Papers by Denis Harrington
Action Learning: Research and Practice, 2015
Growth theory states that knowledge is crucial for the sustained growth of high-income economies,... more Growth theory states that knowledge is crucial for the sustained growth of high-income economies, and that knowledge diffusion can help to explain clusters of regions with persistently different levels of growth. Specifically, contemporary literature has investigated the potential for regional institutions support in national competitiveness, wherein competitiveness is increasingly based on a country's capacity to develop and apply knowledge. From an Irish perspective, recent government-sponsored studies have seen an intense search into the likely engines to enable Ireland's future economic growth in a global economy. There are a significant number of policies designed to promote entrepreneurial activity on a regional basis and there has been relative success facilitating would-be entrepreneurs interaction with networks of experienced entrepreneurs and managers, venture capitalists, technical experts, and other specialists.
Strategic innovation is crucial in responding to the broader issues that affect the overall compe... more Strategic innovation is crucial in responding to the broader issues that affect the overall competitiveness of the Irish tourism industry. This paper argues that if Irish tourism is to surmount the detrimental effects of lost competitiveness caused by the global economic crisis and natural disasters; and realise new opportunities for growth and survival, then small-and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) must embrace strategic innovation as a core objective. Therefore, we aim to conceptually and empirically explore the important role of strategic innovation in an Irish tourism service context, recalling the current challenges facing the sector. This work will make an important contribution to the existing knowledge on strategic innovation in a tourism context and provide the impetus for further studies.
This book explores green innovation and future technology skill development within regional small... more This book explores green innovation and future technology skill development within regional small to medium sized enterprises. Notwithstanding the goals of a greener Europe, there has been little debate as to how the skills required to fulfil the goals of sustainable development can be imparted within regions and particularly, within rural business communities. The authors suggest that the pursuit of green skill enhancement should be based on cross-disciplinary collaborative action within an academic-practice partnership ethos. An inter-disciplinary team of academics and project specialists explore the gap from theory to implementation in green innovation and provide a series of cases which highlight the benefits of a stakeholder approach in this context. Green Innovation and Future Technology is distinctive in its cross-border, multi-disciplinary approach to the green innovativeness skill enhancement of SMEs. http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/green-innovation-and-future-technolog...
The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2015
European Journal of Training and Development, 2013
ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature dr... more ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, managerial capability and innovation management fields. The paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, managerial capability and innovation management fields. Findings ‐ Four criteria of micro firm managerial capability emerge from micro firm managerial traits in the literature namely, leadership; strategic thinking; problem solving and people relationships. The review also shows that micro firms are embedded in three resource pools which include stakeholder ties; the local community and the proximate market environment. Micro firm managerial capability is argued to emerge from the interaction of the managerial capability criteria and the resources in a process mediated by the resource based and dynamic capabilities perspectives from the strategic management literature. Research limitations/implications ‐ A gap in the academic literature is identified and the proposed theoretical model is presented to address this deficiency in the literature. Future empirical research is recommended. Practical implications ‐ This proposed model will allow practitioners to better conceptualise and design programmes that will assist companies in developing managerial capabilities to innovate. Deep links between hotel industry practitioners and the academic community will enable the effective dissemination of the research. Originality/value ‐ Hotel micro firms play an important social and economic role. There has been little research into how they innovate and specifically into managerial capability for innovation in context. The present research uses conceptual research to map the field and identify critical avenues for future research.
Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2006
... 2 Mary Keating is lecturer in strategy and management in the Department of Languages, Tourism... more ... 2 Mary Keating is lecturer in strategy and management in the Department of Languages, Tourism and Hospitality at WIT. ... crucial to the success of the Irish economy and tourism as a whole has outperformed most other sectors in recent years (Harrington and Lenehan 1998; Bord ...
Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 2004
It has been well established within the literature that the successful implementation of quality ... more It has been well established within the literature that the successful implementation of quality relies heavily upon the human factor. Most leading firms now recognise that a higher quality service and improved competitiveness will result from increased attention to people issues ...
reser.net
1. Abstract Due to the narrow research focus on „determinants of organisational innovation‟ or on... more 1. Abstract Due to the narrow research focus on „determinants of organisational innovation‟ or on „innovation output‟ rather than understanding the dimensions, the term innovativeness lacks clarity and has become a notoriously ambiguous construct for ...
Managing Service Quality, 2004
Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such programmes has r... more Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such programmes has resulted in several accounts documenting the risks and failures attached to implementing these quality initiatives. Middle management resistance has been cited as a common form of resistance, though it is widely recognised, even among the managerial groups, that commitment from this level within the organisation is
Journal of European Industrial Training, 2003
... Mary Keating, Lecturer, Department of Languages, Tourism and Sports Studies, Waterford Instit... more ... Mary Keating, Lecturer, Department of Languages, Tourism and Sports Studies, Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland. ... Tourism has outperformed most other sectors and contributed significantly to economic and employment growth (Harrington and Lenehan, 1998 ...
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 1999
This paper reports on the findings from a quantitative research study of quality management in th... more This paper reports on the findings from a quantitative research study of quality management in the Irish health-care sector. The study findings suggest that quality management is what hospitals require to become more cost-effective and efficient. The research also shows that the culture of health-care institutions must change to one where employees experience pride in their work and where all are involved and committed to continuous quality improvement. It is recommended that a shift is required from the traditional management structures to a more participative approach. Furthermore, all managers whether from a clinical or an administration background must understand one another's role in the organisation. Finally, for quality to succeed in the health-care sector, strong committed leadership is required to overcome tensions in quality implementation.
European Management Journal, 2005
Managing Service Quality, 2004
Abstract: Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such progra... more Abstract: Improving quality has become the goal of many organisations and introducing such programmes has resulted in several accounts documenting the risks and failures attached to implementing these quality initiatives. Middle management resistance has been cited as a ...
Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 2012
Skip to content. Taylor & Francis Online: Librarians; Authors &am... more Skip to content. Taylor & Francis Online: Librarians; Authors & Editors; Societies. Register; Sign in; Mobile. Home; Browse; Products; Redeem a voucher; Shortlist; Shopping Cart Cart. The online platform for Taylor & Francis Group content. Search. Advanced Search Within current journal Entire site. Home > List of Issues > Table of Contents > Editorial board 2012. Browse journal. View all volumes and issues. Current issue. Latest articles. Most read articles. Most cited articles. Authors and submissions. Call for papers. Instructions for authors. Submit online ...
Drawing on the strategic management, innovation, tourism, marketing, and organisational behaviour... more Drawing on the strategic management, innovation, tourism, marketing, and organisational behaviour literatures over the past 50 years, we propose a resource-based (Barney 1991) and dynamic-capability (Wernerfelt 1984; research approach to theoretically explore how small tourism firms can manage and reconfigure their existing pool of resources through their innovative capabilities to deal with the turbulent environment in which they are embedded. This paper conceptually examines and schematically models the impact of the dynamic capability-generating capacity of firm-level innovativeness on sustainable competitive advantage in small tourism firms.
Dimensions
Each manuscript should be submitted in triplicate (if possible, four copies would be helpful). Ar... more Each manuscript should be submitted in triplicate (if possible, four copies would be helpful). Articles should be typewritten on A4 paper, on one side only, double-spaced and with ample margins. Pages (including those containing only diagrams and tables) should be numbered consecutively. Tables and diagrams must be clearly presented on separate pages ready for photographic reproduction. Any diagrams and maps should be copied to a separate disk in TIFF format in individual files. If these items cannot be prepared electronically, they should ...
... Dr. Felicity Kelliher PhD Lecturer in Management Waterford Institute of Technology ... The Ca... more ... Dr. Felicity Kelliher PhD Lecturer in Management Waterford Institute of Technology ... The Carnegie (Pierson, 1959) and Ford (Gordon and Howell, 1959) foundations reports in the 1959 berated business schools for their focus on teaching from practice (one of the conceptions of ...
Reconsidering the rigour-relevance gap: the need for contextualised research in risk societies TH... more Reconsidering the rigour-relevance gap: the need for contextualised research in risk societies THE RIGOUR–RELEVANCE DEBATE In his 1993 presidential address to the assembled faithful of the Academy of Management Hambrick posed the question, 'What if the academy actually mattered?' (1994: 11). This rhetorical question set his esteemed colleagues, world leading management scholars, in the category of perhaps rigorous knowledge workers, but definitely not relevant to their community of practice. One might presume that when Hambrick, a giant of his era with a record of citations that is the envy of most scholars and a field of work that has been defined by his contribution for 25 years, we would take note and act. Three years later, Mowday (1997: 341) found it necessary to return to the theme in his presidential address referring to what has ultimately become a perennial challenge of being both rigorous and relevant management research. In 2002, Bartunek (2003: 203) had a dream for the academy where we work to make a difference and speak to tensions involving theory and practice. In 2005, Rousseau (2006) addressed the topic through the search for evidence based management to bridge the research-practice divide. While the language of the debate has modified in the post global financial crisis era, the core issue has remained. Tsui (2013), in her 2012 address on the need for compassion in business education, clearly relates the potential for business schools to do harm to the research-practice gap that has been widely discussed (Khurana, 2010; Pfeffer and Fong, 2002, 2004). The European debate on the issue has had equal longevity and coverage, with the British Academy of Management leading a search in 1995 for the academic beast that could leap such future challenges as Pettigrew's (2001) double hurdle. What emerged was a debate closely aligned with the call for a transition from Mode 1 to Mode 2 forms of Abstract: This paper addresses the debate on rigour and relevance in management research to identify barriers to progress and identify the challenges and opportunities in moving forward. We identify strong calls from both North American and European literatures for a move to close this gap. It has, however, been 20 years since Hambrick asked scholars 'What if the academy actually mattered?' during his Presidential address to the Academy of Management. Despite both the time and the consistency of calls, there has been only modest progress in closing this rigour-relevance gap. We argue that this is not because of any lack of willingness or capacity but is shaped by systemic issues. We find the narrative of the business school framed as either professional or social sciences a core issue. Each brings with them a tradition of different ontological perspectives and epistemological processes, protected by gatekeepers, which supports, even if unintentionally, the maintenance of the gap. We go on to discuss the challenge of management education and research in a postmodern context, the need to examine our conception of rigour, and to challenge the definition of management as a profession given its strategic win-lose orientation. We conclude with a discussion on the relationship between society and business and lay out the challenges ahead for richly contextualised scholarly work that may be defined as both rigorous and relevant.
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Papers by Denis Harrington