Articles

The Mexican Economic Crisis of 1982 and the Brazilian Economic Crisis of 1999 - Critical Junctures in Economic Policy

John Hogan et al. — Mon, 20 May 2013 03:01:03 PDT

This paper utilises a new critical juncture framework to help us determine whether changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s, and Brazilian macroeconomic policy at the turn of the century, were clean breaks with the past, or continuations of previously established policy pathways. The framework consists of three elements, which must be identified in sequence in order to declare, with some certainty, if an event was a critical juncture. These are crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change.

Country at a Crossroads: An Insight into How an Economic Crisis Led to Dramatic Policy Change

John Hogan et al. — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:26:08 PDT

In this paper, we try to understand the nature of the changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s using a critical juncture framework. The framework argues that three elements - crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change - must be identified in order for us to be able to declare, with some certainty, whether an event constitutes a critical juncture. Utilizing this framework, we will ascertain if the changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy constituted a clean break with the past, or were a continuation of previously established policy pathways.

Working Paper: Concentration of Secondary Schooling for Irish and UK Elite Politicians

Brendan O'Rourke et al. — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:37:41 PST

The study of elites and their formation has returned to centre stage in recent years. The lessons from these studies can be made more universal if a measure of elite formation could be developed that is comparable. The multifaceted nature of the concept of elite formation makes this complex. However, in this paper, by building upon measures used in other fields, such as industrial economics, we offer such a measure that facilitates comparison of elite formation. We illustrate this measure through a comparison of the schooling of Irish and British political elites.

Questioning the Currency of Marketing Planning Today

Sarah Browne et al. — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:21:20 PDT

While marketing planning has received considerable scholarlv
attention from academics, particularly on how it should be approached,
extant research does not explicate in any great detail how this process is actually performed in practice. The limited existing empirical research suggests a lag between theory and practice in terms of marketing planning and strategy making. Therefore, in order to 'market' marketing in B2B organisations, and close this apparent academic-practitioner divide, a greater awareness of who is actually involved in marfceting planning and strategy making processes is needed. The emphasis in this paper thus is to place the 'how' and 'who' in marketing planning under the empirical lens, and through
practitioner insight, to propose a reconceptualisation of the marketing
planning process as a flexible, adaptive and integrative process.

Practical Simulation Application: Evaluation of Process Control Parameters in Twisted-Pair Cables Manufacturing System

Amr Mahfouz et al. — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:59:22 PDT

Intensive competition and rapid technology development of Twisted-Pair Cables (TPC) industry have left no room for competing manufacturers to harbour system inefﬁciencies. TPC are used in various communication and networks hardware applications; their manufacturing facilities face many challenges including various product conﬁgurations with different equipment settings, different product ﬂows and Work in Process (WIP) space limitations. The quest for internal efﬁciency and external effectiveness forces companies to align their internal settings and resources with external requirements/orders, or in different words, signiﬁcant factors must be set appropriately and identiﬁed prior to manufacturing processes. Integrated deﬁnition models (IDEF0, IDEF3) in conjunction with a simulation model and a design of experiments (DOE) have been developed to characterize the TPC production system, identify the signiﬁcant process parameters and examine various production setting scenarios aiming to get the best product ﬂow time.

Virtual ED: Utilisation of a Discrete Event Simulation-Based Framework in Identifying "Real-Time’ Strategies to Improve Patient Experience Times in an Emergency Department

Waleed Abo-Hamad et al. — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:14:21 PDT

Objectives and Backgrounds Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding and associated excessive Patient Experience Times (PETs) have proven deleterious impacts on patient mortality, morbidity and overall length of hospital stay. Health systems constantly seek cost-effective organisational strategies to reduce ED crowding and improve patient outcomes, but complex change implementation is constrained by the necessity of maintaining concurrent safe patient-care. Computer modelling in a “virtual reality” has been successfully utilised in industries outside medicine, in providing innovative “real-time” solutions to outdated practices. Therefore a bespoke “Virtual ED” computer model, based on a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) -Based Framework was constructed to determine the best simulation scenarios needed for effective “real-time” strategies to improve PETs in a Dublin teaching hospital ED. The three simulation scenarios tested were: (1) Increasing medical staffing. (2) Increasing assessment space. (3) Enforcing the national 6-h boarding limit.

Methods A collaborative interactive decision support model was constructed to analyse patient flow through the ED, considering the variability in patients' arrival rate, the complexity levels of patients' acuity, and the dynamic interactions between key resources (eg, clinical staffing, physical capacity, and spatial relationships). ED Process Mapping utilised IDEF0, for modelling complex systems in a hierarchical form and Extend Suite V.7 software was used to develop the DES—based framework model. Historical, anonymised ED patient data of 59 986 patient episodes (tracking times, indirect acuity and clinical resource utilisation) was analysed from the “real-time” ED Information System. Baseline ED Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), PETS and resource utilisation was determined for comparison with the DES model. Distinct study scenario variables (Abstract 007 table 1) were added to the DES model and run for 3 month continuous blocks to eliminate confounders. Continuous verification and validation of the ED simulation model was ensured by using Kolmogorov–Smirnov goodness of fit test with a 5% significance level. The ultimate results of the simulation model were validated using three techniques; face validation, comparison testing, and hypothesis testing, with the deviation between actual and simulated results ranging from 1% to 9% with an average of only 5% deviation.

Simulation Optimisation Methods in Supply Chain Applications: a Review

Amr Arisha et al. — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:18:37 PDT

The competitiveness and dynamic nature of today’s marketplace is due to rapid advances in information technology, short product life cycles and the continuing trend in global outsourcing. Managing the resulting supply chain networks effectively is challenged by high levels of uncertainty in supply and demand, confl ict objectives, vagueness of information, numerous decision variables and constraints. With such levels of complexity, supply chain optimisation has the potential to make a signifi cant contribution in resolving these challenges. In this paper, a literature review – based on more than 100 peer-reviewed articles – of state-of-the-art simulation-based optimisation techniques in the context of supply chain management is presented. A classifi cation of supply chain problems that apply simulation–optimisation techniques is proposed. The main criteria for selecting supply chain optimisers are also identifi ed, which are then used to develop a map of optimisation techniques. Such a map provides guidance for researchers and practitioners for a proper selection of optimisation techniques.

A Simulation Model to Characterize Photolithography Process of a Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication

Amr Arisha et al. — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:30:23 PDT

The pressures on semiconductor manufacturers due to cost considerations, rapid growth of process technology, quality constraints, feature size reduction, and increasingly complex products are requiring ever higher efficiency from manufacturing facilities. The complexity of manufacturing high capacity semiconductor devices means that it is impossible to analyze the process control parameters and the production configurations using traditional analytical models. There is, therefore, an increasing need for effective models of each manufacturing process, characterizing and analyzing the process in detail, allowing the effect of changes in the production environment on the process to be predicted. The photolithography process is one of the most complex processes in semiconductor manufacturing. Using state-of-the-art computer simulation and a structured modelling methodology a generic model of photolithography flexible manufacturing cells has been developed and used to mimic the actual performance of the tools. Comparison of the output from the model with data from the plant shows the quality of the model. This paper discusses the technique used to develop the simulation model and includes a details on the structured modelling approach employed to develop reusable generic model for optimizing photolithography process parameters.

Understanding Policy Change Using a Critical Junctures Theory in Comparative Context: the Cases of Ireland and Sweden

Paul Donnelly et al. — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:55:33 PDT

Utilizing a new theory for examining critical junctures, we seek to better understand the nature of industrial policy change in Ireland during the 1950s and macroeconomic policy change in Sweden in the 1980s. Did these policy changes constitute critical junctures, or something less, and if so why? The theory consists of three elements – economic crisis, ideational change, and the nature of the policy change – that must be identified for us to be able to declare with some certainty if a policy change constitutes a critical juncture. Herein, we will be examining the roles of a variety of change agents including the media, central banks, and politicians. Our findings will help explain why Irish industrial policy was transformed in the late 1950s, while Swedish macroeconomic policy underwent only minor change in the early 1980s.

Coalition Plan Falls Short of Pre-election Promises

Paul Donnelly et al. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:44:35 PDT

There was much on openness and fighting white-collar crime in the parties’ manifestos – but where are they in the programme for government.

Train to Survive: the Experts’ Advice

Paul Donnelly — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:52:39 PDT

Tim Ryan is in quite the dilemma: should he shut up shop or should he seek to ride out the current crisis? He has experienced nothing but success until recent times and he has invested 15 years of his life in building his own training company. Without doubt he feels considerable emotional attachment to the business, not to mention that it currently represents his livelihood and that of his remaining employees.

Idiosyncratic Distances: Impact of Mobile Technology Practices on Role Segmentation and Integration

Nicolas Battard et al. — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:16:16 PST

Mobile technologies have brought convenience, flexibility and connectedness in our lives by enabling us to be reachable anywhere and anytime. All of our environments such as work and home converge through a single device and we can now receive private calls at work and professional calls during the weekend. Mobile technologies have transformed geographical distances and allow unplanned interruptions. While boundary theory suggests that individuals create, maintain and modify their boundaries in order to classify and simplify their environments, we focus here on how people use their devices and manage the boundaries that have been erased by mobile technologies. Based on an original qualitative research of twenty three mini-case studies, we identify three practices by which individuals resocialize the distance: construction of a meta-role, delegation of role separation to technological devices and ‘sedentarization’ of mobile technologies by multiplying technological devices.

Convergence and Multidisciplinarity in Nanotechnology: Laboratories as Technological Hubs

Nicolas Battard — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:25:44 PST

This article argues that research groups dedicated to nanoscience and nanotechnology are considered as technological hubs where scientists with multiple backgrounds converge in order to conduct research at the nanoscale (a billionth of a metre). Scientific production is therefore challenged as multiple ways of thinking, practices and knowledge participate in the creation of new outcomes. Through an exploratory and inductive study, I show that these technological hubs develop a specialisation based on internal competencies and stock of knowledge. The specialisation enables laboratories to position themselves as an expert among other laboratories as well as making them more visible in order to attract funding. However, multidisciplinary research is hindered by knowledge and practices that are inherited from established scientific disciplines. The lack of standards and clear definition of the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology leads young scientists, PhD students particularly, to experience a misalignment between their research, their supervision, and the outcomes they have to produce.

Regulating Lobbyists: a Comparative Analysis of the USA, Canada, Germany and the European Union

Raj Chari et al. — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:06:42 PDT

Lobbying is central to the democratic process. Yet, only four political systems have lobbying regulations: the United States, Canada, Germany and the EU (European Parliament). Despite works offering individual country analysis of lobbying legislation, a two-fold void exists in the literature. Firstly, no study has offered a comparative analysis classifying the laws in these four political systems, which would improve understanding of the different regulatory environments. Secondly, few studies have analysed the views of key agents - politicians, lobbyists and regulators - and how these compare and contrast across regulatory environments. We firstly utilise an index measuring how strong the regulations are in each of the systems, and develop a classification scheme for the different ‘ideal’ types of regulatory environment. Secondly, we measure the opinions of political actors, interest groups and regulators in all four systems (through questionnaires and elite interviews) and see what correlations, if any, exist between the different ideal types of system and their opinions. The conclusion highlights our findings, and the lessons that can be used by policy-makers in systems without lobbying legislation.

Constructing and Disrupting Ireland's Industrial Development Authority

Paul Donnelly — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:06:40 PDT

Actor-network theory is considered to have great potential for broadening and deepening our grasp of institutional work (LAWRENCE; SUDDABY, 2006). Given its focus on process, ANT offers a means to breathe life into the practices associated with institutionalization. With Callon’s (1986) four moments of translation as analytical lens, and with Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority as empirical example, I seek to address the concerns of Clegg and Machado da Silva (2009) by reconsidering “the role of agency, power, persistence and change in the process of institutionalization”.

Focusing on Process and History: Path Dependence

Paul Donnelly — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:06:38 PDT

In recognition of the calls for more processual and historically informed organizational theorizing, this chapter considers the notion of path dependency, an approach which holds that a historical path of choices has the character of a branching process with a self-reinforcing dynamic such that preceding steps in a particular direction induce further movement in the same direction, thereby making the possibility of switching to some other previously credible alternative more difficult. Path dependence seeks to assess how process, sequence and temporality can be best incorporated into explanation, the focus of the researcher being on particular outcomes, temporal sequencing and the unfolding of processes over time. Thus, proceeding from a consideration of the position afforded history in the organizational literature, this chapter outlines the tenets of path dependence theory, before sketching out its application in the practice of doing research.

The Weight of the World: Consuming Traditional Masculine Ideologies

Andrew Dunne et al. — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:16:32 PDT

This paper explores the relationship between the body, masculinity and the consumption of body-focussed activities. It examines the meaning and importance of strength training for men.
Strength training is of interest because its increase in popularity is occurring at a particular point in time when a growing number of men are experiencing insecurities over their masculine identities as a result of recent socio-economic changes. This paper proposes that men today are facing a dilemma in terms of masculine identity. This dilemma hinges on the growing objectification of the male body in the media and its cultural messages regarding masculinity.

The Move from Protectionism to Outward-looking Industrial Development: a Critical Juncture in Irish Industrial Policy?

Paul Donnelly et al. — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:21:13 PDT

This paper utilises a new framework for examining critical junctures to help us understand whether the changes to Irish industrial policy at the end of the 1950s constituted a critical juncture, breaking cleanly with what came before, or were a continuation of policy pathways previously established. The framework is made up of three elements, which must be identified in sequence, for us to be able to declare a critical juncture. Irish industrial policy is examined here, as it constitutes a core tenet of wider economic policy.

Government Policies Must Keep Business on Tight Rein

Paul Donnelly et al. — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:01:19 PDT

The unethical behaviour that helped create the economic and banking crisis has caught the attention of some parties.

Exploring Children's Understanding of Television Advertising:Beyond the Advertiser's Perspective

Margaret-Anne Lawlor — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:53:18 PST

Abstract Purpose - The aim of this article is to explore children's understanding of television advertising intent. Methodology- A different perspective on advertising intent is offered in this paper, as evidenced in an interpretive study of Irish children, aged between seven and nine years. A qualitative approach was employed, involving a series of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with fifty-two children. Findings - The findings indicate that the participating children view advertising as serving interests including, but not limited to the advertiser. The existence of other interested parties is suggested by the children, namely the agendas of viewers and television channels. The authors assert that these children view advertising as being larger and more complex than the advertiser’s perspective, which has been the traditional focus in the extant research. Originality/value of paper –Adopting an advertising literacy perspective, the authors seek to explore children’s ‘reading’ and understanding of advertising. Advertising literacy is an approach to understanding advertising that has not received substantial attention in the child-advertising literature. The literature to date has tended to focus on the following question – do children understand the persuasive intent of advertising? This question is suggestive of a ‘yes/no’ answer. In contrast, the authors view the concept of understanding as being more complex and multi-faceted, and accordingly, seek to develop this concept by way of a classification that suggests four different levels of understanding that children may exhibit towards advertising.