Management Studies

In the largest sense, global strategy amounts to (1) the optimal disaggregation or slicing of the firm's value chain into as many constituent pieces as organizationally and economically feasible, followed by (2) decisions as how each slice should be allocated geographically ('offshoring') and organizationally ('outsourcing'). Offshoring and outsourcing are treated as strategies that need to be simultaneously analysed, where just 'core' segments of the value chain are retained in-house, while others are optimally dispersed geographically, as well as dispersed over allies and contractors. This amounts to a reconsideration of the nature of the firm that captures the dynamic changes in global configuration and a reconsideration of what constitutes 'core' activities that need to be retained internally. The article proposes a new research agenda that searches for each firm's optimal degree of disaggregation and global dispersion given that further scattering of value chain activities entail benefits as well as increased complexity and costs.

 This article draws on a study of doctors' experiences of clinical managing to highlight research conventions that limit the development and use of middle range theories in grounded studies. Using sensemaking and the psychological contract as example frameworks, we illustrate how customary deductive evaluations of middle range theories turn grounded researchers away from theory building. As a correction to these conventions, we offer an inductive approach to building existing theory in grounded investigations that does not depend solely on working with frameworks under different empirical conditions. We suggest that forward theorizing is most likely to progress from a synthesis of fitted explanation and prospective thinking that presses at the limits of the data's usefulness. To illustrate this approach, trialled thinking about novel theoretical juxtapositions and alternative sources was used in conjunction with our clinical director data. The value of this approach was supported in two ways. First, a number of fitted and prospective conjectures are offered about how social identity articulates with psychological contracts and sensemaking in role change situations. Second, new light is shed on the process by which particular social conditions differentially modify employees' social categorizations, and how these inform employee responses to the evolving experience of role change. The article concludes with some tentative proposals for promoting more discussion of theory building in grounded investigations.

This article describes a study of the impact of strategic mission on the relationships between firm performance and selected strategic, structural, and tactical variables. Moderated regression analysis and subgroup analysis were used to analyse data collected from 9 1 advanced technology manufacturing companies. Results indicate that firms with build-oriented strategic missions, relative to those with more hold-and harvest-oriented strategic missions, performed better when they: (1) adopted entrepreneurial strategic postures; (2) had organic organization structures; (3) offered relatively low product prices; (4) employed relatively large sales forces; (5) offered relatively generous customer credit; and (6) offered relatively broad product lines. On the other hand, firms with hold-and harvestoriented strategic missions, relative to those with more build-oriented strategic missions, performed better when they emphasized R&D activity geared toward the development and refinement of existing products. Strategic mission did not moderate the effectiveness of the firms' advertising expenditures or their new product development activity.

The paper extends the Robbins and Pearce (1992) two-stage turnaround response model to include governance factors. In addition to retrenchment and recovery, the paper proposes the addition of a realignment stage, referring specifically to the realignment of expectations of principal and agent groups. The realignment stage imposes a threshold that must be crossed before the retrenchment and hence recovery stage can be entered. Crossing this threshold is problematic to the extent that the interests of governance-stakeholder groups diverge in a crisis situation. The severity of the crisis impacts on the bases of strategy contingent asset valuation leading to the fragmentation of stakeholder interests. In some cases the consequence may be that management are prevented from carrying out turnarounds by governance constraints. The paper uses a case study to illustrate these dynamics, and like the Robbins and Pearce study, it focuses on the textile industry. A longitudinal approach is used to show the impact of the removal of governance constraints. The empirical evidence suggests that such financial constraints become less serious to the extent that there is a functioning market for corporate control. Building on governance research and turnaround literature, the paper also outlines the general case necessary and sufficient conditions for successful turnarounds.

Emerging technologies and innovative developments cause the supply chain management to change dramatically. Therefore the subjects regarding trust have become important. Trust established in Supply Chain causes effective relationships among definitive numbers of suppliers in the long-run. The effect of trust in supply chain on firm performance and the contribution of agility to this relation have been supported in the literature. In this research, the role of agility in the effect of trust in supply chain on firm performance will be investigated. According to the results of hypotheses tests, there are positive and significant relations between supply management integration and trust in supply chain, between trust in supply chain and supply chain agility, and between supply chain agility and firm performance.

This paper explores the ability of firms to integrate a critical strategic issue, the natural environment, into the strategic planning process within the natural resource-based perspective. Using survey data collected from a wide variety of firms and industries based in the United States, we empirically examined the antecedents and effects of integrating the natural environment into the formal planning process. These data were analysed using structural equation modelling with the LISREL technique.Overall, our data provided strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we found that the level of integration of environmental management concerns in the strategic planning process was positively related to financial and environmental performance. Furthermore, we found that the greater the functional coverage and the more resources provided to environmental issues, the greater the integration of environmental issues in the planning process. These results suggest that concern for environmental issues may yield competitive advantages in the marketplace as the natural resource-based perspective suggests

Building on the strategic flexibility perspective, this paper examines the influences of organizational diversity, ownership structure and board characteristics on strategic responses to industrial decline in firms from the UK textile industry. Using samples of exiting and surviving companies it shows that, in line with the predictions of the strategic flexibility framework, the surviving companies tended to have a higher level of organizational diversity. They also tended to have larger institutional ownership and more diverse boards. These factors are associated with higher investment, financial performance, and growth. The results are consistent with the resource and service roles of the corporate governance factors.

Research on employee-owned organizations to date has utilized alternative theoretical perspectives and has examined varying attitudinal outcomes. This study reviews previous research and attempts to integrate the findings into a causal model that combines the results of prior studies. The resulting causal model was tested empirically with a sample ( N = 181) of employees from a firm that adopted an employee ownership programme. Financial value of the ESOP was positively related to satisfaction with the ESOP plan, but was not related to other attitudinal variables. Perceived influence from ownership was positively related to ESOP satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. ESOP satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment were negatively related to turnover intention. ESOP satisfaction and turnover intention were related to actual employee turnover behaviour over an extended time period.

In this paper we suggest that the study of attempts to secure headquarters level change may now be of increasing sigdicance. Evidence of a wave of H Q level change is beginning to accumulate and requires further investigation. The twin purposes of this paper are: (1) in descriptive terms, to gather such evidence as is already available about the nature and extent of HQlevel change; to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature; to suggest where further descriptive work needs to take place; and (2) in explanatory terms, to build some initial and alternative organizational and managerial theories that could inform the study of H Q change; to propose a medium-term research agenda that can be tested in the field. 515 does exist (BIM, 1992) is cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. There remains the danger that we may be extrapolating from a few well publicized cases to the whole population.

Human Capital Management (HCM) is a management concept that demands theoretical foundations for implementation. It must not be easily equated with human resource management activities. HCM must include initiatives directly focused on the knowledge resources that are at the organization's disposal. However, using only internal knowledge resources is not enough to raise the level of competitiveness. Organizations must reach outside their environment. It has been adopted that, in instrumental terms, HCM is based on intentionally selected and applied organizational, technical, social, formal, and legal, as well as economic and financial instruments in a manner that enables the organization's goals to be achieved. At the inter-organizational level, HCM was included in the organization's business ecosystem as the organization gains new opportunities to use the knowledge and human capital of its stakeholders thanks to its network connections. It is from this perspective that the article proposes the main concepts, goals and practices, methods that HCM can serve.

Business intelligence is a promising style extensively used in decision-making processes. The application of Business Intelligence (BI) is growing at an incredible rate in developed countries but its exposure in emerging economies, like India, is still low. The impact of business intelligence technology on the decision-making process and ultimately on the organizational performance has been studied by many authors in various economies, but still, is a subject to be investigated in India. There are studies that say emerging markets are going to be new drivers of economic growth in upcoming future. This study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of business intelligence technology achieved by organizations in an emerging economy i.e. India. A previously developed survey instrument was used to collect data from decision makers and BI users from different companies that are operating in India. The data analysis was done with the help of PLS-SEM technique. The study found the impact of business intelligence on determinants that are responsible for organizational performance benefits to be achieved by organizations in India.

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world and a promising sector to boost a country's growth. Bedulu Village in Gianyar Regency, Bali, is a village with high tourism potential. The village has beautiful natural scenery and archaeological heritage sites, which enable tourists to enjoy culture, nature, pilgrimage, and educational tourism. Although some efforts have been made by the locals to improve the quality of tourism, the management of tourism in Bedulu Village is still handled sketchily using a simple system, in addition to a lack of proper human resources and infrastructure. Therefore, Bedulu Village still requires further development for potential tourism attraction in order to become quality tourist destination in the future. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current situation of tourism in Bedulu and determine the necessary development needed for future tourism in Bedulu Village. The data collected from the object of research were analyzed using descriptive-qualitative analytical method. The results from this study are: While Bedulu Village has been adequately prepared in terms of tourist attractions and tourist accommodation, it is still in need of further development in areas, such as infrastructure, marketing, and the empowerment of local community. This will allow the village to stay competitive in the face of mass tourism of nearby places, like Ubud and lead to community's welfare, which in turn will secure future tourism of Bedulu Village.

This paper seeks to identie variables which explain variations in budget allocations in a UK univirsity using a pooled database relating to two periods: one of resource availability, the other of resource scarcity. The results over both periods indicate, consistent with previous research, that a combination of workload and power proxies explains a very high proportion of budget allocations. However, analysis of the two periods revealed that: (i) incremental budgeting, which was observed to be in operation during the period of resource availability, was not supplanted by comprehensive budgeting during the period of resource scarcity, (ii) the impact of power proxies on budget allocation did not materially change in response to changes in levels of resource availability, and (iii) compared with internally based power, externally based power (as proxied) had neither a greater impact on resource allocation during the period of resource scarcity nor a lower impact during the period of resource availability as hypothesized.

As a developing nation India's progress is very satisfactory and days are not far when we will be counted among the developed nations. Innovative Idea has been implemented to reap the harvest of this fast growth. Financial Service sector has also witnessed innovations and modification in Products and Processes. Ever changing technological advancements have impacted everyone. Financial Investments options have seen huge changes in the last 16 years, they are much more attractive as compared with the products from the past. These Innovations and modifications in investment products have changed our way of looking at investments. Impact of these innovations on social and economic fabric of the country had been tremendous. Someone once said, "A country is as rich as its citizens." The way to become rich is investment in products with good returns. Investment products have always been a matter of solicitation, especially products which have a return source other than interest. Technological advancement and modification, new and innovative products as investment options seem to be forcing the realignment of financial transaction systems. As we are still talking about Financial Inclusions in our country .The author intends to explore the major innovation and modifications in three Investment Products namely Mutual Funds, Life Insurance and Stock Markets participations of Individual Investors. In this research paper an attempt is made to try and understand the Impact of these Innovations on growth of these products and Financial Service Sector.

Many organizations are devoting enormous amounts of financial and human resources to improve corporate communications. Among the many forms of communication produced by firms, the Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) letter to shareholders is perhaps the most strategic in conveying the well-being and future direction of the enterprise. These letters have become even more visible with the advent of World Wide Web and its use as a primary forum for communicating the CEO's message. Surprisingly, there has been little research into dimensions that characterize the effectiveness of the CEO's letter and how this communication may benefit the overall enterprise in terms of improved financial position. Utilizing both theoretic and practical perspectives as well as the web-based letters of prominent organizations, this study frames CEO's letter effectiveness (CLE) along dimensions of credibility, efficacy, commitment, and responsibility. These first-order constructs appear to be statistically coaligned by a second-order construct of CLE. In turn, CLE is shown to be directly associated with favourable financial performance in terms of share price and trading activity. This study provides a useful framework for assessing strategic communication through the CEO's letter and for operationalizing a key dependent variable in future studies related to strategic corporate communications through digital media.

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that can affect the effectiveness of the Yield Management training program at a semiconductor company. The research framework for this study was designed based on the Kirkpatrick model and questionnaires were used and distributed to technical staff at Silterra. The study finds that factors such as participants, trainer, training materials and organization can affect the effectiveness of the training while other factors such as the training program itself, working environment and technology were immaterial. The results also indicated that participants, trainer, training material and the organization had a positive relationship with the effectiveness of training at the different levels of the Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model. Keywords: training effectiveness, technical training, Yield Management training program, Kirkpatrick’s Training Model, Semiconductor industry

ABSTRACT Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse.We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice.

Recent approaches to understanding change in organizations have moved beyond just looking at structure and have focused on the role of values in defining the manner in which organizations change. This article integrates the concepts of design archetypes, tracks and high impact systems in an effort to understand the patterns of change for an institutionally specific set of organizations. The sample used for the study was a set of Canadian national sport organizations undergoing institutional change. Three design archetypes (IGtchen Boardroom and Executive Office) that represent institutionally specific coherent value-structure relationships were used to show that patterns of change are determined by the extent to which the coherence of organizational design elements shift over time. Using these design archetypes as a model for change, tracks were identified that provided an indication of the degree and direction of change and the extent to which design coherence was maintained. This paper shows that there is variety in organizational design coherence and that this is related to patterns of change. In addition, reorientations to a new design are signalled by changes in structures or systems that are central to the organization's purpose and as such can have a high impact on moving the organization to a new design.

Recent research has confirmed the study of emotion as an important organizational concept in its own right. Central to this claim is the growing body of research into the causes, content and consequences of emotional labour. However, despite a plethora of studies into the emotional labour of front-line staff, to date, professional groupings have been largely ignored. Notwithstanding occasional anecdotal references to physicians, existing research neglects the emotional facets of professional life. This study is designed to rectify this imbalance through the exploration and description of the extent, content and consequences of emotional labour by barristers. After detailing the research methods employed, the study presents the results of an interview and observation-based study of barristers at work. The findings suggest that not only do barristers routinely display expected emotions, but also they do so differentially. Insights into the causes and effects of such labour are also presented and discussed. The paper concludes with a series of implications and suggestions for future research.

This study contributes to the limited established empirical research on the impact and relevance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the capital markets of emerging economies. We conducted an event study to demonstrate how the timing of CSR announcements by firms that have aligned their strategies to newly instituted social regulations in South Africa influenced stock prices. Using a unique dataset of publicly listed South African enterprises that undertook CSR initiatives during the ten year period from 1996 to 2005, we found that investor reactions to CSR announcements concluded during the late phase of institutional reforms are viewed positively by investors. Furthermore, CSR announcements of substantive monetary value result in significantly higher shareholder returns.

The study attempts to analyze the behavior of investors towards investment pattern and to analyze the factors which an investor takes into consideration while taking Investment decision. Faculty members in Uttarakhand were surveyed using questionnaire. Study concludes that behavior matters a lot when it comes to making a wise investment decision and therefore in selecting a particular investment option it requires an investors complete considers factors like goals in life, spending habits, expenses, income, perception towards investments, lifestyle changes, time period, nature towards investment, thought process, natural habits, study of one's financials, risk bearing capacity, liquidity and expected returns.

As the world economy is progressing in faster way, organizations are finding it difficult to survive in this competitive environment. From a competitive standpoint, firms now-a-days are more concerned in retaining customers rather than making one time sale. The changing role of marketing in the organizations has indicated an extended continuum of marketing relationships which emerged as a new paradigm of the marketing functions along with transactional marketing. To profile marketing practices, the conceptual framework comprising all of the possible strategies for an effective buyer-seller exchange to derive specific measures of marketing practices has been developed to examine the extent of transactional and relationship marketing practices in different contexts. The present research work examines the relative importance attached to different levels of four marketing strategies in order to optimize the marketing performance of a firm in the specific sector as a case. The estimation of the relative importance of the four distinct marketing aspects and also the relative importance of the different levels of different aspects is done through Conjoint Analysis.

The researchers' attempt is to investigate the factors affecting to customer's intention to select a particular internet service provider in Gampola area. According to the literature reviewed, effecting factors of service quality, price, brand image and promotion are used as independent variables and customer satisfaction used as dependent one of the study. The target population includes internet users in Gampola area. In order to collect necessary information 100 internet users were selected randomly as the sample consumer of the internet service providers in Gampola area. Both primary and secondary data are used to test the model develop in this research. Questionnaire is the primary method followed in this research and the questionnaire includes 35 questions. SPSS version (21) was used for statistical analysis process of the research. Reliability analysis was used to check the internal consistency of questionnaire. The hypotheses have been tested using correlation and regression analysis. The correlation analysis resulted that all variables (SQ, P, BI, PR) are positively affect to customer satisfaction of selecting and staying with a particular Internet service provider. Result of regression analysis indicated that brand image and promotion are not significantly effect for the selecting with a particular Internet service provider, but price and service quality are significantly effect for the selection of internet of service providers According to the study Service Quality, price, brand image and price factors should be favorable to the customers. This research and developed model cold be useful for service providers to develop SQ, P, BI and PR factors suitably to improve customer satisfaction. Indexed Terms-Brand image, internet service providers,price, price factors, service quality

Co-operation may enable organizations to attain ends that they cannot achieve alone. However, the co-operating partners must have an unusual mix of propensity, (2) power, and persistence. Joint ventures are used in this article to elucidate these critical elements in the relationship.

This article addresses the debate concerning the study of management. Arguing that definitions of management have suffered from conceptual obscurity, it advocates that an understanding of management must address relational, constitutive and political dimensions of its operation. The work of Michel Foucault, particularly the concept of power/knowledge and his ascending analysis of power, offers such an approach. The relevance of Foucault for recasting the study of management is illustrated through an analysis of performance appraisal systems introduced into UK universities.

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the communities of practice approach to managing knowledge and its use among management academics and practitioners in recent years. In so doing, the aim is to identify the limits of the approach in the field of knowledge management. The paper begins with a brief description of the communities of practice approach. This is followed by a review of critiques of the approach evident in the management literature. A number of further challenges are then elaborated. The limits of communities of practice are subsequently discussed and brief conclusions drawn.

The mutual perceptions were obtained of I 13 Japanese and IOO British managers working in the London offices of 18 Japanese companies. Eighteen semantic differential items were used to permit each respondent to report his auto stereotype of his own nationality of manager, his hetero stereotype of the other nationality, and his meta stereotype (his opinion as to how they would assess his own group). The degree of agreement between the auto stereotype of each group and the hetero stereotype held of it by the other group is discussed, and the accuracy of the meta stereotypes is examined. It is also shown that the 18 semantic items can be reduced to 3 principal components which, after rotation, are consistent in meaning between the two nationalities. The three rotated factors are interpretable as 'approval', 'open style' and 'functional'. The factors permit a more concise comparison of the stereotypes.

The contemporary literature concentrates on ‘make or buy’ decisions in design and production activities, assuming that decisions about the underlying fields of technological knowledge will automatically be the same. Building on previous research on multitechnology firms and products, this paper argues that firms know more about technology than they apply in their own production. We propose two major dimensions according to which firms should adjust their knowledge and production boundaries, namely systemic interdependencies across components and uneven rate of change across components’ underlying knowledge bases. We analyse the implications of this less-than-perfect overlap between knowledge and production boundaries for the management of firms’ external relationships.

Research on strategic decision making has considered advice-seeking behaviour as an important top management team attribute that influences organizational outcomes. Yet, our understanding about how top management teams utilize advice to modify current strategies and pursue exploratory innovation is still unclear. To uncover the importance of advice seeking, we delineate between external and internal advice seeking and investigate their impact on exploratory innovation. We also argue that top management team heterogeneity moderates the impact of advice seeking on exploratory innovation. Findings indicated that both external and internal advice seeking are important determinants of a firm's exploratory innovation. In addition, we observed that top management team heterogeneity facilitates firms to act upon internal advice by combining different perspectives and developing new products and services. Interestingly, heterogeneous top management teams appeared to be less effective to leverage external advice and pursue exploratory innovation.

It is generally assumed in the popular management literature that the TQM (total quality management) and BPR (business process re-engineering) movements are the two latest expressions of an increasing sophistication in management techniques and principles. Following this logic it only is a matter of time before they will be superseded by yet another management innovation. This paper aims to explode this`beyond' myth by exposing the underlying logic of TQM and BPR implementation patterns in two case companies. Empirical ®ndings will be related back to critical approaches to the study of TQM and BPR. Concrete suggestions as to how to move beyond the quick ®x managerial mode will be proposed. Our approach is intended to provide a counterweight to the unre¯ective discourse surrounding TQM and BPR by breaking open the naturalness of this discourse. It supplies a few landmarks for managers and researchers to take a step back, hesitate, and re¯ect on the phenomenon of planned organizational change.

In the largest sense, global strategy amounts to (1) the optimal disaggregation or slicing of the firm's value chain into as many constituent pieces as organizationally and economically feasible, followed by (2) decisions as how each slice should be allocated geographically ('offshoring') and organizationally ('outsourcing'). Offshoring and outsourcing are treated as strategies that need to be simultaneously analysed, where just 'core' segments of the value chain are retained in-house, while others are optimally dispersed geographically, as well as dispersed over allies and contractors. This amounts to a reconsideration of the nature of the firm that captures the dynamic changes in global configuration and a reconsideration of what constitutes 'core' activities that need to be retained internally. The article proposes a new research agenda that searches for each firm's optimal degree of disaggregation and global dispersion given that further scattering of value chain activities entail benefits as well as increased complexity and costs.

Downsizing is a deceptively complex construct that is conflated with a variety of synonymous terms, including rightsizing, resizing, restructuring, de-layering, and redundancies. Downsizing, rightsizing, restructuring the human resource or organisation are the common term used to reduce the employee size in an organisation. For this different schemes were introduced like Voluntary retirement scheme, Golden handshake, Compulsory retirement scheme, Early exit option scheme. In this paper researchers made an attempt to study the conceptual review on the organisation downsizing.

The research investigates the occupational stressors and stress outcomes associated with being a female manager compared to her male counterpart, and the relationship between these stressors and stress manifestations. A multi-dimensional model of occupational stress is presented comprised of isolated variables in four arenas: (1) the work arena; (2) the home/social arena; (3) the individual arena; and (4) the stress manifestation arena

Personality has been regarded as a practical force in determining the success or failure in life. Personality has been viewed as a source of person's attitude exhibited in the workplace over the years. Personality of an individual starts developing at the early age and is groomed over the education period of individuals. The present education system aims to enable students not just to acquire knowledge but also to become capable, confident and enthusiastic leaders and managers. The aim of the study is to profile the personality of the students across age, education stream and location of residence. The study is descriptive in nature and adopted survey strategy. Data was collected using a questionnaire from the final year under graduate female students in Coimbatore city. The collected data was analyzed using percentage analysis and Analysis of Variance.

 This article focuses on teamworking as a form of governmentality whereby management seeks to govern by distance. This involves mobilizing the support and commitment of employees to teamworking and organizational goals by appealing to their autonomy, unity, sociability and desire for a more enriched work experience. It is the struggle over subjectivity that is of concern here, for teamworking can be seen as a technology that aims to transform individuals into subjects that secure their sense of meaning and significance through working as a team. We will explore through a case study of a call centre in a large building society how a discourse of teamworking has begun to impinge upon individuals so as to shape not only how they behave but also how they think, derive meaning and understand the world. In turn, we consider some of the tensions and inconsistencies of teamworking in relation to the secrecy of pay differentials, and the return to productivity pressures after a period of relaxation and trust. Ultimately the article examines how individuals respond to, agonize over, resist and baulk against the imposition of 'team lives' when this rubs up against what they understand to be their 'private lives'. This will involve considering gender tensions that have so far been largely neglected in relation to call centres and teamworking. Teamworking, we will argue, reflects a will to govern rather than a mechanism of government.

Why do organizational members derive pleasure from being dishonest? The paper seeks to respond to this question by adopting a psychoanalytically informed approach to the analysis of how individuals perceive their own corruptness. I focus in particular on the Goldman Sachs Abacus deal, a notorious case of corruption concealed behind a facade of legality. Building on the detailed analysis of emails exchanges from within Goldman Sachs, I utilize the Lacanian concept of ‘ideological fantasy’ to discuss how the traders’ narratives bear witness to a certain logic of fantasy that appears to fuel corrupt activities. I also examine the cover-up tactics which were adopted to camouflage the corrupt operations and make them appear licit. Corrupt performances and their cover-up are theorized as forms of self-transgressive jouissance, a simultaneously pleasurable and selfdestructive practice that is needed to sustain and protect the impossible norms of the corporation.

As signaled on the initial pages, the book is intended to have a practical dimension and trigger tangible actions aimed at improving the condition of social sciences, so that they have ‘something to say,’ as the subtitle reads. The intention of the authors is to find a way to clip the overpopulated branch on which they are sitting without damaging the tree or its often forgotten roots, and to arrive at fair selection methods that will allow the best to climb higher and all the rest to make a fairly soft landing in other areas (including academic teaching), but with their dream of a career in science dispelled.

This paper explores the ability of firms to integrate a critical strategic issue, the natural environment, into the strategic planning process within the natural resource-based perspective. Using survey data collected from a wide variety of firms and industries based in the United States, we empirically examined the antecedents and effects of integrating the natural environment into the formal planning process. These data were analysed using structural equation modelling with the LISREL technique.Overall, our data provided strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we found that the level of integration of environmental management concerns in the strategic planning process was positively related to financial and environmental performance. Furthermore, we found that the greater the functional coverage and the more resources provided to environmental issues, the greater the integration of environmental issues in the planning process. These results suggest that concern for environmental issues may yield competitive advantages in the marketplace as the natural resource-based perspective suggests