging pharmacy networks are multifaceted phenomena where political, economic, social, cultural, and historical elements together contribute to the observed changes. Individuals have always been strongly present in the pharmacy business and the development of pharmacy networks provides an interesting example of human actors’ influence in the development of business networks. The dynamics or forces driving the network development can be linked to actors’ own economic and social motives for developing the business. The study highlights the central role of individuals and social networks in the development of the two studied pharmacy networks. The relation between individuals and social networks is reciprocal. The social context of every individual enables multidimensional business actors. The mix of various identities, both individual and collective identities, is an important part of network dynamics. Social networks in pharmacy networks create a platform for exchange and social action, and social networks enable and support business network development.

Key Account Management and Quality in Business-to-Business Relationships

What are the main elements of successful Key Account Management (KAM)? What is the nature of quality for the company and for the individual in business-to-business relationships? What kind of managerial practices are required at the company and individual level in Key Account Management? This paper focuses on these central aspects of KAM. It describes the main elements of KAM, which is a systematic marketing management approach in the business-to-business context with the objective to build profitable and long-lasting relationships with major accounts. Although paying customers in the business-to-business market are organizations, they are always represented by individuals. Thus, successful KAM requires appropriate handling of both the organizational and the individual levels. This paper describes the nature of quality for the company and for the individual in business-to-business relationships. As a synthesis, this paper suggests a framework for KAM practices deploying the main elements of KAM and the company and individual levels of business-to-business relationships. The weakness of the traditional quality management approach is that it pays little, if any, attention to customer importance. By providing similar quality to each customer, more important customers are penalized and less important customers are rewarded. This paper broadens the traditional quality management approach by introducing the concept of targeted quality based on customer importance.

Mentoring in an Entrepreneurial Setting - The Mentor's Perspective

This paper discusses mentoring from the mentors' point of view in an entrepreneurial setting. The aim of the paper is to present why mentoring can be considered important for entrepreneurs who are mentors and under what circumstances mentoring is valuable for the mentor. A pilot mentorprogramme was conducted among women entrepreneurs during 1998. A study was made in order to examine the mentors’ perception of the programme. Firstly mentoring and entrepreneurship in Finland are discussed briefly. Secondly the results of the study are presented. The results of the study show that mentoring can be valuable for the mentors both on a vocational and a personal level. However, it is important to choose the mentees of the programme on a rather strict basis. The results demonstrate a need to be careful in choosing mentees.

Morals in business organizations: an approach based on strategic value and strength for business management

[EN] In the last decades, the topic of business ethics has attracted great interest at the academic and professional levels. Nowadays business ethics is being increasingly implemented as a necessary discipline in universities’ study plans on business management. Moreover, its importance is also evident according to the worldwide increase of organizations and/or institutions that have implemented ethics systems. However, some approaches thoroughly do not consider the importance and the need of an ethical behaviour and are still guiding the actions and the way of thinking of many academics and professionals led to consider that the only responsibility of business is limited just to profit maximization.

Innovation in business groups

Using novel data on European firms, this paper investigates the relationship between business groups and innovation. Controlling for various firm characteristics, we find that group affiliates are more innovative than standalones. We examine several hypotheses to explain this finding, focusing on group internal capital markets and knowledge spillovers. We find that group affiliation is particularly important for innovation in industries that rely more on external funding and in groups with more diversified capital sources, consistent with the internal capital markets hypothesis. Our results suggest that knowledge spillovers are not the main driver of innovation in business groups because firms affiliated with the same group do not have a common research focus and are unlikely to cite each other's patents. © 2010 INFORMS.

Parameter estimation and equation formulation in Business Dynamics

System Dynamics enables modelling and simulation of highly non-linear feedback systems to predict future system behaviour. Parameter estimation and equation formulation are techniques in System Dynamics, used to retrieve the values of parameters or the equations for ?ows and/or variables. These techniques are crucial for the annotations and thereafter the simulation. This paper critically examines existing and well established approaches in parameter estimation and equation formulation along with their limitations, identifying performance gaps as well as providing directions for potential future research.