Technology companies are often described by their founders and analysts as holding the potential to disrupt the industry and revolutionise the world. In this article, we focus on Amazon Inc. as one ...of the trillion-dollar technology companies that are credited with having disrupted its industry. The article provides an evaluation framework built around disruptive innovation and radical innovation theories. This framework is used to assess the extent to which Amazon Inc. has revolutionised retail industry. Based on this framework, it is argued that Amazon is not a disruptor because it has not created new markets but entered existing ones. We use this framework to analyse the retail sales process and its components and show that Amazon’s technology has not brought architectural changes to the retail sales process or radically change its component parts. It is concluded that Amazon’s success is not the result of technology and innovation but arises from its monopoly that has been built on the traditional retail model. Keywords: new tech, retail, disruptive innovation, radical innovation, Amazon
Background. Leadership competences play an important role for the success of effective leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine leadership competences of managers in the healthcare sector ...in Slovenia.
Methods. Data were collected in 2008. The research included 265 employees in healthcare and 267 business managers. Respondents assessed their level of 16 leadership relevant competences on a 7-point Likert-type scale.
Results. Test of differences between competences and leader position of health care professionals yielded statistically significant differences between leader and non-leader positions. Leaders gave strongest emphasis to interpersonal and informational competences, while regarding decision making competences, the differences between leaders and other employees are not that significant. When comparing competences of healthcare managers with those of business managers, results show that healthcare managers tend to give weaker emphasis to competences related to all three managerial roles than business managers.
Conclusions. The study showed that in Slovenian health care, leaders distinguish themselves from other employees in some leadership competences. In addition, all three dimensions of leadership competences significantly distinguished the group of healthcare managers from the business managers, which indicates a serious lag in leadership competences among leaders in Slovenian healthcare
Izhodišča. Vodstvene kompetence igrajo pomembno vlogo pri zagotavljanju uspešnega vodenja. Namen obstoječe raziskave je bil preučiti vodstvene kompetence menedžerjev v slovenskem zdravstvu.
Metode. Podatki so bili zbrani leta 2008. V raziskavo je bilo vključenih 265 zaposlenih v zdravstvu in 267 poslovnih menedžerjev. Anketiranci so ocenili svoja raven po 16 različnih vodstvenih kompetencah na 7-stopenjski Likertovi lestvici. Rezultati. Test razlik med kompetencami in vodstvenim položajem zaposlenih v zdravstvu je pokazal na statistično značilne razlike med vodji in drugimi zaposlenimi. Vodje so bolj poudarili medosebne in informacijske kompetence, medtem ko so razlike med vodji in drugimi zaposlenimi pri odločevalskih kompetencah manj izražene. Primerjava med kompetencami menedžerjev v zdravstvu in poslovnih menedžerjev je pokazala, da imajo menedžerji v zdravstvu manj poudarjene kompetence na vseh treh menedžerskih vlogah.
Zaključki. Raziskava je pokazala, da se vodje v slovenskem zdravstvu od drugih zaposlenih razlikujejo po nekaterih vodstvenih kompetencah. Menedžerji v zdravstvu pa se od poslovnih menedžerjev razlikujejo po vseh treh dimenzijah vodstvenih kompetenc, kar kaže na resno zaostajanje vodstvenih kompetenc menedžerjev v slovenskem zdravstvu
COWORKING: A COMMUNITY OF WORK Rus, Andrej; Orel, Marko
Teorija in praksa,
01/2015, Letnik:
52, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The number of coworking spaces and the number of people who choose to work in them has exploded over the past few years, with numbers expected to double every year. What is fuelling this growth and ...where is the demand for coworking coming from? We tried to address this question by looking at the specific needs of the rising creative class, identifying their urgent need for uninhibited sharing of information, knowledge, ideas and also material resources. We argue that coworking spaces are favoured by the creative class, because they offer a community of work which facilitates the culture of sharing. To illustrate what it takes to establish such a community of work, we present a case study of the Creative Centre Poligon which suggests that community building is a multi-step process that needs careful management and plenty of time. We conclude that policy makers should not focus on building coworking spaces in order to combat youth unemployment but should rather support existing initiatives that have been built or are in the process of building up vibrant communities of work.
In recent years, coworking spaces, tailored for location-independent professionals, have flourished. However, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered their conventional operations, necessitating ...adaptive measures like social distancing and an enhanced focus on remote collaboration. This narrative literature review delves into the pandemic’s repercussions on coworking, emphasizing potential long-term adaptations like digitalization and hybrid frameworks. Through extensive database searches, key observations include declines in revenues and occupancy, the onset of health-focused protocols, a shift to virtual community events, flexible membership contracts, and an uptick in digital service offerings. Despite reduced physical interactions, digital platforms played a crucial role in sustaining member engagement. The future of coworking may lean towards region-specific models, advanced technology integration, and a deeper understanding of resilient coworking communities. This review aims to elucidate the pandemic’s multifaceted impact on coworking, spotlighting pivotal areas for further research and offering insights for real estate professionals navigating a post-pandemic landscape.
PurposeThe objective of this study is to explore the concept of rural coworking in the scientific literature and examine how it generates community narratives based on the value of space and business ...practices. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of rural coworking as a driver of participation and relationships among diverse stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachTo identify and analyse trends and categories in rural coworking studies, understand the concept of rural coworking and how community narratives have been focused, the authors carried out a systematic literature review following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) tool. The review was performed using Scopus, obtaining 22 papers.FindingsThe findings reveal that rural coworking is on definition, but it emphasises the role of community as a main actor in its consolidation. On the other hand, rural coworking is seen as an opportunity to create impactful new business strategies through space regeneration and revitalisation. Management perspectives prevail in this research field, highlighting the role of public administrations, entrepreneurs and policymakers, and their capacities to build a business environment to enhance coworking activity.Originality/valueThe paper establishes conceptual categories and research trends in the rural coworking literature, and how its actors have a strategic importance in defining their own practices and narratives. The interrelationship between coworking activity and local business development is continually seen as an opportunity for growth, so this paper will have value for rural coworking planners and consultants in non-urban areas.
The problem of the governance of economic transactions arises from the fact that they are sequential. This creates uncertainty regarding the fulfilment of implicit or explicit contracts. ...Institutional economics understands this uncertainty as arising from opportunism and seeks a solution in specialised contract enforcement institutions. Economic sociology understands the uncertainty as a result of misunderstanding and finds a solution in mechanisms of governance that, in addition to sanctions, allow for coordination among participants in a transaction. In this paper, we confront the arguments made by sociology and economics regarding the mechanism of governance of economic transactions. Following Polanyi, we distinguish three governance mechanisms of economic relations and note that, to be operational, each of them requires a different social structure and social regulation. Adapted from the source document.
During its accession to the OECD, Slovenia conducted a reform of the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). To assess the relevance of the Slovenian reform, we reviewed the reforms ...undertaken in other OECD countries. The literature shows there are three models of organising the ownership function: decentralised, dual and centralised. The analysis reveals they all tend towards the same objectives of increasing the government's transparency and accountability in the corporate governance of SOEs by means of the development of government ownership policy. The Slovenian reform appears to be misguided because it started with the establishment of a new Agency for Corporate Governance which has prioritised form over substance. Adapted from the source document.
One of the key success factors of every region is an adequate level of intellectual capital provided by the human capital of its residents. This article aims to show that low levels of regional ...development in Slovenia's least developed region of Pomurje corresponds to the low levels of intellectual capital. The article reviews the literature on the concept and measurement of intellectual capital and provides operationalization of intellectual capital suitable for assessing its levels on a regional, subnational level. The results show that Pomurje has lower level of intellectual capital from the national average. Furthermore, the analysis of rates of growth of intellectual capital indicate the systematic lagging of Pomurje region behind Slovenian average. The case study highlights the problem of brain drain as the key contextual factor that influences the size of intellectual capital and negatively affects the performance of the region thus pointing to priorities of a more effective developmental policy.
The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether a market exchange is really an exchange of alienated, impersonal and anonymous objects, devoid of moral and social elements or obligations, and ...therefore strictly distinct from gift exchange, as presupposed by the dichotomous socio-anthropological model of exchange. Marketing practices have changed significantly in the past few decades and sometimes contain elements which imitate a gift exchange. Analysis shows that contemporary marketing techniques often decommoditize market exchanges: they build long-term relationships between a company and its customers, create moral obligations, reduce alienation and enable a transfer of identities, thereby infusing the features of a gift exchange into a market exchange. Adapted from the source document.
Current research on innovations builds extensively on network analysis demonstrating how different characteristics of social networks affect the ability of organisations to secure a continuous flow ...of innovation. This research, however, is highly fragmented, emphasising different features of social networks having an effect on various types of innovation at different organisational levels. The result is a plethora of research findings that do not systematically inform the subject matter or provide clear guidance for practitioners in organisations. In this paper, we address this gap and propose an integrative framework to help bring the divergent streams of research together and contribute to a better understanding of organisational innovation. We propose to distinguish between two dimensions: innovation type and organisational level. These distinctions robustly describe characteristic organisational contexts in which innovation takes place. We conclude by proposing for each organisational context how specific network characteristics affect innovation.
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