Performativity as ongoing journeys: Implications for strategy,entrepreneurship, and innovation

For the most part, strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation have been researched and practiced from a representational position. In this paper, we make a case for taking a performative turn. Strategists, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs are embedded-embodied actors who engage in material-discursive practices in their attempts at constituting phenomena. Overflows, which are inevitable given dispersion of agency, give rise to matters of concern for multiple stakeholder groups. Settlements between stakeholders are temporary, as phenomena will be de-constituted when constitutive arrangements change. Consequently, the projects and initiatives that strategists, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs undertake are best seen as ongoing journeys.     

Breastfeeding interventions in Kansas: A qualitative process evaluation of program goals and objectives

Across the state of Kansas, eighteen public health departments received funding through the 2011 Breastfeeding Grant Initiative to start a breastfeeding intervention. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the progress toward program goals and objectives. This study was a process evaluation. Qualitative data were collected from recipient health departments at two time-points during the program year. Structured, open-ended questions were asked through telephone interviews. This study examined: (1) progress toward program goals and objectives, (2) problems encountered during implementation, and (3) evaluation measures employed to assess program impact. All health departments reported making significant progress toward program goals and objectives and reported successful collaboration with other healthcare providers. The use of breast pumps, educational classes, and professional training of staff were reported as providing the best outcome in the promotion of breastfeeding. The majority of respondents did not measure program impact. From a public health perspective, it is important that infants receive breast milk for the first six months of life. It appears that goals and objectives set a priori guided health departments with the administration of their breastfeeding program. Results may be used to enhance and sustain delivery of breastfeeding support programs in Kansas communities.     

Process evaluation of an environmental walking and healthy eating pilot in small rural worksites

Small Steps are Easier Together (SS) was a pilot environmental intervention in small rural worksites in Upstate New York in collaboration with Extension educators. Worksite leaders teamed with co-workers to select and implement environmental changes to increase walking steps over individual baseline and to choose healthy eating options over 10 weeks. Participants were 226 primarily white, women employees in 5 sites. A mixed methods process evaluation, conducted to identify determinants of intervention effectiveness and to explain differences in outcomes across worksites, included surveys, self-reports of walking and eating, interviews, focus groups, and an intervention log. The evaluation assessed reach, characteristics of recruited participants, dose delivered, dose received, and context and compared sites on walking and eating outcomes. Emergent elements of participant-reported dose received included: active leadership, visible environmental changes, critical mass of participants, public display of accomplishments, accountability to co-workers, and group decision making. Participants at sites with high reach and dose were significantly more likely than sites with low reach and dose to achieve intervention goals. Although this small pilot needs replication, these findings describe how these evaluation methods can be applied and analyzed in an environmental intervention and provide information on trends in the data.     

Mitigating the Impact of Functional Dominance in Cross‐Functional Process Improvement Teams

Manufacturing process improvement teams often draw upon cross‐functional expertise. However, teams dominated by a single or few functions often do not achieve the desired interdisciplinary learning and cooperation, which in turn could negatively affect the performance of that cross‐functional team. Through an empirical analysis of 149 manufacturing process improvement teams in six SIC industrial categories, we show that even after controlling for several factors such as team size, number of functions, gender diversity, ethnicity, number of management levels, and geographic dispersion of team members, psychological safety of work environment fully mediates the relationship between functional dominance and team performance. We also confirm that a team leader possessing high interpersonal justice mitigates the deficiency of dominated teams and improves team performance by fostering a psychologically safe work environment. Our recommendation therefore is that when a dominated team is unavoidable due to the needed skill sets or other organizational considerations, to ensure success it is imperative that the firm chooses a team leader who can promote psychological safety by being just, and who can effectively encourage input from all functional team members and give them objective feedback.     

A formative evaluation of the recovery public works programme in Blantyre City,Malawi

Public works programmes (PWPs) are popular social protection instruments in the context of chronic poverty but very little has been published in the way of implementation and outcomes of these programmes. This paper presents a formative process and outcome evaluation of the recovery PWP in Blantyre City, Malawi. The evaluation used longitudinal household survey data of PWP beneficiaries, programme records and interview responses from programme staff and community leaders. Largely, the process evaluation findings showed an agreement between actual and planned activities. The outcome evaluation found indications that the PWP community assets offered some potential benefits to the communities, and that PWP wages allowed the beneficiaries to purchase some food. This however, did not translate into more meals per day, nor did the earnings prevent the decline in household assets as expected. Given a plausible PWP theory and high implementation fidelity, the PWP wage rate or number of days was either just enough to smooth participant income, or insufficient altogether, to enable achievement of more distal outcomes.     

印度战略文化及其变迁机制

自20世纪90年代战略文化成为备受关注的议题以来,从战略文化视角解释印度外交战略的研究不胜枚举.学术界对印度战略文化的研究普遍受到文化“稳定性”、“持久性”等基本特征的限制,主要从静止的视角围绕其起源、属性与形态等方面展开论述.本文试图从动态视角理解印度战略文化,构建战略文化生成与变迁理论框架.通过对战略文化的类型划分发现,印度在冷战时期形成了防御为主、进攻为辅的协调型战略文化,冷战后形成了强进攻性偏好的冲突型战略文化.作为印度战略文化变迁的首要条件,环境认知推动了印度国内政治程序的修正,从而影响了战略文化变迁.具体而言,国际体系环境的变化重塑了印度决策精英对国家安全的判断,并内化成新的观念体系.全新观念体系驱使决策精英行为偏好改变,且通过国内政治程序的修正上升为特定取向的国家战略偏好,最终生成全新的战略文化.     

流程CIMS项目经济评价方法研究

计算机集成制造系统(CIMS)是一种新型生产管理模式,但由于流程工业企业CIMS工程项目投资大、风险大,开发一种合理评价流程CIMS项目的经济评价方法已是十分必要.文章分析了流程CIMS项目经济评价的特点和各种先进制造技术的评价方法,提出采用效用叠加模型与层次分析法结合起来构成的复合评价方法对流程CIMS项目进行经济评价,并简介了该方法的运用模式,为流程企业实践提供参考.     

美国竞选财政制度初探

美国竞选财政制度是美国政治制度中争议最多的问题之一。由于利益集团政策参与的需求和竞选人竞选的需要 ,美国的竞选捐赠日益加剧 ,捐赠规模日趋膨胀 ,并在一定程度上导致了决策过程中利益代表性的偏差。由此 ,美国早期的法律就对利益集团的竞选捐赠进行限制 ,2 0世纪 4 0年代以来 ,美国关于竞选财政制度改革的立法不断。但改革遇到利益需求和关于合宪性问题等种种障碍 ,步履维艰。美国政治中的这一两难状况是其政治体制所使然 ,有关竞选财政制度改革的争论仍将继续下去。     

高等教育平等权的实现机制探析

针对高等教育平等权实现问题,探析了高等教育平等权的含义,考察了高等教育平等权的实施现状,运用行政法的控权理论与分析框架,提出应建立行政程序和司法审查的机制,控制和监督高校制定招生计划的行为,实现公民高等教育的平等权。     

基于业务流程重组的信息系统开发

业务流程重组是从企业整体运作的层次上对管理及流程进行变革 ,来分析和优化原有业务环节 ;信息系统在合理的业务流程基础上实现对企业资源的有效利用与管理 ,从而辅助企业成功实施战略 ,保持竞争优势。本文系统地分析了开发基于企业再造的信息系统的意义与思路 ,详细阐述了信息系统开发各阶段的特点 ,并提出了今后的努力方向