Manchester Metropolitan University

About: Manchester Metropolitan University is a education organization based out in Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5435 authors who have published 16202 publications receiving 442561 citations. The organization is also known as: Manchester Polytechnic & MMU.

Evolution or Revolution? Dynamic Capabilities in a Knowledge-dependent Firm

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the technological and organizational innovations which have facilitated rapid growth in a small firm. Evidence from the case suggests that the relational elements of inter-firm transactions provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to expand their organizational capabilities. The importance of business networks is that they have resources which can supplement internal skills and knowledge. The two owner-directors of RWL have been instrumental in building relationships with suppliers and customers which have benefited all parties. In doing so, they have renewed their own firm's dynamic capabilities by creating a structure and associated routines that focus on opportunity recognition and exploitation. These new capabilities are based on a recognition that competitive advantage can be created by acting as a knowledge-integrator. In that sense, RWL is a knowledge-dependent firm because there is no emphasis on the acquisition of intellectual property rights nor even an attempt to retain knowledge in-house. In pursuing this strategy to achieve growth, the directors have resolved a number of concurrent crises that suggests it is necessary to revisit traditional linear models of firm growth (Greiner, 1972; Churchill and Lewis, 1983).

“Swamped in information but starved of data”: information and intermediaries in clothing supply chains

Abstract: Argues that the existing supply chain literature provides no explanation for the role of intermediation and intermediaries and may even be said to predict their demise. This claim is made on the basis of two assumptions derived from the literature, namely that intermediation reduces supply chain transparency and adds cost but not value. Observes, however, that intermediation is an important component in many international clothing supply chains and outlines an explanatory framework that focuses on information costs. The principal sources of information costs in international markets for clothing are then identified and, finally, a case study is presented to provide empirical illustration of the preceding arguments, demonstrating the explanatory power of the theory advanced.

Primary Student Teachers’ Understanding of Mathematics and its Teaching

Abstract: This article reports on research into primary student teachers' understanding of mathematics and its teaching undertaken at the Manchester Metropolitan University and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research set out to investigate the ways in which non-specialist student teachers conceptualise mathematics and its teaching and how their views evolve as they progress through an initial training course. The study has shown how the mathematical understanding of such students is, in the first instance, embedded in a strongly affective account of their own mathematical experiences in schools, where mathematics was often seen as difficult and threatening. College training successfully nurtures a more positive attitude to mathematics as a subject, albeit couched in a pedagogically oriented frame. In later stages of training however, their conceptions of mathematics and its teaching are subsumed within the organisational concerns of placement schools and school experience tutors, and shaped by commercial schemes. It is suggested that alternative conceptions of mathematics assumed at different stages of this training appear incommensurable. A theoretical framework is offered as an approach to reconciling this conflict. This demonstrates how three potential dichotomies, phenomenological/official versions of mathematics, discovery/transmission conceptions of mathematics teaching, and perceptual/structural understandings of the mathematics teacher's task can be seen as productive dualities harnessing both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.

Critical Community Psychology

Abstract: Critical Community Psychology is written by a group of academic community psychologists with many years of experience working, teaching and thinking together. They have developed a clear and effective method for bringing together the theory and practice of community psychology, which has become firmly grounded in time and place. This book aims to provide students of different community-based professions, working in a range of applied settings, with not only the theories, values and principles of community psychology, but also with the practical guidance that will underpin their community psychological work.