Hosein Piranfar

Herd mentality and oil prices: implications for sustainability

Despite the current volatility (early 2007), oil prices have experienced a persistently upward trend since 2004. By examining the cascading and stochastic models of herding, the paper looks at the role of herding and diminishing resources behind the volatility and rapid rise in oil prices. A main argument here is that the existence of institutional herding is not incompatible with the entry of noise traders; it rather leads and complements them. The paper also shows that persistent rise may in fact encourage sustainable alternative sources of energy to save the pernicious impact of herding, which can always rattle the prices dissuading the investors from investing in alternative energy. The methodology is based on literature review and the relevant data on oil prices.

A complexity view of organisational reputation

This paper looks at the concept of reputation from four angles: cost-benefit, semiotics, quality and complexity. The complexity outlook may include all the other approaches in certain conditions but is in comparison wider, deeper, evolutionary and more fickle. It can embrace apparently contradictory states that evolve through interaction. The focus is on ambiguity, one of the less-known principles of complexity and is argued that it can act as a stem cell to build sustainable reputation. Two cases from industry are reviewed.

Managing Construction Risk in SMEs: The Case of Coastal Construction

This paper is concerned with risk management in construction SMEs. It argues that risk management is not limited to large companies. Despite financial limitations SMEs can deal with their own risks successfully, though in some cases with a bit of help from experts or members of the supply chain. The paper looks at the case of a small construction company in the UK at reasonable detail hoping that it will show the way to other SMEs. It is shown that managing quality helps with an appropriate approach to risk management where enterprise or company-wide risk management gains a head start.

The decline and recombination of networks in the Czech Republic

This paper examines the period of discontinuity of networks and their recombination in the Czech Republic during the 1990s, a period of hasty privatisation with calamitous results for social capital, networks and the economy. Despite some revival in networking, the full recovery is hampered by the current stand off between a push for privatisation and the European social capitalism. Three manufacturing networks are studied. The first two illustrate the problem facing the networks and the third outlines one of the possible routes for recombination. The current turmoil in the Czech railways is also briefly looked at to show that the damage inflicted on path-dependent social capital is not easily healed.

The role of leadership in facilitating Organisational Learning and collective capacity building

The paper examines the role of leadership in facilitating collective learning and capacity building by utilising ideas from the fields of evolutionary learning, operations strategy, quality, project and risk management. Two contrasting cases are chosen to show how success and failure can depend upon collective capacity building through participative leadership and Organisational Learning (OL). The bulk of the literature surveyed concerns evolutionary OL in particular those that involve leadership which is rather a new development in this field. The paper welcomes the new trend but warns against the overenthusiastic views that ignore the reservations of the mainstream evolutionary/complexity perspective.

The globalisation of Japanese subsidiaries: a case in the UK

Since the early 1990s, the Japanese economy has been trapped in a long-term recession signified by zerobound interest rate, little or no inflation, and imperceptible growth. The most visible outcome is, strangely enough, a significant drop in foreign direct investment. One would have thought intuitively that if they cannot spend money internally, at least they should be able to enhance foreign direct investment in search of better interest rates. It is not happening yet. This is bound to have some effect on Japanese subsidiaries. In terms of marketing, survival should mean innovation in products and services, integration with local economies, and more vigorous search for exports. In terms of management, it may mean enhanced quality, more supply chains, more integration and more adaptive globalisation. By using an old Japanese subsidiary in London and re-examining the literature, we hope to provide a more balanced view of the Japanese subsidiaries abroad. The company we have studied is one of the oldest cases of Japanese direct investment anywhere in the world. Its emergence as a Greenfield investment and survival is quite interesting, and compares well to the flood of subsidiaries and joint stock companies that came to life during the pre-crisis optimism. With the help of an Ramp;D-oriented sister-company in Sweden, and a vigorous pursuit of quality, the old entity in Old Woking is hobbling on into the 21st century faced with many challenges.