Working Papers by Title

The Faculty of Management Working Paper series was launched in November 2003. The main objective of the series is to disseminate current research to a wider audience and to ensure a high quality of papers submitted to journals through a constructive review process. Submitted work should be in the general areas of business and management and should be original.

Current papers

Bases of E-Store Loyalty: The interaction between perceived switching barriers and satisfaction
(pdf - 523k) July 2004
George Balabanis, Nina Reynolds & A. Simintiras

Summary: Loyalty, its antecedents, and its consequences have been considered extensively. Store loyalty, in particular e-store loyalty, has not, however, received the same level of attention despite the increase in the number of organisations that sell directly over the Internet. This paper focuses on two antecedents of e-store loyalty, perceived switching barriers and satisfaction, and the way in which they interact. It found that customers do not consider themselves loyal to the e-store they frequent despite being largely satisfied, that the impact of switching barriers varies at different levels of customer satisfaction, and that what customers consider to be a switching barrier differs at different levels of customer satisfaction.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Water Services. A Starting Point for Discussion
(doc - 95k) July 2005
George Tsogas, Kristin Komives and Stephen Fuller

Summary: Water companies have attracted minimal attention in the corporate social responsibility literature. This paper examines conceptual issues regarding the applicability and relevance of CSR principles in a public service industry. It aims to bridge the gap that exists between the CSR and water service discourses by offering some initial ideas on the CSR issues of particular relevance to this industry, with emphasis on developing countries. We suggest re-examination of relationships with poor communities, a different understanding of the role of the government and the adoption of industry-wide socially responsible schemes.

ENGINES OF STRATEGIC RENEWAL: COMBINING GENEALOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
(doc - 143k) April 2004
Charles Baden-Fuller, Henk W. Volberda

Summary: We use the language of variation, selection and retention to create a uniform way of modeling and comparing different change journeys. We identify the genealogical and ecological processes that underlie four engines that drive renewal. This language allows us to trace how initiatives are formed, subsequently selected or rejected and how they subsequently unfold into new units or change existing units. From this we can categorize and analyze journeys that can be more or less suitable in different environments.

Entrepreneurship in the public sector: A framework of analysis in European local government
(pdf - 89k) June 2004
Stefania Zerbinati and Vangelis Souitaris

Summary: This paper explores the potential role of entrepreneurship in public sector organisations. At first, it presents a review of the entrepreneurship theme in the political science and public management research streams, comparing these ideas with the mainstream business literature on entrepreneurship. Thereafter, it illustrates empirically how Stevenson’s classical framework of entrepreneurial process can be applied in a European local government context to explain the recent initiatives to compete for and utilise European Union structural funds. The empirical basis of the study is comprised of ten in-depth case studies of local government organisations, five in the UK and five in Italy. The authors also explore the differences between various types of entrepreneurial agents in the public sector (public managers, politicians and businessmen). Local government proved an ideal type of public organisation for this kind of comparison as different types of entrepreneurial agents can co-exist.

SMS -Based Surveys: Strategies to Improve Participation
(pdf - 56k) May 2005
George Balabanis, Vincent-Wayne Mitchell and Sarah Heinonen-Mavrovouniotis

Summary: This paper examines the use of short messaging service (SMS) of mobile phones to recruit samples for probability web and telephone surveys. The influence of topic salience, sponsor identity and repeated contacts on decision to participate in the survey is tested through an experimental design. Results indicated that sponsor identity and repeated contacts have an effect on decision to participate, but topic salience did not. The majority of respondents preferred the web survey alternative over telephone survey mode and the main advantage of using SMS is the high speed of response. However, the method appears to elicit higher levels of participation from male and younger members of the population.

Spinouts from Academic Institutions: A literature review with suggestions for futher research
(pdf - 119k) June 2004
Djordje Djokovic and Vangelis Souitaris

Summary: This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the phenomenon of spinouts from academic institutions. We systematically identified spinout papers in key management journals, categorised the literature into micro- and macro-phenomenological studies and critically synthesised the findings. Micro- phenomenological studies focus on two key themes: (a) the effectiveness of spinning out as technology transfer mechanism and (b) spinout-support mechanisms from industy, government and university. Micro-phenomenological studies can be also grouped into two streams: (c) Human relations and interactions during the spinout formation process and d) Spinout links with university and industry. We present the findings of each literature stream in turn and also identify inconsistencies and directions for further research. Finally, we explore the overall theoretical contributions of the spinout literature. We conclude that while the early literature has been mainly atheoretical and focused on describing the phenomenon, a core group of recent studies were theory-driven.

If you would like to submit a paper, please check the series’ Guidelines to Authors or contact Andrew Hodgson on stam-temp@city.ac.uk.