Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how product‐centric businesses (PCBs), operating in a business‐to‐business environment, configure their organizations to align services strategy with structure. PCBs are companies whose businesses were historically based on the...

The effectiveness of marketing activities in firms with product management is, in part, determined by the extent to which the organizational structure is aligned with the uncertainties in the marketplace. Investigates the relationship between various dimensions of firm′s marketing...

Contains the results of a quantitative research study which compared the organisational structures of the World’s Top 100 brand companies with those of less successful companies, referred to in this article as Outsider brand companies. Identifies that whilst the type of organisational...

It is argued that internal auditing functions are more valuable when placed higher, rather than lower, in organisational structures. An informal survey suggests that many internal auditing departments in the US, New Zealand and elsewhere in the world continue to be narrowly focused on almost...

Describes corporate governance in Finland. The different structures of a number of organisations are examined as well as the roles of the individuals involved. Recent regulations and guidelines issued in Finland are also discussed. There is also an analysis of internal audit and the other...

Best Value was introduced as a local government policy in 1997, after the election of a New Labour administration. The policy was designed to reconfigure service delivery by local government, with local authorities assuming the role of enablers rather than service providers. In order to help...

Organizational forms have evolved over the decades. Organizational design reflects the systems view, which considers that structure consists of both hard and soft components, and is the superior composition of relationship between organizational elements. Structural dimensions are traditionally...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out whether corporate diversification provides a favourable environment for earnings management (agency conflicts hypothesis) or whether it mitigates this phenomenon (earnings volatility hypothesis). Design/methodology/approach – Based on a...

Argues that the existing supply chain literature provides no explanation for the role of intermediation and intermediaries and may even be said to predict their demise. This claim is made on the basis of two assumptions derived from the literature, namely that intermediation reduces supply chain...

Drawing on the experience gained from the recent turnaround of fortunes at The CERT Group, describes the key role of customer service and the challenges associated with establishing a service culture in one of the UK’s leading third party logistics providers. The process was so successful that...