Dean Elmuti’s research while affiliated with Eastern Illinois University and other places

Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incentives, options, and obstacles to transfer technology to the Arab Gulf region. Design/methodology/approach ‐ A validated and reliable instrument was used to gather data from former expatriates who were employed by American-based multinational corporations. Findings ‐ The results indicate that the Arab Gulf States possess a wide range of resources and incentives offered to investors which contribute to the Gulf's attractiveness. At the same time, however, industrialization efforts, including transfer of technology to the Gulf region, are hampered by lack of industrial management expertise and technical skills among the relatively small national population and by resistance to new forms of technology by local residents. Research limitations/implications ‐ Technology transfer cannot be seen as the only resort for attaining growth rates. Education, innovation, and basic science are necessary to achieve economic development. In addition, the Arab Gulf States must address serious demographic challenges. Originality/value ‐ This exploratory, empirical investigation provides insight into the opportunities and challenges of technology transfer to the Gulf region. It identifies areas that need further investigation.

This article explores current supply chain management challenges and initiatives and identifies problems that affect supply chain management success in the U.S. health-care industry. In addition, it investigates the impact of health care supply chain management (SCM) initiatives on the overall organizational effectiveness. The attitudinal results, as well as the performance results presented in this study support the claim of health care proponents that the SCM allows organizations to reduce cost, improve quality, and reduce cycle time, and leads to high performance.

Strategic alliances allow companies to develop products and rapidly expand their markets while managing risk and costs through sharing resources. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in strategic alliances by multinational firms. According to recent studies, a majority of executives believe that alliances will be a prime vehicle for future growth, dramatically improving an organization's operations and competitiveness. A validated instrument on organizational characteristics was used to empirically test the impact of strategic fit and complementarity on strategic effectiveness. The results show that strategic alliance environments were positively related to perceived changes in organizational effectiveness dimensions among respondents in more than half of the surveyed organizations in five countries. Successful alliance ventures were highly evolutionary and went through a process of learning, reevaluation, and readjustment. These findings indicate that managers searching for strategic alliance partners should look at compatibility, not only in terms of objectives that both prospective partners hope to achieve through the success of the venture, but also in terms of the corporate culture, resources, prospective partners' business domains, and willingness to go through the learning process.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of entrepreneurship education and training on the development and enhancement of entrepreneurial skills that may be essential to improve ventures' effectiveness. One hundred and seventy entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs were surveyed in the United States to determine their motivations for business ownership and assess their perceived factors that may have contributed to the success or failure of their ventures. The findings clearly indicate that there is causal linkages between entrepreneurial education (managerial skills), social competence (interpersonal skills), and to a greater degree, basic entrepreneurial training skills and ventures' effectiveness. They were statistically significant confirming prior expectation of the significant value of entrepreneurship education. The data demonstrates that the entrepreneurial education and training programs appear to create openness, confidence, and trust among the participants in this study. However, the type of entrepreneurship education must be coupled with content that is rich in learning principles, innovation, and reflection in order to enhance ventures' effectiveness.

Two hundred and eighty five entrepreneurs, prospective entrepreneurs and the lay public in the West Bank, Palestine, were surveyed to determine their motivations for business ownership, the factors contributing to their success and the challenges they faced. Based on survey responses, the personality variable has been found to be a major determinant of success in an economically disadvantaged, politically unstable and culturally traditional environment as exists in the Palestinian Society. The public attitudes have a tremendous impact on how Palestinian entrepreneurs view themselves and their role in the community. More weight was assigned to internal or subjective factors (personality characteristics and social competence) than to external or objective factors (economic, political) in the achievement of business success. The results have very significant implications for the design and implementation of training courses for both prospective and operating entrepreneurs in Palestine and possibly elsewhere in the world.

Outsourcing is the strategic use of outside resources to perform activities that are usually handled by internal staff and resources. The consequences of imple-menting outsourcing strategies in an industrial setting were studied using a field study. This study was designed to explore both the financial as well as the human aspects of outsourcing activities. The attitudinal results of this research indicated that the outsourcing strategies had a negative impact on the perceived quality of work-life dimensions. The performance results presented here provide, at best, cir-cumspect support for the claims of outsourcing proponents that the technique im-proves participants' performance and productivity. Although outsourcing can lead to certain gains for the organization, there are definitely human costs to be taken into account, and they should be considered as major factors contributing to the outsourcing debate, not just the financial aspects of organizations' decisions.

This study was undertaken to discover working public thoughts about roles of United States women in leadership positions and to test the relationship between managerial leadership styles and organizational effectiveness. A survey of perceptions of leadership roles and effectiveness distributed 700 randomly selected entities from industries in the United States. Findings suggest approximately 50% of women leaders perceive barriers that prevent women for entering management positions and lower advancement rates for women. This study shows that aspiration in women exists whether or not they take action and motivate themselves to advance for top management positions. However, barriers like discrimination, family-life demands, prejudice, and stereotyping result in fruitlessness in many cases. The majority of women and men felt education and training could increase the preparedness of women for leadership roles. Respondents expressed overwhelming support for a participative leadership style. A positive association existed between participative leadership style and organizational effectiveness.

This study was undertaken to study the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) as a strategic approach on overall organizational effectiveness and to identify barriers that affect CRM success. A survey of customer relationship management practices was developed and distributed to 500 randomly selected financial service providers in the United States. Follow‐up interviews were also conducted with key managers among several financial service providers. The results show that organizations generally considered themselves successful at managing their customer relationship management programs. However, while they have achieved significant improvement in customer responsiveness and performance, they have not reached the order of magnitude of improvements ascribed to customer relationship management.This exploratory empirical investigation provides insight into the effectiveness of implementing a customer relationship management strategy approach for increasing the probability of success of the CRM approach and identifies areas that need further investigation.

Purpose The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of integrated supply chain management on productivity, efficiency, and performance of participants in the system, in an industrial setting in the USA. Design/methodology/approach This study uses longitudinal and experiment field study. Actual organizational data from the survey firm was used. Follow‐up interviews were conduced with key managers in the manufacturing facility. Findings The results show positive and substantial improvements in overall performance as a result of integration and coordination of the internal functions within the firm and effectively linking them with their external suppliers. The results also support the claims that an integrated supply chain involves aligning outsourcing activities to achieve the organizational goal of responding positively to the needs of consumers. Several factors were identified as key contributors to supply chain program success in this firm. These included sharing information through new technologies, established partnerships with key suppliers, and constant communication with employees. Research limitations/implications Organizations must realize that integration and coordination in each stage of the supply chain design, planning and operation result in considerable impact on the complete chain. Firms should realize that it takes commitment and skill to implement an integrated supply chain program and reap its benefits. Managers interested in applying an integrated supply chain management system would benefit from this study. Originality/value This exploratory empirical study provides insight into the effectiveness of implementing an integrated supply chain management approach for increasing the probability of success in the supply chain management approach and identifies areas that need further investigation.

Many studies have been conducted on approaches to organizational effectiveness and financial performance in the healthcare industry. The purpose of this article is to study the Relationship Between Measures of Perceived Organizational Effectiveness and Actual Financial Performance in the Medical Group Practice Environment. The population in this study came from an annual survey of U.S. medical practices conducted by the Medical Group Managers Association (MGMA). The evaluation instruments developed are a composite of documented and currently active instruments, including components of organizational effectiveness, general demographics, locus of control, and constituent/environmental influences. Statistical analysis of data includes regression analysis and descriptive statistics measures. The three tested hypotheses in the study are not supported. However, the study does support an understanding of industry relationships and reinforces the findings of former studies. Additionally, a new level of confirmation is established indicating that even under greater levels of environmental control, perceived organizational effectiveness and actual financial performance has no significant relationship. This article provides a concise summary and update of a larger and more detailed body of work.