Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore, using fine-grained exploratory multi-case studies, organisational learning practices – and associated constraints – impacting the performance of four small- and medium-sized project organisations which deliver energy efficiency projects in...

Purpose: Risk appetite is widely accepted as a guiding metaphor for strategic risk management, yet metaphors for complex practice are hard to critique. This paper aims to apply an analytical framework comprising three categories of flaw – futility, perversity and jeopardy – to critically...

Purpose: This conceptual paper aims to explore how supply chain managers deal with social threats to supply chains, in the process of demonstrating the potency of a largely neglected strand of realist social theory. This theory, as posited, sheds a great deal of light on the behavioural reality...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual demographic and socio-cultural factors affect actions taken by consumers in relation to ethical violations and failure (or perceived ethical violations and failure) by service operations firms. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to utilise Vilfredo Pareto ' s Machiavellian-realist social theory to provide a distinctive realist philosophical understanding of entrepreneurial risk-taking. By doing so, this paper seeks to stimulate debate and encourage future empirical testing that...

Purpose – Real operational data are used to optimise the performance measurement of air cargo capacity demand management at Virgin Atlantic Cargo by identifying the best KPIs from the range of outcome-based KPIs in current use. Design/methodology/approach – Intelligent fuzzy multi-criteria...

Purpose – Virgin Atlantic Cargo is one of the largest air freight operators in the world. As part of a wider strategic development initiative, the company has identified forecasting accuracy as of strategic importance to its operational efficiency. This is because accurate forecast enables the...

Purpose – This study aims to explore the impact of cultural values on the importance individuals assign to project success/failure factors (PSFFs). Design/methodology/approach – Themes emerging from 40 interviews of project practitioners based in Brazil, China, Greece, Nigeria, Thailand, the...

We explore aspects of unconventional competition between firms. In particular, we address two critical questions. The first is: what happens when firms decide to compete outside the rules and frameworks of conventional competition? In other words, how should firms react to competitors who employ...

We argue that cognition linking risk to innovation is influenced by two distinct cognitive paradigms which have deep roots in personality and culture and are closely bound up with political identity. We differentiate between a paradigm of Promethean conservatism where innovation is perceived as...