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Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors that enable or inhibit the contribution of product service systems (PSS) to circularity. It is informed by the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and the multi-level perspective as theoretical lenses. Design/methodology/approach: A theory elaboration approach is used through three in-depth case studies of UK and German manufacturers. Case studies provide use- and result-oriented PSS for personal computers, power tools and wind turbines. Multiple sources of evidence, including 20 semi-structured interviews, company documents and quantitative data, are triangulated to improve the validity of the results. Findings: Empirical evidence for relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors show significant barriers to the extending and cycling of resource loops, primarily through maintenance, repairs and refurbishment. A firm's environmental awareness has a determining role in the contribution of PSS to circularity. The evidence from two use-oriented PSS reveals different circularity maturity levels. Originality/value: This research makes three key contributions. Firstly, it elaborates on NRBV by showing that a firm's environmental awareness determines product stewardship. The type of product stewardship practices depends on the enabling and inhibiting effects of macro- and meso-level factors. Secondly, it shows that use-oriented PSS have different circularity profiles and proposes three circularity maturity levels. Finally, it provides an empirically validated framework of macro-, meso- and micro-level enablers and barriers and how they interact to enable or inhibit circularity in PSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK-based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time. Findings: The study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members, thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways, and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalized narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability. Practical implications: The findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability. Originality/value: The paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper aims at examining wage developments among Eastern European immigrants vs UK natives before and after the 2004 enlargement by measuring the extent to which inter-group wage differentials are explainable by these groups' changing attributes or by differences in returns to these characteristics. The enlargement has been a defining moment in British recent history and may have contributed to the unfolding of the events that have culminated in Brexit. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a quantitative analysis of the immigrant–native wage gap across the entire distribution by applying the methodology known as the unconditional quantile regression. The analysis is performed before and after the 2004 European Union enlargement to Eastern countries. The data used is the British Labour Force Survey (UK LFS) from 1998 to 2008. Findings: At all distribution points, a major role is played by occupational downgrading, which increases over time. The results further suggest that the decreased wage levels at the top of the distribution stem mainly from low transferability of skills acquired in the source country. Research limitations/implications: The UK LFS does not allow to follow individuals for a long period of time. For this reason, the main limitation of the study is the impossibility to measure for individual-level trajectories in their labour market integration and to account for return migration. Originality/value: The analysis provides a detailed picture of the wage differences between Eastern European immigrants and natives along the whole wage distribution. The paper also identifies possible causes of the wage gap decrease for EU8 immigrant workers after 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document contributions to the early study and teaching of marketing at one of the first universities in Britain to do so and, in that way, to contribute to the literature about the history of marketing thought. Given that the first university business program in Britain was started in 1902, at about the same time as the earliest business programs in America, the more specific purpose of this paper was to explore whether or not the same influences were shared by pioneer marketing educators on both sides of the Atlantic. Design/methodology/approach – An historical method is used including a biographical approach. Primary source materials included unpublished correspondence (letterbooks), lecture notes, seminar minute-books, course syllabi and exams, minutes of senate and faculty meetings, university calendars and other unpublished documents in the William James Ashley Papers at the University of Birmingham. Findings – The contributions of William James Ashley and the Commerce Program at the University of Birmingham to the early twentieth-century study and teaching of marketing are documented. Drawing from influences similar to those on pioneer American marketing scholars, Ashley used an historical, inductive, descriptive approach to study and teach marketing as part of what he called “business economics”. Beginning in 1902, Ashley taught his students about a relatively wide range of marketing strategy decisions focusing mostly on channels of distribution and the functions performed by channel intermediaries. His teaching and the research of his students share much with the early twentieth-century commodity, institutional and functional approaches that dominated American marketing thought. Research limitations/implications – William James Ashley was only one scholar and the Commerce Program at the University of Birmingham was only one, although widely acknowledged as the first, of a few early twentieth-century British university programs in business. This justifies future research into the possible contributions to marketing knowledge made by other programs such as those at the University of Manchester (1903), University of Liverpool (1910) and University of London (1919). Originality/value – This paper adds an important chapter to the history of marketing thought which has been dominated by American pioneer scholars, courses, literature and ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Using Dean's (2010) analytics of government, this research explores how regimes of governing practices are linked to the underlying policy rationalities in dealing with the UK government's COVID-19 testing policies as a strategy for governing at a distance, including how targets were set and operationalized. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on the UK government's policy documents, other official publications (plans) and parliamentary discourse, together with publicly available media information related to its COVID-19 policies. Findings: This research reveals that, with respect to the governance of COVID-19 in the UK, testing has the dual role of inscription for the government's performance and classification for the pandemic risks. The analysis illustrates that the central role of testing is as a technology for classification for identifying and monitoring the virus-related risks. Moreover, our discourse analysis suggests that initially COVID-19 testing was used by the UK government more for performance communication, with the classificatory role of testing and its performativity as a strategic device evolving and only being acknowledged by government gradually as the underlying testing infrastructure was developed. Research limitations/implications: This paper is based upon publicly available reports and other information of a single country's attempts to control COVID-19 over a relatively short period of time. Originality/value: This paper provides a critical understanding of the role of (accounting) numbers in developing an effective government policy for governing COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to compare the effects of global competitive pressures on the UK and French B-schools' management systems through the lens of career ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative inquiry employing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 44 business school academics in the two countries. Findings: This paper demonstrates the importance of top-down and bottom-up ecosystem influences for creating contrasting performance management systems in competitive B-schools in the two countries, to different outcomes for institutions and faculty careers. Research limitations/implications: The authors focus on faculty working in top business schools, which limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research could apply the ecosystem lens to other institutions and geographical areas to highlight best practices and evaluate their transferability across borders. Practical implications: The study highlights alternative HR practices and potentially workable adjustments to current systems that could be envisaged in order to enhance performance of individuals and institutions without jeopardizing the chances of valuable human resources to bring their contributions to the success of B-schools. Originality/value: This paper compares and contrasts different performance management systems, taking into account exogenous and endogenous influences on B-schools that operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing global management education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to conceptualize corporate reference management as a strategic signaling activity in business networks. While research has extensively outlined how firms develop and maintain social capital through business-to-business (B2B) relationships, less is known about how they signal their participation in business networks to develop this social capital. Therefore, this paper conceptualizes B2B references, in particular corporate online references (COR), as a tool through which firms "borrow" attractiveness from their business network. Through the lens of structural social capital theory, COR is shown to capture advantages related to interconnectedness between firms. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reports on a two-step qualitative and quantitative research design. First, the authors undertook a qualitative study that reports on the COR practices of senior business managers. A quantitative study then uses social network analysis (SNA) to audit a digital business network comprising 1,098 firms in a metropolitan area of the UK, referencing to each other through their corporate websites using COR. Findings: The analyses find that COR practices contribute to building structural social capital in networks through strategic signaling. Firms do so by managing B2B references to craft strategic signals, using five steps: requesting, granting, curating, coding and decoding references. While the existing literature on business marketing portrays reference management as a routine and operational management practice, this investigation conceptualizes reference management, in particular COR, as a strategic activity. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to use SNA to represent B2B references in the form of COR as a network, which overlaps with (but is not entirely identical to) the business network. Further, the study re-conceptualizes reference management as a strategic signaling activity that leverages the firm's participation in business networks to build structural social capital by borrowing attractiveness of prestigious business partners that leverages existing structural social capital. Finally, the paper coins and conceptualizes COR as an exemplar of referencing management and offers propositions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impact of risk disclosure practices (voluntary, mandatory and risk disclosure index) on stock return volatility, market liquidity and financial performance for insurance companies in the UK and Canada, before and after the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption. Design/methodology/approach: The panel data analysis covers 14 insurance companies in the UK and 12 in Canada over a six-year period, three years before and three years after the implementation of IFRS. The authors collected risk disclosure data manually from the annual reports and analyzed it through QSR NVivo software for each country. The other variables are secondary data collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon and Datastream. Findings: The results reveal that mandatory risk disclosure practices positively influence stock return volatility for UK insurers but not Canadian ones. Moreover, both mandatory and voluntary risk disclosures increase market liquidity for UK insurers. The outcomes also show a negative influence of risk disclosure practices on financial performance for both the UK and Canadian insurers. The adoption of IFRS enhances the impact of risk disclosure practices in both countries on market liquidity and financial performance. Research limitations/implications: The findings rationalize the impact of risk disclosure practices on volatility, liquidity and financial performance of UK and Canada insurers, and the effect of IFRS in triggering those results. Practical implications: The findings highlight the diverse effects of voluntary and mandatory risk disclosure practices in enhancing market discipline and mitigating information asymmetry problems to investors. Regulators and policymakers could rely on the findings to amend and develop disclosure standards more frequently to assure their effectiveness. The authors also offer insights to managers to determine the levels of mandatory and voluntary disclosure practices and disclosure strategies to gain their stakeholders' confidence. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature of risk disclosure in the insurance industry for both the UK and Canada where scarce studies are conducted. It also offers interesting implementations to investors, managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the jurisdictional expansion of audit into the area of UK financial regulation. The paper draws on the analytical framework of new audit spaces (Andon et al., 2014, 2015), which built on the concept of regulatory space (Hancher and Moran, 1989), and characterises this new audit space as regulatory work. Design/methodology/approach: Through an intensive reading of a variety of publicly available documentary sources, the paper investigates the role of auditors and accountants in the reporting accountants' and skilled persons' regimes in the UK under the Banking Act 1987 and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Findings: The paper identifies a new audit space characterised as regulatory work, which is made up of three distinct phases (and suggests the recent emergence of a fourth phase), and considers the extent to which these phases of regulatory work share common themes across new audit spaces identified by Andon et al. (2015) as independence, reporting, accreditation and mediating. Originality/value: The paper identifies a further jurisdictional expansion of audit into a new audit space, characterised as regulatory work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand sustainability assurance (SA), and diversity in that practice, by examining assurance providers' understandings of the practice and the influences that those understandings have on the actual assurance process. It focuses on the issues beyond the content of statements in SA reports. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs semi-structured interviews, supplemented by textual data sources. Research participants are assurance providers in the UK, including those within and outside the accounting profession. Drawing on the perspective of actor-network theory, the study focuses on the associations between different actors and how those shape the assurance practice. Findings: The findings indicate that providers' understandings of SA practice vary significantly. This variation has a major effect on how the assurance practice is conducted. The study identifies four types of SA engagements, which are designated as: social assurance, integrated assurance, formative assurance and compliance assurance. Such a categorization provides a broad-based understanding of the operationalization of SA and the degree of heterogeneity within it. Originality/value: This paper extends the understanding of SA by focusing on the practice beyond the statements made by assurance providers, which have been the predominant focus of analysis in the existing literature, and by offering a categorization of the diversity in practice. The focus on the associations between assurance providers and other actors provides a new perspective for exploring the fundamentals of the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper, with an organisational focus, is to offer a novel examination of the association between workforce nationality composition and workplace flexibility practices (WFPs), an under-researched topic with high potential benefits at microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Design/methodology/approach – British data are used, as the UK has experienced significant immigrant flows and has a relatively high level of labour market flexibility. The Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2011, sampling 2,500 British workplaces, offers for the first time data on workforce nationality. Via zero-inflated regressions, the number of non-UK nationals employed in a workplace is assessed against a wide range of numerical, functional and cost WFPs. Findings – There are significant links between WFPs and the employment of non-UK nationals, and these are distinct for non-UK nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA) when compared to non-UK nationals from outside the EEA. The former are more likely to be in “good” employment, with job security, working from home, job autonomy and training. Yet, both types of non-UK nationals are more likely to be employed in workplaces making high use of causal contracts. The implications of these results are discussed. Originality/value – The paper addresses the need to research migration from a relatively new perspective of WFPs while also taking into account the diversity of non-UK nationals. The topic is of importance to organisations, as well as to labour market and migration policymakers. Timely results are of value in view of heightened interest in migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how action research-based interventions can effect change in a complex and challenging professional service environment (Lewis and Brown, 2012). This paper presents a successful way to do this. First, by eliciting factors for change driven by deregulation in the United Kingdom's (UK) legal service sector (Falconer, 2005). Second, by designing and implementing context-sensitive change in a selected legal service firm. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopts a participatory action research methodology involving the use of systems thinking (namely the PrOH modelling methodology) to design suitable interventions and catalyse change. Findings: This study has generated new knowledge on three fronts–to the legal service operations, to methodology and to the intellectual framework used for abductive reasoning (Checkland and Poulter, 2006). Lessons are transferable to wider professional service operations research. Findings indicate, despite traditional challenges of delivering typical professional services, there is potential for rationalising processes and service delivery commodification, mainly in the low volume, high variety legal service typology (Silvestro et al., 1992). Research limitations/implications: This research uses data from an in-depth study of a single organisation. Practical implications: This research helped legal service professionals to improve overall efficiency and effectiveness and create new management tools. Social implications: This research could help improve legal service operations and make them more accessible. Originality/value: This research applies a novel, systems thinking based methodology for the first time in a complex professional service operations environment leading to three-fold contributions in the areas of practice, theory and methodology. The paper uses a change management framework (the Change Kaleidoscope), a soft systems methodology (PrOH modelling) and applies these to legal services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how consumption linked with life transitions can differ in its potential to bring about ongoing liminality. By examining how consumers can draw on overlapping systems of resources, different ways in which consumers negotiate ongoing liminality following the transition to motherhood are identified. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an interpretive, exploratory study using in-depth phenomenological interviews with 23 South Asian mothers living in the UK. The sample consisted of mothers at different stages of motherhood. Findings: Following life transitions, consumers may encounter liminal hotspots at the intersection of overlapping systems of resources. The findings examine two liminal hotspots with differing potential to produce ongoing liminality. The study shows how consumers navigate these liminal hotspots in different ways, by accepting, rejecting and amalgamating the resources at hand. Research limitations/implications: The research sample could have been more diverse; future research could examine liminal hotspots relating to different minority groups and life transitions. Practical implications: Marketers need to examine the different ways in which consumers draw on different systems of resources following life transitions. The paper includes implications for how marketers segment, target and market to ethnic minority consumers. Originality/value: Due to increasingly fluid social conditions, there are likely to be growing numbers of consumers who experience ongoing liminality following life transitions. A preliminary framework is presented outlining different ways that consumers negotiate ongoing liminality by drawing on overlapping systems of resources, broadening the understanding of the role that marketplace resources play beyond life transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how localized (organization-level) actors of policy initiatives that are inspired by neoliberal ideologies use management accounting and control practices. Specifically, it addresses the operational stages of a case study Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract within the United Kingdom's (UK's) transport sector of roads for embedding government objectives in the underlying project road. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts Dean's (2010) analytics of government to unpack the accounting-based control practices within the case study contract in order to articulate how, at the micro level, the government's objective of improving road-users' safety is enacted, modified and maintained through such regimes. Findings: Drawing on a content-based analysis of UK government PFI policy and extensive case study-specific documents, together with interviews and observations, this research provides theoretical insights about how control practices, at a distance without direct intervention, function as forms of power for government for shaping the performance of the PFI contractor. The authors find that the public sector's accounting control regimes in the case study project have a constraining effect on "real partnership working" between the government and private contractors and on the private sector's incentive to innovate. Research limitations/implications: By analyzing a single road case study PFI contract, the findings may not be generalizable. Originality/value: This paper provides significant theoretically informed insights about how public service delivery that is outsourced to private contractors is controlled by government at a distance within complex organizational arrangements (e.g. PFI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the state of knowledge on strikes and collective action. Design/methodology/approach – Review of theoretical and empirical literature, including comparative literature. Findings – Both strike activity and other forms of collective action have declined in many advanced capitalist countries. There has been a rise in the number of strike ballots and in tribunal claims but these trends do not constitute a straightforward vindication of the displacement hypothesis. However there is evidence of an increase in general strikes in parts of Western Europe and of protest campaigns involving coalitions of unions and civil society organizations. Originality/value – The paper tries to summarize the current state of knowledge and to map out directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Retail management has acquired the attention of scholars and practitioners, with many international and prestigious journals specifically relating to the topic. Also, top-tier journals in other disciplines have proposed special issues on the new advances in retailing, with emphasis on the role of new and smart technologies. On the one hand, the research in retailing seems to be prolific; on the other hand, the interest in retail education (from a research and university perspective) seems to be more limited. The purpose of this paper is to capture the (mis)match between the leading universities' offerings and job demand in the UK. In this way, the paper identifies opportunities for educators and researchers to educate future career-ready professionals in retailing and improve research in retail education. Design/methodology/approach: The research evaluates the offer of UK retail education in terms of programmes/courses, focusing on the Russell Group universities for the academic year 2020/2021 (September starts) and the demand of certain skills and competences by the largest retailers in the UK. The study utilizes secondary data based on the courses/programmes specifically related to the retail sector and on the job opportunities through the leading UK grocery retailers. Findings: The findings reveal the extent of the gap between the university educational offerings and the requirements from retailers. Originality/value: To the best of authors' knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to capture and compare multiple evidence bases related to academic curriculums and employers' requirements for specific retail competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This editorial seeks to explore changes in both teamwork and developments in teamwork research over the last decade. Design/methodology/approach – The editorial review importantly focuses on the key debates that emerge from the papers covered in this special issue. Findings – A review of the papers in this special issue, as well as historical analysis of teamwork research, indicate that while traditionally, analysis of teamwork was embedded in a manufacturing archetype, much of the contemporary research on teamwork is centred on service sector work where issues of cultural diversity, customer service, and lack of normative integration or task interdependence are increasingly apparent. This editorial suggests that we need to take account of the expansion of the service sector when attempting to conceptualise teamwork and the challenges that collective forms of working in such an environment bring. Originality/value – This editorial and the special issue more generally provide an important contribution to the development of understanding of how changes in the workplace have had an impact on organisational and academic interest in teamwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The starting point for the paper is an assessment of the impact of a 1993 special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, which provided an interdisciplinary analysis of the pursuit of accountable management reforms in the UK public sector. From this assessment, the paper offers a set of reflections on the development over the last two decades of "new" public management practice and research, and also indicates some of the obligations and responsibilities of academic researchers and managers alike in the context of a continuing appetite for such reforms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is written in a reflective fashion, including assessments of: our role as guest editors of the special issue; the continuing pertinence of key messages emanating from the special issue; and broader considerations drawn from our own working experience in managerial roles in universities and personal reflections on the state of the public management literature. Findings – The paper highlights the long-standing litany of failure attached to such public management reform movements, as well as the limited degree of cross-disciplinary learning within the field. The paper emphasises that we need to rethink the parameters of "public sector" (accounting) research, and avoid the partitioning of (accounting) research into ever smaller and self-referential sub-areas. We need more cross-national studies. We need to know more about which management practices travel readily, and which travel less easily, and what happens when implementation is problematic. We need also to reinforce the importance of historical analyses, if we are to derive the most benefit from studies of the interrelations among accounting and public management reforms and wider transformations in ways of governing economic and social life. Finally, we need to retain or reinstate curiosity at the heart of our concerns, in order to dispel the self-evidence or taken-for-grantedness of so much of our present. Research limitations/implications – Personal reflections, while being beneficially close to the subject under consideration, inevitably suffer from claims of bias and a lack of independence. We have sought to control for such risks by drawing on a variety of sources of information with respect to impact, including (albeit ironically) citation counts and an analysis of the writings of individual authors contributing to the special issue. Originality/value – The paper is novel in that it seeks to combine an analysis of the literature on public sector accounting and management reforms over several decades with our own, multi-faceted, engagement with public management research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to provide better understanding for the main sources behind the value premium in the UK. Second, given that the value factor (HML) in the Fama-French three-factor model is itself a proxy for value premium, this paper seeks to illustrate the component of HML responsible for explaining UK portfolio returns. Design/methodology/approach - For the period July 1991 to June 2006, value premium is broken into two components: one is related to small stocks and the other to big stocks. Then monthly time-series regressions are used to test which component of value premium provides better explanatory power for UK portfolio returns. Findings - The empirical results indicate that the value premium in average returns is due to small market capitalization stocks. Moreover, value stocks do not seem riskier than growth stocks according to their market beta. Furthermore, the significance of the value factor (HML) in explaining UK portfolio returns is mainly due to its small stock component (HMLS). The paper suggests a revision for the Fama-French three-factor model that replaces HML by HMLS. Originality/value - Academics are interested in understanding the main sources of value premium and the reasons behind the significance of the value factor in explaining UK portfolio returns. Investors and fund managers who wish to exploit the value premium will tilt their portfolios towards value stocks that have low-market capitalization. Both academics and practitioners may consider altering the Fama-French model, as suggested by the paper, when estimating the cost of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Although there is a growing emphasis on the importance of spirituality in the workplace, the majority of calls for leaders to consider the spiritual dimension fail to offer assistance in a meaningful way, and in a language to which leaders can relate, with the challenges of doing this. The purpose of this paper is to offer leaders practical guidance. After providing a summary of the reasons for a leader to examine spirituality in the workplace, questions are highlighted which look at how to nurture the spiritual dimension in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach - The authors have developed a holistic framework, and use this to guide leaders through the complexities of working with the spiritual phenomenon. They draw on their experience as leaders and on Smith's research with leaders of organisations, and his PhD, which explored the possibility of a greater spiritual focus within the UK police. Findings - Eight key questions for leaders are identified as the route through the complexities of this topic. The authors share their thoughts and the research evidence related to these questions and, while there are no easy answers, these questions can be used by the reader to help them decide for themselves what to do in the context of their own organisation. Practical implications - There are many calls for leaders to embrace the spiritual dimension in their leadership role, and many explanations as to why they should do this. However, there are a number of practical issues to be considered if this is to be done effectively, and the majority of calls do not examine these questions. This paper addresses this need and identifies the important practical questions that leaders will need to consider. Originality/value - The paper's unique contribution is to offer a framework that incorporates the spiritual dimension into a holistic approach, and guides leaders on all the areas to consider in this approach. The eight questions identified are original and provocative and encourage leaders to consider the practical issues of nurturing spirituality in the workplace. The framework and questions also offer an excellent structure on which future research can be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The spouses or partners of serving members of the UK Armed Forces are often subject to similar constraints to those of enlisted personnel. This paper aims to examine the experiences and wellbeing of a group of army wives. In particular, it focuses on their shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and related challenges, exploring the extent to which membership of military wives' communities can help them to cope. Design/methodology/approach: Using an interpretivist approach, data were collected through four focus group discussions involving 30 army wives, and seven individual in-depth interviews. Findings: The paper highlights shared experiences of consumer vulnerability and demonstrates how army wives' approaches to coping incorporate both individual and community-based approaches. It proposes that communities of coping develop within the army wives community, providing women with both practical and emotional support. Research limitations/implications: The paper acknowledges that there is a range of factors that will impact military spouses' experiences of consumer vulnerability and strategies for coping. This heterogeneity was difficult to capture within a small exploratory study. Practical implications: The UK Government should consider their duties towards military spouses and children. This would entail a significant cultural shift and recognition of military personnel's caring responsibilities. Originality/value: This research contributes to understandings regarding the potentially shared nature of both consumer vulnerability and coping strategies. The study introduces the relevance of communities of coping to consumer contexts, highlighting how members can benefit from both practical and emotional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Drawing on an accountability framework developed for social enterprise organizations (SEOs), this paper examines the annual report disclosure practices of SEOs in the United Kingdom in order to investigate the types of accountability disclosed by SEOs. Design/methodology/approach: After developing a SEO database, and utilizing a bespoke document coding checklist, the annual reports of 129 SEOs were examined. Findings: The results indicate that while SEOs would be expected to account in line with normative stakeholder theory, many do not provide constructive and voluntary accountability information to their stakeholders, at least through the annual report, and that their focus is on satisfying legal obligations. Originality/value: In response to calls for research to better understand accountability in new organizational contexts, this paper makes two contributions: firstly, by extending prior accountability research in the NFP sector to consider organizational hybrids, it raises questions about organizational accountability and how it is discharged in situations where an organization operates as a business and yet is accountable for its social mission; secondly, assuming these organizations are driven by their business and social logics, the findings suggest that SEO accountability disclosure practices are inconsistent with the social objectives on which they are based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe how the voluntary living wage (LW) in the UK is set. It examines how this calculation relates to contemporary approaches to setting wage floors, both in relation to their goal of supporting adequate living standards and in relation to the place of wage floors in the labour mark.Design/methodology/approach The paper examines how compulsory and voluntary wage floors are being determined, in the UK and in particular the role of public consensus in contributing to the calculation and adoption of a LW. It then reflects on the future sustainability of a system of wage floors in which the concept of the LW plays a significant role.Findings The central finding is that widespread support for wages delivering socially acceptable minimum living standards has transformed the context in which low pay is being addressed in the UK. The LW idea has stimulated more decisive efforts to do so; however, if a compulsory version of a LW were to reach a level shown to be harming jobs, this could seriously undermine such efforts. Moreover, the extent to which adequate wages are compatible with high employment levels can also be influenced by state support for households, especially tax credits and Universal Credit.Originality/value The paper clarifies how the setting of the UK LW contributes to objectives related both to living standards and to labour markets, and critically addresses some key issues raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage.Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014.Findings This analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work.Originality/value The living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence for the motivations of SMEs for introducing the Living Wage (LW), focussing on retail as one specific sector. It develops understanding of the strategic benefits and challenges these employers face in balancing financial, ethical and social considerations in small businesses.Design/methodology/approach The study employed mixed methods: a survey and semi-structured interviews. The interviews are presented as part of three case studies.Findings Findings indicate that employers were, for the most part, motivated by personal ethics and beliefs about fair wages and social justice. They suggest that SME accrue benefits from LW accreditation such as reputational benefits and higher employee morale, but that there are also potential pitfalls of LW adoption related to pay structure and incentives. The sustainability of the LW emerged as an issue in terms of the long-term strategy and brand positioning of the companies involved.Research limitations/implications The nature of the research was exploratory and thus the study only allows for limited generalisation. Recommended avenues for further research include gathering data from different levels of organisations and from different stakeholders.Originality/value This is the first paper to investigate the drivers for, and implementation of, the LW in SMEs. The specific characteristics of SMEs – their ethos, low visibility, reliance on trusting relationships and limited resources, among others – make the study of why and how they choose to implement the LW very interesting. This study is the first to gather and analyse data from SME retailers and wholesalers that have implemented the LW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose After 15 years of successful operation, the British Low Pay Commission’s management of the National Minimum Wage was threatened in 2015 by the government’s introduction the National Living Wage. The purpose of this paper is to consider the underlying principles of previous minimum wage fixing, and the additional thinking of the Living Wage Foundation and the review of the issue by the Resolution Foundation.Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on the 2016 reports of the Commission to argue that the two statutory wages are unavoidably interlinked and are tied to incompatible criteria.Findings The paper concludes that the predicted eventual impact of the National Living Wage on the labour market will be unsustainable.Research limitations/implications The paper is relevant to minimum wage research.Practical implications The paper is relevant to minimum wage policy.Social implications The paper is relevant to low pay policy.Originality/value The paper provides original analysis of minimum wage policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and savings. There is increasing debate over LWs due to growing inequality, rising living costs and welfare reform but this remains largely framed by the econometric cost-benefit parameters that apply to minimum wage regulation. The capabilities approach advocated by Sen (1999) offers a different perspective that is inclusive of choice, contingencies and the inter-connections between quality of (paid) work and private life. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts this framework and utilises a qualitative exploration of the narratives of 606 New Zealand employees to understand perceived wage effectiveness. The results suggest that a focus on a specific LW rate might be conceptually limiting, in comparison to a LW range.Findings First, the findings indicate that there is a pivot range in which people move from self-assessed “survival” to “decent” income. Second, a LW may have more than a simply monetary effect in better meeting employees’ living costs; it can also improve well-being through subjective perceptions of valued freedoms to do with job satisfaction, equity and security.Originality/value The results thus draw attention to a wider notion of a LW in terms of personal and family well-being, utilising a capabilities approach, with implications for organisational practice, policy and theory concerning sustainable livelihood and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of corporate support programs on managers' environmental and social innovation behaviors. To offer a more comprehensive understanding of these relationships, the moderating role of technological reflectiveness and business moral values is also accounted for. Design/methodology/approach: A scenario-based experimental study to test the impact of corporate support programs on environmental and social innovation behaviors is also adopted. After running a pretest to verify the effectiveness of alternative scenarios through 100 respondents with managerial experience residing in the UK and EU countries, we collected data from a sample of 220 senior managers of firms from the Australian food and beverage industry for the main study. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Dunnett's test to investigate direct relationships and the PROCESS Model to test the moderating role of technological reflectiveness and business moral values were used. Findings: The findings reveal time provision, budget provision and advice provision as salient forms of corporate support programs that positively impact managers' environmental and social innovation behaviors. It is found that technological reflectiveness positively moderates the link between time provision and managers' social innovation behavior and negatively moderates the link between advice provision and managers' social innovation behavior. Furthermore, it is found that business moral values positively moderate the relationships between time and budget provisions and managers' environmental innovation behavior and between budget and advice provisions and managers' social innovation behavior. Originality/value: The authors contribute to innovation and operations management research by adopting a behavioral operations management perspective and empirically analyzing the influences of managers' technological reflectiveness and business moral values on the relationship between organizational corporate support programs and managers' environmental and social innovation behavior in the context of the food and beverage industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates how organisations are responding to mandatory modern slavery disclosure legislation. Experimentalist governance suggests that organisations faced with disclosure requirements such as those contained in the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 will compete with one another, and in doing so, improve compliance. The authors seek to understand whether this is the case. Design/methodology/approach: This study is set in the UK public sector. The authors conduct interviews with over 25% of UK universities that are within the scope of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and examine their reporting and disclosure under that legislation. Findings: The authors find that, contrary to the logic of experimentalist governance, universities' disclosures as reflected in their modern slavery statements are persistently poor on detail, lack variation and have led to little meaningful action to tackle modern slavery. They show that this is due to a herding effect that results in universities responding as a sector rather than independently; a built-in incapacity to effectively manage supply chains; and insufficient attention to the issue at the board level. The authors also identity important boundary conditions of experimentalist governance. Research limitations/implications: The generalisability of the authors' findings is restricted to the public sector. Practical implications: In contexts where disclosure under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 is not a core offering of the sector, and where competition is limited, there is little incentive to engage in a "race to the top" in terms of disclosure. As such, pro-forma compliance prevails and the effectiveness of disclosure as a tool to drive change in supply chains to safeguard workers is relatively ineffective. Instead, organisations must develop better knowledge of their supply chains and executives and a more critical eye for modern slavery to be combatted effectively. Accountants and their systems and skills can facilitate this development. Originality/value: This is the first investigation of the organisational processes and activities which underpin disclosures related to modern slavery disclosure legislation. This paper contributes to the accounting and disclosure modern slavery literature by investigating public sector organisations' processes, activities and responses to mandatory reporting legislation on modern slavery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents exploratory, empirical data from a three-year study of organizational culture in for-profit, employee-owned businesses within the UK, comparing ownership types (direct, trust, and cooperative). It outlines the study and then focuses on worker cooperatives. Culture is illuminated through the lens of performance and reward management. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data was gathered from three worker cooperatives based in the North of England, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document review and was compared to qualitative data collected from other types of employee-owned businesses. Findings: The findings suggest a distinct culture within worker cooperatives encompassing five key values: a whole life perspective, consistently shared values, self-ownership, self-control, and secure employment. Research limitations/implications: Additional time with each cooperative and a greater spread of cooperatives would be beneficial. The research was carried out during a period of organizational growth for the case organizations, which may influence attitudes to reward and retention management. Practical implications: The results inform recruitment and retention policy and practice within worker cooperatives and highlight concerns regarding the stresses of being a self-owner. These are important considerations for potential worker co-operatives alongside policy recommendations to advance employee ownership. Originality/value: A comparative analysis of culture, performance, and rewards across different employee ownership types has not been undertaken before. This addresses an under-researched area of employee ownership regarding HR practices. Within the UK, recent research on the culture(s) of worker cooperatives is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the appearance of cyberloafing at work, that is, the use of the company's internet connection for personal purposes, may be due to a workplace that lacks mindfulness and compassion. The authors first hypothesize that supervisors' mindfulness is related to the mindfulness of their direct followers, and that both are related to employees' compassion at work. The authors also hypothesize that compassion mediates the link between supervisors' and followers' mindfulness and cyberloafing, and that empathic concern mediates the link from compassion to cyberloafing. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was distributed to followers working in groups of three with the same leader in all of the 100 banks in London (UK). Supervisors and their direct reports (n=100) and 100 triads of followers (n=300) participated. The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) for analyses. Findings: Results showed that supervisors' and followers' mindfulness were significantly related to each other and to compassion at work, but compassion acted as a mediator only in the case of supervisors' mindfulness. Empathic concern mediated the compassion-cyberloafing link. Research limitations/implications: The study could suffer from mono-method/source bias and specificities of banks and their work processes can raise concerns about the generalizability of the results. Practical implications: Findings suggest that mindfulness training may facilitate compassion at work, which, in turn, will restrain the occurrence of cyberloafing at work. Originality/value: This is the first study to analyze how and why employees refrain from harming their organizations out of compassion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address potential effects of the control element in quality management. First, behavioural theories on how elements of performance management can affect organisational performance are examined. Second, theoretical models on how perceptions of work conditions may impact well-being and performance are considered. Direct and indirect pathways from performance management to productivity/quality are inferred. Design/methodology/approach: Matched employee-workplace data from an economy-wide survey in Britain and two-level structural equation models are used to test the hypothesised associations. Findings: The use of practices in workplaces is inconsistent with a unified performance management approach. Distinct outcomes are expected from separate components in performance management and some may be contingent on workplace size. For example, within quality planning, strategy dissemination is positively associated with workplace productivity; targets are negatively associated with perceptions of job demands and positively correlated with job satisfaction, which in turn can increase workplace productivity. With respect to information and analysis: keeping and analysing records, or monitoring employee performance via appraisals that assess training needs, are positively associated with workplace productivity and quality. Originality/value: This paper illustrates how control in quality management can be effective. Although the merits of performance management are subject to ongoing debate, arguments in the literature have tended to focus on performance appraisal. Analyses of economy-wide data linking performance management practices, within quality management, to employee perceptions of work conditions, well-being and aggregate performance are rare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on news and developments concerning employee relations in Great Britain. A number of government ministers have recently taken the opportunity to challenge the desirability of continuing with national pay scales arrived at in industry-wide bargaining. The appearance of this campaign ensured that recent announcements that certain undertakings were to end centralized bargaining received a good deal of media publicity. In November 1986, Lord Young, Employment Secretary presented an Employment Department paper on housing and labor mobility to the National Economic Development Council (NEDO) which argued that "Regional pay differences may be insufficient to suggest to people that a move to another region might be worthwhile." Nigel Lawson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the same NEDO meeting, expressed the view that employers might be more interested in moving to depressed regions if they were not tied to nationally negotiated pay scales. This was strongly criticized by Norman Willis, General Secretary of the TUC.

Purpose Due to today’s volatile business environment companies have started to establish a better understanding of the total risk/benefit-balance concerning manufacturing location decisions of their component supply. The focus is now much more on comprehensive and strategic supply chain issues rather than simply relying on piece-part cost analysis. This has led to an emerging trend called re-shoring. The purpose of this paper is to understand the primary motivation behind the re-shoring strategy in the UK and investigate the factors that influence this decision from Indian industries perspectives.Design/methodology/approach The analysis of the paper is based on interviews conducted in the UK and India (state of Tamil Nadu) in various industries including automotive, industrial goods, textile, and marine. For this purpose an interview framework based on key enablers identified from the literature, being information technology solutions, manufacturing equipment and human factors. This provided an assessment of the capability of the companies for being responsive to western demand.Findings The findings indicate that re-shoring to the UK is the result of inadequacy in responsiveness and long production lead times of the Indian suppliers. The outcome of this paper indicates that the top factors behind this inadequacy in responsiveness are logistics and transportation, electricity shortage, excessive paperwork and working attitude.Originality/value This paper aims to fill the gap in the re-shoring literature by providing a clear picture behind the reason for re-shoring in the UK and identify the drivers behind this shortcoming in the component supply from India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary disclosures in UK higher education institutions’ (HEIs) annual reports and examine whether internal governance structures influence disclosure in the period following major reform and funding constraints.Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a modified version of Coy and Dixon’s (2004) public accountability index, referred to in this paper as a public accountability and transparency index (PATI), to measure the extent of voluntary disclosures in 130 UK HEIs’ annual reports. Informed by a multi-theoretical framework drawn from public accountability, legitimacy, resource dependence and stakeholder perspectives, the authors propose that the characteristics of governing and executive structures in UK universities influence the extent of their voluntary disclosures.Findings The authors find a large degree of variability in the level of voluntary disclosures by universities and an overall relatively low level of PATI (44 per cent), particularly with regards to the disclosure of teaching/research outcomes. The authors also find that audit committee quality, governing board diversity, governor independence and the presence of a governance committee are associated with the level of disclosure. Finally, the authors find that the interaction between executive team characteristics and governance variables enhances the level of voluntary disclosures, thereby providing support for the continued relevance of a “shared” leadership in the HEIs’ sector towards enhancing accountability and transparency in HEIs.Research limitations/implications In spite of significant funding cuts, regulatory reforms and competitive challenges, the level of voluntary disclosure by UK HEIs remains low. Whilst the role of selected governance mechanisms and “shared leadership” in improving disclosure, is asserted, the varying level and selective basis of the disclosures across the surveyed HEIs suggest that the public accountability motive is weaker relative to the other motives underpinned by stakeholder, legitimacy and resource dependence perspectives.Originality/value This is the first study which explores the association between HEI governance structures, managerial characteristics and the level of disclosure in UK HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the struggle for entry and career success of the early pioneer women accountants in Great Britain and its former colonies the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: A career crafting matrix guides the analysis of historical information available on five pioneer women accountants in order to understand their success in gaining entry into the profession and their subsequent careers. Findings: Despite an exclusionary environment, career crafting efforts coupled with family and organizational support enabled these women to become one of the first female accountants in their respective countries. Their struggles were not personal but much broader—seeking social, political, economic and professional empowerment for women. Originality/value: This is the first paper to utilize the career crafting matrix developed from current female accountants' careers to explore careers of pioneering female accountants. It adds to the limited literature on women actors in accounting and may provide insight into approaching current forms of difference and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose |!|#8211; The purpose of this paper is to discuss performance in postgraduate education in Sweden and Scotland. Drawing on two cases, the paper considers three themes: differences in students|!|#39; performance by study mode, differences in students|!|#39; performance by length of study, and finally comparing performance by study mode between modules in Scotland with an entire programme in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; The empirical setting from Scotland builds on an evaluation of online and on-campus study groups with exactly the same module syllabus. The Swedish setting is also based on an evaluation of distance and on-campus study groups with exactly the same module syllabus. The data compiled in both countries arise from student performance scores and grades. Findings |!|#8211; The results indicate that students in both countries foremost use the virtual learning environment (VLE) as a forum for accessing information, to access asynchronous postings in the forums and access streaming-synchronous online lectures which are also accessed asynchronously in the VLE. The results show that there are no differences between the grades or test scores between campus students with face-to-face education and distance students with electronically (VLE) mediated education. These differences and similarities will form the basis of these reflections in this paper. Research limitations/implications |!|#8211; The study is limited because the examples given are only a few cases and small samples and there is a need to more rigorously investigate different educational programs in different academic disciplines. Originality/value |!|#8211; The paper contributes to quality issues in distance, online and campus education by taking into account, in the first case, different student performance in the same course over a longer period and in the second case, changes over time within the same educational program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While recently introduced EU regulation on the statutory audit of public interest entities (PIEs) aims to improve audit competition and quality, its success and impact depends on the definition of a PIE applied across the various EU Member States. In the UK, even though little is known about their auditing choices, these changes will not apply to most private companies despite their importance to the wider economy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the private company audit market and examine the lobbying behaviour of the accounting profession around the definition of a PIE in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: Using a large panel of independent private company audits in the UK and a textual analysis of submitted comment letters to a government consultation on the new regulation, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the audit market for private companies by measuring supplier concentration using four different measures of market share, and of the lobbying behaviour of the accounting profession. Findings: There are two main findings. First, the private company audit market is characterised by low auditor switching rates along with a tight oligopoly of the largest independent private company audits maintained by the Big Four audit firms. Second, the lobbying behaviour of accounting and audit firms sought, and succeeded, to limit the scope of the definition of a PIE in the UK, consistent with the theoretical predictions of monopoly capitalism and the theory of professions. Originality/value: The paper shows that the definition and scope of a PIE needs revisiting both within the UK and across all EU Member States, with a view to including more of these economically important private companies and highlights the policy challenge of increasing competition and choice in a concentrated audit market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Sustainable supply chain management has become an increasingly important driver of business performance. Understanding the contingent nature of how performance is improved in this context is therefore a critical task for management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effects of two practices unique to sustainable supply chain – ecocentricity and supply chain traceability – on a firm's environmental and operating cost performance. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 248 UK manufacturing firms and analyzed using moderated hierarchical regression. Findings: The results suggest that green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are associated with improvements in both environmental and cost-based performance. Further, higher levels of ecocentricity and supply chain traceability are associated with stronger relationships between GSCM practices and cost performance. Contrary to expectations, high levels of supply chain traceability were found to negatively moderate the relationship between GSCM practices and environmental performance. Research limitations/implications: The research design was survey-based and cross-sectional. Future studies would benefit from longitudinal research designs that capture the effects of GSCM practices on performance over an extended period. The survey data is also perceptual; using secondary data to capture environmental performance outcomes, for example, would be another opportunity for future research. Practical implications: The authors provide additional support to findings that GSCM practices benefit both environmental and cost performance dimensions. In this context, the authors show that investments by firms in working with a broader set of eco-system partners (ecocentricity) and building supply chain traceability and leads to improved environmental sustainability outcomes. The authors encourage managers to carefully consider how they conceptualize and monitor their supply chains. Originality/value: This paper offers several contributions to the research in this area. First, the authors develop and validate a measurement scale for ecocentricity and supply chain traceability. Second, the authors show how these two variables – unique to sustainable supply chains – can positively influence firm and environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose In recent years, circular economy (CE) has come to prominence as an alternative to the classic approach of "make-use-dispose". How companies can exploit the opportunities of CE to position themselves better are not well articulated in the literature. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to identify the barriers and opportunities of CE in the manufacturing sector through a socio-political, economic, legal and environmental perspective.Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a positivist approach, which is deductive in nature. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed to manufacturing companies operating in the UK and EU. The study used FAME database and social networking platform LinkedIn to identify manufacturing companies. More than 200+ companies were approached for this study and data collection lasted over two months.Findings The study provides a comprehensive review of the CE literature and identifies a number of barriers and opportunities to CE implementation from a socio-political, economic, legal and environmental perspective. The findings highlight key barriers, opportunities and benefits of CE for the manufacturing industries operating in the UK and EU.Research limitations/implications The findings are limited to 63 responses from the survey questionnaire distributed to manufacturing companies in the UK and EU. The present study aims to equip manufacturers with necessary understanding of the key opportunities and barriers to address the challenges encountered during the implementation of CE.Originality/value This study adds to the limited empirical literature on CE barriers and opportunities to manufacturing organisations operating in the UK and EU. The paper also identifies barriers and opportunities of CE from a socio-political, economic, legal and environmental lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper is a rejoinder to Lusch and Vargo's defense of their service-dominant logic paper against criticism. Design/methodology/approach – The paper responds to Lusch and Vargo's defense and criticism of the initial article primarily through examining the logic of their case. Findings – The paper finds that both the charges and the arguments against the criticism have no merit. Research limitations/implications – The paper offers guidance as to the approach needed to advance the study of service marketing. This rejects the notion that viewing all businesses as service entities is a progressive approach but recommends a disjunctive definition of service, which would throw up service-categories that needed to be studied in their own right if progress is to be made. Originality/value – The paper suggests that Lusch and Vargo's S-D-dominant logic is unlikely to be practically fruitful while remaining theoretically limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to comment on the paper by Saunders and Wong in this issue. In doing so, the paper reflects on the notion of academic quality within marketing research, along with the systems in place to evaluate and reward it. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a reflective, discursive approach. Findings – The author finds that, while Saunders and Wong make a number of pertinent observations, and come up with interesting solutions, the notion of academic quality espoused in their paper is based on a logically flawed set of arguments. Research limitations/implications – The paper is primarily a personal view, and thus does not rely on any empirical research. Practical implications – There are key implications for many parties involved in the creation and assessment of marketing knowledge. In particular, scholars would be well advised to consider notions of quality in relation to their own work, rather than rely unquestioningly on existing definitions. Policy makers and research managers (e.g. business school deans) also need to consider what quality in academic research really is, and how to appropriately direct and reward it. Originality/value – The paper provides another perspective on the well-established debate regarding quality, and thus it is hoped will stimulate further thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, drawing on the author’s experience, the role of human resource development (HRD) in developing individuals, teams and communities. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a critically reflective methodology rooted in the research practice of the author working alongside communities in the UK. Findings – A non-employee critical HRD can foster empowered spaces by which alternative discourses can be held up to the light and critical questions posed. The paper introduces the notion of a different form of empowerment that moves away from the individual to a view of suspension of action, of supporting the exploration of assumptions and taken-for-granteds, of identifying constructions of reality by members of communities, and inquiring into the social conditions which play a large part in determining their health and ambitions. Practical implications – At a time when extensive cuts are being planned for public services, and the discourse of community empowerment becomes more entrenched, consideration of a critical approach to non-employee HRD is especially timely, for both researchers and policy makers. Originality/value – Past studies of HRD have focused primarily on the organisational sphere, with little critical consideration of its application to actual community settings and so-called “service users”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this editorial is to introduce this special issue on "International trade union networks, European works' councils and international labour regimes". Design/methodology/approach -- The editorial provides an overview and introduces the papers which make up the special issue. Findings -- These papers allow us to consider the social, political and institutional dimensions of grass roots organising across countries and continents. Originality/value -- The issue adds new insights into the topic in addition to the more typical focus on institutional levels of union engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of societal regulatory control systems developing an analytical framework drawing from Jurgen Habermas' notion of "steering" and an understanding of "performance management systems". It seeks to provide a conceptual language of "relational" and "transactional" approaches to regulation both generally and in relation to higher education (HE). The paper aims to illustrate that different types of regulation are related to the different contexts in which they are developed. Design/methodology/approach - The paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of regulatory frameworks and financing at a general level and in the specific context of HE in England in order to analyse the nature of the processes of steering both empirically and conceptually. The paper ends with some evaluatory reflections on the conceptual framework and in relation to the regulatory processes of HE in the England following this change. Findings - The paper argues that the societal regulatory requirements, of a "relational" or "transactional" form use financing as central tools of "steering", both generally and in HE. In HE two dominant institutional steering media are identified: regional Funding Councils, (in England, the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE)) and the Research Councils (RC). Regulation of funding flows from the two bodies is described using the conceptual framework developed. HEFCE's regulations are more "relational" in nature relative to the RCs more "transactional" systems. Located in two different Government departments until June 2007, these two funding organisations were then brought together to form the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS); they are now (since June 2009) part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (DBIS). Originality/value - The paper provides a conceptual framework by which to understand regulation more generally and demonstrates the significance of this framework by providing new insights into the changing societal regulatory context of HE in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper takes an overview of the history of both the funding and the assessment of research within Business Schools in the wider context of social science research which examines the practice of management. Design/methodology/approach- Historical archives and current statistical data are both considered in the context of various writings on the nature of management and business school research. Findings - Many of the issues are deep seated but overall it is particularly important to emphasise the importance of "translation" in both engagement and interaction and also better links through intermediaries. Originality/value - The paper adds to the on-going debate about the relevance of management research as well as the role of business school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In recent years, the role and value of management research is being increasingly challenged because of the perceived imbalance between its rigour and relevance. The purpose of this paper is to review the progress of management research in the UK and focuses particularly on the need for sensible evaluation of the impact of management research. Design/methodology/approach - The paper outlines the research challenges faced by business schools from a UK perspective. It draws upon the author's experiences and the results of an analytic study of Economic and Social Research Council-sponsored research undertaken by the author in 2008. Findings - There is a perception that management as a discipline, and its resulting research profile, may be more difficult to evaluate than its social science sub-disciplines such as economics, psychology, and sociology. In some instances, management research is perceived as of lower quality and capacity shortages of high-quality management research scholars have also been identified. The dominant research challenges are both to successfully design practice-informed management scholarship and to carefully address the dissemination of results in order to influence the impact of management research on practice. Originality/value - The paper suggests that an increasing focus on practice and cross-cutting. inter-disciplinary topics, such as climate charge or the role of finance in society, should form a significant element of the research agendas of business schools. In any event, it is argued that cutting-edge research should be the overarching aim of business schools in a knowledge society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an outline of the arguments for and against different types of journal ranking lists, and, against this background, an account of the development of the Association of Business Schools' (ABS) Journal Quality Guide. Design/methodology/approach - The paper identifies recent trends in academic journal publication that have increased the need for mechanisms to assess the overall quality of academic journals. Six approaches to ranking are outlined and evaluated including the hybrid approach adopted in producing the ABS Journal Quality Guide. Findings - The ABS Journal Quality Guide provides wide journal coverage; has high levels of internal and external reliability; is sensitive to small variations in the ratings of journals, and is generally accepted as a fair means of ranking journals within its user community. Research limitations/implications - This paper focuses on developments in the UK, and while the findings of this study may be of interest to researchers in other countries, the implications for policy and practice will be felt most keenly in British business schools. Originality/value - This paper describes a hybrid, iterative and consensual approach to developing and validating a journal quality guide that is likely to be of value to researchers, academic managers, subject librarians and research auditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine risk disclosures by UK companies within their annual reports. Tests are performed to measure the level of the readability of the risk disclosures and to assess whether directors are deliberately obscuring bad risk news. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper draws upon methodologies developed in prior empirical studies of annual report readability. Thus it uses the Flesch Reading Ease formula to measure the readability of the risk disclosures and coefficients of variation are used to measure obfuscation. A content analysis approach is adopted to identify risk disclosures. Findings -- The paper finds that the mean Flesch reading ease ratings for the sample companies are all below 50 indicating that the level of readability of the risk disclosures is difficult or very difficult and this supports prior research examining the readability of sample passages in annual reports. No evidence is found to suggest that directors are deliberately obfuscating or concealing bad risk news through their writing style. Research limitations/implications -- The paper also finds that the Flesch reading ease ratings measure the readability, not the understandability, of disclosures and whilst actions can be taken to minimise problems associated with reliability when performing content analysis they cannot be wholly eliminated. Practical implications -- The paper shows that there have been calls for improved risk disclosures to enable stakeholders to better understand a company's risk position. Requiring directors to issue extra risk information will not, however, lead to enhanced risk communication unless the readability of the risk disclosures is also improved. Originality/value -- In this paper it is shown that there have been no prior studies that focus upon testing for readability and obfuscation in risk disclosures. It is important that transparent risk information is provided to the marketplace and therefore this study is valuable in its examination of the clarity of communication of published risk information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers dispose of fashion products and how it might be possible to increase sustainable consumption of textiles. Design/methodology/approach - Increasing volumes of textiles are being produced, purchased and disposed of in landfill sites, which affect the environment. Research has identified the influences in increased purchase behaviour and the tendency to keep clothing for a shorter time. The primary research, undertaken in three stages, is an exploratory examination of the experiences of UK consumers and charity shops managers. Focus groups and key informant interviews were undertaken to achieve the objectives. Findings - This qualitative study identifies consumers' lack of understanding of how this behaviour affects the environment and key informant interviews explore how clothing can be re-used and recycled. The conclusions assess what can be learnt from the data and offer suggestions for future research. Originality/value - The paper is a new area of research which has global implications. Keywords Clothing, Ethics, Sustainable development, Recycling, Consumer behaviour, United Kingdom [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]