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Digital collection development for unique users: a veterinary medicine library's approach	[ "Academic libraries", "Collection development", "Digital collections", "Electronic books", "Electronic resources", "Medical libraries", "Special libraries", "Veterinary medicine libraries" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Collection development in academic libraries varies in each institution based upon user populations, information needs and the overall curriculum of an academic unit. For a niche collection, the library should collect materials of all types and formats that pertain to course work, research and theory. Particularly, the library should meet the needs of its users by collecting materials that students, faculty and other researchers will utilize (Murphy et al., 2005). Subject-specific libraries and branch libraries benefit from the support of the larger library systems in which they operate. These advantages may include interlibrary lending, document delivery services or consortia access to electronic journals and databases. However, it is the individual library's responsibility to acquire materials to meet the demands of its unique user group. Format decisions are better informed by maintaining a close relationship with users and stake-holders. This discussion will explain the decision-making process and benefits of electronic format preference in a veterinary medicine library and the advantages electronic formats have over print in this particular setting. Institutional setting: Mississippi State University (MSU) is a land-grant university established in 1878, with an accredited program in veterinary medicine. Established in 1974, by the Mississippi Legislature, the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) offers the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM), as well as graduate programs for MS or PhD degrees in selected areas of specialization. The College also offers a BS in Veterinary Medical Technology. The first class of students was admitted in 1977 and graduated in 1981. MSU's CVM is one of 30 veterinary colleges in the USA accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (2014). Background and context: In the mid-2000's, many academic libraries began enhancing their collections with electronic books and journals. Options for electronic titles have become numerous and varied, resulting in many opportunities and challenges for collection development. Librarians must consider platforms and single-user or multi-user access, as well as weighing the benefits of purchasing individual electronic titles versus package collections (Sharp and Thompson, 2010). While print collections are still viable and valuable to many students, it is important for the library to spearhead efforts to promote technological advancement in learning. The library must evolve with educational methodologies (Phinney, 2013), a theory that readily applies to the relationship between the medical curriculum and medical libraries. However, purchasing models can be confusing. One such model for e-books, patron-driven acquisition (PDA), can be advantageous to libraries and their stakeholders, but budgetary concerns are likely to arise. Package deals are a common way to increase the titles within a particular subject area, while purchasing individual titles allows libraries to tailor collections to meet the needs of users (Sharp and Thompson, 2010). In all but the PDA option, how can libraries be sure the materials they are purchasing are effectively utilized? As Sharp and Thompson point out, "there is probably no one-size-fits-all answer. Responses will vary from institution to institution, from publisher to publisher, from subject area to subject area, and maybe even from title to title" (2010). Physical space: Aside from decisions concerning acquisitions and collection development, the library must evolve as a physical space to address the addition of an electronic collection. As Andre Nault has noted, librarians have modified their services and the physical library itself to meet the changing needs of users (2010). Virtual reference has become commonplace in academic libraries, including email, chat and even texting. MSU Libraries currently fields inquiries from all of these options. In some instances, physical space has increased as the need for shelving has decreased due to the acquisition of electronic titles. Usage statistics prove that circulation of print materials has lessened, while there has been an increase in the use of electronic materials (Grudzien and Casey, 2008). Due to these trends, the physical space of a library has evolved into an environment for group study and technology focused work with study spaces, computer labs and other technology centers utilized to enhance learning (Nault, 2010). In the case of the CVM Library, group study rooms equipped with 42" LCD monitors have been incorporated to facilitate collaborative work and to enable small group presentations. Students can also review class materials or view videos and case photos during group study sessions. A computer lab and classroom are permanent fixtures in the library, not only for use in workshops conducted by the library but also for overflow in administering exams and classroom space. Electronic preferred: Recently, the CVM Library has developed a preference for electronic versions of materials over their print counterparts when both formats are available. Because of the high-stakes nature of the medical field, students, faculty, researchers and clinicians need quick and accurate access to information. The library's responsibility to provide the best means to this information is paramount. This practice is consistent with the findings of several studies indicating that the main advantages of e-books are ease of searching, around-the-clock availability and off-site use, with phrases like "instant access" and "access from anywhere" appearing throughout the literature (Grudzien and Casey, 2008; Phinney, 2013; Staiger, 2012). Disadvantages to electronic formats: A discussion of electronic collection development would not be complete without mentioning some drawbacks of electronic content. While the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for the CVM Library, some issues have arisen due to the collection of electronic content. Statistics and other studies: To demonstrate the use and vitality of e-books in this niche collection, a closer examination of two recent package purchases is useful. In the summer of 2014, the CVM Library had an increase in its monograph expenditures. Several options were under consideration in purchasing e-book packages to supplement the required and recommended titles already acquired. In working with the electronic resources department for MSU's main campus library, CVM negotiated the purchase of two e-book packages with unlimited user access. These packages contained nearly 300 titles specific to the field of veterinary medicine and deemed relevant to CVM Library users. Practices: Now that the CVM Library has opted for electronic preferred versions of all materials, what is the next step? Identifying the content to purchase is usually a simple matter when college administrators are supplying reading lists and local needs influence the specialized collection of materials (Emery and Stone, 2013). A question that does arise is how librarians advertise the availability of these titles. The CVM has strongly supported the transition to the preference of electronic resources and has encouraged students in the classroom to utilize these resources, many times recommending the use of titles not on the required or recommended lists. There have been many instances of professors assigning specific chapters or entire texts in their course work, linking to the electronic versions in their syllabi. The library is also involved in student orientations: during each session, the librarian takes the opportunity to demonstrate how to access various e-books through the library's online catalog as well as other electronic resources. Instruction on more in-depth approaches to research is available on an individual basis or for student groups, as well as through workshops and class visits. Conclusions: While many libraries are still adopting the collection development policies that include the acquisition of e-books, one thing is apparent: e-books will become a permanent fixture in academic research (Staiger, 2012). The unique users at the CVM are exemplary in their use of electronic resources in research. When purchasing for a specialized or niche collection, e-books and other electronic resources offer a unique advantage to serve users who are off-campus, committed to laboratory work or conducting research in the field. The literature on electronic collection development has demonstrated the pros and cons of these materials, but by taking a more specialized approach and considering populations with a significant number of off-campus users, the choice of electronic over print is evident.
A morphological analysis of research literature on Lean Six Sigma for services	[ "Lean Six Sigma", "Systematic literature review", "Quality", "Services", "Morphological analysis", "Research gaps" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Process improvement (PI) is among the central aims of organisations, which seek to achieve quality and operational excellence (Assarlind et al., 2012). Although strongly associated with the quality movement of the 1980s, PI as a concept has roots in many other fields, including socio-technical systems design and the human relations movement (Bessant et al., 2001). PI programs have evolved over the years and have been associated with the adoption of Lean manufacturing techniques, total quality management (TQM), employee and customer satisfaction programs, customer services excellence initiatives and waste reduction crusade (Singh and Singh, 2015). While PI initiatives have been taken in both manufacturing and services organisations, the need for PI in services, especially in economies dominated by the services sector, can be justified. The service sector dominates the UK economy, contributing around 78 per cent of GDP. More than 80 per cent of the USA's GDP during 2010 has been contributed by services operations (Wang and Chen, 2010). Even in emerging economies like India, the share of the services sector is expected to reach 62 per cent by FY 2020 (IBEF, 2015). The inherent characteristics of services like heterogeneity, intangibility, perishability and inseparability equate to greater inconsistency in managing customer experiences (Yuen et al., 2015; Ladhari, 2009) and hence make PI initiatives more convoluted. Lean and Six Sigma are regarded among the most popular management strategies for enabling PI in organisations (Albliwi et al., 2015). Though Lean and Six Sigma were developed independently, both these powerful PI strategies have emerged from Japanese ways of working, adapted across the globe. Both Lean and Six Sigma have been successfully deployed in the services sector and have been identified with some shortcomings. The hybrid Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach to PI has proved to overcome the shortcomings (Sunder, 2013). This is the primary motivation of this study. Second, from a systems thinking perspective, it is evident that LSS needs to be studied as a whole, and not as collection of parts (Lean and Six Sigma separately), since the whole is often other than (or, sometimes more than) the sum of the parts according to Gestalt theory (Wertheimer and Riezler, 1944) and also according to Aristotle (Corning, 2002). Hence, this study focuses on LSS as a whole. Moreover, LSS and its predecessors have been widely used in the services sector and perceived as a subject of practitioner's interest, but there has been limited rigorous academic research (Bendell, 2006; Nonthaleerak and Hendry, 2008). Even now, we can observe that there is sufficient scope for research on various aspects concerning LSS. This has led us to systematically identify the scope for further research on this topic, within the context of the services sector. 2. Theoretical background: Before performing a comprehensive literature review on LSS for services, it is essential to understand its predecessors - Lean and Six Sigma. This section outlines a brief theoretical background about Lean and Six Sigma, highlighting their successes and shortcomings in services sectors. 3. Methodology: LSS for services, as an approach to PI, is yet to fully mature into a specific area of academic research (Bendell, 2006). Through the proposed MA framework, this paper points out that even now there is sufficient scope for a comprehensive study to explore new possibilities and priorities for research on this topic. Here, we perform a systematic literature review of the hybrid LSS methodology (not Lean or Six Sigma in isolation) in the services sector. 4. Overview of the literature: The four orientations in the research literature, based on which the classification has been done, are elaborated below. 5. MA: MA is a qualitative technique widely used in social sciences, for structuring and investigating the total set of relationships contained in multi-dimensional, non-quantifiable contexts (Ritchey, 2011). It involves examining the entire set of combinations of possible values of various dimensions of a concept (Zwicky, 1969) to identify the gaps. It provides a method to identify and investigate elements of a system (or a concept) in its existing form and to explore possible configurations (or opportunities) which the system could have (Majer, 2007). Xin et al. (2010) applied MA for identifying new technology opportunities for practitioners and policy makers. Sudhindra et al. (2014) used MA to build a knowledge classification model in supply chain networks. According to Majaro (1988), it is an ideal technique for generating new ideas in respect of exploratory and opportunity seeking requirements as the need to define a problem in detail is less stringent in this approach. Muller-Merbach (1976) pointed out that general morphology is especially a suitable tool for operational research, not simply dealing with of pre-defined problems, but to be proactive in problem formulation processes for identifying gaps for future research. Ritchey (2011) describes that identifying and defining the most important dimensions of the concept under investigation form the primary steps in MA. Each of these dimensions is then given a range of relevant values or conditions. Together, these make up the variables of the problem to be structured. 6. Discussion: broad areas for future research: The novelty of this work is to point to both academicians and practitioners, focussed directions on research opportunities and questions to ponder on the subject "LSS for services", for future research/study. A few of the broad areas are highlighted below: 7. Conclusion: LSS has emerged as an essential part of PI in services by providing several valuable outcomes. The systematic literature review and the MA framework presented here are meant to serve as a resource for researchers seeking to understand LSS theory and practice, and its evolution leading to recent trends of its integration with other philosophies. The MA framework has enabled identification of 355 unique research gaps, and should help researchers' efforts to advance the theory and practice of LSS in services.
Partnering motives and partner selection: Case studies of Finnish distributor relationships in China	[ "Distribution operations", "Distribution and inventory management", "Partnership", "Distribution channels and markets", "Finland", "China" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Foreign distributors take the responsibilities of marketing the manufacturers' products and servicing customers in local market. In comparison with other foreign market entry alternatives, such as joint venture arrangements or overseas manufacturing operations, exporting products through a distributor is a less resource-laden strategy. Especially for those companies that lack foreign market knowledge or the necessary financial, operational, and strategic resources, exporting through international intermediaries is a relatively easy and practical way to enter overseas markets (Bello and Gilliland, 1997). Much research in the literature on distribution contributes to topics such as the performance improvement and management in selling alliances, export channels, and partnership in logistics (Smith and Barclay, 1997; Bello and Gilliland, 1997; Tate, 1996; Gentry, 1996; Frankel et al., 1996). Even Liu and Wang (1999) examine the patterns of the channel relationship management and the impact of relationship management on distributor performance in the Chinese context. These studies have focused on the dynamics of channel partnerships and their implications for managing on-going relationships. However, little research focuses on the starting point of the relationship formation and is designed to help both manufacturers and distributors in their selection of a competent counterpart for future relationships. Some previous distribution literature provides suggestions on distributor selection by developing a distributor selection process (Fram, 1992), identifying the import motivations of distributors from relationships (Katsikeas and Kaleka, 1999), exploring industrial distributor's expectations of benefits (Ghosh et al., 2004). Kim (1999) studied the determinants of joint action in distributor-supplier relationships. But as Katsikeas and Kaleka (1999) mentioned while there is a plethora of studies focusing on manufacturers' marketing activities, there is a lacuna of knowledge in the business literature regarding the distributor side in the international exchange process.This paper, based on a full study of partnership development and management in four Sino-Finnish distributor and agent relationships, attempts to fill the gap by studying the following key questions:1. Why do the foreign manufacturers and Chinese distributors establish partnerships in marketing channels?2. What factors are important when foreign manufacturers select a distributor in China?3. What factors are important when a Chinese distributor selects a foreign manufacturer?In this paper, we examine the perceptions of both the Finnish manufacturers and Chinese distributors. With this perspective, we can gain a clearer view of partnership formation in the marketing channel, and how manufacturers and distributors can select the right partners to provide quality products and services to the end customers. Weber (2000) suggested that the distribution is the weakest link in the marketing chain. Partnering with distributors is one way to improve the performance of distributors. We therefore study the topics in the paper based on the theoretical background of partnership.Hendrick and Ellram (1993) define partnership as an ongoing relationship between two organizations with a commitment over an extended time period, and a mutual sharing of the risks and rewards of the relationship. Mohr and Spekman (1994) believe that partnerships are purposive strategic relationships between independent firms who share compatible goals, strive for mutual benefit, and acknowledge a high level of mutual interdependence. For the purpose of this research, partnership is defined as an interactive relationship for continuous cooperation between two independent companies for long-term mutual benefits.The layout of the paper is as follows: it starts with a literature review for the motives of developing partnership and partner selection. Then, the methodology of the study is introduced. Thereafter, the findings of the case study are presented and discussed. Finally, the conclusions are given. Literature review: Motives for partnership Research design and methodology: Background of case companies Findings and discussion: Based on the analysis of the interviews, the motives for partnership and the factors in partner selection are presented in the section. These issues are presented from the perspectives of both the Finnish manufacturers and Chinese distributors and agents in one case. When the issues of partner selection were discussed with the Finnish interviewees, the answers are mainly about the factors for selecting Chinese distributors. Whereas when the same issues were discussed with the Chinese interviewees, two aspects of the issues were considered:1. what factors are considered when the Chinese distributors select the Finnish manufacturers (Q1); and2. what factors should be considered when foreign companies try to find a distributor in China (Q2).In each case, we illustrate the two aspects of manufacturer and distributor selection from the Chinese interviewees.Case A Conclusion: This paper contributes to the age-old problem, which has defied solution, of selection of an effective international distributor (Fram, 1992). Our study is based on four paired in-depth interviews with both manufacturers and distributors. The theoretical contribution of our study is on the issue of manufacturer and distributor selection from the perspective of distributors. A new finding from the case study is that Geringer's (1991) task- and partner-related dimensions of partner selection apply not only to international joint ventures, but also to distributor relationships. In the mutual selection process, it is more product-related when the distributor selects a manufacturer. Furthermore, from our study, we conclude that a distributor relationship is a product-tied relationship and this finding provides a completely new platform from which to commence future research on distributor relationship management.The managerial contribution of our study suggests that distributor selection cannot be formalistic. Besides marketing competency, a competent distributor may be described as one who is ambitious about the future, has the ability to study, take initiative, give commitment, be a willing communicator, and be honest and ethical. A win-win distributor relationship is a well-balanced tandem between the manufacturer's product and the distributor's marketing competency. Our study suggests that product innovation is one way of improving the performance of distributor relationship to bring about fruitful results, and even to extend the lifetime of distributor relationship. This finding reveals a new approach for further research in distributor relationship management.In conclusion, the case companies are limited in number and therefore the results cannot be generalized but they give valuable data about the case companies which can subsequently be further examined. For additional research, there is room here for more in-depth studies about improving the performance of distributor relationship by product innovation.
Executive compensation and corporate social responsibility: does a golden parachute matter?	[ "Corporate finance", "Executive compensation", "Golden parachute", "Corporate social responsibility", "Interlock", "Tenure" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Executive compensation and firms' performance has produced a litany of exciting discussions and debates. An enduring consensus among scholars is the concept that, inherently, executives are selfish by nature and thus are not innately faithful stewards to stakeholders[1]. Therefore, it behooves the stakeholders if their interests are in alignment with that of the firms' executives. From the purview of corporate social responsibility (CSR)[2], this study contributes to the quest for finding ways to better align the interest of the firms' executives with that of the society.Proponents of incentive-based compensation argue that the mechanics rather than the amount of executive compensation is most effective in aligning the interest of the executive with that of the shareholders (Acharya et al., 2011; Mehran, 1995; Jensen and Murphy, 1990b). That is, long-term equity-based compensation rather than cash compensation increases the probability of achieving the desired outcome. This compensation scheme incentivizes the executive to pursue projects that maximize the firms' value in the long term. In this study, we examine if a golden parachute (GP)[3] clause, which protects and insures executive compensation, motivates the executives to pursue more CSR activities.The stakeholder theory posits that the purpose of the firm is to create as much value for its stakeholders as possible. The argument hinges on the premise that if a firm is to achieve success and sustainability over time, the interest of the shareholders, employees, suppliers, community and environment must be aligned and moving in the same direction. The onus lies with the executive to creatively identify measures to ensure that these interests are in alignment rather than resorting to inefficient strategies that trade off the interests of stakeholders against each other. Thus, the long-term viability and success of the firm is the result of a conscious and continuous effort by its executive to incorporate the interests of stakeholders into the firm's business operations. In essence, for those firms whose business models are consciously grounded in building trusting relationships with stakeholders while addressing their legitimate needs and concerns through CSR, they can harness valuable reputational wealth and relational capital. Such stakeholder-themed models can lead to desirable enhanced corporate valuations (Hoepner et al., 2016)CSR is anchored in the stakeholder theory. Jo and Harjoto (2011) define CSR as how a firm conducts its business operations to generate an overall positive impact on society by serving people, the community and the environment in a manner that exceeds the legal requirement. Empirical studies and discussions on corporate social practices span various topical areas and disciplines (Shafiq et al., 2014). They include customer satisfaction (Govindara et al., 2004), ethical marketing practices (Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Maignan et al., 1999), deceptive accounting and financial misrepresentation (Bromiley and Harris, 2007). Liesen et al. (2017) finds that firms that do not adequately disclose information about quantitative emissions are valued less by financial markets.Our study examines the effect of a particular type of contractual clause, a GP, on an executive's behavior toward CSR. Firms that channel their policies toward promoting CSR incorporate the interests of the stakeholders in their business operations and generally focus on the long term. That is, firms are occasionally willing to sacrifice short-term profits in favor of socially responsible actions and long-term prosperity (Hunt et al., 1990; Quazi, 2003; Swanson, 2008; Wood et al., 1986).If a firm's engagements in CSR can enhance its value and produce sustainable profitability in the long run, then the owners can use long-term executive compensation to incentivize the executive to engage in CSR investments. The board of directors has the governing authority to steer the executive's decisions toward objectives that promote the common good of the stakeholders that could increase the firm's value and the shareholders' wealth in the long run.Related studies that explore the association between executive compensation and CSR focus on cash compensation (salary and bonus) and stock options (Malik, 2015; Rekker et al., 2014; Brown and Forster, 2013; Cai et al., 2012). The first is short term, while the second is long term. We extend these proxies by introducing the presence of a GP. The GP provides the executives with protection against employment and compensation risk. Given this protection, the executive may be more willing to pursue investments with uncertain immediate payoffs, especially if the socially responsible action is a common good that aligns the interests of the different stakeholders. Furthermore, CSR investments are suitable for the firm only to the extent that they are positively associated with shareholders' value. Therefore, to rightfully use the protection of the GP in the best interest of the shareholders, the executive should invest in CSR projects to the extent that they positively impact the firm's performance.Following the literature that examines the associations between executive compensation and CSR, we adopt three measures of CSR: net CSR (total strengths minus total concerns), total CSR strengths and total CSR concerns (Mahoney and Thorn, 2006; McGuire et al., 2003). After merging data from MSCI ESG STATS, Compustat, RiskMetrics, and ExecuComp on 1,301 firms from 1993 to 2013, we find that an inverse relationship exists between current (long-term) compensation and the firms' CSR. The test for a moderating effect of the GP shows that it and long-term compensation jointly increase the firms' CSR score. Economically, the interaction leads to a 0.44 increase in the CSR score.This increase supports the idea that executives with a GP want to maximize their long-term wealth by only approving CSR projects that positively enhance the firm's financial performance. Furthermore, female executives are more likely than their male counterparts to promote CSR projects, and older executives are less willing to engage in CSR even with a GP. Economically, female executives with a GP increase the CSR score by 1.21. Older executives reduce CSR score by 0.36. The findings are robust to model specification, endogeneity and selection bias issues as well as sufficient control variables.We contribute to the literature by examining the effect of the unique nature of a GP on the association between executive compensation and CSR. Unlike the other two proxies (cash and stock options) that do not necessarily and incontrovertibly guarantee payments to the executives, the GP guarantees all payments and entitlements stipulated in the executive's contractual clause, even in the event of an involuntary job loss.Another contribution of this study is that the value of the compensation package to the executive is proportionately dependent on the insured size of the long-term compensation relative to the cash compensation, and vice-versa. In general, corporate executives try to maximize their wealth. If the insured size of the long-term compensation is significantly higher than the cash compensation, this size might induce the executive to favor decisions that maximize long-term value. Kelly and Alam (2008) assert that the landscape of the corporate environment is rapidly changing as firms now seek long-term financial prosperity rather than short-term profitability. Firms usually design value-enhancing CSR policies for the long term. Therefore, to steer the executive toward promoting these policies, the value of the long-term portion of the compensation must be greater than that of the short term. This greater value should firmly align the interest of the executive (wealth maximization) with that of the shareholders (value maximization).The rest of this study is organized as follows: In the next section, we briefly review the literature; next, we discuss the research hypotheses; then, we illustrate the methodology and sample used in this study. Next, we report the results of our analyses and discuss their robustness. Lastly, we provide concluding remarks. 2. Literature review: The importance and benefits of CSR to society is arguably vast. To the firm, the benefits of a positive reputation can be economically rewarding to its shareholders and beneficial to the welfare of the other stakeholders. When firms are socially responsible, the benefits extend to the investing and non-investing stakeholders, the natural environment and the society at large. Tsoutsoura (2004) posits that the risk of rare negative events is less likely when firms are socially responsible.The importance of CSR cannot be ignored or overemphasized. Samuelson (1971) acknowledges the increasing indispensability of social responsibility to corporations when he posits that "a large corporation these days not only may engage in social responsibility, it had damn well better try to do so." Progressively, CSR is becoming a commercial imperative as firms understand the vital importance of building and rebranding their image. Maron (2006) posits that both moral and practical business incentives encourage firms to move toward socially responsible behavior. Gossling and Vocht (2007) also indicate that society expects business organizations to be accountable to it and the environment from which they extract profit. The mission of corporations should be to achieve a reasonable balance between profit pursuits and society building.The value of CSR to a firm remains a puzzle. Tsoutsoura (2004) asserts that in many cases, the timing of the CSR's costs and benefits can be out of alignment. The costs are immediate, while the firm usually realizes the benefits later. The empirical findings of studies that examine the relation between CSR and a firm's performance produce mixed and conflicting results. Some find a positive association (Barnett and Salomon, 2006; Graves and Waddock, 1999; Preston, 1978; Preston and O'bannon, 1997; Ruf et al., 2001), others a negative one (Cronqvist et al., 2009; Friedman, 2007; Pagano and Volpin, 2005; Surroca and Tribo, 2008; Vance, 1975), and some find no association (Aupperle et al., 1985; Guerard Jr, 1997; McWilliams and Siegel, 2000; Moore, 2001). 2.1 Golden parachutes 3. Hypothesis development: Scholars have extensively engaged in the explication and investigation of the GP to shed more light on the inclusion of this clause in executive compensation contracts (Bebchuk et al., 2014; Brusa et al., 2009; Fich et al., 2013; Jenter and Lewellen, 2015; Mansi et al., 2013; Ujah and Okafor, 2019, Okafor and Ujah, 2016). This present study subscribes to the reasoning put forward by the proponents of the GP. This motivation is anchored on the presumption that executives want to maximize their wealth. That is, given that the largest portion of the GP comes from the accelerated payment of unvested stock options and other stock units[4], the executive's best interest is to maximize the stock price in the long term. This strategy should positively maximize the premium when the executive exercises the stock options, assuming that a positive association exists between CSR investments, and an increase in the stock price ultimately adds to the firm's value.In the designing and implementation of corporate objectives, the firm could adopt control mechanisms that foster actions that promote socially responsible behaviors and also reward the executives for promoting such behaviors (Bebchuk et al., 2002; Jensen and Murphy, 1990a; Lambert and Larcker, 1985). The caveat to this strategy is that the control mechanism should encourage executive decisions only to the extent that they increase the shareholders' value. This study argues that the GP should fulfill this purpose. When these decisions maximize the stock's value, they maximize the value of the executive's GP. 3.1 Current compensation--salary and bonus 4. Sample and model: 4.1 Data and variables 5. Empirical results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics 6. Conclusion: We use a large sample of 1,301 unique US firms from 1993 to 2013 and find that an inverse relationship exists between current (long-term) compensation and firms' CSR investments. While the direct association between the GP and CSR is also negative, the test for a moderating effect shows that the GP and long-term compensation jointly and positively increase the firms' CSR performance. This result is consistent with the expectation that executives with a GP maximize their long-term wealth by approving only value-enhancing CSR projects. Furthermore, the results also indicate that female executives are more likely than their male counterparts to promote CSR investments. Moreover, older executives are less willing to engage in CSR even with a GP.While society wants firms to engage and invest in CSR, firms are somewhat hesitant in deploying scarce resources to fund CSR projects. This hesitancy is due to the uncertainty surrounding the benefits, if any, of CSR projects to the firm value. To the firm, CSR investments could either be value-enhancing or value-destroying. GP alleviates these potential value-destroying concerns of CSR to the firm and shareholders' value. That is, given that the value of the GP is long-term oriented, executives with GP will most likely only approve those CSR projects that are value-enhancing to the firm. A weakness of this study is that it focuses on firms publicly traded on the US market. For future studies, a replication of this study using data from markets across the globe should yield interesting results.There are three major practical implications of the findings in this study. First, a CEO with a GP will ensure that the firm engages in only value-enhancing CSR projects; this should align the interest of the society (greater firm engagement in CSR) with the interest of the firm (value maximization). Higher commitments in CSR by firms enhance the well-being of the stakeholders. Firms offer GP to attract better talents at the executive level. Firms should explore the strategy of using the GP to better align the interest of the executives with that of the stakeholders. Notably, the shareholders who are the owners of the firm and whose interests are mostly long-term oriented.Second, older executives who are 64 years old and above could be less willing to engage in CSR projects, this is mainly due to unattractiveness of the timing of CSR benefits to the executive. Any potential benefits from CSR may or may not necessarily accrue to the older executives. Executives nearing the age of retirement are most concerned about maximizing their immediate wealth rather than focusing on CSR investments. Therefore, firms with executives older than 64 years of age should strategically device other means to motivate their executives to pursue greater CSR engagements.Third, the campaign for greater CSR could result in more female executives being sought after by firms that desire to elevate their CSR performance. This enhanced reputation could increase the female executives' value in the market for corporate labor.
Experts ' perspectives on the implementation of traceability in Europe	[ "Delphi method", "Europe", "Supply chain management", "Food safety" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Food chains are becoming increasingly complex, involving interrelationships between many different food chain actors (Fresco, 2006). At the same time, the occurrence of food safety issues, have resulted in the decline of the public trust in food safety, certainly in the European context (Lobb and Mazzocchi, 2007; Wilcock et al., 2004). Method: The research utilised the Delphi method of surveying participants. The Delphi method has been extensively utilised in the identification of expert views (Rowe and Wright, 1999). In the food domain, the method has been used, for example, in forecasting market prospects for organic markets in Europe (Padel and Midmore, 2005), or understanding the views of key stakeholders on an evolving food risk governance framework (Wentholt et al., 2009, in press). Expert opinions are solicited using (for example) quantitative or qualitative elicitation techniques, after which anonymous feedback is provided regarding the views of the other experts involved. Subsequent opinion elicitation "rounds" are conducted until key issues are identified, or majority and/or minority consensus achieved across the group. The Delphi technique is characterised by an iterative discussion without group interaction. This allows the views of all participants to be shared, avoiding one or more participants to dominate a discussion or influence the opinion of others (Rowe et al., 1991; Rowe and Wright, 1999). Results: Experts' definition of traceability Discussion: Considering the importance of risk vulnerability identification systems such as traceability, and the measures taken by the EU to make it mandatory for food and feed businesses to operationalise food and ingredient traceability throughout the food chain, it is important to understand how food risk managers perceive present status and functioning of food chain traceability across food industries. The results suggest that, although participants were very positive about the concept of traceability, in particular from the perspective of risk identification and the ability to recall problematic products, situational differences affected efficacy and implementation of traceability in practical terms. In addition, some improvement in terms of definition and enforcement were identified by participants, suggesting that the regulatory framework in which European traceability legislation is enshrined may need to be revisited. Nonetheless, the results suggest that traceability can be considered as an instrument to guaranteeing food safety, quality, and a way to reduce the volume of product recalls as a result of increased capacity to detect the vulnerabilities at an early stage, even if further refinements are required in order to reach the objective of improved food safety (see also Van der Vorst, 2006). Conclusion: In the views of experts, effective food and ingredient traceability systems have the potential to improve food safety, although further refinements regarding its operationalisation are required if this objective is to be achieved. The need to create efficient communication about the advantages of traceability with consumers regarding the implications of traceability was identified, if its application was to result in increased consumer confidence in food safety.
Respecting the language: digitizing Native American language materials	[ "Digitization", "Collaboration", "Digital humanities", "Digital collection", "Native American language", "Zuni Pueblo" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: In 2018, the University of New Mexico (UNM) Libraries launched the Zuni Language Materials Collection (ZLMC) on New Mexico Digital Collections (NMDC), a digitized collection of language learning materials for the language spoken by the Zuni Pueblo people in New Mexico. This digital humanities project differs from most others with Native American digital content because members of the community of creation were involved in the development and release of the project. This collection considered community users throughout the process. The user population expands beyond the university while focusing on those potential collection users who are both UNM students and members of the language community. Here, we share how the project began, how parameters evolved during the process and the use of the collection as a potential model for others interested in pursuing their own digital humanities project highlighting non-western knowledges. Background: This project shares the language of the Zuni people; because languages contain the values, history, familial relationships and overall culture of the people using them (Forbes and Adams, 1976, p. 22), we now give an overview of Zuni Pueblo. CONTENTdm: Since 2010, UNM's Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) department has used CONTENTdm to manage NMDC. The ZLMC will be published in NMDC because it adds no new costs and the NMDC portal overall has high usage. Like UNM, many libraries use CONTENTdm because they lack the staff to provide customization and code development that many open-source content management solutions require (Gilbert and Mobley, 2013). While Murkutu, an indigenously developed CMS, was briefly considered as an option, UNM libraries have the infrastructure in place to preserve born digital content shared in CONTENTdm. Though we elected to use CONTENTdm, many indigenous scholars are thinking through how digital technologies make possible the preservation and dissemination of cultural material (Senier, 2011). Digitization: Why digitize? Prototype digital collection: This project challenged the team to create a Web 3.0 experience in CONTENTdm because ideally, the ZLMC would invite users to engage with the content in an immersive digital environment via the interactive template. Tribal members helped design an innovative prototype for both LIS professionals and DH scholars. The critical making method guided the creation of the ZLMC and prioritized community needs. Questions that directed the collection design process included the following: Collaborative metadata: This project relies on collaboratively authored metadata. CONTENTdm organizes digital collections using the Dublin Core metadata hierarchy. This metadata schema has 15 fields, and it provides a systematic way to describe resources; libraries often use it because it is accessible for first-time catalogers (Gilliland-Swetland et al., 2000). Given the limited information in English in the materials, working closely with members of the community of creation ensured that items and the embedded cultural knowledge were appropriate to distribute. Librarians rarely give community members an opportunity to share knowledge about digitized items. The assumption that catalogers can glean all knowledge about an item from the item reinforces western perspectives about knowledge itself (Tuhiwai Smith, 1999). Collaborative metadata creation provides a respectful method to digitize non-western primary sources and acknowledges the myriad ways that communities approach and conceive of knowledge. To create the metadata, ZLMC team members met monthly, reviewed each item and brainstormed subject headings that community members would likely use to search for materials. This collaborative process created Zuni informed subject headings (Figures 1 and 2). Interactive portal and template: To allow users to engage with language learning materials, we developed an interactive portal. Critiques of CONTENTdm display and the needs of the users of the collection drove the design of the portal. With out-of-the-box CONTENTdm, users either have to download each page separately then digitally re-bind the pages or download the material and then open files in a PDF reader. These built in barriers to access content hinder interactive use of materials. Without the template, the display options would be unsuitable for classroom use by our primary user group, Zuni teachers (Figure 3). Conclusion: While some DH scholars stress collaboration as central to the ethos of DH work, few undertake broad collaborative projects with partners beyond the academy (Posner, 2013). In this situation, the collaborative process radically improved the quality of collection metadata and provided the impetus for development of an interactive template. The Zuni Language Materials Collection project models how DH scholars can effectively put their ethos into praxis because community members from beyond the library were invited to organize digitized resources.
Scale to measure tourist value of destination restaurant service	[ "Values", "Scale development", "Experiential value", "Destination restaurant services" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: International tourism markets have increased with 1,322 million international tourists in 2017 (UN World Tourism Organization, 2018). In addition to the rapid growth of international tourism, destination food tourism has risen as a dynamic part of international tourism, notably in Spain, Brazil, Egypt, Korea and many other countries (UN World Tourism Organization, 2012). Destination food is a part of tourism experience and conveys destination authenticity (Kivela and Crotts, 2006). As food tourism has grown, destination food experiences have become a core product of tourism. Tourists want to enjoy destination food and they consider food consumption as a large part of their tour. If they have good experiences with destination food, they come away satisfied and will spread the word to other potential tourists. Destination food is important for improving the quality of the tourism experience and for improving the destination economy through competitive marketing and profit (Cohen and Avieli, 2004). Literature review: The definitions of destination food and value were examined to lay the groundwork for this research. Then, this study considered how to measure the value of service as the main operationalization of value. Finally, experiential value was addressed to help explain the value of dining service at destination restaurants. Methodology: Korea was selected in this study because the number of inbound tourists and the proportion of international visitors who come to Korea for culinary tourism have increased to 44.5 per cent in 2016 (Korea Tourism Organization, 2017a). International tourists who visit Korea provided a good sample for developing a scale for the value of destination restaurant services. Results: Demographics of survey participants Discussion and conclusions: Conclusions
ERP use: exclusive or complemented?	[ "Manufacturing resource planning", "Computer software", "Innovation", "Competences", "Communication technologies", "The Netherlands" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Despite the substantial investments involved and the often far-reaching economic, organizational, and social consequences, the use of ERP systems shows continuous growth (Al-Mashari, 2003; Huang et al., 2004a, b). The magnitude of ERP's managerial implications has resulted in many publications on purchasing motivations and implementation problems encountered (McAdam and Galloway, 2005). These include many reports about disappointing results of ERP system implementation and performance (Ho et al., 2004; Howcroft et al., 2004; Trimi et al., 2005). The apparent contrast between widespread use on the one hand, and frequently occurring disappointments on the other hand, leads one to wonder what drives ERP system adoption. Organizations can also choose for less encompassing and thus less complex and cheaper information system alternatives. Compared to ERP systems, these are often custom-built with a better fit to local situations. Moreover, the latter may help to preserve the user organization's unique characteristics, thereby maintaining or enhancing its competitive advantage more effectively (Benders et al., 2006a).ERP systems may be used in combination with other information systems. Prima facie this seems improbable as the very logic of ERP systems is to integrate dispersed information systems. However, as our empirical data show joint use is simply an empirical fact. There appears to be no literature on why ERP users also use other information systems, yet the topic is worthy of investigation. To explore this issue we formulated as key question:What ERP related factors influence an organization's use of ERP systems and their simultaneous use of additional information systems?In the next section, we discuss the history and nature of ERP systems. Subsequently, we discuss our conceptual framework. We draw on extant literatures on the adoption and diffusion of innovations (Tornatzky and Fleischer, 1990; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Rogers, 1995) to build a framework on ERP adoption. After detailing our methodological approach, we use the framework analyzing a sample of Dutch midsized enterprises in machine-tool industries. We end by discussing our key findings, presenting research suggestions and managerial and research implications. ERP systems: ERP systems are integrative software systems. The ideal is to use one single organizational information system for all separate organizational functions in combination with a common database. The generic history of ERP systems tends to be portrayed as follows. ERP systems have their origin in the late 1970s and early 1980s when computers started being used to support production planning. The logistic control concept "material requirements planning" or "MRP" was to become the basis for what evolved into ERP systems. Based on a production plan MRP systems could calculate when and what quantities of components were needed to ensure efficient production control. MRP was soon extended to include other functions such as capacity planning and master production scheduling based on sales forecasting. These were known as "MRP II" or manufacturing resources planning (Rondeau and Litteral, 2001; Gupta et al., 2004; Okrent and Vokurka, 2004).The next step involved coupling and integrating different functional information systems. In contrast to what the conventional history suggests, these information systems had been developed for a variety of organizational functions such as accounting, human resource management (HRM) and finance. Market leader SAP started off in accounting, while competitor Oracle is originally a database specialist. The pakcake "PeopleSoft" refers to its roots in HR information systems. The problem was that these information systems operated independently of each other, resulting in "island automation." Inefficiencies such as extensive data entry work and data inconsistencies led to attempts to effectively link these separate software systems. Software companies started to develop packaged software offering integrated solutions for several control functions. Computer hardware developed simultaneously. Apart from increasingly powerful computers, database management systems offered a powerful tool to support the desired integration. All ERP software packages more or less ran through the following development stages. Starting from financial accounting, logistic functions, database management, project management or HRM and pay roll systems, software suppliers started their integration attempts to develop ERP software. Using a common basis the suppliers generally first introduced several key modules and then extended their product/service range. A relatively new development concerns the mastering of supply chain management, thereby integrating external parties into the system, including customer relationship management, project control, HRM, quality management, workflow management and even knowledge management (Frank, 2004; Huang et al., 2004a, b). Apart from generalists such as SAP and Oracle serving various markets, there are sector- and country-specific ERP-software packages such as REMS, a Dutch software package dominating the local market for real-estate management (De Jong, 2006). However, all ERP systems operate using a single database and support multiple organizational functions. Conceptual framework: Adoption refers to an organization's decision to start using an innovation. Diffusion refers to the cumulative number of organizations that has adopted the instrument over time. In the literature extensive attention has been paid to the explanation of innovation adoption decisions (Rogers, 1995). Since, an innovation is defined as "an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption" (Rogers, 1995) the findings from the innovation adoption literature may also be useful when studying firms' adoption of ERP systems.In a review of the literature of organizational innovation adoption, Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) provided a framework for adoption identifying three sets of variables influencing the propensity to adopt an innovation. These include:1. the new technology;2. the characteristics of the organization; and3. its market environment and social network.We briefly discuss these three sets and apply them to ERP systems and their alternatives (Figure 1).The first set of antecedents includes the relative advantage that an organization anticipates from adopting the innovation but also perceived attributes of the innovation such as its compatibility with current organizational processes and its level of complexity (Rogers, 1995). The relative advantage of ERP involves the benefits versus the costs of the system (Martin et al., 2002). The benefits of ERP systems include, for instance, the integration of formerly scattered functional information systems in a single architecture; centralization of organizational activities; an enterprise-wide access to one shared database; integration of geographically dispersed subsidiaries in multinational firms; and including suppliers and/or customers in one's value chain and value conceptualization (Hong and Kim, 2002; Poston and Grabski, 2001; Al-Mashari, 2003; Rajagopal, 2003). The underlying benefits, positively influencing an organization's competitive positioning, are decreased manufacturing cost, and increased flexibility and speed (Spathis and Constantinides, 2003; Elbertsen and van Reekum, 2005). The cost of purchasing an ERP system involves start up cost and cost of annual maintenance. High start up fees and fees for annual maintenance may reduce the propensity to adopt the technology. Perceived complexity and compatibility of the new technology with existing systems is also anticipated to affect the adoption decision. More complex and less compatible technologies decrease the chance of adoption (Rogers, 1995).The second set of antecedents of adoption involves organization characteristics. Limiting ourselves to key variables, IT competence and organization size are included. An organization is expected to consider, evaluate, and select a new technology based on the knowledge it has of this technology (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). More IT competent organizations will be better able to understand the technology and thus experience less uncertainty during the adoption decision. Furthermore, knowledgeable organizations may be more aware of ERP software limitations and decide for a customized solution rather than standardized software like ERP. Organization size has been identified as a surrogate variable of several organizational dimensions (e.g. organization structure and level of formalization) influencing adoption (Rogers, 1995). Large organizations are more likely to benefit from ERP adoption and have a higher absorption capacity for such a comprehensive tool.Finally, we also include variables related to the organization's external environment and social network. In accordance with Frambach (1993) and Rogers (1995), we include the marketing efforts of providers in the market place. Intense marketing efforts may increase the awareness for the new technology and increases the propensity to adoption. Consistent with DiMaggio and Powell (1983) the influence from the organization's social network such as peers and clients is included. In the literature much attention has been given to how organizations adopt ERP to conform to pressure from their business partners and meet quality standards following evolving formal industry standards. More social and institutional pressure is associated with a higher tendency to adopt ERP systems (Benders et al., 2006a).We anticipate that all three sets of variables influence ERP adoption and also affect the degree to which firms decide to use or keep using alternative software solutions next to their integrated ERP system. As most of these antecedents are well researched we do not formally pose hypotheses for them. We further anticipate differential effects between ERP adoption versus the choice for alternative solutions but treat this as an empirical question. Yet, in general we anticipate that positive ERP adoption characteristics will be negatively related with alternative solution usage (e.g. flexibility of ERP system will be positively be correlated with ERP adoption and negatively with adoption of alternative solutions) while negative ERP adoption characteristics will positively be correlated with alternative solution usage (e.g. annual cost of ERP system will negatively affect ERP adoption but positively alternative solutions). Data and methodology: The data were gathered in The Netherlands using a mail survey. Our sampling frame existed of 486 midsized firms in the machine parts/products, metal and electronic industries able to make independent decisions on investments in automation and ERP software. A questionnaire was sent to the CEO of each company using a personalized letter requesting for cooperation with the research. He/she was filled in the questionnaire or passed it on to the person best qualified to do so. In return cooperating firms were promised a summary of the study results. To further stimulate the response rate a telephone-reminder was used.After four weeks, 144 questionnaires had been returned. After subtracting non-users (who had also been asked to send back their questionnaires) and those without alternative systems, and after correcting for incomplete questionnaires and responses not meeting other requirements (most importantly: firm size) we were left with a useable set of 86 companies. Taking into account the distribution of users and non-users it suggested a gross and net response rate of 31.7 and 23.5 percent, respectively. A brief sample profile is shown in Table I. All users have at least one differently automated module. The highest number of alternative solutions used to complement an ERP system was nine. The median and average scores were 3 and 4.8 modules, respectively.Almost half of the companies in our sample belong to the machine industry (46.5 percent) and fall in the range of 50-200 employees (76.3 percent). Most questionnaires were filled out by IT and application/system managers, followed by CEOs. Of the ERP users over 50 percent purchased the current software between 1997 and 2002The questionnaire was pre-tested in two steps. First, we collected suggestions from two consultants. Next, we pre-tested the questionnaire using two users of ERP software. This resulted in some changes in the sequencing of questions and some more explicit formulations and instructions.Measurement Analysis: The data were analysed by examining the distribution of responses based on frequencies and percentages. Next, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. A first regression used the number of ERP modules as the dependent variable and the 11 independent variables mentioned previously. The level of independence of the company was included as a control variable. A second regression was done with the same independent variables but using the total number of alternative software packages as the dependent construct. In both cases, two cases were identified as outliers and dropped (Table III). Results: Four of our 11 independent variables were associated significantly with ERP adoption, i.e.1. ERP complexity;2. ERP compatibility;3. IT competence; and4. Marketing activities of resellers/providers.Perceived ERP complexity was positively correlated with adoption while compatibility was negatively correlated. This seems strange as it suggests that people who think ERP systems are complex and incompatible adopt more. IT competence is negatively correlated with ERP adoption. More knowledgeable people show a lower tendency to adopt ERP systems. ERP providers marketing activities were clearly positively related to ERP adoption. It suggests providers' marketing activities are effective. The picture that emerges from these results is that less knowledgeable people, who think ERP complex and not very compatible, are more receptive to providers' marketing efforts and have a higher propensity to adopt ERP systems.For the ERP adopters that use other software packages as well we noted five significant effects. IT competence was positively correlated with the simultaneous adoption and use of alternative solutions. These systems are compatible with the ERP system as suggested by the positive coefficient between ERP system compatibility and number of alternative module used. ERP sellers' marketing efforts also had a significant effect. They decreased the level of alternative modules a user operated significantly. Furthermore, ERP flexibility perceptions also negatively correlated with the adoption of alternative solutions. This suggests that alternative modules are more adopted when the ERP system does not allow enough flexibility. In that case users tend to resort to alternative solutions, probably in order to maintain or improve their competitive position in the marketplace. Finally, mainly larger firms seem to apply alternative software solutions in combination with their ERP system.Not significant on both accounts were the independent variables of system cost (start up and maintenance). Probably, the decisions for ERP use are considered a necessity. Managers have the feeling they need to conform to industry development. Further, variation on cost between systems may be limited explaining why these variables do not play a role in the choice for one or the other, i.e. ERP and/or alternative solutions. Although we cannote a tendency in the data that maintenance cost are more important for ERP packages and start up cost for customized/alternative solutions, these effects were not significant and thus should not be interpreted. Cost and speed advantages also did not play a role. The same holds for social pressures from peers and supply chain partners.Finally, both regressions explained approximately 20 percent of variance in the dependent variable. This suggests that other factors, not included in this research, influence these decisions. Discussion: The results showed that managers who perceive ERP as more complex and less compatible adopt more ERP modules. This result is consistent with the outcome that users who declared themselves as less competent tend to possess more ERP modules than their more knowledgeable counterparts. These less competent managers seem more prone to ERP vendors' marketing activities which also significantly affected the number of ERP modules adopted. First, ERP vendors may convince less IT competent managers more easily that a standard ERP package is the best IT solution in their case. Second, once the owner of a particular ERP platform these customers may be locked into the relationship and adopt even more modules more willingly. However, why do the more IT competent users in general choose for alternative solutions such as tailor-made and/or self-developed software? Three possible explanations come to mind. Firstly, respondents who declare themselves as IT competent are or at least feel more knowledgeable about IT. They feel confident in choosing and using other systems. In this case, the IT competent organizations come to a well-considered choice not to use ERP but to adopt an alternative solution instead. Secondly, IT competent firms are more sceptical about ERP sellers' marketing activities, realizing that implementing an ERP system does not automatically lead to better performance (Gulledge and Simon, 2005). Reports about troublesome implementation projects and only partially fulfilled sales promises may play a role (Ho et al., 2004; Elbertsen and van Reekum, 2005). Third, the use of alternatives and, therefore, non-standard software may lead to a built-up of knowledge and help to reach and safeguard an organization's competitive positioning. Purchasing and operating unique software requires substantial IT skills. Identifying IT (in a particular functional area) as a key distinctive competence will help prevent erosion of competitive advantage from interacting with ERP consultants who next take the newly developed ideas to a competitor for exploitation or even worse - help to integrate the ideas into a new generation or ERP release.The results showed a counter intuitive finding that companies that perceive standard ERP modules as less compatible and more complex adopt more rather than less of these modules. This can be explained and understood based on the aim to incorporate "best practices" in ERP modules (Benders et al., 2006a). These best practices hold the promise that together with implementing an ERP system, business processes are improved according to what are held to be superior ways of performing certain operational processes. In this perspective, an ERP system is not just any "IT solution" but a state-of-the-art form of organizational advancement. However, this means that an ERP implementation goes along with organizational changes, which increases the complexity of using an ERP system.Having more standard ERP modules and at the same time perceiving these modules as rather complex may be explained because the integration philosophy of ERP systems involves coupling organizational functions which increases organizational complexity. That large companies have more alternative software modules in combination with their ERP system seems logical based on the size/scope of the automation problem these organizations face. It also would seem given the resources they have. Large organizations are more likely to be able to carry the cost of customized software solutions than small companies. Furthermore, small companies may be so busy trying to deal with their ERP problems that they lack (both managerial and financial) resources to carefully consider the options of automating particular functions in a different way. Recognizing this effect may be important to find new avenues for competitive advantage by scanning carefully processes that may contribute to a more unique market position through using complementary but ERP "deviant" software solutions. Limitations and suggestions for further research: In the first place, longitudinal qualitative research is needed to investigate the suggested causal links of our conceptual framework in general and between self-declared IT competencies and use of software packages in particular.Second, additional drivers of adoption of ERP and alternative modules should be looked at. As noted, our framework was based largely on the general adoption literature, and used many generic factors. As is always the case with specific cases and innovations (Ogbonna and Harris, 2005), using general frameworks runs the risk of overseeing factors which appear idiosyncratic from a generic point of view yet are crucial for the specific case at hand. In the case of ERP systems, these reasons may include the (perceived) need for organization-wide standardization, for instance when newly acquired units need to be integrated, and the desire to implement the "best practices" embedded in ERP systems (Wagner and Newell, 2004). Detailing further, the issue arises whether there are different in this between ERP-packages. The IT history of a firm may also be given more attention in future adoption studies (Martin, 2005).Third, we treated the use of alternative software solutions in combination with ERP software as an empirical question and found widespread use of both types of systems simultaneously. This phenomenon was explained because companies may have to respond to two different kinds of pressures, i.e. they need to comply with external standards and demands from stakeholders such as customers, competitors and suppliers on the one hand, but face the need to differentiate their products and service in the marketplace on the other hand. Combining institutional theory and the resource-based view perspective may be a good starting point to investigate this further (Deephouse, 1999; Oliver, 1997).Fourth, follow-up research is needed to study the relationship between "pure" ERP users and "ERP plus" users. The first group was not present in our study, but also better understanding this group will be beneficial. Further, although we noted a relationship between organizational size and complementary use of alternative solutions, a learning process may be involved. Companies may adopt ERP to get rid of a jungle of separate, island like software/automation solutions. Next, they may find themselves trapped in a standardized ERP harness and react by searching for avenues to escape this situation. The solution may be to carefully consider and adopt some alternative software solutions for key functional areas that help create new competitive advantages in the marketplace. Managerial implications: It is a truism that investments in IT in general and ERP systems in particular have been substantial. At the same time, horror stories about "failures" and implementation "challenges" exist. Much of these unwanted results can be traced back to the complexity of ERP systems. The strength of ERP systems lies in integrating modules by coupling them. At the same time, this strength can be considered its weakness. The close coupling of modules means less responsiveness to the local requirements in particular functional areas. In addition, ERP systems' complexity makes them hard to control and expensive to manage. To reduce the complexity and thereby increase the manageability, managers should carefully consider when to couple IT systems and when to better de-couple them in the light of competitive advantage in the marketplace. Strategic considerations should be explicitly taken into account when purchasing and implementing software. Furthermore, if separate systems are maintained, should they be coupled to the ERP systems or be operated as stand-alone applications'. Full integration may appear attractive, yet the large amount of "close couplings" this involves means complex and thus expensive systems. Their centralistic effect may easily be at odds with policies promoting local decision-making and "empowerment" (Koch and Buhl, 2001; Trimi et al., 2005; Benders et al., 2006b). Making these judgements will require a certain level of IT competence in the organization. However, this competence would seem necessary also for being able to resist ERP providers' marketing efforts. Managers should be able to distinguish between wishful thinking and real ERP benefits. There appears to be an unquestioned dogma among IT-professionals that a maximum level of automation is desirable. Yet "cui bono"? Who benefits from raising automation levels? IT vendors and IT staff do, but does the organization also? Rather than simply accepting the implicit asumption managers considering investments in ERP should understand and investigate and thus need also a basic level of IT knowledge themselves.
Perceived price fairness of dynamic pricing	[ "Pricing", "Consumers", "Internet shopping" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: Price discrimination is not a new concept (Krugman, 2004). Pricing discrimination is a pricing strategy providing an individual or some segments of consumer groups with different prices. It is initially applied in the traditional market based on periodic demand fluctuation and inventory level (Elmaghraby and Keskinocak, 2003). Airlines and hotel industries have a long history of practicing this price discrimination. United Airlines segments its consumers into eight distinct groups, ranging from price-sensitive consumers (e.g. priceline.com users) to business travelers (e.g. last-minute reservations) (Schmeltzer, 2000). Coca-Cola also has tested vending machines that adjust the prices of soft drinks according to the surrounding temperature (King and Narayandas, 2000). Yet, the notion of pricing discrimination becomes more rampant in the e-commerce market. As it is easier to access a huge amount of high-quality consumer demand data and it becomes more convenient and cheaper to change prices in a short time period with the advent of sophisticated internet technologies, e-retailers could have unexploited opportunities to adopt different types of pricing strategies (Elmaghraby and Keskinocak, 2003).Despite of a number of barriers and challenges related a new business model in electronic market domestically (Johnson, 2010) or internationally (Balocco et al., 2010), one of the most popular pricing strategies is called dynamic pricing, which allows identical products (or services) to be sold with different prices (Xia et al., 2004). Dynamic pricing allows e-retailers to adjust the price of an identical product (or service) to correspond with willingness to pay by the consumers (Narahari et al., 2005). Internet auctions such as eBay.com and Ubid.com serve as one of the most popular business models adopting dynamic pricing. Name-your-own-price mechanism such as Priceline.com, and group-buying discounts mechanism such as Mercata.com and Mobshop.com are also examples of this concept. Dynamic pricing has been known to provide a lot of benefits for both buyers and sellers. Economists have long argued that price discrimination benefits retail firms' profits because it enables them to capture consumer surplus more easily by differently charging consumers who have different price sensitivity (Garbarino and Lee, 2003; Kung et al., 2002; Raju et al., 2006). With the support of advanced technologies (e.g. shopbots), buyers also can track competitive prices and have the symmetric information with the sellers, enabling them to actively take part in and influence the pricing decision.Despite its wide adoption and perceived benefits, complaints from online consumers who resist dynamic pricing, as seen in the case of Amazon.com, are often reported (Garbarino and Lee, 2003; Kannan and Kopalle, 2001; Kung et al., 2002). The most commonly recognized reason is the negative perception by the consumers toward price fairness in their purchases (Cox, 2001). It makes consumers to leave the exchange relationship, spreads negative information, or engages in other behaviors that damage the seller (Xia et al., 2004). There have been several studies attempting to explain how people perceive price (un)fairness in the traditional market, but their findings could not be directly applied to explain price fairness in the e-business market because they assume consumers' passive role in price determination ("just adopting the price determined by sellers"). In the new business environment, the consumers' perceived price fairness should be investigated assuming their active involvement in dynamic price determination, but no study has yet been conducted under the new assumption (Garbarino and Lee, 2003).The goal of this study is to investigate the factors affecting perceived price fairness of buyers in the online dynamic pricing context. In particular, this study identifies two factors, illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship, and examines their effect on price fairness perception. Consumers' illusive perception on controlling their behaviors (illusion of control) and lateral consumer relationship that compares one's outcomes of a particular behavior with those of his referents have been known to have significant influence on fairness perception. A laboratory experiment is conducted to empirically validate our hypotheses under two dynamic pricing contexts: online auction and group buying. Online auction and group buying are the most popular mechanisms implementing dynamic pricing which allow us to capture the perception of price fairness of online consumers under their active participation in pricing decision (Bichler et al., 2002; Elmaghraby, 2005; Kauffman and Wang, 2001; Levin et al., 2009). This study helps advance our understanding of consumers' perception on dynamic pricing in e-commerce market and provides us with useful insights to design effective dynamic pricing strategies to enhance price fairness perception. 2 Research background: 2.1 Dynamic pricing 3 Research model and hypotheses development: Based on the existing research on price fairness and the distinct characteristics of the dynamic pricing in the internet market, we propose two factors that are believed to significantly influence consumers' perception of price fairness:1. illusion of control; and2. lateral consumer relationship.These two variables have been well recognized as factors significantly affecting individuals' decision makings and subsequent fairness perceptions in a variety of behavioral contexts. Their effects become overt especially in situations where the results of the behavioral decision makings are unpredictable. The fact that the final price is hard to predict in dynamic pricing context (e.g. auction, group buying) allows illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship to have equally significant influence on consumers' price fairness perception. Consequently, we predict price fairness perception will trigger consumers' purchase intention as shown in Figure 1.3.1 Illusion of control and perceived price fairness 4 Research methodology: This study employed a laboratory experiment since it requires careful controls to test research hypotheses. A 2x2x2 factorial design was used to test research hypotheses, including illusion of control, lateral consumer relationship, and transaction type. Illusion of control was divided into two levels: high illusion of control vs low illusion of control. Lateral consumer relationship had two types: advantageous vs disadvantageous lateral consumer relationship. Finally, auction and group buying were selected as transaction types[1]. Dynamic pricing mechanism has been most widely applied into those environments and their consumers have showed low-level resistance to the prices determined through this mechanism. A gift basket which has a wide perceptive price variance was selected as a target product and included in the scenario. This product makes it difficult for people to precisely estimate its (original) price and use it as a referral price of fairness perception. The research design and subject numbers assigned in each experiment condition are shown in Table I. Subjects were randomly assigned into one of the eight cells.4.1 Subject 5 Results: AMOS was used to perform a confirmatory factor analysis for investigating psychometric properties of measurement instruments and to perform a path analysis for examining the nomological networks between constructs (Arbuckle and Wothke, 1999). AMOS is a second-generation multivariate technique for structural equation modeling approaches. Using a covariance matrix, AMOS provides the results of measurement model analysis and structural equation model analysis at the same time. AMOS 4.01 was used to analyze the data.5.1 Manipulation checks 6 Discussion and conclusion: To investigate the effects of illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship on price fairness which trigger purchase intention, this study conducted a laboratory experiment under online auction and group buying context, and validated the hypothesized relationships. Both illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship significantly influenced perception of price fairness, and this price fairness perception was found as a strong predictor of purchase intention.This study does have limitations that should be revisited in future studies. First, the development of scenario for manipulation is rather arbitrary. For instance, we provided the higher controllability of sellers (thus lower perceived controllability for buyers) by giving them the option to sell out the item in the middle of auction when a certain price is met under the auction scenario. Notwithstanding the practicability of applying our scenario mechanism, the question of how much controllability is enough to soothe the consumers to perceive a fair price is not answered. Second, this study did not measure actual purchase. Although purchase intention has been known as a surrogate measure of actual purchase (Venkatesh, 2000), measuring actual purchase is preferred in that using actual purchase:* is more effective to justify research findings to managers; and* helps measure how much purchase intention contributes to actual purchase and identify other factors affecting the purchase.Furthermore, the majority of research subjects were graduate students. Although they could successfully represent consumers participating in and experiencing online auction and group buying, it is better for future studies to recruit subjects from real auction and group buying environment.Despite the limitations, the analyses showed several interesting results. It was found that the advantageous lateral consumer relationship has a significant impact on the price fairness. It is consistent with the previous reference prices arguments which demonstrate that people perceive fairness based on what others in a social group pay for the same product ("reference price") (Mezias et al., 2002; Ordonez et al., 2000). It implies that under the scenario that a subject has a chance of purchasing the identical product with a lower price than others, he could perceive higher price fairness, which leads to the higher intention to purchase it. This finding has an important value since no studies have investigated the effect of lateral consumer relationship on price fairness perception in the internet dynamic pricing context. In particular, its significant influence provides a useful insight for internet sellers implementing customization strategies. For example, when the price of a product in group buying is lower than others, by decorating that information and positioning it into the location where it is easy to find and read, sellers can increase buyers' fairness perception. Meanwhile, when the price of a product in a group buying is higher than others, by including contents emphasizing product discriminations such as added services, reputation of sellers, or product features, sellers can reduce buyers' unfairness perception.In addition, it was demonstrated that buyers' perception of illusion of control in the process of price setting is a crucial factor that leads to perceived price fairness. This result provides both researchers and practitioners with useful insights. From a researcher's perspective, to the best of our knowledge, we are unaware of any research that investigates the notion of price fairness on the internet transaction where active involvement of potential buyers is guaranteed in price determination. This study shows that customers' perception that they can control the price that they pay in a transaction leads them to be more susceptible to accept price discrimination. From a practitioner's perspective, e-retailers can increase their consumers' price fairness perception by designing the contents or features of their online stores to increase consumers' illusion of control. For example, in group buying context, by dividing the range of price changes more granularly customers can perceive more controllability (e.g., 50-80 participants: $100 vs 50-60: $105, 61-70: $100, and 71-80: $95).In conclusion, dynamic pricing is one of the major price discrimination methods applied in most e-retailers. However, it inevitably causes the perception of price unfairness of online consumers because they pay different prices for the identical product (or service) with comparative other parties. Therefore, how to make price differences more acceptable and more likely to evoke the perception of price fairness is critical for successful operation of dynamic pricing. By focusing on illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship, this study demonstrates that a person perceives price fairness when he/she perceives controlling the price and influencing the final price determination and when he/she perceives advantageous lateral relationship. We expect the findings of this study will be used as a foundation to explore theoretical basis and future empirical studies to clarify and deepen our knowledge on price fairness in the dynamic pricing of e-commerce environment.
The role of developmental relationships in the transition to entrepreneurship: A qualitative study and agenda for future research	[ "Careers", "Mentors", "Developmental relationships", "Boundaryless careers", "Entrepreneurship", "New ventures", "Social capital", "Career development", "United Kingdom", "Mentoring" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: In 2010, 110 million individuals worldwide were actively starting a business and 140 million were running a business they started less than four years ago (Kelley et al., 2011). In the UK, the context of this study, an estimated 6.4 per cent of the country's working population is engaged in activities directed toward starting a new business (Kelley et al., 2011). A growing number of men and women around the world are opting out of the corporate rat race to start their own business, with the popular press regularly detailing these successful new businesses (e.g. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 2010; Maitland, 2006). Mentoring and developmental relationships: Mentoring has traditionally been defined as a relationship in which a more experienced individual takes a newer employee under his/her wing in order to guide the protege through the political and social aspects of organizational life (Kram, 1985; Levinson et al., 1978; Singh et al., 2002). In the past, when individuals typically worked for one or two firms over their careers, people usually formed more intense, long-term dyad relationships. Often a younger employee in the early stages of his/her career would enter into an organization, and a more experienced employee, in the later stages of his/her career, would mentor the protege as he/she progressed in his/her career within the same organization (Sullivan and Crocitto, 2007).For the proteges, having a mentor provided positive benefits such as increased salary, career advancement, visibility, goal achievement as well as enhanced organizational socialization, job satisfaction and well-being (Allen et al., 1997, 2004; Chao, 1997; Higgins, 2000; Nielson et al., 2001; Scandura and Viator, 1994; Wallace, 2001). Within the context of a traditional organization, a mentor guided the protege through the firm's political landscape and protected the protege from repercussions from work errors (Perrewe and Nelson, 2004; Scandura, 1992).Like proteges working within the boundaries of an organization, entrepreneurs also value mentors for the help and support they offer (Deakins et al., 1998; McGregor and Tweed, 2002). Individuals who have entrepreneurs in their social networks are more likely themselves to participate in entrepreneurial activity (Bosma and Levie, 2010) and entrepreneurs with mentors in their industry are more alert to new business opportunities (Ozgen and Baron, 2007).Best-practice enterprise development programs generally include a mentoring component, however most published studies of these programs do not specifically examine the impact of mentors on protege outcomes (e.g. Klofsten et al., 2010; Litzky et al., 2010; Mosey et al., 2006). One exception is St-Jean and Audet's (2008) study of the learning outcomes of 12 male and 13 female protege participants in a formal mentoring program for entrepreneurs. They found the main outcome from the mentoring relationships was cognitive learning followed by affective learning, including attitudinal changes and increased motivation. They reported that the mentoring relationship, however, had little impact on skill-based learning. Similarly, Petridou (2009) found that women entrepreneurs who participated in an e-mentoring initiative perceived that their mentors helped them to achieve their personal goals.In traditional organizations, often found in industries such as finance and banking, the mentor-protege relationship is enacted in a structured, hierarchical context, which may assist a protege's ability to find a suitable mentor. Many firms also provide formal mentoring programs which match mentors and proteges or aid proteges in finding a mentor (Conklin, 2002; Veale and Wachtel, 1997). These corporate structures may also influence gender differences in that previous studies have found that men, who generally hold most of the high level organizational positions, are more likely to mentor other men (Fitt and Newton, 1981; Thomas, 1990). Because most firms have a limited number of women in top positions, these women may be overwhelmed with requests to serve as a mentor to women in lower level positions making it more likely that men will engage in same-gender mentoring relationships than will women. For women who are able to establish developmental relationships with male mentors, the outcomes of male mentor-female protege relationships are typically inferior to the outcomes for male mentor-male protege relationships. For example, male mentor-female protege relationships are less likely than male mentor-male protege relationship to meet both instrumental and expressive needs (Ragins and McFarlin, 1990), to result in perceptions of similarity, especially with regard to ambition (Armstrong et al., 2002) and to provide access to mentors' networks (Ibarra, 1993).In contrast to traditional organizational environments, entrepreneurial environments are not as highly structured. Because of the lack of organizational structure and formal organizational programs, individuals who move from a corporate to an entrepreneurial work environment may experience more difficulty in finding mentors. We know relatively little, however, about the mentoring of entrepreneurs and potential gender differences in these relationships. Tynan et al. (2009) found that female entrepreneurs prefer female business advisors but a male comparison group was not studied. Carsrud et al. (1987) reported on female entrepreneurs' limited use of mentors, suggesting this as an impediment to venture success. In contrast, using a sample of 1,177 male and 337 female small business owners, McGregor and Tweed (2002) found that women (25 per cent) were more likely than the men (20 per cent) to have a mentor.Given the lack of research on the mentoring of entrepreneurs, we wanted to explore the potential differences in mentoring relationships within and outside of corporate boundaries. We suggest that because corporations tend to be more structured and encourage the intra-firm transfer of learning and knowledge through initiatives such as formal mentoring programs (Conklin, 2002; Veale and Wachtel, 1997), that individuals are likely to have a greater number of mentoring relationships inside rather than outside corporate boundaries. Similarly, because organizations often institute formal programs to increase the opportunities for women to engage in developmental relationships, we anticipate that women will have fewer mentoring relationships when they leave corporate employment to open their own small business.Regarding the nature of these relationships, we suspect that individuals both inside (e.g. Allen et al., 1997, 2004) and outside (e.g. Deakins et al., 1998; McGregor and Tweed, 2002 St-Jean and Audet, 2008) of corporate boundaries will seek out the emotional support, encouragement, and knowledge from mentors. However, while in the corporate environment proteges seek out mentors who can help them manage intra-organizational politics (Perrewe and Nelson, 2004; Scandura, 1992), nascent entrepreneurs are more likely to seek out mentors who can help them make connections to enhance their small business's profitability (Ozgen and Baron, 2007). Therefore, we investigate the following research question:RQ1. Will individuals, especially women, have fewer mentoring relationships after they make the transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur and will the focus of these mentoring relationships change from proteges seeking help in managing intra-firm politics to seeking help with networking?Changes in the workplace, including increased globalization and technological advancement have affected the enactment of mentor-protege relationships. Leaner and flatter organizations focus less on providing employees with job security. Whereas the traditional mentoring relationship occurred within the boundaries of one or two firms, workers are now more mobile, moving across the boundaries of different firms, industries, occupations, and countries (Sullivan and Baruch, 2009). Whether mentoring relationships from the corporate work environment transfer to the entrepreneurial work environment has not been the subject of published research. We surmise, however, that mentor-protege relationships established within the confines of an employing organization and reinforced primarily by organizational incentives and frequent interactions at the workplace will be more likely to terminate once a member of the dyad leaves the firm. In contrast, we anticipate that mentor-protege relationships developed within the boundaries of an employing organization and reinforced primarily by strong bonds of mutual respect and friendship are more likely to continue once one party departs the organization. Therefore we propose the following research question:RQ2. How many and what type of developmental relationships will span corporate and entrepreneurial contexts?Given the new dynamics in the work environment and mobility patterns, scholars have suggested that individuals may need to have more than one mentor to help them manage the increasing complexities of their work lives (Baugh and Fagenson-Eland, 2005; Baugh and Scandura, 1999; Clawson, 1996; de Janasz et al., 2004; Higgins, 2000; Higgins and Kram, 2001). Mentoring research has evolved from a focus on a single dyadic relationship to one that involves multiple developers (Higgins and Kram, 2001; Molloy, 2005), often with different individuals performing different developmental functions at different stages of the individual's career (Carraher et al., 2008; de Janasz and Sullivan, 2004).We could locate no published studies that focused on multiple mentoring relationships of entrepreneurs. Therefore, following trends in corporate (e.g. Baugh and Scandura, 1999; Higgins and Kram, 2001) and academic environments (e.g. de Janasz and Sullivan, 2004), we would expect that novice entrepreneurs would similarly need the assistance of more than one mentor to manage the complexities of operating a small business. Moreover, novice entrepreneurs are most likely to seek the support of fellow entrepreneurs who can provide them with the expertise needed to be a successful small business owner. We therefore suggest the following research question:RQ3. Do entrepreneurs engage in multiple mentoring relationships and how many of these relationships will be with fellow entrepreneurs? Methodology: This study examines the role that mentoring relationships play in individuals' work lives both inside and outside the boundaries of organizations. We specifically focus on the role of mentoring as individuals make the transition from being a corporate employee to being an entrepreneur. Because of the relatively small amount of research on the mentoring of entrepreneurs, we chose an exploratory, qualitative approach. By using a qualitative approach, the study should produce rich results as well as generate original directions for examining entrepreneurial ventures (Bruni et al., 2005; Bygrave, 1989; Davidsson, 2004; Gartner and Birley, 2002; Hoang and Antoncic, 2003).We used a structured interview technique; this is a widely employed approach in the study of entrepreneurship (Curran and Blackburn, 2001). Qualitative interviewing techniques permit the perspectives of the interviewees to take precedence over the potential assumptions of the researchers (Farr, 1982) and enable the use of story-telling (e.g. Mallon and Cohen, 2001). To reduce some of the potential problems commonly associated with this approach, questions were asked using the same order, in as similar of manner and words as possible, and by only one member of our research team. Careful records were kept at each of the research stages to enhance reliability and so that others could audit the process (Curran and Blackburn, 2001).The structured interview contained questions about the individual's previous work experiences, his/her previous employer prior to the new venture, when and why he/she began the new venture, and his/her membership in community and professional organizations. Interviewees were asked questions which directly used the term "mentor" including: Did you have mentors in starting your new venture? Who were they? How did these mentoring relationships develop? How would you characterize these relationships? In other instances during the interview, questions about developmental relationships, without specifically referring to these relationships as mentoring, were asked. These questions about developmental relationships focused on current relationships in the new venture (e.g. With whom do you speak with about the venture on a regular basis? What is your relationship with this individual? What do you talk about?) as well as relationships from previous employers (e.g. Whom from previous work experiences, such as colleagues, clients, suppliers, do you communicate with at least twice a year? What is your relationship with this individual? What do you talk about?).Most interviews were conducted at the interviewee's worksite, although a few of the interviewees suggested alternative meeting places, such as a coffee shop or his/her home. Each interview lasted an average of 80 minutes. The interviews were transcribed and then entered into the Nvivo analysis system. The interview content was analyzed using the categorization and sub-categorization process outlined by Lofland and Lofland (1995). All study participants were assured that their names and the names of their past employers and new companies would be kept confidential. All names used in this paper are fictitious. Sample: We found our 24 study participants through multiple strategies including using MBA alumni and local entrepreneur networks (Curran and Blackburn, 2001). We continued to identify and interview respondents until there was no or minimal incremental information obtained from additional interviews (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Additionally, because many scholars have called for closer examination of women's careers (e.g. Sullivan, 1999; Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006) and specifically on women entrepreneurs (Ahl, 2006; de Bruin et al., 2006; DeMartino et al., 2006; Ogbor, 2000) half of the 24 interviewees in our study were women.All study participants were initially employed in corporations in the UK's financial industry. The UK is the world's leading international financial services centre, generating over PS30 billion a year in net overseas earnings and constituting over 5 per cent of the country's GDP (Department of Trade and Industry, 2005). Over five million people, 15 per cent of the working population, are employed in the UK's banking, finance and insurance sector (Begum, 2004). This sector has the highest percentage of workers with a university degree or equivalent, and the highest pay rates in the UK (Begum, 2004). Financial services companies are consistently rated as the most preferred employers by UK university students (Terjesen et al., 2007; Universum, 2010). Like many industries, rapid technological innovations, globalization, and the rise of new competitors have changed the once stable nature of the industry. The industry has been dramatically restructured; downsizing, delayering and outsourcing of services abroad have occurred (Evison et al., 2004; Tempest et al., 2004). Findings and discussion: Tables I and II provide information on each respondent's age, age of his/her new entrepreneurial venture, and previous employment. All 24 study participants worked in senior level management positions in the financial services industry prior to starting their own ventures. They ranged in age from 29 to 62, with an average age of 40 years old. Their new ventures ranged in age from 2 months to 36 months, with an average age of 20 months.As would be expected, most of the new ventures were similar in nature to the respondent's previous corporate employment. For example, one of the study participants, Pam, worked as an accountant for an accounting firm and her new venture was her own accounting firm. Likewise, Paul, Serge, Harris, and Tara left their banking positions to become financial services consultants. A few of the participants, however, started new ventures which were much different from their previous corporate employment. For example, Caitlin transitioned from being a senior manager at an investment banking firm to owning a health spa. Nate transitioned from being a commodities trader to owning an e-commerce retailer.Looking at Table III, there are no significant gender differences in the age of the respondents or the age of their entrepreneurial ventures. On average, the men (mean age=41.7 years) were two years older than the women (mean age=39.8 years). The men's businesses (20.6 months) were, on average, one month older than the women's businesses (19.6 months). Comparing mentoring in different contexts: Research question one focuses on whether there are differences in mentoring relationships engaged in by individuals as an employee of a corporation and as an entrepreneur. As would be expected, the mentoring relationships that the respondents participated in before starting their entrepreneurial venture were typical of the mentoring relationships already well described in the mentoring literature. As shown in Tables IV and V, the majority of the men (75 per cent) and women (83 per cent) had at least one mentor while working within a corporation. While the women reported more mentors than the men in their former employment, this difference was not significant.As reported in Table III, there was a significant gender difference in the percentage of same gender mentor-proteges relationships (t=3.606, p<0.001) in the corporate work environment. In line with previous studies on mentoring (Scandura and Viator, 1994), the majority (93 per cent) of the developmental relationships that men engaged in while in the corporate work environment were with male mentors. In the corporate work environment, the women engaged in developmental relationships with both male and female mentors, with a larger number of these relationships (57 per cent) being with other women. During the interviews, some of the women discussed how both their male and female mentors assisted them in understanding the male-dominated finance industry in which they worked.Comparing the mentoring in the corporate environment to that in the entrepreneurial environment shows some differences, especially for the women. The percentage of men who had a mentor in the entrepreneurial environment was the same (75 per cent) as in the corporate work environment. Women, however, had significantly fewer mentors in the entrepreneurial (50 per cent) than in the corporate (83 per cent) environment. The difference in the percentage of men and women with mentors in the entrepreneurial environment, however, was not significant.In both their corporate (93 per cent) and entrepreneurial (88 per cent) roles, men overwhelmingly had male mentors, whereas this strong same-gender pattern was not present for the women. Within the corporate environment, women had a greater number of female (57 per cent) than male mentors while within the entrepreneurial environment, women had a greater number of male (59 per cent) than female mentors. It may be that while women have gained ground in financial corporations and a greater number of more experienced women are available to serve as mentors to other women, the same is not true outside the structure of a corporation. Like in the corporate environment (Table III), there was a significant gender difference in the percentage of same gender mentor-proteges relationships (t=3.711, p<0.05) in the entrepreneurial work environment. This finding is consistent with prior research suggesting greater gender homogeneity in men's developmental relationships and greater gender heterogeneity in women's developmental relationships (Ibarra, 1993).Previous research suggests that men may naturally find themselves more likely to be in a work relationship with other men and be more comfortable with them due to shared language (e.g. use of sports metaphors) and experiences (e.g. gender socialization; see Maier, 1999). In contrast, women may be less able to connect with more experienced female entrepreneurs to serve as mentors. In entrepreneurial settings, there may be less perceived return to the mentor, with women realizing that they can invest time in a protege but may get very little back in return except gratitude. Because women are much more burdened than men by home responsibilities, such as child- and elder care (Hochschild, 1989, 1997), they simply may have much less time to invest in mentoring relationships that do not necessarily have an immediate "pay off" for them. Further, men tend to engage in more "after hours" socializing (Hochschild, 1989, 1997) and thus both male and female entrepreneurs are simply more likely to have a greater number of opportunities to initiate mentoring relationships with men than with women. Because of a number of factors, women entrepreneurs tend to develop mentoring relationships with men or fail to find a mentor. This finding is consistent with Godwin et al. (2006, p. 63) who suggest that female entrepreneurs, when faced with hurdles in securing resources and establishing legitimacy, may initiate ties to men in order "not to fight the system, but to play by its rules." As an increasing number of women become entrepreneurs, especially in traditionally male-dominated arenas, and these women mentor women junior to them, the lower number of developmental relationships for female entrepreneurs may become less of an issue.An examination of the type of mentoring received in both environments indicates a few differences. In the corporate environment, respondents reported receiving both task and emotional support from their mentoring relationships, including assistance in navigating the politics of the workplace. In the entrepreneurial environment, respondents likewise discussed receiving both task and emotional support. Instead of discussing how their mentors helped them manage organizational politics, however, the respondents discussed how their mentors helped them gain important connections. Respondents talked about their mentors' help in networking, using such language as "He links me into people when I need it." (Lynn) and "She knows all the players" (Tina). Additionally, the novice entrepreneurs discussed how fellow entrepreneurs served as mentors. For example, Tara talked about how her mentor helped her find new business prospects, saying:He is one of the big investment bankers... He has been very successful in setting up banks and integrating companies. He is basically a professional entrepreneur. That is his career. He was my client at the bank. But when I wanted to go out on my own, he would say that he knew many people who had started businesses. Now that I have the business he helps me seek new opportunities and think about growing it.Consistent with more recent thinking on developmental relationships (e.g. Baugh and Scandura, 1999; Higgins, 2000), respondents discussed having developmental relationships with a number of individuals, rather than just one intense one-on-one mentoring relationship. In the corporate environment, 75 per cent of the men and 58 per cent of the women had more than one developer. In the entrepreneurial environment, a lower percentage of men (58 per cent) and women (50 per cent) had more than one developer. Without the structure of an organization, it may be more difficult for individuals to find suitable mentors. Also, the availability of individuals who have the necessary ability and knowledge as well as the willingness to mentor a novice entrepreneur may be low. Those within corporations may be encouraged to mentor others if firms have formal mentoring programs. Firms may have a strong organizational culture which supports the mentoring process or organizational policies which explicitly link mentoring to rewards, such as the case when performance as a mentor is part of a firm's evaluation or promotion system. The benefits of serving as a mentor may be more apparent within a corporate than in an entrepreneurial work context. Mentoring across work contexts: Our second research question focused on whether individuals reported having developmental relationships that started within the context of their corporate work environment and then continued in the entrepreneurial work context. Relatively few respondents reported having a mentor assisting them in their entrepreneurial ventures whom they had met through their previous organizational positions (see Tables IV and V). A total of 19 per cent of the developmental relationships were present in both the corporate and entrepreneurial work environment, with the women (22 per cent) reporting slightly more relationships of this type than the men (15 per cent).To examine these relationships more closely, we used a social capital framework. Social capital theory suggests that social networks are composed of three components: structural, relational and cognitive (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). The structural dimension captures how closely individuals work together in a system, such as the frequency and quality of interactions. The relational dimension refers to the assets embedded in these shared personal relationships, including trust as well as common speech patterns, experiences, obligations, and expectations. The cognitive dimension refers to shared interpretations that facilitate a common understanding of values, visions, and goals.A total of ten of the 55 developmental relationships (four for men, six for women) from the corporate environment were also present in the entrepreneurial environment. All but one of the relationships common to both environments were with male developers. The developmental relationships that stemmed from previous work environments, however, were not always a direct transfer of a former mentor-protege relationship. Looking at the structural dimension of the relationships, only two of these ten transferred relationships were based on a prior mentor-protege relationship. Underscoring the dynamic and changing nature of social networks, three of the transferred relationships stemmed from former work or industry colleagues and five stemmed from previous working relationships with clients.One of the two direct transfer mentor-protege relationships was that of Bob and his former mentor, Duncan, who was also his direct supervisor at the private equity firm where Bob had worked. Based on their long-standing business relationship, Duncan lent Bob some start-up capital, helped him develop the venture's strategic plan, and assisted in the building of a client base for the new firm. Similarly, Dorrie retained a mentoring relationship with her boss from her former employment in a bank. Dorrie's mentor had encouraged her to be proactive in her corporate job as well as in her entrepreneurial venture, telling Dorrie in both environments to "take your power and use it."In addition to the direct transfer of mentor-protege relationships from one work environment to another, two individuals, Todd and Mike, told of how relationships with colleagues from their previous corporate work environments evolved into mentor-protege relationships. For example, Mike spoke of how his relationship with a co-worker Trevor transformed into a mentor-protege relationship when he started his own firm. Mike discussed how Trevor provided him with expertise, a sounding board for ideas, and "a tremendous amount of support and encouragement."Five of the ten transferred relationships involved clients of the study participants' former employers. Interestingly, all of the client relationships that transformed into mentoring relationships in the new venture environment were with the female entrepreneurs. Of the five former clients turned mentors, four were men. For instance, Lisa's new venture mentor was a former client, whom she described as being "one of the top three men in the industry." Lisa's mentor helped her with the financing and strategic development of her new venture.Looking at the relational dimension of the mentoring relationships, shared styles and backgrounds as well as trust between the parties were the most important factors that allowed the relationship to span both the corporate and entrepreneurial contexts. For example, Tina discussed the commonalities she shared with her mentor, saying I call on her more often than anyone else because we have similar style ... " Todd discussed how his mentoring relationship developed over time and shared life experiences:He was at [a major manufacturer]; I was at [a major manufacturer and main competitor]. He left a little sooner than I did ... He ended up getting into a small business where he became part-owner and made a couple of acquisitions. He went into an entrepreneurial route which I always said to myself that works better than working in a big corporation... But he's been one guy that I've mentored a lot with. We share a lot. We have done this ever since we were in our late twenties. He was doing his MBA at the same time I was doing an MBA. We did our CPAs together. He has ended up a very successful small business guy that runs four individual businesses today. The things that we talk about are very similar.Both Bob and Tara discussed the feelings of trust they shared with their mentors. Bob said of his mentor He wouldn't have invested if he didn't believe in me" and Tara remarked I trust his opinion because he knows me and he knows the market."Examining the cognitive dimension in these relationships, the respondents discussed how they shared similar values and ideas with their mentors. For example, Pete said We have similar thoughts about where things are headed, where the opportunities are ... "; Lisa commented He understood my vision..."; and Dorrie remarked He is a very ambitious person. I am also a very ambitious person." The entrepreneurs spoke about being able to really communicate with their mentors, about their mentor's ability to understand them and their plans for the new venture, and seeing "eye to eye" with their mentor on important issues.In sum, using a social capital framework, we examined mentoring relationships which transferred from corporate to new venture environments. Some of the entrepreneurs discussed how mentor-proteges relationships directly transferred across the bounds of the organization to the entrepreneurial work context. Others talked of how relationships with co-workers and clients transformed into mentoring relationships as they made the transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur. It appears that relationships with strong structural, relational, and cognitive components were most likely to transfer from one context to the next. Entrepreneurs and mentoring: Research question three focused on the mentoring relationships engaged in by the entrepreneurs. Sixty-three percent of the respondents indicated that they had a mentor assisting them in the entrepreneurial endeavor (see Tables IV and V). Among the men, there were a total of 17 mentoring relationships, with the majority of them (76 per cent) being unique (i.e. not transferred from their corporate employment) to the entrepreneurial endeavor. Among the women there were a total of seventeen mentoring relationships, with the majority of them (65 per cent) being unique to the entrepreneurial endeavor. The entrepreneurs reported seeking mentors based on connections through educational settings (e.g. former professors), new business contacts (e.g. fellow entrepreneurs), and social networks (e.g. family and friends).Three entrepreneurs reported reconnecting with university professors and having these relationships transform from teacher-student to mentor-proteges. For example, Mike sought out a professor whom he considered to be one of the top experts in the field of financial security. Similarly, Harris reported reconnecting with a professor who had worked with other entrepreneurs, had a track record of helping others start new firms, and subsequently provided him with strong business connections. Pete also discussed telephoning one of his former professors, seeking advice on business issues as well as on personal matters. These three cases illustrate how a professor-student relationship evolved into a mentor-protege relationship as the novice entrepreneurs sought out those with expert advice.In addition to seeking out the expertise of former professors, the entrepreneurs also sought out the expertise of other entrepreneurs. Paul and Harris both described how long-term friendships evolved into mentoring relationships. For example Paul appreciated his good friend Tim's business heritage and experience saying:My close friend was a key support. He was my best man when I was married ... I met him at [university], his grandfather founded [a major clothing retailer]. He knew how to run the business.Similarly, Harris reported how a long-time friendship with James, an entrepreneur with several businesses, transformed into a mentoring relationship. He saw James as a role model and described learning by observing James' business activities:We've been friends since we were infants, really. His father was really big into accounting, property, and restaurants. My friend was always helping him out and then his Dad taught him the ropes and now he is doing his own entrepreneurial thing in the computer business. He rings up every few days ... I see his ups and downs.Jerry discussed two very different mentoring relationships, one with his entrepreneur wife and one with another entrepreneur. Jerry saw his wife Jeanie as a role model; he learned by observing how she successfully manages her own venture. Jerry's other mentor, Kurt, a charismatic entrepreneur, offered Jerry support and encouragement. Jerry described his relationship with Kurt, saying:He is also an entrepreneur and you can spend five minutes with him and feel like everything is right in this world, as corny as that sounds. He is the eternal optimist and ... I make it a point to spend some time with him because he just has a tendency to put things in perspective where you just get fired up and you are so glad that you are where you are. He is the attitude mentor, if you will.Although some of the entrepreneurs we studied had mentoring relationships, three of the men and six of the women had no mentors for their new venture. Isobel and Rich readily acknowledged that the lack of developmental assistance could be damaging their business prospects. They highlighted the need to find and develop such mentoring relationships. Isobel, not knowing how to connect with a mentor for her venture, had contacted an entrepreneurship professor about how to find such a mentor. Likewise, Rich knew he wanted a mentor who had entrepreneurial experience and business connections, but had no idea how to connect with such an individual. Study limitations: Despite the use of systematic Nvivo coding, a second coder, and transcription of all 24 interviews, this study suffers from limitations common to qualitative research studies. First, the number of individuals included in this study, while consistent with similar qualitative studies of mentoring and careers (e.g. Gersick and Kram, 2002; Ensher et al., 2002a, b), is relatively small. We also interviewed only one partner in the mentoring dyad, the entrepreneur. Future research should use larger sample sizes which collect data from both the entrepreneur and his/her mentor in order to empirically test this study's findings (e.g. see Hoang and Antoncic, 2003).Second, like most of the research in careers and the behavioral sciences, this study used a cross-sectional design, and provides only a retrospective look at the interviewees' mentoring relationships and career transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur. In order to more fully capture how these relationships develop and change over time, future research should use longitudinal designs.Third, these findings are based on a study within the financial services industry and may not be generalizable to other contexts (Larson, 1992). Additional research needs to examine whether mentoring relationships transfer from one workplace to another within the context of other industries, both those industries experiencing rapid change and those operating in more stable environments. Implications for practice: This study suggests a number of implications for entrepreneurs as well as for governments wishing to encourage new venture development. First, the findings clearly illustrate the value that entrepreneurs place on having mentors to assist them with their new venture. Those entrepreneurs in our study without a mentor recognized how their lack of mentoring was probably having a negative impact on their venture's viability. Those entrepreneurs with mentors, whether these relationships were direct transfers from a corporate mentor-protege relationship or were relationships with former clients or co-workers which transformed into mentoring relationships, readily described the value of the mentoring they received.When departing an organization to start a new venture, entrepreneurs should be careful to leave the firm on good terms and to remain in contact with former associates who may be helpful to their new venture. Would-be entrepreneurs should not underestimate how various types of relationships not only from previous workplaces, but also from educational institutions and social settings, can be leveraged to provide financial capital, information, motivation, emotional support, and business connections that can enhance a new venture. Based on our findings, entrepreneurs were most successful in leveraging relationships in which they were embedded structurally, relationally and cognitively. Entrepreneurs should realize that relationships that lack this embeddedness may not be easily transitioned to the new venture.Second, because many of the individuals in our sample had difficulty establishing mentoring relationships unique to the new venture, novice entrepreneurs should consider attending networking events and joining relevant business associations to increase their chances of finding more experienced entrepreneurs who can serve as mentors. While organizations may have structures, cultures and programs that encouraging mentoring relationships and underscore the benefits to a mentor (e.g. Ragins and Scandura, 1999; Scandura et al., 1996; van Emmerik et al., 2005), the entrepreneurial context typically lacks these environmental factors that encourage mentoring relationships to develop. In our sample, six of the nine entrepreneurs who did not have a mentor for their new venture had at least one mentor in their previous organizational employment. Thus, even those individuals who were able to develop successful mentoring relationships within the boundaries of an organization may find that different strategies are needed to find a mentor for their new venture. Entrepreneurs unable to find a mentor may benefit from the assistance of a professional coach to help them develop their networking skills. Likewise, because recent research has found that perceived potential is a major factor considered when mentors select a protege, it is important that entrepreneurs demonstrate their abilities and willingness to learn in order to increase the likelihood of connecting with a mentor (Allen et al., 2000). Given the reciprocal nature of mentoring relationships, entrepreneurs must be proactive and seek out venues in which to demonstrate to potential mentors what they will bring to a mentoring relationship in order to attract mentors.Third, governments sponsoring initiatives to encourage new venture development should consider the importance of mentoring to entrepreneurs, and incorporate mentoring programs as part of these programs. Much as some organizations reward employees for serving as mentors to others, governments may need to offer incentives to experienced entrepreneurs to increase their participation in such programs. Additionally, the use of technology (e.g. e-mail, Skype) to permit individuals in different geographic locations to engage in mentoring relationships should be considered as a possible means of increasing the pool of potential mentors. Given the increasing number of individuals leaving organizations to become entrepreneurs coupled with the typically large failure rate of first-time business owners, which has been estimated at 50 per cent in four years (Shane, 2008), the use of well-designed programs which help match novice entrepreneurs to the most suitable mentor(s) and provide both mentors and proteges with guidelines of how to be a good mentor/protege may help to increase the success rate of new business ventures. Implications for future research: The findings of our exploratory, qualitative study of the mentoring relationships of individuals as they made the transition from corporate positions to become entrepreneurs suggest three major avenues for future research. First, although this study was the first to examine whether mentor relationships from previous corporate employment transfer to the protege's new entrepreneurial venture and whether other types of relationships (e.g. co-workers, clients) are transformed into mentor-protege relationships after the transition to entrepreneurship, much more research is needed. Because we found evidence with our sample of entrepreneurs of both the direct transfer of mentor-protege relationships as well as the transformation of other connections into mentoring relationships, future studies of how individuals potentially leverage relationships during other types of career transitions should be considered. For instance, with increasing attention focused on women and older employees opting out and then back into the workforce, it would be worthwhile to study the roles that mentors may play in helping them re-enter the workplace. Likewise, the role mentors play in other transitions, such as geographic transitions within or outside national borders, transitions to a new occupation or industry, transitions from "regular" to "temporary" employment and back again, or from unemployment due to layoff or extended illnesses back into the workplace are also important areas for future study. Factors which may enhance or serve as barriers to the transferability of mentor-protege relationships and the transformation of other relationships into mentoring relationships during different types of career transitions should also be investigated.Second, although the findings offer support for the premise that individuals engage in multiple mentor relationships, longitudinal research is required to examine how developmental relationships unfold over time. The number of developmental partners as well as the quality and quantity of interactions should be examined, given that it has been suggested that mentoring relationships span a continuum of developmental intensity (de Janasz and Sullivan, 2004; Higgins and Kram, 2001). Additional research should explore the effectiveness of different types of developmental relationships, or the combination of relationships that form the developmental network, on the entrepreneur's business success. For instance, are mentor-protege relationships which are transferred from previous work contexts more or less effective in assisting the new entrepreneur than mentoring relationships with former clients and co-workers? Moreover, further study should be completed to see how multiple mentoring relationships change as the new venture matures, examining such issues as whether some relationships fade in importance as new relationships develop.Third, while this study focused on mentoring relationships at the individual level, future research should examine how the turnover of organizational employees and the maintenance of their mentoring and other relationships with former organizational colleagues and clients affect the social network of the organizations they have departed (see Kilduff et al., 2006 for further discussion). For example, if highly visible employees leave the organization to begin their own entrepreneurial ventures, will their actions encourage others to consider leaving the organization to pursue different career options? Conclusion: The purpose of this study was to address the lack of research on the mentoring of entrepreneurs by exploring the role that mentors play as individuals make the transition from employment within an organization to becoming an entrepreneur. While the majority of the individuals studied had developers both at their previous employer and in their new venture, it was more problematic for them to find mentors in the entrepreneurial environment. Our findings support previous literature which suggested that when individuals leave the boundaries of an organization, it may be more difficult for them to develop and maintain mentoring relationships (Sullivan, 1999). It may be that organizations encourage developmental relationships through formal mentoring programs and a culture that encourages and rewards developmental relationships. Thus, when individuals leave an organization, they lose the structure and programs provided by the company and must be more proactive in developing mentoring relationships.In addition, this study also shed some light on gender differences in the utilization of developmental relationships (Hall, 1996; Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005; Moore, 2000). Women in the sample were more likely than the men to report:* a mentor relationship in the corporate environment; and* a relationship from their previous employment transforming into a mentor-protege relationship when they became entrepreneurs.Women, however, were less likely than men to have a mentor unique to the entrepreneurial venture and were also less likely than men to have a mentor assisting them with their entrepreneurial enterprise. Further study of potential gender differences in this type of career transition is needed.In conclusion, this study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship by examining an under-researched topic and offering some practical implications to those interested in starting their own businesses. Our research may also offers insights into the mentoring process of the growing number of individuals making other types of career transitions, such as those crossing the boundaries between industries, occupations, companies, and job functions (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996; Baruch, 2004; Hall, 2002, 2004; Osterman, 1996; Sullivan and Arthur, 2006). It is hoped that this modest exploratory study encourages further research on how individuals make the transition from corporate employee to entrepreneur as well as encouraging more research on the multiple mentoring process as individuals make other types of career transitions.
Psychological empowerment of employees for competitive advantages: An empirical study of Nepalese service sector	[ "Nepal", "Resource based view", "Psychological empowerment", "Competitive advantages" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Background: Over the past two decades, "empowerment" has attracted the interest of many organizational theorists and management practitioners (Argyris, 1998; Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990; Wall et al., 2004; Spreitzer, 1995; Menon, 2001; Choong, 2011; Baird and Wang, 2010) through which tremendous potential of competitive advantages can be accomplished. Empowerment is an effective way of developing human resources (HRs) to increase the competitive advantage of an organization. It is a process of enhancing feelings of self-efficacy among organizational members (Lee and Koh, 2001) to take an independent autonomous decision on how to deal with a particular situation. Psychological empowerment is creating a stage in which motivational construct manifested in cognitions reflecting an employee's orientation to his or her work roles (Berman, 1995; Byham, 1992; Laschinger and Finegan, 2005). It measures the extent to which employees perceive that they are allowed to use their own initiative and judgment in performing their jobs (Thomas and Velthouse, 1990). It is a powerful management tool, which is used to exchange the shared vision that the organization expects to materialize into common goals. Psychological empowerment is a state of mind (Li et al., 2011; Long, 1996; Nick et al., 1995). An employee with an empowered state of mind experiences feelings of: Literature review: Psychological empowerment Nepalese context: Although economic liberalization process begins in Nepal from the mid-1980s, the economy was regulated till the end of this decade. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, it has been recognized that the social, economic and political empowerment of female employees and backward ethnical groups along with others are essential for sustainable development in all areas of life. Even though some policies and programs have been formulated to address empowerment and development issues and problems in various ways at national as well as local levels, because of the absence of effective mechanisms and political commitment to implementing them, their concerns and needs tend to be marginalized and lost during the course of implementation. Government efforts to encourage private investors for the investment and for the maximum utilization of managerial and technical skills, modern technology and foreign capital were not responded positively within these 20 years because of politically instability (Gautam, 2015). In Nepalese corporations, utilization of human capital is least prioritized (Agrawal, 1999), training is not regarded as an investment in human resources (Adhikari and Gautam, 2011), strategic management of human capital is at an infant stage (Cranet, 2005; Adhikari and Gautam, 2007) and the process of indoctrination is very poor (Baniya, 2004). Research questions: This study will examine the employee empowerment practices of Nepalese service sector and show the relationship between psychological empowerment and competitive advantage. The main hypothesis for this study is that "firms that empower their employees have significant positive relationship on competitive advantages of the organizations". Followings are the research questions emerged based on literature related to empowerment and national-specific factors: Research design: This study is based on descriptive cum exploratory research design following structural questionnaire-based quantitative and co-relational interpretation. Competitive advantage is considered as the dependent variable, and factors for psychological empowerment are considered as the independent variables. Demographic factors (age, gender) are considered as the control variable. These variables and questions are based on the study of Menon's (2001) three-component and Wright et al.'s (1994) four-component models. Five-point Likert scale questionnaire (5 = strongly agree to 1 = strongly disagree) has been used for each of the statements. The three components of psychological empowerment (PCO, PCM and GI) is represented by nine items. The four components of competitive advantage are based on resource based on Barney (1991) view (value added, inimitable, rare and non-substitutable) represented by 12 items. Analysis: The descriptive statistics indicate that most of the respondents agree that employee empowerment program plays a key role in increasing the competitive advantage of the organizations. New product/service development, quality management in human resource, encouragement by supervisor/manager for new ideas are other areas where respondents have shown high agreement for increasing the competitive advantage of the organizations. For the analysis, factors are extracted on principal component factor analysis method. Discussions: Resource-based view of a firm is resource heterogeneity, which helps to achieve sustained competitive advantage by making the resources valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (Youndt and Wright, 1996; Barney, 1991; Boxall, 1998). Within the SHRM paradigm, there is significant support of the resource-based view as a tool for competitive advantage through analysis of human capital (Barney and Wright, 1998; Becker and Gerhart, 1996; Boxall, 1996, 1998; coff, 1997; De Saa Perez et al., 2002; Jackson and Schuler, 1995; Khatri, 2000; Lado and Wilson, 1994; Mueller, 1996; Schuler et al., 1993; Swiercz and Spencer, 1992; Wright and McMahan, 1992). Conclusion: From the analysis, it is seen that structural empowerment as well as psychological empowerment has the impact on the competitive advantage of the organization in Nepal as in other countries. But the factors that are extracted are quite different from that of Western organizations. The interest of managing human resource is based around the notion that people at work are the key source of sustained competitive advantages. We all believe that in this century, organizations are not competing on the basis of the product they produce rather the quality of the people they employ. This belief is based on the expectation that people can make the difference because of their capabilities and commitment which are rare, non-substitutable, valuable and inimitable (Barney, 1991).
Technical subjects in secondary schools	[ "Education", "Technical training", "Secondary schools" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: It is an interesting and important fact that technical subjects now have a recognised place in all kinds of secondary schools. Before the 1944 Education Act only a very limited number of schools, the Junior Technical Schools, as they were then named, included technical subjects as an integral part of the curriculum. These schools were unashamedly "trade schools" and, despite the narrowness of the education they provided, their undoubted success has pointed the way to a new approach to the problem of secondary education. Harnessing vocational motive: When we come to consider the matter in its wider context for the whole of state secondary education, we must first decide what is the fundamental point on which all this success is based. It is, I believe, the harnessing of "vocational motive" in secondary education.It is refreshing that we can consider vocational motive as an activating force in secondary education. In the past, any idea of vocational education at secondary school level was regarded with considerable suspicion as being something not quite "respectable"! This idea was based on the theory of "pure" education which has descended from the public schools and has pervaded the whole field of secondary education. Any school curriculum which contained vocational subjects was considered utilitarian and discreetly confined to the recognised trade schools.As a result of this, the academic education so well known in our grammar schools came to the fore and a social cachet became attached to it. I have no wish to denigrate academic studies, let us recognise that they had a vocational value up to the end of the nineteenth century (and to a certain extent in the twentieth century as well). Equally, we should be prepared to admit that technical studies can provide an education as liberal as the more conventional academic courses.This, in turn, implies that when courses of technical studies are planned in secondary schools the greatest of care must be taken to ensure that they grow naturally from academic studies and that study of the humanities is regarded as an integral part of any technical course. We must not take the retrograde step of setting up "trade schools" or "trade courses". Some examples of suitable courses are given later in this article.It is useful, at this stage, to repeat the fundamental point made above. The great value of technical subjects in secondary schools is to give reality to the education and to harness vocational motive.Boys and girls, and their parents, are now much more career conscious than they were in the past. More and more they look to the future rather than to the immediate present and this is a refreshing change. The great advances which have been made in technology and in methods of production and the fact that we all now live in a scientific age, require more skilled (and therefore longer trained) workers at all levels and in all branches of industry and commerce. This must be reflected in the planning of courses in the schools and, for this reason, all the courses which are detailed in this article are planned on a five-year basis from the age of 11+. This particular point impinges on the relations between the school and the future employers of the boys studying such courses. Employers will gain by taking a boy who has completed the course for he will be more mature and better trained. Furthermore he is likely to take a more responsible attitude to his job. I feel that we, as educationists, must continually press to both sides of industry, the trade unions and the employers' organisations, so that they are more flexible in their arrangements for granting apprenticeships. It is folly for them to be so hidebound that they have to refuse the good boy of 16-and-a-half or 17 because of somewhat archaic regulations which are not in line with modern thought. Personal experience has convinced me of the value of this and I will not compromise to produce "half-baked" and incomplete (so-called) technical courses which end at the compulsory school leaving age. Three suggested courses: I propose to discuss and detail courses at three levels for the appropriate secondary schools, though it should be clearly understood that all planning should be flexible and there should not be hard and fast lines drawn between them. Any industrious boy or girl who has the necessary ability should always be given the opportunity of widening his or her horizon and of gaining the satisfaction of more advanced studies.These three levels of courses are:1. for the potential craftsman;2. for the potential technician; and3. for the potential technologist.Certain points common to all these courses require stating: to begin with, each course must be planned as a whole and the specialist technical subjects must grow naturally from the general education of the first three years (11-14). The general pattern of the first two years follows the plan given above for the secondary technical schools. The third year in the school is extremely important. During this year pupils are introduced to the idea of careers and the necessary educational qualifications required to attain them. Furthermore, diagnostic testing must be undertaken during this year to ensure that, as far as possible, pupils are placed in the right course for their further studies. It is also in the third year that the pupil receives his first taste of the technical subjects he will study later.All courses must be planned to work outwards from English and mathematics, it being clearly understood that the object is to provide the fundamental general education together with a degree of proficiency in the vocational subjects. The workshops and drawing offices should provide the motive of interest for the wider educational course.For the potential craftsman
Public health's response: citizens' thoughts on volunteering	[ "Voluntary actions", "Public health", "Disasters", "Emergency services", "Motivation (psychology)" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: A number of events have taken place since 9/11 that have encouraged citizen volunteerism and as citizens prepare for future emergencies it has become clear that an important piece of planning for a crisis or response to an all hazards event is to recruit, prepare and train volunteers (Robinson, 2002). More than 30,000 volunteers arrived spontaneously to offer assistance following the attacks on September 11, 2001 (Clizbe, 2004). Since 2001 different parts of the country have experienced major natural disasters, most notably hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It is a well known fact that volunteers are a much needed resource and these hazards have illustrated public health's reliance on volunteers as well as the gracious out pouring of interest, money, and assistance of Americans. The tradition of volunteerism in the USA and the magnitude of these events presented public health agencies with the issue of managing volunteers (Gazley and Brudney, 2005). Public health agencies typically employ one of three broad approaches related to the use of volunteers. First, agencies may simply turn volunteers away. Second, agencies may wait until a disaster occurs and then use the volunteers that self recruit. Third, public health and other responders may incorporate volunteers in their planning, training, mobilization, deployment, and redeployment for all hazards events.The Tulsa City-County Health Department (TCCHD) was a pilot site in the first year of the Public Health Ready Project sponsored by the National Association of City and County Health Officers (NACCHO). The goals of Public Health Ready were to learn lessons on how to help public health agencies better respond to all hazards events. As part of Tulsa's planning for disasters the third option was chosen - training volunteers to work with the agency by integrating volunteer training into their emergency response plans. As part of this effort the Southwest Center for Public Health Preparedness (SWCPHP) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) assisted the TCCHD by conducting focus groups with volunteers in order to gain a better understanding of what motivates volunteers, the types of assistance volunteers believe they can provide and the training volunteers believe they would need in order to be of assistance. The purpose of this article is to delineate the results of the focus groups and compare the results to pertinent literature regarding volunteerism. Methodology: Participant consent forms and the study's methodology were reviewed by the OUHSC Institutional Review Board (IRB) and received IRB approval. A total of four focus groups were conducted by SWCPHP faculty and staff in April and July of 2004. The focus groups were recorded and notes of the group proceedings were taken. The recordings and notes were reviewed by faculty and staff and consensus was reached regarding the themes emerging from the groups. Over the course of the four focus groups saturation was reached and no new ideas emerged, therefore, no additional focus groups were conducted. The following question path was used to elicit responses from volunteers:1. What kinds of thoughts and feelings have you had about bioterrorism?2. Why would someone want to volunteer to help the Health Department during a BT attack?3. What types of things could volunteers do to assist the Health Department during a BT attack?4. What kinds of training would volunteers want?5. What kinds of things would volunteers want to know about public health?6. How would volunteers like to receive their training?7. To make volunteering for a BT attack worthwhile for people what kinds of things would need to occur? Results: Four focus groups were conducted with at total of 25 volunteers participating. Participants' ages ranged from early 20's to 65 years of age with the average age of participants being between 30 and 40 years. Equal numbers of men and women participated in the focus groups. Three major themes (concepts) emerged from the groups' discussion. The first concept addresses factors that motivate individuals to become public health emergency response volunteers. The second major concept involved training and the third centered on the organization and deployment of public health volunteers. Each of the central concepts was composed of constructs, which are discussed below. Motivation for becoming a public health volunteer: Motivation is a critical factor in volunteer work. Given that volunteers are not paid and have highly valued opportunities competing for their time, attention and money, it is important for public health agencies to understand what motivates volunteers to give their time to responding to hazardous events, and participate in training. This information is vital not only in the recruitment but also the retention of volunteers for the reason that if the expectations generated from volunteers' motivation are not met over time, it will be difficult to sustain interest in training. If training is neglected, skills and knowledge deteriorate, performance declines and when a response is necessary volunteers will be unprepared, impacting the public health agencies performance. For these reasons motivation is a prime factor in volunteerism.Four constructs related to motivation emerged from the focus groups. The first motivation construct to emerge was entitled "the volunteer ethic". Many of the group's members indicated they had volunteer experience in other areas of their communities. Part of this theme is the general desire to help others. One member said "I just am interested in helping people" and another said "I volunteer for everything". One woman indicated "This country runs on volunteers, if you look at the statistics". And another group member reported it is the "self satisfaction" for volunteering that motivates her.The second motivation construct to emerge was called "family and neighbors." This construct stressed the specific desire to be in a position to take care of family and neighbors. Here, the emphasis is clearly on helping the people nearest to them; family first neighbors next. As one participant said "what can you do to help your neighborhood in case an emergency arises?" Another said "As long as my first needs are met and my family is taken care of then I can meet everybody else's needs." Similar comments such as "One of the main selling points for me was that I knew my family would be taken care of, and then I could do whatever it is that I could do to help the next family"/ As these quotes suggest there is a strong belief that volunteering will put volunteers in a better position to help their families and neighbors.Better preparedness at the individual, family and neighborhood levels is related to the third motivation construct to emerge, which was named "productively active". This is the motivation of knowing what to do in an emergency. Participants repeatedly expressed that people do not want to be passive and feel helpless. To summarize one group member: after September 11 there was "general frustration", lots of mixed and conflicting messages; "people did not know what to do". Another member said "educating people what good can be done... "and another said "I have 20 years of volunteer service protecting the country, I can continue on".The fourth motivation construct to emerge was called "accurate information". Groups expressed repeatedly, in a crisis they want some place to turn where they will be given accurate information. Members reported the media's purpose was entertainment not reporting information. One commented:When September 11 occurred I think what really bothered me most was the information that we were fed was so inaccurate. One was telling you; "put plastic on your windows and duct tape... another station was saying... 'Plastic and duct- come on!'...I felt really helpless."Another commented: "The media? I have to turn it off, because it is Hollywood", to which another member responded "its ratings". One woman said she wanted to work with the health department to learn what is really going on: "I want to know what the real risks are." These four constructs on motivation provide insight about why at least some people would volunteer to assist the health department during a hazardous event. Training for public health volunteers: The second concept to emerge from the focus groups regarding volunteering was training. Focus group participants suggested a variety of education and training formats should be provided. Participants offered a number of ideas and emphasized the strengths and weaknesses of a number of educational platforms. The educational formats discussed ranged from a library of reading materials, traditional type classes presented by the health department, the use of films and videos, computer simulations and games, hands-on practice and scenario based education and training, and online, distance education (DE) types of education. Participant comments included:You can have a web site that people could go to and receive training.Actual mock drills would be the most important.Ongoing classes... small training groups of say 20 at the health department.And:It (training) should be a requirement... training exercises would be mandatory... I agree some training is going to have to be mandatory.While responses to education format varied, group members did reach agreement on three constructs related to training. Members believed education and training should be ongoing, interactive, and social in nature. Participants emphasized that education and training need to be on going because much of the information would be new and would require review and "refreshing". The importance of review was mentioned several times: "You can go to meetings and hear things, and you may not remember everything." And, "I would like my own tape, so I could watch it whenever I want to. My memory sucks, so I have to watch it often." Also, "I think a video would be really helpful. If the volunteer had their own copy of a video that goes through a scenario... every couple of months and review." Group members varied on their ideas about how frequent training should be. Comments ranged from "you are going to have a fine balancing act between getting enough training so that they are prepared and not going overboard so that they were burned out" ... "I was thinking once a month" ... "I was thinking every couple of months" ... "Every week is too much." Most notable participants believed some level of training should be mandatory for volunteers.Most people preferred education and training in which the participants will be active. Some group participants used CPR as an example, where students first learn from a book and then apply what they learn with hands-on-practice supervised by the instructor. One member put it this way:If I have to go through a book and study and all that, then it wouldn't be of interest to me, because that would take too much of my time. It's like a hands-on thing that I'd like to have more practice with and know what to do.People in the groups also thought education and training should contain a social component. They suggested members bring food and "get face time with everybody that is on your team, besides just talking on the phone, so you feel more like a team. I can identify you, but who are you? That would make a volunteer not want to show up." Some suggest volunteer meetings resemble "block community meetings"... "block party" or "neighborhood watch." The participants were in agreement that for volunteers the social aspect of involvement was a significant facet.As a third concept, participants expressed ideas on the types of education and training volunteers needed. As a consensus, participants thought the health department was in the best position to know what information and training volunteers need; "I am not sure what would be needed," said one participant however, others said learning how to communicate in an emergency, citing the communication problems encountered during 9/11, was important. Several participants thought volunteers could be trained to train other volunteers as one volunteer explained; "One of the things I'm looking for from this program is being taught how to go into our churches and talk to people about volunteering." The majority of participants thought first aid and CPR were important skills to have:In the first day, you are not going to be able to have anyone come out. There is no one. The fire department, the first responders, the police - they are not going to be available, because their job that first three days is to assess the situation. And you are not going to get anyone coming to your neighborhood or to your house. So you are going to have to check on everybody.Group participants suggested there should be different levels of education, training and volunteer status such as basic, intermediate and advanced. One young woman said she would get a sense of accomplishment by advancing through the different levels of training. Participants also expressed that volunteers should be able to pick or have input into the type of work they would do. One woman said "I have no interest in doing anything medical". A man said "I was a cook in the navy for eight years I know how to cook in mass quantities". Others indicated they could sign and interpret, were bilingual, and others said they could serve as greeters, do paperwork, provide transportation, direct traffic, provide security and crowd control. Discussion: Several ideas emerge from the focus groups, which are consistent with the literature regarding volunteerism and public health officials and agencies should consider. Recognizing that volunteers are different from paid staff is of utmost importance to understand why volunteers volunteer or what motivates volunteerism. The literature indicates that people volunteer for a variety of reasons (Gazley and Brundney, 2005) which are echoed in the results of the focus groups. Clarke and Wilson (1961) identify three types of volunteer motivation or perceived benefits:1. material benefits, gaining information;2. solidary benefits, group membership, social status, personal recognition; and3. purposive benefits, meeting organization objectives (i.e. making the community safer).All three types of motivation or benefits are reflected in the group members' comments. Clizbe (2004) identifies material and purposive benefits of volunteering when he notes some of those who volunteer have a need to serve their communities and support their families and neighbors. Results of the focus groups indicated primary motivation for volunteering to work in disasters is locally driven with a desire to help others; purposive benefits. One of the finding of The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned (2006) was the need to better integrate the contribution of volunteers in local responses so they can better respond to community needs. Participants also stated the ability to assist family and friends, was a major concern. While national patriotism was a factor, it seems it is the local concerns that motivate this group of volunteers.A related motivation from the focus groups was to be productively active by knowing what to do and what action steps to take in a disaster at the individual, family and neighborhood levels. Volunteers and volunteers' organizations need to be incorporated into local drills and exercises in order for volunteers gain hands-on experience responding to disasters (Gebbie and Qureshi, 2002). Since volunteers are a part of the first responder community, volunteers deserve the same type of management as other professional responders (Clizbe, 2004) and with the increased visibility of volunteers with the launching of the USA Freedom Corps in President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address (Robinson, 2002; Gazley and Brudney, 2005) it is important for volunteers to be doing the right job at the right time in the right way. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need for properly trained volunteers who are integrated in the local response system (The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006)).Related to this construct was the emerging concept from the focus groups that education and training were necessary for volunteers to be effective. Gebbie and Queshi (2002) have suggested that "the first step toward emergency preparedness is the identification of who needs to know how to do what". Multiple formats for providing educating and training to volunteers clearly emerged and included standard pedagogical techniques, DE, multi-media formats, hands on training and include a social aspect. Participants in the focus groups appeared to have few preconceived ideas about the content of the training. With the exceptions of CPR and First Aid, participants indicated professionals would be better able to identify training needs for volunteers but were in agreement that different levels of training should be provided; reviews and refresher courses made available, and volunteers should be able to choose the type of training they receive. Echoing the results of the focus groups, Clizbe (2004) has suggested effective training for volunteers involves a number of components to include consistent standards, graduated level of content, competent instructors, wide availability and access in a variety of formats, hands on practice and application, peer support, measurements and tests, and constant refinement. The Department of Homeland Security (The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006.), in its review of Hurricane Katrina, identified the need to:[...] identify pre-determined roles, responsibilities of volunteer organizations, which identify their missions, capabilities, training and certification (The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, p. 115).An interesting finding was the participants' wish for education and training to have a strong social component. Chinnman and Wandersman (1999) identify socialization as one of the strongest motivators of volunteers and indicate that continued participation in volunteer activities is frequently based on the personal benefits of participation (i.e. social status and personal recognition). If over looked by public health and other agencies an erosion of the volunteer base can be anticipated, particularly when most volunteers will never actually respond to a catastrophic event. When seen in light of the desire to be able to care for family and friends the emphasis on neighborhoods and communities begins to take shape.An additional construct related to motivation identified by the focus groups was the ability to get "accurate" information. This motivator is material in nature because it represents the acquisition of knowledge and information (Clarke and Wilson, 1961). The last two motivation constructs characterized as knowing what to do and access to accurate information may arise out of the primary motivation to protect family and close friends. If this is an accurate assessment of focus group comments and these motivations are reflective of other volunteers' motivation, it also suggests an emphasis at the neighborhood level and on community response. The importance of volunteers being able to care for their families or knowing their families are safe is an important factor as is the need for volunteers to feel they have a "special" connection to the professional responding community, the decision makers, and resources. Conclusion: In this article we had two purposes. One was to delineate the results of the focus groups regarding volunteers and their needs, and the second was to compare the results to pertinent literature regarding volunteerism to determine if the motivating factors and needs of volunteers still need to be addressed by public health and other professional practitioners. The analysis of the focus groups held by the SWCPHP does reflect the findings in the prevailing volunteer literature. Agreement was reached by actual volunteers that multiple forms of formal, graduated training that offers hands on application and is reviewed/refreshed frequently is needed for volunteers to be effective in a response/relief effort and also to protect their families, friends and neighbors, revealing a strong sense of community that is the threshold of public health. Volunteers are valuable resources in preparing for and responding to disasters and the management of volunteers is an endeavor that needs immediate attention.Many volunteers offering assistance easily become frustrated by their lack of skills and training which in turn has a negative effect on the recruitment and retention of our volunteer capacity. It is important for public health officials address all of the motivations and benefits of volunteering in order to increase participation and maintain participation (Chinnman and Wandersman, 1999; Butterfoss et al., 1996). Our volunteers have proven their commitment in natural disasters and acts of terror as well as health-related crisis. It is time for public health agencies and other response professionals to take their needs seriously and ensure this valuable resource remains in tact and effective (The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006). With millions of dollars being spent on training activities for all hazards events, specific monies, time and attention should be directed to effectively mange volunteer forces through continued education and training. This information also provides practitioners in public health an excellent opportunity to educate the public about public health's history, diverse workforce, role in local and national health protection, and responsibilities related to biosecurity, and disaster response.
Framing stakeholder considerations and business sustainability efforts: a construct, its dimensions and items	[ "Business", "Sustainability", "Stakeholder" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The extent to which companies influence society, the global economy and the natural environment cannot be denied. This is manifested by increasing inequities in society, economic recessions and the rapidly changing natural environment. Although profitability continues to be the objective of companies, conditions have changed so dramatically that this is no longer the only focus (Evans and Sawyer, 2010). Society expects companies to be more sustainable and answerable than ever before with respect to their influence on the environment (White, 2009). Framing business sustainability: This section provides insights into different views and approaches to business sustainability and sustainable business practices in business networks, the marketplace and society. It also refers to contemporary literature and managerial frameworks that focus on sustainability. Framing stakeholders: This section provides insights into stakeholder theory, stakeholder categorisation, the benefits stakeholders derive from relationships with an organisation and the role of stakeholders in sustainability efforts in business networks, the marketplace and in society. Methodology: This section describes the steps taken in conducting the research that served as foundation for the current study. It furthermore reports on the qualitative and quantitative processes followed to generate the results reported in this article. Empirical findings: The corporate sample characteristics of the sample are summarised in Table I. It is evident from Table I that the nature of business of the Norwegian companies transcends across industries and sectors of the economy. The companies in the sample also range from medium-sized to large, or very large based upon annual turnover and number of employees. In summary, it can be said that the sample represents a broad spectrum of Norwegian businesses. Research implications: Developing and testing a stakeholder construct in the context of business sustainability efforts within focal companies, their business networks, the marketplace and society are extremely important for the design of sustainability strategies of the companies (McWilliams et al., 2006; McWilliams and Siegel, 2011; Orlitzky and Shen, 2013). The competitive success of a company depends upon its capacity to combine the interests of all its stakeholders to obtain benefits both for the company and its stakeholders, given the limited resources of the company (Freeman, 1984). Managerial implications: The dimensions of the tested stakeholder construct provide insight into the way the studied companies approach business sustainability efforts specifically in relation to their behaviour and the resultant outcomes (Table II). For example, the stakeholder considerations in companies' business sustainability efforts decrease as activities are taken place upstream away from the customer (e.g. suppliers' suppliers and raw material producers). There also seems to be higher levels of consideration when it comes to internal stakeholders within the companies studied as compared to external stakeholders. This state of affairs could possibly increase the risk of myopia in planning and implementation of sustainable business practices. Previously mentioned studies have often indicated the need to apply a holistic view (Figure 2) in business networks, as the environmental impact of a company does not take place in the company itself, but rather among the stakeholders of the company (e.g. upstream and downstream ones). Conclusions and contribution: This study makes several contributions to previous research considering the relatively large number of companies identified in the sample of this study, taken from a country ranked third of a possible 132 countries (EPI, 2012) in terms of environmental profile. For example, a contribution of this study is the test for validity and reliability of a stakeholder construct in the context of business sustainability efforts across a broad spectrum of businesses. The stakeholder construct contributes to the degree to which different stakeholders within the organisation, external upstream and downstream in business networks, marketplace and society are considered in business sustainability efforts. Suggestions for further research: The current study provides an empirical foundation to move ahead in several fruitful directions of research where we believe they may make multiple contributions to existing theory and theory building in the field of stakeholder theory in the context of business sustainability.
Policy formation of intercultural and globally minded educational leadership preparation	[ "Educational policy", "Twenty‐first century leadership", "Globally minded leadership", "Leadership preparation" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The study of educational leadership is a relatively new undertaking within the profession when compared to the study of teacher preparation. The University Council for Educational Administration, for example, was founded as recently as 1959. International research on school leadership, however, is even younger. The rise of lines of inquiry that focus on international issues is due largely to globalization. The investment of organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The World Bank have nurtured growing attention to the importance of school leadership in many nations. Yet, their investments have also framed international research in a particular manner, one that is mired by a market ideology. More specifically, international research on school leader development and effectiveness is prominently defined by an interest in comparative measures.Hodgkinson (1991) identifies three universally recognized purposes of education, one being the economic purpose of learning to earn a living. It is through this purpose that educational effectiveness is commonly gauged, particularly in developed countries of the west. Standardized test scores represent the normative fulcrum of this measure. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), for example, are two such exams used to compare the merit of a nation's educational system(s). The churn of comparative analysis, emanating from economic competition among nation states has both shifted the narrative of school effectiveness in recent years toward a focus on student learning (i.e. instructional leadership and leadership for learning, see also MacBeath and Townsend, 2011), or rather the comparative measure of students' learning while simultaneously holding fixed the old paradigm and structural analysis of international education research.By and large, international educational research on leadership preparation is derived from case study designs that compare the approaches of one context with another. The boundaries of location shape the juxtapositions of "the way we do things" with "the way they do things." Rosenberg (2000) refers to this practice as a tradition of dichotomized studies. These dichotomies, defined by contrasting geographical, historical, and cultural boundaries, function like most polarities: while they may add to the body of knowledge for the individual, localized preparation methods, the potential for symbiotic and convergent benefits is limited. Such is the nature of one concept of international educational research on leadership preparation. For example, Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) (2006) research on approaches to school leadership asserts that countries are provided "opportunities [...] to learn about themselves by comparing their experiences with those of other countries" (p. 6). Yet, Crow et al. (2008) explain that the concept of "international" remains contested within the profession and is in need of further refinement.This paper seeks to flesh out the major conditions and approaches for understanding and supporting school leader development within the international context. This work does not propose a prescriptive agenda but seeks to describe and challenge current practices and ideological underpinnings. More specifically, this work aims to add to the literature by exposing intersections and gaps in the research on school leader development for globally minded/twenty-first century school leaders.As authors, we take a cue from Crow et al. (2008) and explore the contested concept of "international" school leadership development. In doing so, we examine the merits and limits of common research practices in the field along with findings of common issues affecting leadership development around the globe. Taken together, these considerations will help to operationalize a working definition for globally minded or twenty-first century school leadership. We understand that this approach adds to an even newer concept within the profession, the impact of globalization in educational research (Brooks and Normore, 2010) to which Paige and Mestenhauser (1999) explain "educational administration is highly resistant to internationalization" (p. 500).Second, we report on common features of leadership preparation programs derived from international research. These features are important as they speak to the levers that either impede or support the potential for globally minded school leadership preparation and development. The examples that we offer do not represent an exhaustive study of international programs, but highlight prominent properties shared by leadership preparation programs from multiple contexts.Lastly, the intersections and variants among programs are taken up and examined in an explorative manner. We recognize that the proposed structure of our work is mired in what Heck (1996) has defined as a limitation of traditional international research, or in this case, the comparative analysis of leadership preparation programs and approaches from multiple locals, from around the globe. He explains that, "Some leadership concepts may be common of several cultures, while others may be more culturally specific." As such, we cannot "expect perfect equivalence of concepts across cultures because of the tendency for at least some cultural specific behavior. Making comparisons more difficult is that different behaviors may serve similar purposes within each culture" (Heck, 1996, p. 80). When certain assumptions about the meaning and structure of leadership indicative of one culture or context are used to analyze others, the inherent nature of the latter are often obfuscated by the former.Though we are cognizant of this dilemma, we are also aware of the fact that meaning is inevitably made through the lens of existing frames. It is through comparative explorations that we the challenge, verify, refine, and in some cases, discard existing ways of knowing. It is through the examination of current research on international leadership preparation that we seek to expand on contemporary methods for understating school leadership preparation. Defining globally minded school leadership: troubling the waters of international research: As previously established, the common approach to international research on school leadership and preparation has been to juxtapose the design and elements of programs across national contexts. Several authors remind us that the various terms used to define research in the area are often problematic (Friedman, 1999; Paige and Mestenhauser, 1999; Crow et al., 2008). Yet, one fact remains uncontested: globalization has had a grave impact on the spread of policy and practices across national geographies, including the influence on educational leadership and leadership development, albeit relatively nascent in nature. Studies comparing leadership preparation across international boundaries have found both similarities and paradoxes among the conceptualizations, approaches, and even challenges that programs undertake (see Huber, 2004; Moller and Schratz, 2008). In its simplest form, the comparative study of educational contexts allows each system or entity to reflect on and improve itself as a result of comparison (Paige and Mestenhauser, 1999; OECD, 2006).Perhaps the one readily observable impact of globalization on the profession has been the act of policy copying, adopting, or borrowing. Yet, research consistently reports that policy borrowing has been largely ethnocentric or western orientated (Dimmock and Walker, 2000), with a primary focus on the US and European contexts (Ball, 1998). The centralization of education and leadership preparation, in countries like the UK, for example, has led to certain government-based accountability mechanisms aimed at holding school employees responsible for declining effectiveness (Moller and Schratz, 2008), namely student achievement. In the UK, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) has guided the government's establishment of the National College for School Leadership (Southworth, 2008) and has influenced the development of the subsequent National Professional Qualifications for Headship (NPQH) and the National Professional Qualifications for Serving Headteachers (NPQSH). These standards define the credential characteristics for prospective school headmasters and the continued development of experienced ones, respectively. In the USA, similar developments have begun to unfold. The Obama administration's Race to the Top Fund (RTTP), in an effort to leverage large-scale school effectiveness, has incentivized educational reform by redefining teacher and principal effectiveness based on student learning outcomes (Easley, 2011). States, including their leadership preparation programs, have begun to rethink their practices in accordance with the emergent accountability structure of the administration. The centralization of education is just one illustration of policy borrowing that can now been seen across national contexts.Much of the 1990s were characterized by comparisons between the east and the west (Dimmock and Walker, 2000). Dimmock and Walker (1998) explain that while historically developing countries have looked toward developed ones, the 1990s also ushered in a reverse glance with countries like the USA and the UK taking greater interest in the educational developments of the east. The steady rise of PISA scores for countries like China, Singapore, Japan, and Korea has been a significant impetus for this shift. Not to mention, the rising strength of eastern markets in contrast to the contemporary financial troubles in the US and Euro zone has had a significant impact on political and economic relations in the face of growing globalization. Even with this shift, policy adoption can still yield negative isomorphisms, in which borrowed changes may be inappropriate for the new environment. Occurring either by force, competition, or unconsciously, negative isomorphisms most likely result from a lack of deep understanding of the socio-cultural and political milieu from which policies are lifted. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the history of one's own cultural and political milieu can likewise result in the failed aims of policy borrowing.Hargreaves (2010) argues, for example, that policy copying is in most cases doomed to fail as it is often carried out selectively or with an insufficient understanding of the relevant socio-cultural contexts or both. Other common pitfalls include insufficient development, timing, or implementation for the borrowed policies. The author suggests that for better chances of success one should learn "intelligently in relation to clear principles and multiple examples, sensitively in relation to differences in context, and interactively through dialogue among educators at all levels within and across the respective systems" (Hargreaves, 2010, p. 109).Relatedly, Dimmock and Walker (2000) contend that the influence of societal culture has been largely ignored within debates on the effects of globalization on educational leadership and policy. The authors conclude that attention to societal culture as a mediator for the adoption or rejection of ideas and practices across the globe is imperative for the future development of the field as issues of curriculum, teaching, learning, and school leadership are investigated. It is in this vein that the study of globalization becomes critical, thereby allowing educational leaders to move beyond policy shadowboxing - the shallow act of jumping on the bandwagon by seeking implementation purity of borrowed polices in the absence of excavating cultural sensitivities that define both the divergent and convergent geopolitical landscapes across contexts; the means by which borrowed policies and practices are readily absorbed, manipulated, or even rejected within/by their new environments. It is in this vein that the globalization of school leadership recognizes societal cultures as dynamic and amorphous, simultaneously shaped by deep histories and emergent realities of an ever-changing world.Paige and Mestenhauser (1999) further trouble the conceptualization of globalization by purporting that the concept is often confounded with that of internationalization. Drawing on their research over 60-plus combined years of experience with international education, the authors explain the internationalization is a mindset of learning, one that is intercultural, interdisciplinary, and integrative; one that embodies the "transfer of knowledge-technology, contextual, and global dimension of knowledge construction" (Paige and Mestenhauser, 1999, p. 504). It is through this lens that we acknowledge the ontological and epistemological dimensions of school leadership that at its core is a human endeavor, an active process of meaning making. School leadership is concerned with the interrelationships among peoples and cultures, their derivative innovations and technologies, and one's mediation of these and social conditions as well their effect on both the operations and outcomes of schooling. Not to dismiss the smart work of Paige and Mestenhauser (1999) employed to define internationalization, we draw upon the knowledge generated from the aforementioned debates as well as emergent curricular markers used to conceptualize twenty-first century learning for children and youth (e.g. life-long learning; a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), greater attention to culturally relevant pedagogy, etc.) to define twenty-first century/globally minded school leadership. Given the nature of school leadership, we understand this definition as a working heuristic - a frame for the work presented within this paper as well as an invitation for further dialogue and development within the profession.Taking direction from these previously mentioned debates, in particular the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on education, we consider twenty-first century/globally minded school leadership as a dynamic, systemic, and anthropologically oriented enterprise that attends to the relationships among the global and local contexts, while recognizing the reciprocal function of these relationships within the profession. Globally minded school leadership is integrative, recognizing glocalization (i.e. the interrelationships among the local, national, and global contexts, Robertson, 1995; Brooks and Normore, 2010) as well as internationalization (Paige and Mestenhauser, 1999), the generative act of learning that bridges theory, policy, and practice. Globally minded school leadership extends beyond mere international comparisons or the lifting of policy and practices form one context to be used in another. Accordingly, the development of globally minded school leadership is more than a matter of adding curricular topics from multiple regions; rather, it is the pursuit of understanding how conditions from the local and global affect one another and engages analytical meaning making for the purpose of developing and sustaining twenty-first century learning environments, i.e. teaching and learning in an increasingly flat world defined as an information and knowledge society. And while we understand twenty-first century and globally minded leadership to be synonymous, we use the latter in this paper for consistency. Methods: The authors conducted a comparative analysis of existing research on educational leadership preparation from around the globe. Cross-national research of this kind is often referred to as the "safari" or "helicopter" approach (Hantrais, 1995) in which a researcher or research team carries out a study in more than one country using a replicated design.In order to conceptualize globally minded school leader preparation, we combined two lenses by focussing on common features of leadership preparation programs found around the globe - features that are often governed by policy and accreditation demands; in addition, we sought out existing international and global centric leadership preparation programs. Much of the existing research in this area is derived from the case study approach. And while there are debates within the field as to where or not there exist "distinct cross-national methods per se" (Hantrais and Mangen, 1999, p. 91), we understood our work to be a conceptual, emergent design intended to inform future research.We employed a descriptive analysis of existing literature of primary and secondary research on leadership preparation programs. The selection of sources was guided by minimally established criteria, to include: peer-reviewed research (though this was not always possible, allowing us to include relevant evaluation reports, for example); currency of programs derived from studies published between 2006 and 2012; and the global scope of twenty-first century leadership by seeking out representative, globally minded programs to include both western and non-western perspectives and cultural contexts. Exploring current practices of international leadership preparation: While we have identified shortcomings among the traditional models of international leadership research and development for the purpose of defining globally minded leadership, there is still much to be learned from contemporary approaches to school leader development. In addition, our working definition for globally minded leadership is instructive, revealing both the limitations of traditional international comparison as well as the potential benefits, yet complexities, of considering the notion of interrelationships among the global and local contexts. Gleaned from existing research, we explore not only the approaches and content of school leader development but also the socio-political contexts that shape these practices. In particular, we draw from key features of leadership program development noted in international research (i.e. policy governance, candidate selection, curriculum, and clinical experiences). To be certain, these elements are not exhaustive. They alone do not fully address the process or content of program development. Rather, they offer a snap shot of the field. It is through this method that we offer a critique while making inroads toward globally minded school leadership development.Policy borrowing: standards, centralization, and decentralization Discussion and implications: Much progress has been made in the area of international research on leadership preparation and development. The comparative analyses of approaches taken from around the world afford the profession vast insights regarding the contexts, processes, and challenges of program design and management. Yet, unlike the preparation for leaders in other fields such as international business and non-government organization (NGO) management, limited growth regarding globally minded school leader research and development can be accounted for. Furthermore the increasing internationalization of university programming to include expanded course offerings and greater opportunities of international exchanges that bring students face-to-face with perspectives different from those indigenous to their home cultures speaks directly to the need for a shift in traditional grammar and secondary school curricula to better prepare them for the expanding dimensions of higher education. It goes without saying that these advancements toward twenty-first century learning require a certain kind of school leadership, one that is globally minded.One of the first steps for globally minded school leadership development is to promote an awareness of globalization, its impact on twenty-first century learning, educational policy and practice, and school leadership, in general. As it stands, the preparation of school leaders is mostly restrictive to a specific paradigm, model, or "leadership ideology" that focusses almost exclusively on leadership within a particular cultural, regional, or national context. School leaders will, however, increasingly need to consider the significance of societal cultures, the interactions and interdependence among the local and global, and the resulting shift in leadership knowledge, skills, and dispositions.Current international research offers an emergent roadmap for the future of globally minded school leadership preparation and development. While the commonalities (e.g. standards and curriculum, clinical experience and mentorship) among approaches provide a framework for best practices, the anomalies, in particular gaps in preparation for innovation and rapid changes in societal culture, serve as a compass for reshaping leadership preparation globally. Current research draws our attention to the need for further inquiry for the advancements of globally minded leadership preparation.The questions raised address both the content and process of globally minded school leadership development. The questions raised concomitantly speak to a needed shift in the purpose that guides international research by which programs seek to learn more about and to improve themselves largely void of considerations of interdependence, void of (inter)systems thinking required for school change and improvement. The questions raised underscore the significance of symbiosis between research and leadership preparation challenged by expanding globalization, its effect on learning communities around the world, and the need for globally minded leaders for twenty-first century schools.
Factors that influence informal learning in the workplace	[ "Learning", "Learning organizations", "Workplace learning" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. The learning organization concept: Peter Senge (1990, p. 3), who has been credited with popularizing the learning organization concept in his book, The Fifth Discipline, characterizes a learning organization as a work environment in which "people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together". The learning organization concept can be viewed as a type of organizational culture (Garavan, 1997). When viewed as a culture, the learning organization is defined by an implicit set of shared meanings and values amongst its people that yields learning and knowledge transmission. However, the learning organization concept is usually viewed more objectively as a strategy that focuses on process design (Garavan, 1997; Thomas and Allen, 2006). From this perspective, a learning organization is defined by the nature of the organization's processes and the extent to which they enhance employees' learning and facilitate the transfer of learning to others. It is this view that is likely to have more relevance for practitioners in the fields of human resources, learning technology, and organizational development, as the focus on process design and environmental factors suggests that an organization can be converted into a learning organization through the application of appropriate interventions.When facilitating the development of a learning organization, the organization's learning can be viewed from three levels - organizational, group, and individual (Marsick and Watkins, 2001, 2003b). While each level of learning has distinct attributes, all three contribute to the success of a learning organization. At the organizational level, learning is described as a collective experience and tends to result from the need to respond to an organization's environmental influences. The group level of learning is described as "the mutual construction of new knowledge including the capacity for concerted, collaborative action" (Marsick and Watkins, 2001, p. 32). Learning at the individual level is the way in which people obtain knowledge and skills (Marsick and Watkins, 2001), through the promotion of inquiry and dialogue and the creation of continuous learning opportunities (O'Neil, 2003).Although the foundational level of a learning organization is the individual level, much of the existing literature examines the concept of the learning organization from an organizational perspective, and very little research has connected the concept to learning activities at the individual level (Garavan, 1997; Lee and Roth, 2007; Small and Irvine, 2006; Thomas and Allen, 2006; Tsang, 1997). Also, in exploring the individual level of learning, it is important to note that while 80 percent of workplace learning occurs through informal means, only 20 percent of what organizations invest in learning is dedicated to enhancing informal learning (Cross, 2007). To better understand the relationship between the individual level of informal learning and the development of a learning organization, we will explore the subject of informal learning in the workplace in the following section, which will later be linked to the learning organization concept. Informal learning in the workplace: Formal learning v. informal learning Connecting informal learning to the learning organization concept: A vast amount of literature exists on the concept of the learning organization; however, the idea is often discussed in an abstract, descriptive form, and much less literature exists on how this concept may be observed in a concrete, empirical way (Marsick and Watkins, 2003a; Thomas and Allen, 2006). Furthermore, although Senge (1990) acknowledges that individual learning is central to leveraging organizational learning and presents personal mastery as one of the five disciplines for building a learning organization culture, very little empirical research connects individual learning, especially informal learning, to the presence of learning organization characteristics (Garavan, 1997; Lee and Roth, 2007; Small and Irvine, 2006; Thomas and Allen, 2006). Connecting the constructs of the learning organization to informal learning engagement may be one step toward making the learning organization concept more concrete. In the following section, we describe a study we conducted as an effort to make that connection. We also investigated the relationship between personal characteristics and specific informal learning activities. Methods: Research questions and hypotheses Results: Descriptive statistics on demographic information Discussion: The purpose of this study was to answer three questions related to the nature of informal learning engagement in the workplace, within the framework of a learning organization. The first of those questions was: How does an organization's learning culture relate to the degree of informal learning engagement among employees? The responses in this study did not demonstrate a significant correlation between learning organization culture and informal learning engagement. This may be viewed as a surprising finding, as it would seem logical that an organization with a strong learning culture would be structured in a way that creates opportunities for informal learning to a greater degree than those organizations that lack such culture. However, this may suggest that informal learning is not inhibited by a lack of learning organization structure. If a worker needs to obtain specific information to complete a task, one might assume that the individual will find a way to learn that information regardless of whether the organization has a structure in place to make that effort easier.Another possible explanation for why a significant correlation between informal learning and learning organization culture was not found may have to do with the fact that individual learning is only one of many components that make up learning organization culture. For instance, Marsick and Watkins (2001, 2003b) posit that there are three levels of learning in a learning organization - individual, group, and organizational. Furthermore, while Senge (1990) addresses the influence of individual learning on the learning organization in his discussion of the personal mastery discipline, he insists that all five of the disciplines he presents - systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning - must be nourished. In other words, perhaps the presence of individual learning, especially informal learning, is not a strong enough construct to independently demonstrate a relationship to an organization's learning culture at large.The second research question for this study asks about differences in informal learning engagement based on gender, age and highest level of education. The findings presented in our research related to gender and education level are consistent with Livingstone's (2001) findings, in that informal learning engagement did not seem to differ based on these characteristics. However, our study revealed that as an employee's age increased, so did the degree of informal learning engagement. This may seem contrary to the findings discussed in Tikkanen's (2002) study, in which younger workers reported engaging in more informal learning. However, the different findings are understandable when considering that Tikkanen's research and our research were conducted with different purposes, using different research methods. The purpose of Tikkanen's research was to understand the employees' perceptions about the relationship between work and learning, using qualitative interview methodology. In that research, the younger interviewees with little work experience saw everyday work as challenging, and therefore, as learning. In contrast, older and more experienced workers did not have the same need for learning and did not perceive their work as being synonymous with learning. Unlike Tikkanen's research, our research investigated the degree of engagement in specific informal learning activities, and revealed that as age increased, so did the tendency to learn by searching the web and reading printed professional magazines and journals. This is consistent with Livingstone's (2000) finding that older individuals tend to engage in more independent (rather than social) forms of informal learning. One interpretation of this phenomenon can be made by looking at the source of knowledge used in informal learning. Unlike the other six informal learning activities included in the questionnaire, these two activities share a unique characteristic - both consist of a "published" form of knowledge. This attribute may be perceived to be more professional and credible (i.e. articles are reviewed by editors or professional peers), but perhaps it requires learners to have more experience (therefore, to be older) to be able to recognize the value of such professional knowledge and to utilize it as a source of their informal learning.Another interesting finding in our research is that although the sample was drawn from subscribers of several listservs, they reported 'posting questions to a listserv' as the least frequently used method for participating in informal learning to gain new knowledge to perform their job tasks. The mean was only 2.74 on a scale of 1 to 7 when 1 was "Never" and 7 was "Always". This may indicate that they may have joined the listserv community to gain information that helps improve general knowledge about their profession, but they tend not to post questions specific to their job tasks to the listserv. However, it is worth noting that the use the listserv convenience sample, rather than a random sample from the population, is a limitation of this study.The third research question addresses factors that influence informal learning at work. Of the ten factors that respondents rated on the questionnaire, their "level of interest in their current field" was identified as affecting their engagement in informal learning the most. This seems to be a logical finding, given that people tend to be intrinsically motivated to spend time on things that interest them. The factor rated as having the least impact on informal learning engagement was "monetary rewards." Perhaps because the decision to engage in informal learning is more likely to be a self-directed activity, it is more likely to be driven by intrinsic motivation (such as interest in one's professional field) rather than extrinsic motivation (such as monetary rewards). However, one might speculate that monetary rewards, and other extrinsic rewards, may still have an indirect impact on informal learning engagement. That is, if workers are motivated to perform better in order to receive a better reward (e.g., Farh et al., 1991; Helm et al., 2007), it can be hypothesized that they are more likely to engage in informal learning activities as a strategy in order to gain any new knowledge needed to perform at the higher level.Another interesting comparison is shown between "access to computer technology" as the second most important factor and "physical proximity to colleagues" as the second least important factor that affects engagement in informal learning. This seems to illustrate current learning and performance improvement professionals' dependency on computer use for communicating with others or retrieving information online. Consequently, respondents perceived that having access to computer technology would be a more important factor than having physical proximity to their colleagues. However, this does not demote the value of talking with colleagues as an important means of informal learning. In fact, "talking with colleagues" was the second most frequently used informal learning activity, as shown in Table II. To understand these somewhat contradicting results, one should differentiate that "computer technology" is a tool for participating in informal learning activities, whereas "talking with colleagues" is an informal learning activity. Conclusions: This study revealed that learning and performance improvement practitioners gain new knowledge from informal learning activities more frequently than they do from formal training. There are several factors that influence their informal learning engagement, and there are a variety of informal learning strategies that they employ. The rank-ordered list of factors that affect informal learning engagement (see Table IX) is likely to be of value to learning and performance improvement practitioners who are interested in fostering informal learning in the workplace. This list can be utilized as a tool in prioritizing potential interventions to encourage informal learning. This particular aspect of the study may prove especially useful to replicate in future research for the sake of confirming or challenging these findings for broader generalizations.There is a tendency in learning organization research to focus on learning at the organizational level and to lend less attention to learning at the individual level. A handful of researchers have questioned why such research does not place more weight on the contribution of individual learning (e.g., Garavan, 1997; Lee and Roth, 2007; Small and Irvine, 2006; Thomas and Allen, 2006). Perhaps the lack of a clear link between learning organization culture and informal learning engagement shown in this study answers that question by supporting the idea that individual learning is only a small piece of organizational learning culture.Finally, it is important to note that the tacit nature of informal learning makes it a challenging subject to study. Often, it is so embedded into daily activities that individuals are unable to recognize their informal learning retrospectively (Eraut, 2000; Livingstone, 2000), and therefore, it is generally taken for granted (Eraut, 2004; Marsick and Volpe, 1999). Livingstone (2000) noted the tendency of researchers to compare informal learning to an iceberg, explaining that while a small portion is observable, the vast majority of it takes place in subtle forms that are not easily observed and documented. We suggest other researchers pay attention to this hidden phenomenon in workplace learning and use ethnographic research methodology to uncover variables that may be crucial to developing a learning organization.
Seeing the unseen: Initiating an MBA program committee change process	[ "Educational administration", "Organizational change", "Project teams" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: When it comes to the everyday practices of running our profession - working with students, developing curricula, or running our institutions - we remain wrapped in uncontested folklore (Peter T. Ewell, 2001, p. 4). Thinking conceptually: Reynolds (1996), Ewell (2001), Cook (1993), and Whitmore (2004) have all called for critical reflection regarding the educational structures, procedures, and methods comprising our institutional contexts. More precisely, Payne (1996, p. 20), has asked "To what extent are currently dominant ... faculty assumptions taken for granted versus explicitly known and directly connected to instructional choices?" This is a key question because as Leavitt (2000), Bubna-Litic and Benn (2003), and Zajac and Kraatz (1993) note, there is an observable reluctance on the part of many instructors to even acknowledge, let alone reflect on, the educational assumptions they hold whose appropriateness may no longer be valid and that hinder program change/improvement processes.Consider for the moment that human behavior occurs at three basic levels: visible behavior (Level 1), conscious thought (Level 2), and semi-conscious or pre-conscious values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations (VABEs) about the way we think the world is or should be (Level 3) (Clawson, 2001). Regarding this latter level, VABEs "are the personal givens that we accept as self-evident" and we hold them tightly (Brookfield, 1987, p. 44; see also Young, 2000).Strongly-held habitual behavior, thinking, and believing pose obstacles to change. It is easy to be hemmed in by history, the status quo, and even our own lack of awareness (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2000; and Birch and Clegg, 1996). In leading change, a committee chair is faced with the dilemma of which of the three behavioral levels to target. For those who believe, as we do, that Level 3 VABEs are the foundations for Level 1 behaviors, exposing and discussing the VABEs harbored by committee members seems an appropriate, important, potentially beneficial starting point for a program review process (see Jehn et al. (1997) for empirical support). For sure, DeBono (1999), Ewell (2001), Smith (1996), Hargrove (1998), and Csikszentmihalyi (1993), among others, have all noted the importance of exposing VABEs in order to lead change and to think creatively. Indeed, "exposure allows for remediation, change, defense, and improvement of - or at least informed dialogue about - formal education processes and structures" (Anderson, 2001, p. 30). The prospect of exposing committee members' program-related VABEs was appealing to us as a provocative, purposeful way to begin the first-year program review the Dean had requested. In order to efficiently and comprehensively expose those VABEs, we crafted an assumptions audit (AA).Before describing the AA, it is important to place it in the context of a robust set of principles for managing the change process in higher education institutions. Indeed, our experience affirms the merits of the model Yorke (2000, pp. 30-32) posits, comprised of the following phases:1. engage colleagues on a problem-solving exercise in order to gain a broad measure of support for the emergent vision and strategy;2. establish a sense of necessity;3. assemble a team which has sufficient power to lead developments;4. communicate widely and continually;5. develop a shared commitment;6. generate some early successes;7. consolidate and embed the gains; and8. don't rest on laurels.The ensuing discussion describes, in general, the early phases (i.e. Yorke's phases 1 to 6) of our program-review process and the assumptions audit, in particular. Getting started: Yorke's (2000) principles numbers 1 and 2 were addressed in the FYPC program-review process by: sharing the Dean's concerns with the FYPC; resurrecting and codifying some of the generally ignored workload-related feedback that had surfaced in prior years' student surveys; and by noting the anticipated benefits of the AA as a starting point for program-review deliberations. To this latter point, the espoused AA benefits put forth by the FYPC Chair were:1. it would provide a non-threatening means for surfacing, questioning, and discussing long-held VABEs;2. it would establish an objectified context for posing first-year program changes;3. it would facilitate action-oriented discussions due to the classification of each embedded program assumption as either "keep" or "drop".4. it would fuel commitment to proposed program change ideas connected to the assumptions judged as important to drop.5. it would establish a touchstone against which continued program features could be judged in light of assumptions deemed as important to keep.6. it would create a mechanism for mutual socialization of FYPC committee members to the program's current context and needs.Yorke's (2000) principle number 3 was simply addressed by the Dean placing the task in the hands of the FYPC, the faculty committee authorized to oversee the design and delivery of the first-year program. Similarly, principle number 4 was embraced via the FYPC's membership profile (14 members from ten academic and three administrative departments) and pattern of monthly meetings and intervening, email communiques from the Chair. The 14 members consisted of ten faculty, three ex-officio administrators, and the Chair who was also a faculty member.Principle number 5 relates most directly to the AA itself. Developing a shared commitment required a comprehensive identification and assessment of the first-year program VABEs. If the array and strength of those underlying VABEs could be identified it seemed likely that the FYPC program review could:* avoid not being thrown off track by a vocal minority;* identify much-needed degrees of freedom for program change by freeing itself from long-standing, but weakly-held, program assumptions; and* be sure to preserve, and even embellish, the most strongly shared underlying program assumptions.Consistent with Christensen and Osguthorpe (2004), the AA process began with an informal series of brainstorming discussions between the FYPC Chair and an administrator colleague (together, they had 40 years of first-year program involvement), aimed at articulating underlying program VABEs. This phase of the AA was fuelled by questions like:* What are some of the important features of our current program? Why do we have them or do that? Why is that important?* What kinds of students are best suited for our program? Why?* What does the program require of our faculty in terms of attitudes and behaviors? Why?* What do you like best (least) about our program? Why?* What are some interesting program features you are familiar with at other schools? Could we do that here? Why or why not?Such questions led to the initial identification of about 40 embedded VABEs under-girding the first-year program that the two then refined and distilled to 32 distinct assumptions[1]. The Chair then drafted survey questions for each of these 32 items and established a five-point response scale in order "to zero in on precisely the parts ... that need attention and leave the rest alone" (Bossidy and Charan, 2004, p. 113). The response scale used was:* 1=definitely keep this program-related assumption;* 3=neutral as to keep/drop this program-related assumption; and* 5=definitely review as a possible program-related assumption to drop.The Chair e-mailed the survey (see Figure 1) to the FYPC faculty members and invited them to rate each item according to the above scale and to also provide qualitative comments wherever they wanted to. The AA was introduced, in part, by the Chair with:As promised, I have generated, and refined with the Associate Dean's help, a list of assumptions that I believe have under-girded the design of the first-year program in recent years. In response to the Dean's challenge, I believe it is important to surface and reconsider these embedded assumptions. In doing so, we might conclude that a particular assumption is one we want to continue embracing and in other instances we might want to conclude that a particular assumption is no longer valid or attractive as a part of the program's foundation.So that we do not spend endless and marginally productive time debating every possible assumption, the Associate Dean and I both thought it best to present the assumptions to you in a survey format. The results of the survey will help guide us in, and focus our attention during, our planning meeting. In that meeting, I believe our goal should be to codify the planning assumptions we want to move forward with and to begin thinking about their related implementation issues/opportunities.The numerical results of the AA are also presented in Figure 1. The small number of participants in the AA survey and its intended use as a change-process catalyst, allowed the typical concerns for statistical analyses to be set aside. A simple heuristic was used to codify insights - the strongly reaffirmed assumptions were those whose average response score was <= 2 and those assumptions warranting rigorous challenge were those receiving an average response score of >= 4. Using these rules of thumb, the Chair presented the average score on all the assumptions to the FYPC, highlighting for particular focus, those whose rating indicated their status as a strongly reaffirmed program planning assumption or as a program planning assumption to be loosened or discarded.The remainder of the FYPC meeting wherein these results were presented was devoted to generating ideas for program changes that would lighten the students' work load while minimally impacting the rigor and life of the school. It only took two more regularly-scheduled FYPC meetings to finalize a number of program changes, including several which were instituted as soon as was possible (thus adhering to Yorke's (2000) change management process principle number 6). A more extensive array of program changes were approved for adoption the next academic year, congruent with Yorke's (2000) change principle number 7[2]. Here is a sample of some of the changes made that consensually and quite readily sprang from the clarity provided by the AA:* reduced the number of class sessions comprising the first-year program (all of which remained required) by ten percent by adopting a 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 flow for a week's classes (eliminated one class per week);* on the 2-class days we extended classes from 85 minutes to 110 minutes so that more extensive discussions could ensue in 4 of the 13 weekly classes with no additional student preparation in advance;* acknowledged that not every class was well served by students discussing the case in their learning teams and faculty agreed to note in their assignments when students should not devote learning team time to that case;* stepped up faculty efforts to create course designs, and an overall program design, that sought to explicitly foster student learning on more dimensions than just a course's subject matter content, thus necessitating much greater coordination and integration between courses;* added the Director of the Career Services Center to the FYPC membership in order to provide a direct connection for course heads to learn more about the challenges/issues regarding students' summer-internship searches and for the Career Services Center professionals to gain a first-hand understanding and appreciation for the academic challenges/issues the faculty wrestled with;* began more serious coordination of the student-life activities calendar with the academic class schedule; and* introduced a 12-session Career Services series of classes into the regular class schedule eliminating many of the afternoon Career Services' ad hoc tutorials. Post-AA reflections: The fact that a number of program changes were all approved and implemented in concert with one another and with clarity on just how they related to our program VABEs was a big deal. We had broken free from an all-too common pattern of isolated, incremental change. The AA had achieved all of the objectives set out for it. In addition, and unanticipated, the AA provided even more benefits. First, it provided a sense of enthusiastic break-through purpose within the FYPC, preempting feelings of frustration and divisiveness (two common teamwork problems identified by Wheelan and Burchill (1999)). We certainly attest to Whitehead's (2001) assertion that information pertaining to team members' assumptions was important in crafting effective team processes.Second, the AA data provided much-needed clarity on our shared program VABEs by uncovering the program foundations that the committee wanted to keep, drop, and alter. Indeed, it met Kruse's (2001) call for data-driven reflection and that data was useful in "making tradeoffs openly in a group [in order] to synchronize efforts for execution" (Bossidy and Charan, 2002, p. 237). Such clarity also contributed to a much reduced cycle time from when the FYPC received the charge from the Dean to finalization of the agreed on program-related changes in comparison to even prior year's incrementally-oriented program change processes.Third, those charged with designing and redesigning educational programs have a daunting task. Professors who chair program committees face an array of student demands, recruiter demands, alumni demands, and administrative pressures, all in concert with the usual demands of research, consulting, and teaching. We admit to falling prey to Kipp's (2001) and Buchen's (2002) observation that daily activities and concerns often preempt reflection. In the midst of these challenges, and with looming deadlines, it is our experience that committee members (and chairs) tend to repeat their strongly-held beliefs about what needs to be done, or not done. Unfortunately, such tendencies surface in committee discussions through "killer phrases"[3] that squash novel but not fully-fleshed-out ideas and justify the status quo. The AA preempted such tendencies because vocal minorities clearly saw the position their VABEs held amongst the larger team.Fourth, the successful use of the AA adds a third critical element, to the two posed by Mullins and Fukami (1996), for overcoming faculty resistance to change. Along with the FYPC members' voluntary participation in the program review and the Dean's willingness to not impose top-down change, the AA established a shared platform for the subsequent change discussions. We firmly believe such a tripartite approach to change is beneficial and that an AA is another instrument that can be effectively used to facilitate the enactment of strategic change (Arnaboldi and Azzone, 2005).Last, as the value of the AA became apparent, we informally agreed that the AA warranted repeating every few years as a guard against the inertia of the status quo and as a catalyst for reflection. Such a commitment embraces Yorke's (2000) change management principle number 8 and honors von Oech's (1999, p. 10) call "to periodically inspect your ideas and beliefs". What we would do differently: In the face of the current criticisms of MBA programs (e.g. Mintzberg, 2004) and the espoused inability of faculty to work well together (Gloeckler, 2005), we believe schools should reflect on their structures, methods, and procedures and, an AA can be an important, early part of that process. An AA can be customized to clarify and codify a set of institution-specific shared VABEs that can then form the foundations for an array of carefully-crafted, distinctive MBA program structures and features.In the case described here, the short time frame available for delivering program-related recommendations, created an all-not-too-unusual circumstance of having to engage in a bit of "ready, fire, aim" (Lovelace, 2000). The next time we undertake a program review, however, we will do another AA with a few modifications, including:* expand the population of AA participants to all faculty teaching in the first-year program and to a sample of alumni;* expand (but keep the size manageable) the number of individuals involved in the initial brainstorming phase of the process to all prior FYPC Chairs;* collect selected demographic data on the respondents so that we can parse the AA results according to such dimensions as faculty seniority, faculty disciplines, number of years that a faculty has spent at another institution, an alum's primary career field, and the date of an alum's graduation;* juxtapose the AA results against some of the key features of competitor schools in order to get a sense of program distinctiveness;* solicit more specific narrative responses explaining a respondent's reason for rating a particular AA assumption as "strongly keep"; and* report to committee members the range and frequency of the responses (some of the mid-range averages were the result of bi-polar responses).We see no reason why an AA, tailored to the situation, cannot be valuable to any educational institution's change initiative, academic or otherwise. The AA, conceptually and pragmatically, is well-grounded in the literature pertaining to effective team collaboration, fostering creative thinking, and galvanizing productive educational program change. We found the AA to be a focused, non-intrusive, illuminating, helpful, customizable instrument to use at the outset of our program review and change process.
Do governance factors matter for happiness in the MENA region?	[ "Governance matters", "Happiness", "MENA countries", "Panel data" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: Unhappiness has been recognized as one of the main factors that cause political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region[1] in recent years (Varian, 2010; Palmer, 2007). As a result of the political unrest, three governments of the region were overthrown (Tunisia, Egypt and Libya) and few have been destabilized (e.g. Syria, Yemen). Besides, political unrest, it is shown that unhappiness can reduce labor productivity (Oswald et al., 2009) which leads to lower level of economic growth. 2 A brief literature review: There are some studies in the literature on political determinants of happiness. In this section, the most relevant studies are reviewed. 3 Data and variables: The analysis comprises the period 2009-2011 for a sample of 14 MENA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen). Our sample covers all those countries for which data on happiness and governance matters is obtainable. Data relating to the countries' happiness is obtained from the prosperity index which is developed by the Legatum Institute[2]. Information on countries' governance matters is taken from the Worldwide Governance Indicators of the World Bank. They measure six dimensions of governance. They define governance as "the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised". The six dimensions[3] of governance are: voice and accountability, political stability and lack of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, RQ, rule of law, and CC. Each indicator shows the country's score and it ranges from -2.5 to 2.5. Higher values indicate better governance ratings. More specifically, each dimension is defined as follow: 4 Methodology and results: In this study, the panel data technique is applied to test and estimate the relationships between the explanatory variables and happiness. Panel data studies have become very common in economic literature in recent years. Panel data or longitudinal data typically refer to data containing time-series observations of a number of individuals. Therefore, observations in panel data involve at least two dimensions; a cross-sectional dimension, indicated by subscript i, and a time-series dimension, indicated by subscript t (Hsiao, 2007). 5 Conclusion: Unhappiness has been recognized as one of the main factors that cause political unrest in the MENA region in recent years. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of governance indicators on people's happiness in the MENA region. The results show that political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness and rule of law have positive and significant impacts on happiness in the region.
An exploratory study of product placement in social media	[ "Social media", "Product placement", "Brand awareness", "Placement presentation", "Product prominence", "Vehicle and product match" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Media has become more diverse and the number of media has increased in the last 20 years. Due to the growth of the available media, it has been harder and harder to deliver marketing messages to potential consumers. As a result, product placement has brought to marketers attention tremendously because of its efficacy. It is also an effective way to reach existing and potential customers (Mackay et al., 2009). Product placement, also called embedded marketing, refers to the inclusion or reference of a product or a brand in a program. It is also defined as "the paid inclusion of branded products or brand identifiers, through audio and/or visual means, within mass media programming" (Karrh, 1998, p. 33). This marketing strategy has been applied to silent films since early twentieth century (Gunning, 1986). It next moved to the TV programs around 1950s and finally to the internet around 1990s (Villafranco and Zeltzer, 2006). It is found that placing a brand in a movie would influence people's implicit memory and implicit choice behavior (Yang and Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2007). Besides the placement to the traditional medium such as movie, TV, radio, DVR, video games, books, and magazines, the positioning of product image has extended to new medium such as the internet and mobile phones (Stephen and Coote, 2005). Theoretical background and hypotheses: Most of product placement marketing activities within social media are based on a relatively simple format. In its simplest form, product placement in social media consists of a writer producing some engaging content (e.g. an article) incorporated with a promotional message (e.g. a picture that includes product information) in order to promote the product. For example, when talking about latte, a writer may position an image of Starbucks's promotion in the article on Facebook. In this case, the article is the engaging content used as a vehicle to deliver the promotional message of Starbucks Cafe. Experiments and results: Experiment 1 Conclusions and future research: Product placement in social media has become an increasingly popular way of reaching potential customers who are able to zap past commercials on traditional media. To reach these retreating audiences, internet marketers have to use product placements in more clever and effective ways. While several past experimental studies (e.g. Homer, 2009) reported that product placement has little impact on brand attitudes, many practitioners maintain that placement can produce "home runs," especially when certain guidelines are met.
Communicating packaging eco-friendliness: An exploration of consumers' perceptions of eco-designed packaging	[ "In-depth interviews", "Eco-design", "Ecological cues", "Packaging design", "ZMET interviews" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: With pollution levels increasing every year and consumers willing to make more sense in their daily consumption, packaging sustainability represents an important issue for industrials and retailers. Since 2007, Walmart is working on a project aiming at being packaging neutral by 2,025. They launched the 4Rs campaign (reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink) which purpose is to optimize packaging for sustainability and to focus on packaging improvements that could reduce materials, increase recycled content, and increase the amount of renewable materials involved in the packaging manufacturing. Similarly, The Coca-Cola Company is working to support initiatives that enable recovery and reuse of their packaging by developing PlantBottle(r) packaging, taking initiatives to encourage recycling, and implementing projects to reduce the amount of material used in their packaging. Theoretical background: Packaging eco-friendliness Research method: The aim of the study is first to determine through a consumer-led taxonomy via which cues package design is likely to infer packaging eco-friendliness, to define the concept of eco-designed packaging with these elements, and to apprehend consumers' responses triggered by the perception of packaging ecological cues. In the following paragraphs, chosen methods will be justified; samples and data analysis process will be presented. Results: Nature of packaging ecological cues Main conclusions and implications: This work adds to the emerging literature on packaging from a consumer point of view. On the one hand, it provides an in-depth analysis on how consumers operate ecological inferences through packaging cues and, on the other hand, it provides an understanding on the positive and negative responses triggered by the perception of these ecological cues. Future research and limitations: Future research may enhance the validity of these findings. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of the first stage of a research project and the relationships between specific ecological cues and consumers' responses should be further investigated. The theoretical concepts developed need to be operationalized into measures for experimental surveys, which would then allow to measure the mediating and moderating influences of the perceived benefits and costs on the adoption of eco-designed packaging. Finally, it will be especially interesting for managers to identify the mechanisms by which consumers adopt or reject eco-designed packages in order to improve the communicative effectiveness of their packaging.
The role of culture in e-commerce use for the Egyptian consumers	[ "Electronic commerce", "National cultures", "Consumer behaviour", "Trust", "Egypt", "Systems analysis" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: Culture is used to name a group of individuals sharing a similar way of thinking, feeling or behaving (Thomas, 1997). There are a number of existing models, which aim to broadly classify different cultures according to particular variables. Hofstede's (1991) cultural model is the one considered in this paper as it serves as the most influential model within social science research (Pavlou and Chai, 2002). The focus of the current paper is the possible relationship between one particular cultural variable, uncertainty avoidance (UA), and e-commerce adoption and use. According to Hofstede's (2001) theory, members of cultures, which are high in UA, are typically averse to taking actions with an uncertain outcome. The role of UA had been highlighted as having a significant effect on the acceptance and attitude of high UA users towards technology (Shoib and Jones, 2003). It could be argued that this effect could be more significant in the case of e-commerce technology. Engaging in e-commerce can be seen as an example of an activity with an uncertain outcome (Einwiller and Will, 2001). While e-commerce is a suitable venue for testing how the level of consumer's UA affects online behaviour, little research has looked into this phenomenon in a cultural context known to be of high UA.Issues of risk and trust have emerged as crucial in e-commerce in general and several authors have begun to explore the antecedents of trust in the e-commerce context. Trust is an increasingly important element of web site design, particularly across diverse cultures (Cyr, 2004). Understanding how to build trust and loyalty for diverse consumers is crucial. Not only is trust important as a feature relating to cultural sensitivity on the web, but it is also an important element in the processes by which global work is conducted. There is limited evidence available from cultural research on online trust suggests general concerns affecting online shopping behaviour across cultures. While there is some evidence of cross-cultural differences, it is unclear whether these can be related to established cross-cultural variables (such as the UA) or to what degree they will impact behaviour in the longer term. Previous studies that investigated this issue are challenged with some limitations and they also reached mixed results. Many researchers, investigating trust models, argue that there may be a relationship between trust and culture, which needs to be further investigated (Gefen, 2000; Lee and Turban, 2001; Shankar et al., 2002).For example, Simon (2001) compared the perceptions and attitudes of four cultural groups (North American, South American, Asian and European) towards four examples of web sites. Their sample was categorised into two cultural clusters, based on Hofstede's (1991) cultural dimensions:1. categorized with high-power distance, collectivist and masculine, included South America and Asian participants; and2. categorized with low-power distance, individualist and feminine, included North America and European participants.It was found that perception of trust did vary significantly by cultural cluster. However, these results could reflect the USA/European cultural bias in the choice of national web sites rather than suggest more general differences between cultures. Other work on culture issues in building trust is discussed in the next section of this paper.This paper is aiming to contribute in this area by looking at how culture affects online shopping behaviour through its effect on trust. As there also might be strong cultural effects on the attitude and willingness to buy through their effect on trust, this research aims to look at how culture affects the consumer's attitude and willingness to buy from an internet store, through its effect on trust. The research is targeting the Egyptian culture, one of the many cultures that remain typically unexplored in that field.The following section discusses the previous work on the effect of culture on trust in the electronic commerce. It then presents and explains the current research model and describes the research hypotheses in detail. The data collection method, analysis and results are then described. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the findings, and the limitations of the reported work. 2 Literature review: 2.1 Cultural research in e-commerce trust 3 Research model: The overall research model to be explored in this paper is shown in Figure 1. The main elements of this model are based upon the findings of Javenpaa et al. (2000) and Gefen (2000). From Javenpaa et al. (2000), it is predicted that:H1. Perceived reputation of an online store will be positively related to consumer trust in that store.H2. Perceived reputation will be positively related to consumer attitude towards that store.H3. Perceived reputation will be positively related to consumer willingness to buy from that store.The role of familiarity was used for this research because previous exploratory research suggested that familiarity may be an important antecedent of trust within the Egyptian culture (El Said and Hone, 2005). Gefen (2000) added the prediction that:H4. Familiarity with an online store will also be positively related to trust.H5. Perceived familiarity will be positively related to consumer attitude towards that store.H6. Perceived familiarity will be positively related to consumer willingness to buy from that store.H7. Trust will be positively related to attitude.H8. Attitude will be positively related to willingness to buy.H9. Trust will be positively related to willingness to buy.In all cases the relationships proposed here have been supported in research conducted in other cultural settings. The question for this research is therefore whether they are also supported for the Egyptian culture. It was also hypothesised that both store familiarity and store reputation will have a stronger relationship with trust for high UA cultural groups. It is expected that the higher the UA, the higher is the path coefficients between perceived reputation and trust (H1a), and between perceived familiarity and trust (H4a). 4 Research setting: 4.1 Research design 5 Results: 5.1 Sample description 6 Discussion: The results of the research provide support for the model presented in Figure 1 and for the hypotheses presented by the paths among the model constructs. First, the results provide empirical evidence for the significant role of the store's perceived reputation and perceived familiarity in building online trust. These two trust antecedents explain a relatively large portion of the variation of trust in the model. This research has succeeded in offering specification, justification, and empirical validation of a set of interrelationships between important factors that tend to be associated with trust in e-commerce.However, the effect of store reputation was highlighted by previous work as important antecedents of trust (Pavlou, 2003; Jarvenpaa et al., 1999). This research contributes by adding more support to these models, and most notably, by validating these previous trust models for the Egyptian internet users, a sample that was not considered by previous researchers in that domain. On the other hand, traditional commerce holds enough evidences on the effect of store familiarity on consumer trust (Luhmann, 1988; Gulati, 1995). This important role of familiarity as an additional antecedent of trust has rarely been emphasized in the e-commerce context, though widely used, by the industry. This research, highlighting the effect of internet store familiarity on trust, provides further support to the little work considering familiarity within the e-commerce context (Gefen, 2000; Bhattacherjee, 2002) model.Second, the results empirically verified that the relationship between trust and its two antecedents are culturally sensitive; the high UA is found to be associated with a stronger effect of perceived reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of perceived familiarity on trust. The research, by this, empirically corroborates previous non-empirical suggestions about the implied effects of culture on consumer behaviour. These results could be justified as members of high UA culture are expected to have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty (Hofstede, 2001). Engaging in e-commerce can be seen as an example of an activity with an uncertain outcome (Einwiller and Will, 2001). The outcome becomes less uncertain when the e-commerce store is one with a good reputation; also uncertainty might decrease when consumer is familiar with that store. However, the effect of store reputation also appears to be important in low UA cultures such as the USA and Australia (Jarvenpaa et al., 1999). In the current research, the effect of reputation on trust was found to be significant for the overall data set, while it was found to be stronger in the case of high UA group.The influence of culture on trust, verified by the findings of this research, is a potentially important extension to existing trust models (Gefen, 2000; Jarvenpaa et al., 1999; Pavlou, 2003). The additional role of culture to these models suggests a possible new strategy that internet vendors can use to increase trust in their stores across cultures. 7 Limitations: Random sampling was not employed consistently throughout the research. This thesis uses a non-probability convenience sampling technique. Some arguments are raised that a convenience sample does not represent the characteristics inherent in the general population. Despite the relatively large sample size of this research, and although it was statistically found that the sample characteristics satisfied the criteria for the target population, the generalisation of the results should be treated with caution beyond the scope of this sample. Future empirical work is needed to demonstrate that these findings are not unique to this particular sample.This research dealt with intentions, not actual e-commerce behaviour. On one hand, there is a general consensus amongst researchers to assume that the degree to which people express their intentions to buy from an internet site is a reasonable predictor of the actual purchase behaviour (Ajzen, 1985). On the other hand, UA, which is posited in this research as an important element of e-commerce adoption, may have a different effect on the actual purchase behaviour. Therefore, by not examining actual e-commerce use, this potentially substantial effect remains unclear (Pavlou and Chai, 2002).This research focused only on the web site category of online bookstores. The role of UA variable might have been different for higher-involvement categories of products and services where the investment is larger and more risky, such as online vendors selling cars and houses. The examination of cultural trust versus consumers' high-involvement e-commerce purchase decisions may reveal various aspects of e-commerce acceptance for high UA cultures. 8 Conclusion: This paper has shown that the roles of e-commerce site perceived familiarity and perceived reputation become relatively more important in affecting on-line trust as UA rises. This suggests that those hoping to implement e-commerce successfully in high uncertainty cultures, such as the Arab countries, will need to pay relatively more attention to measures that reduce the uncertainty associated with internet shopping.
Research on the phenomenon of supply chain resilience: A systematic review and paths for further investigation	[ "Supply chain disruptions", "Systematic literature review", "Supply chain resilience", "Resiliency", "Sand cone model", "Supply chain elements", "Supply chain risk management", "Supply chain vulnerability" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Supply chain disruptions exhibit both internal (e.g. a fire at a major manufacturing plant) and external risks (e.g. economic shocks). Not managing these risks can deteriorate operational and financial performance (Hendricks and Singhal, 2003, 2005; Giunipero and Eltantawy, 2004). The turbulent, fast-changing business environment and growing complexity of global supply chain networks cause higher uncertainty, with unexpected and inevitable risks posing a higher likelihood of severe disruptions than domestic supply chains (Blackhurst et al., 2005; Craighead et al., 2007; Bakshi and Kleindorfer, 2009). These trends coupled with major disasters, such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Hurricane Sandy and Cyclone Phailin, call for greater resiliency in supply chains. Thus, research on risk management and business continuity has gained a major focus in supply chain management (SCM). For instance, Juttner (2005) and Peck (2005) investigate supply chain risk management (SCRM) from a practitioner perspective across industries to reduce vulnerability, while Tomlin (2006) explores mitigation and contingency strategies to accommodate disruptions. Manuj and Mentzer (2008) present several SCRM strategies under different environmental conditions, whereas other researchers evaluate the relationship of SCRM to performance (Kern et al., 2012; Wieland and Wallenburg, 2012). Systematic review of scres literature: Systematic reviews have become a major approach in evidence-based practice. Rooted in medical science, they have been applied in management research to close the "research-practice gap" (Rousseau, 2006, p. 258). They constitute a key methodology for identifying, selecting, and analyzing secondary data (Tranfield et al., 2003; Denyer and Tranfield, 2009). Light and Pillemer (1984) highlight their power to synthesize evidence in existing studies, a practice that can create new knowledge and, thus, is as important as conducting new research. Conclusion and managerial implications: The turbulent, fast-changing nature of the global business economy will continue to affect supply chains in terms of vulnerability, uncertainty and complexity. Creating a resilient supply chain to manage potential risks and disruptions has therefore become a key topic within SCRM research. Thus, SCRES continues to increase in popularity as more researchers and practitioners focus on this important topic (e.g. Ponomarov and Holcomb, 2009; Blackhurst et al., 2011; Wieland and Wallenburg, 2013; Chopra and Sodhi, 2014; Saenz and Revilla, 2014). This paper analyzed 67 academic journal articles published between 2003 and 2013. Considering current suggestions for greater robust and systematic methods management literature reviews, we followed a systematic review methodology guided by Rousseau et al. (2008) and Denyer and Tranfield (2009) to ensure strong evidentiary value. Paths for further investigation: This paper is a systematic review of the state-of-the-art literature with present knowledge. Its value lies in the ability to synthesize research and aid understanding of the SCRES phenomenon to provide a basis for further advancement. Thus, our findings show that there is great potential for future research in this emerging discipline.
Strategic development and growth of emerging renewable energy ventures from China: Real options through mergers and acquisitions	[ "China", "Research and development", "Renewable energy", "Capital ventures", "Acquisitions and mergers" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: China has responded to the global concerns of climate change with target to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emission. Pertinent policies have been formulated to stimulate the deployment of renewable energy and thereby growth and development of such ventures. A number of Chinese renewable energy ventures (REVs) have emerged from early growth into expansion through alternative growth strategies. Some pre-dominantly domestic players have substantiated their initial growth and development through low-cost manufacturing, acquiring local operational experience, expanding production capacity and engaging with end customers.In fact, a number of such REVs have emerged with support of venture capital financing to stimulate organic growth and development opportunities stimulated both by pertinent energy policy and entrepreneurial motives (Chen and Zhang, 2010). These ventures are typically founded in "intrepreneurial" development by state-owned enterprises, private enterprises venturing into green energy business as well as individual founders of strong technology background supported by venture capital. Some of these emerging ventures have not only expanded in the domestic market but also swiftly expanded into international markets where accommodating renewable energy policies are in place (Jacobsson and Lauber, 2006; Ng, 2009a). Those rapidly growing in overseas markets of advanced development have allocated resources heavily into R&D expenditures and building up one's technological intensity. Nevertheless, international technology transfer is viewed as a timely solution to promote the deployment of advanced technologies across borders among the global communities.Despite the introduction of relevant policies for renewable energy development, there are uncertainties for its further growth and penetration in the traditional energy market concerning economic competitiveness of generating electricity by the existing technologies. The first movers among the emerging REVs in China would be challenged by any potential quantum leap in improvement of cost efficiency through advancement of technologies. Such certainties would be complicated for the first movers' various positioning in the emerging value chain and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) would be a possible means of extending REVs' further growth and development. Harnessing the concept of real options, this study attempts to explore the possible evolution of the REVs in such a transition into an economy of sustainable energy. 2 Literature review: 2.1 Dynamics in the development and growth of REVs 3 Problems about further growth and development of emerging REVs: Since the ongoing advancement of technologies and development of technological infrastructure would create uncertainties in timing of commercialization and market penetration, investments in these ventures would need to consider the underlying real options among the potential bidders and targets in order to sustain development and growth. While, the domestic market of China has demonstrated to be a strong market base for early success of local REVs, increasing capability for technological innovation could be achieved through R&D expenditures, strategic alliance or M&As with their counterparts.Nonetheless, there are uncertainties as to the types of scenario in the emerging value chain that could prevail owing to the evolving domestic energy policy, local development and very importantly the temporal advancement of technological innovation on a global basis. All of these factors would complicate the decisions of these firms in allocating resources for the subsequent growth and expansion. However, given the time required to develop R&D capabilities, their real options to move up in the value chain could be constrained by the extent of their prior R&D intensities.REVs that are listed on the overseas stock exchange can be classified into the following three main types using the solar energy sector as an example as summarized in Table I (Figure 1). 4 Real options-driven theory and related propositions: 4.1 Real options-driven theory 5 Concluding remarks: Under a scenario of progressive policy and a closed platform of electricity network, this paper suggests that the first movers that have established a scale in China's domestic technological infrastructure in the downstream value chain are posed to sustain their cost advantage through technological innovation in a progressive manner. Such pathway of innovation could be sustained through continuous domestic market development with further organic growth while seeking technological innovation. Strategic alliance with technology partners might complement for weakness in prior R&D intensity. Nevertheless, the barriers in cross-border technology transfer into China could remain as a key challenge similar to other high-tech industries.Alternatively, first movers within the upstream value chain would need to overcome their potential weaknesses in economy of scale. More critically, disruptive technologies may transform the entire value chain affecting the participants across border as a consequence of discontinuity in retired technologies. Horizontal merger would become another viable alternative for these upstream value chain participants to create synergies in economy of scales and even scope when the uncertainties with technology start diminishing.During such a foreseeable era, consolidation of the industry on a global scale would become imminent. Less technologically advanced first movers in the lower stream of the value chain, which opt to further defer their technology investments or fail to absorb advanced technologies, would eventually be forced to exit or could become a target firm of M&A. Such mergers and potentials are going to be assessed by the primary stakeholders as real options as the emerging environment of the renewable-energy technology sector resembles the dynamics and uncertainties prescribed by Huisman (2001). 6 Further studies: In future studies, such dynamic development experiences of REVs can be explored through multiple case studies to complement the propositions (Yin, 2003). These cases in China would be among the first movers in the value chain which had raised initial financial resources for expansions through Initial Public Offers. Through case studies of these first movers undergoing growth and development within a value chain-technological regime framework, the author(s) could examine the increasing significance of strategic alliance as well as strategic M&As as possible real options. Such developments are driven by the incentives to subsequently build complementary capabilities and absorb new knowledge under the prescribed uncertainties.
Assessing performance-use preferences through an institutional logics lens	[ "Performance measurement", "Public sector", "Experiment", "Institutional logics", "Performance measurement systems", "Priming" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Performance is a notion that has preoccupied public administration scholars for decades (Amirkhanyan et al., 2013). It is considered essential that public sector organizations perform, and further that they measure and communicate this performance to key stakeholders (Henman, 2016). Performance measurement, that is, the "enumeration of organizational or system level processes, outputs and outcomes" (Henman, 2016), in the public sector, is however not easy given the need to address multiple dimensions and to satisfy multiple constituents (Amirkhanyan et al., 2013). 2. Performance measurement use in the public sector: PMS serve different purposes for organizations. For example, Atkinson et al. (1997) classify the roles of PMSs as coordination, monitoring and diagnosis. Building on this earlier work, Henri (2006) identifies four types of PMS use: monitoring, attention-focusing, strategic decision-making and legitimization. Also, Franco-Santos et al. (2007) identify and sort 17 different roles played by PMS in organizations into five broad categories: measurement of performance, strategy management, communication, behavior-influencing and learning and improvement. Conversely, regarding public management, Behn (2003) assumes a practice perspective to identify eight managerial purposes for measuring performance. These are to evaluate, control, budget, motivate, promote, celebrate and improve. 3. Institutional logics as frames of reference: Goffman (1974), taking a macro-sociological approach, posited that individuals make sense of the world through socially derived interpretive schemes that he referred to as "primary frameworks." Drawing similar conclusions from individual-level studies, the psychology literature identifies and describes an individual's frame of reference as "a built-up repertoire of tacit knowledge that is used to impose structure upon, and impart meaning to, otherwise ambiguous social and situational information to facilitate understanding" (Gioia, 1986, p. 56). 4. Method and data: In this experimental design study, participants (n=98) were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, differentially primed and asked to do an evaluative task. The central feature of the experiment was a forced ranking exercise, with the dependent variable being ranks assigned to each of a set of ten reasons for recommending PMS use in the public sector. 5. Results: To statistically check for the effect of the primed institutional logic on preferences for PMS use, we applied a non-parametric ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results displayed in Table III show statistically significant differences in the ranks given to PMS use for aligning strategic activities to strategic plans (kh2: 4.457, p=0.088) and for learning (kh2: 8.795, p=0.012). There are, however, no significant differences in the ranks assigned to PMS use for all other uses. 6. Discussion: Extant literature suggests that different institutional logics represent different world views that condition how actors interpret their realities, make judgments and act upon them (Thornton and Ocasio, 2008). Thus, one would expect the primed institutional logics to exert differential influence on the study subjects such that distinctively different patterns of preferences regarding PMS use would emerge. Accordingly, one would have expected study subjects primed for the public institutional logic to assign a higher rank to PMS uses for the alignment of strategic activities to strategic plans, and because the law requires it, compared to those primed for a managerial-market logic or a professional logic. Similarly, given its association with efficiency, competition and market position (Thornton et al., 2005; Saz-Carranza and Longo, 2012), one would expect study subjects primed for a market-managerial logic to assign higher ranks to PMS uses for improving productivity and mission effectiveness, for providing a rational basis for process improvements or for enhancing competition, compared to those primed for other logics. And for a logic of the professions that is premised on personal reputation, expertise, quality of craft and independence (Thornton et al., 2005; Saz-Carranza and Longo, 2012), one would expect greater preferences for PMS use for benchmarking and for learning. 7. Conclusion: The aim of this exploratory study was to provide clues toward a better understanding of the relationships between institutional logics and PMS use in public sector organizations. In this regard, we find evidence suggestive of both institutional logic divergence and consensus as far as support for PMS use is concerned. These findings have been elaborated in the discussion above. And so, despite the study's limitations, we can derive several theoretical and methodological contributions as well as practical implications.
E-retailing ethics and its impact on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention: A cultural and commitment-trust theory perspective	[ "Ethics", "E-commerce" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: The internet has come as a strong alternative way of physical commerce. The internet itself is a global phenomenon, with over 2.7 billion users worldwide in 2013, up from 420 million in 2000 and one billion in 2005 (Internet World Stats., 2013). In the developing world, 31 per cent of the population is online, compared with 77 per cent in the developed world (Internet World Stats., 2013). The incredible growth of e-commerce presents ethical issues by the way internet represents new environment for unethical behaviour (Freestone and Michell, 2004). Although many businesses are acknowledging the importance of e-commerce and online retailing activities, little attention has been given to the business community's perceptions of the ethicality of this new media (Bush et al., 2000; Roman, 2007; Roman and Cuestas, 2008). Given the latest technological developments in e-retailing, this paper advances our understanding of the ethical issues in the online retailing context. In this respect we follow the call by James and Rajiv (2009) for internet researchers to make significant contribution to the retailing literature "by utilizing theories not frequently applied to internet issues as well as investigating antecedents variables heretofore overlooked". 2. Research objective: E-commerce is growing rapidly and it presents ethical issues by the way internet represents new environment for unethical behaviour (Freestone and Michell, 2004). Apart from the re-examination of commitment-trust theory in the online retailing context, our study attempts to make other fundamental contributions in understanding online customer behaviours. Although the relationship between national culture (e.g. individualism (IND), and power distance (PD)) and the ethical perceptions of consumers is paramount for the prediction of customer satisfaction, literature still limited in this area. So we take a first step into the examining of the influence of culture on the relationship between e-retailing ethics and customer satisfaction. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify ethical factors that affect consumer perceptions towards online retailers and explore the relationship between e-retailing ethics and customer satisfaction based on the theory of commitment and trust. The structure of this paper is organized as follows. Section 3 provides theoretical background of the study followed by Section 4 where the research model and hypotheses are developed. Sections 5 and 6 present both the methodology and data analysis. The discussion part is mentioned in Section 7 followed by the conclusion in Section 8. 3. Theoretical background: 3.1. Ethical issues in e-commerce 4. Conceptual framework and hypotheses: Based on the Commitment-Trust theory, Morgan and Hunt (1994) constructed a KMV model to prove that relationship commitment and trust were central to successful relational exchange. We hypothesized that relationship commitment and trust mediated the relationship between five precursors and customer satisfaction. 5. Methodology: 5.1. Measurement of constructs 6. Data analysis and results: 6.1. Descriptive statistics 7. Discussion: The aim of this study was to develop and test a comprehensive model of CPORE from the consumers' perspective with the extending research model adapted from Roman (2007) study and incorporating Hofstede's cultural dimensions as moderators in the model. First, we confirmed that CPORE is a multidimensional construct composed of five dimensions: security, privacy, fulfilment/reliability, non-deception, and service recovery. Prior research in the traditional marketplace addressing consumers' ethical perceptions has considered a limited number of dimensions. Moreover, most of this research has conceptualized and measured ethics as undimensional construct (e.g. Lagace et al., 1991). Nevertheless, a few studies carried out in traditional settings (e.g. Mcintyre et al., 1999) suggested that unidimensional approach to consumers' ethical perceptions may not be sufficient to capture its complexity and dimensionality. This may be especially true in the online context. The internet is continually evolving and has a multifaceted nature (Gregory, 2007). Therefore, it is important that CPORE are specified at a more abstract level, which implies reflective first-order dimensions. Second, the findings of this study show the direct effect of CPORE on customer satisfaction. These results confirm the findings of previous studies that online retailing ethics significantly impacts the customer satisfaction (e.g. Roman and Cuestas, 2008; Kurt and Hacioglu, 2010). Thus online stores with good ethics could establish a favourable relationship with customers, thereby acquiring the customers' satisfaction and trust. As well as we found a direct effect of consumer satisfaction on repurchase intention. These finding consistent with previous studies that support a direct positive relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention (e.g. Zhang et al., 2011; Tsai et al., 2006; Rose et al., 2012). Third, the model and results show that there are partial mediating effects of trust and commitment that impact the relationship between online retailing ethics and consumer satisfaction. Previous studies have suggested that trust and commitment appear to be antecedents or precursors to satisfaction (e.g. Goran et al., 2010). Trust and commitment promote relationship marketing success (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). 8. Conclusion: 8.1. Theoretical implications
Institutional strategies for developing enterprise education: A review of some concepts and models	[ "Corporate strategy", "Business enterprise", "Education", "Entrepreneurialism", "Universities" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: This paper seeks to answer two basic questions via the development of evaluative criteria and models of potential institutional practice in universities. First, what are the strategic approaches or models that could be adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs) to support and develop enterprise education? Second, given these potential models which of these offer effective options for the long-term development of enterprise education within HEIs? The paper deliberately avoids the wider philosophical and political debate of whether enterprise education should be a part of a modern university and whether the university itself should be more entrepreneurial (Clark, 1998, 2004). This debate is explored elsewhere (Smilor et al., 1993; Gibb and Hannon, 2007). Instead we are interested in an operational and strategic question at the level of individual institutions once they have chosen to introduce enterprise education, or indeed, once some aspects of it have begun to emerge from within. Due to this focus our application of the term enterprise education is used broadly to include educational activities focused on the development of entrepreneurial capacities; behaviours; skills; knowledge; mindsets; and experiences, as defined by its use within the practice of the individual institution. The definition, being broad, also allows this paper some scope to put to one-side the variety of conceptual and operational concerns and confusion over educational practice, teaching methods, and debates about the actual nature of enterprise or entrepreneurship in the context of education (Gorman et al., 1997; Pittaway and Cope, 2007). This is valuable because we seek to conceptualise the potential organisational structures, processes and means for supporting the educational activities and do not, in this paper, explore the specificities of what those educational activities should be.The paper will progress by first considering and developing some evaluative criteria drawn both from the evidence base and from experience as to what appears important in establishing durable institutional mechanisms for encouraging long-term sustainability in enterprise education. The paper will then introduce some models of institutional practice, based both on insights from existing approaches and from abstract conceptualisation. Each model will be reviewed in detail and the evaluative criteria applied. Finally, the paper will draw some conclusions from the analysis of the institutional models. The models outlined include single department-led models and campus-wide models. Developing evaluative criteria: A review and analysis of institutional strategies for supporting enterprise education seems timely. As Gibb and Hannon (2007) have pointed out the pressures of globalisation and consequent structural changes to economies have led to considerable effort amongst policy-makers worldwide to promote the development of enterprise education across educational systems (Johannisson, 1991; Doutriaux and Barker, 1996; Levie, 1999; Zhao, 2004; Pittaway and Cope, 2007). Governments and private organisations in many countries have been seeking to engender change in the higher education system with notions of enterprise, entrepreneurship, employability, self-employment and skills (DTI, 1998; European Commission, 2000; Higher Education in Europe, 2004). Some of these efforts have been supported with significant funding. Yet, in the UK at least, the evidence of sustained strategies within institutions remains unclear, with significant growth in provision being demonstrated but with concerns over fragility and future sustainability (Hannon et al., 2007). Meanwhile there has been an emerging shift in emphasis away from previous models, which are predominantly business school led, toward wider institutional and embedded strategies. This is best demonstrated in the USA by the Kaufmann Campus Initiative[1]. Despite this shift in emphasis in the USA much of the educational activity in the UK, and specifically in England, continues to be dominated by business schools (Hannon et al., 2007). Only limited evidence has been collected on the viability of particular institutional strategies (Gibb and Hannon, 2007). If one were to conduct an analysis of institutional strategies what criteria should be selected and applied and what makes a viable strategy for the long-term development of enterprise education in HEIs? In this part of the paper we argue for criteria that are useful for considering the viability of enterprise education within the context of individual institutions. These criteria are presented using a supply-side perspective, in other words what criteria would institutions themselves use when accepting and embedding activities within the institution. We accept that an alternative perspective might be applied, which is not covered in this paper, which are factors driven by the education system, funding mechanisms and student demand (the demand-side perspective). These demand-side considerations include: perceptions of students' intentions and aspirations, their experiences and contexts, and their exposure to opportunities and networks. These are not the focus of this paper but would need to be incorporated into any empirical assessment of sustainability in particular HEIs.We now explore the supply-side criteria in detail prior to constructing an analytical framework for evaluating institutional models and strategies.Educational impact Academic credibility: The academy is complex and diverse. Many disciplines including sociology, economics and business studies, have taken some considerable time to be accepted in higher education. It can be argued that enterprise education and entrepreneurship as subjects, do need academic credibility, if they are to become established in HEIs. This is a problematic issue on a number of accounts. First, what is academic credibility, and second, can achieving it pervert the nature of the endeavour? Academic credibility is a nebulous concept but for the purposes of this paper we view it as the subject having recognised standing in the academic community. Whether entrepreneurship has academic credibility is a moot point (Solomon et al., 1994). There are those who argue that it is gaining credibility and there is evidence to support such arguments, such as the growth in tenured professorships in the USA (Katz, 1991) and the growth in centres and refereed publications (Solomon et al., 1994). Academic credibility is broadly (but debatably) seen to derive from having a research base, which is respected by other disciplines. So for the purposes of this paper the criterion academic credibility will be applied in relation to each model's ability to support research activity and to how the discipline base of this activity might be viewed. It is worth noting the use of the term discipline base, as will be illustrated later, can apply to different models in different ways and does not necessarily imply the establishment of entrepreneurship research as an academic discipline. The challenge for enterprise education is that the pursuit of academic credibility in the currently accepted form can reinforce rather than reshape notions of academic credibility, which were originally based on the imaginative application of knowledge and the contribution of the academy to society.Human capital Analysis of models supporting enterprise education: Before we conduct the analysis and discussion of the models it is valuable to make some issues clear about how the models are being used and conceptualised. The models presented are abstract conceptualisations. In this sense they do draw on practice and potential practice, but are not descriptions of day-to-day activities. As such no one model is likely to represent the actual current practice of an individual institution in its entirety. It is also posited that a number of the models could exist in one institution at any point in time. As abstractions the models lack a temporal or dynamic nature. It is anticipated, therefore, that one institution may evolve through several stages over a period of time. Indeed, there is some connection between models in terms of institutional development from less established activity to more established activity. The models to be explored have been described as:... single department-led early stage; single department-led development stage; single department-led outreach; campus wide embedded; campus wide centralised; and, multiple department-led collaborative.The paper will proceed by exploring each model according to the criteria presented in the first part of the paper. The discussion will be organised by grouping models into two clusters single department-led; and campus wide as there are some common features within clusters that are not common across the two clusters. Table I summarises the discussion that follows.Single department-led models Conclusions: This is essentially a viewpoint paper and is conceptual in approach. The evaluative criteria and idealised models we have posited are supported by our understanding of the current evidence base, of current HEI practice and are derived from our thoughts about potential practice and the future development of enterprise education in higher education. Many universities are currently experimenting with different models, approaches and strategies for the provision of enterprise education to a range of groups - students, staff, alumni, small firms and other stakeholders. The proposed abstract models act as sense-making schemata for gaining a better understanding and insight into wider opportunities as well as current positioning of approaches.We have sought to present evaluative criteria and apply these to models of institutional practice formulised to support the development of enterprise education. As a viewpoint paper it may be considered essential to have a view about which of these models is most viable or optimal. This does not seem appropriate outside of the individual context of each institution. Each is different and any model would clearly need to be fit for purpose within the particular HEI. All of these models have their merits and their disadvantages. Likewise as explained previously in the paper these models are abstractions, in some HEIs more than one of these models might be operating simultaneously, separately, in collaboration or as a hybrid. There also appears to be potential in these models for a progressive and temporal element (or indeed a sporadic and regressive one) (see Figure 3).There are differences that would suggest greater potential for viability[4] for some of the models than others. The two models favoured in this argument would be single department-led outreach and department led collaborative. The former has the benefit of offering an established academic subject home for enterprise education where research on entrepreneurship and academic practice has academic credibility and is financially sustainable, while still offering opportunities to students across the university. The potential downside is the impact of a dominate pedagogy, lack of contextualisation and lack of embeddedness. The alternative approach that has the same advantages, particularly financial sustainability and campus wide appeal, but offsets some of the weaknesses, particularly the effect of a dominate pedagogy, is an entity (e.g. institute) that is collaborative between several departments. This offers the potential of secure teaching income from the collaborating departments while drawing from a range of pedagogic traditions and engaging in research in a number of disciplines, therefore, drawing academic credibility from a number of sources. It is perhaps not as extensive or as embedded as the campus wide embedded model but based on this evaluation it is likely to be more sustainable.In Table II we present an assessment of the evaluative criteria used in this paper. This assessment shows that certain criteria were more useful than others in terms of assessing potential models for organising practice. What is displayed here is some distinction between criteria, which in Table II is separated between evaluative and contextual. The evaluative criteria were found to be useful for assessing the different models of practice. The contextual criteria in contrast did not show much variation between models and were less useful to the analysis. Despite this these criteria are still recognised to be important in enabling sustainability but were considered to be relevant within the context of particular institutions. They may be useful in assessing the viability of the activity within institutions regardless of which organisational model is applied.In conclusion this paper offers a number of speculations from which it derives models. These models are useful for explaining a number of different approaches to organising enterprise education and the criteria developed may be useful for assessing the viability of enterprise education in particular HEIs. One must recognise that there are many limitations implied in this analysis. First, the models need to be compared with actual practice in institutions and the advantages and disadvantages hypothesised may differ when considered in practice. Second, the evaluative criteria put forward need to be further developed and conceptualised before they can be applied empirically. Finally, both the models and the criteria developed need to be observed and analysed empirically before any substantive conclusions can be drawn other than ones based on argument. Despite these significant limitations the paper does make a contribution to knowledge. It does so by providing, possibly for the first time, taxonomy of institutional practice recognising that different HEIs manage and develop enterprise education in different ways. There is still more depth required to the models of practice but this depth is likely only to come from further empirical research.The paper and the models outlined add value to the educator and policy communities by providing a basis for considering the viability of particular methods for organising enterprise education in HEIs. This is useful for educators in terms of considering strategies and arguments for the development of particular approaches within their institution, which are sensible and contextually appropriate to the particular HEI. For policy makers the paper provides a first stage taxonomy for the consideration of approaches for intervention and funding, helping identify different forms of organisation and their advantages and disadvantages in terms of long-term sustainability. The models are also valuable where there may be uncertainty of funding for enterprise education because they show how approaches can be developed within HEIs that are not dependent on short-term grants.
Using the kaleidoscope career model to examine generational differences in work attitudes	[ "Careers", "Baby boomer generation", "Career development" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: Much has been written in the popular press about the clash between Baby Boomers (hereinafter Boomers) and members of Generation X (hereinafter Xers). For instance, Business Week has featured stories such as "The reasons why Gen Xers are unhappy at work," which suggests that Boomer managers do not understand what motivates their Xer employees (Erickson, 2005). Fortune has reported on how Xers feel they cannot get ahead because of the "grey ceiling" created by Boomers who will not retire (Fisher and Bonamici, 2006). Time magazine featured a cover story about Xers that lamented "they just won't grow up" (Grossman, L., 2005) while also illustrating that the generation gap is not just a western phenomenon with its story on "China's me generation" (Simon, 2007). Similar reports of how the generation gap between Boomers and Xers have caused increased workplace conflict have been offered by the Society for Human Resource Management (2004), news organizations such as ABC (Johnson, 2007a, b), and numerous popular press books such as When Generations Collide (Lancaster and Stillman, 2002), Boomers, Xers and Other Strangers (Hicks and Hicks, 1999), and Motivating the "What's In It For Me" Workforce (Marston, 2007). Research on differing generational characteristics: Over the past 50 years, the examination of generations has been of interest to many different scientific fields including economics, demography, political science, clinical psychology and sociology (Alwin and McCammon, 2007; Biggs, 2007). It is widely held in these fields that certain revolutionary historical events become crystallizing experiences for individuals of shared birth years which bond them together and greatly influence their critical developmental years. These common events shape a generation, influencing members' attitudes and behaviors as this group "travels together through time." Moreover, individuals who share birth years identify with each other as in-group members while others outside of the group recognize them as a distinct generation. Thus, individuals from a respective generation can be differentiated from members of other generations not only by shared birth years but also by the unique social and historical experiences of the members' youths which permanently influenced their characteristics. The four major generations of the twentieth century that have been studied are:1. the Greatest Generation, born between 1922 and 1945;2. Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964;3. Xers, born between 1965 and 1983; and4. Generation Y (hereinafter Yers), born between 1984 and 2002 (Alwin and McCammon, 2007; Biggs, 2007; Jurkiewicz and Brown, 1998; Kupperschmidt, 2000).Members of the Greatest Generation share common values based on the key life experiences of the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and the Second World War. The Greatest Generation is also called the Silent Generation because they take what life throws at them and remain stoic without complaining about their circumstances. They are self-disciplined, believe in self-sacrifice, and value hard work. They are bound by a strong set of ethical principles that makes them extremely loyal employees. They believe in traditional values and enact traditional gender roles - the husband as breadwinner and the wife as homemaker (Hankin, 2004).After living through the Great Depression, the Greatest Generation labored to ensure that their Boomer children never wanted for anything and had ample opportunities for a better life. These Greatest Generation parents preached the American Dream and instilled Boomers with the belief that hard work and effort would lead to success. Thus, Boomers value extrinsic measures of career success and are willing to work long hours to obtain rewards. Witnessing the Women's Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the moon landing, Boomers appreciate the value of working well in teams to achieve goals. Boomers also witnessed great national tragedies including the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Disillusioned by the Vietnam War, Watergate and the resignation of President Nixon, Boomers developed a distrust of authority and place a high value on independent thinking (Callanan and Greenhaus, 2008; Hankin, 2004).Unlike the Boomers who seem to live to work, it is said that Xers work to live. Xers were greatly influenced by the financial, family and societal insecurities that dominated their childhoods. The downsizing of their Boomer parents in the 1980s and 1990s caused Xers to be distrustful of organizations. Many also experienced the insecurity of being a latchkey child or the child of a single parent as both the number of dual career couples and divorce rates rose. Between the uncertainties of their home lives and the uncertainties of the world, including the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the Challenger disaster, they lack solid traditions but are accustomed to rapid change. They are highly mobile; they are more loyal to work groups and bosses than firms. They dislike hierarchy, believe rewards should be based on merit as opposed to seniority, prefer to work alone, and prefer informal work arrangements. Xers have also been dubbed the "Slacker Generation" because they place a lesser emphasis on work as an important part of their lives, especially in comparison to their Boomer parents (Hankin, 2004; McDonald and Hite, 2008).While the details of the Greatest Generation, Boomers, and Xers are fairly well developed, the characteristics of the newest members of the workforce, Yers, are less clear. The confusion over how to best describe this generation is illustrated by the number of monikers that have been used to label them, including:* Generation Why;* the Millennial Generation;* the MySpace Generation;* the Nexters;* the Internet Generation; and* the Greater Generation.The early lives of this generation have been influenced by historical events such as 9/11, the Iraq War, and the O.J. Simpson Trial. Yers cannot remember a time when they were not connected 24/7. They are considered to be the most technologically adept members of the workforce. Their reliance on fast-paced technology; however, often makes them seem impatient (Hankin, 2004; Terjesen et al., 2007).For the first time in modern history, members from four generations are in the workforce. In 2007, approximately 9 per cent of the workforce were members of the Greatest Generation, 32 per cent were Boomers, 45 per cent were Xers, and 14 per cent were Yers (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Although over the last five decades scholars have examined generational conflicts at both the micro level, such as between parents of one generation and children of another, and at the macro level, such as generational clashes over social and economic issues including social security and health care policies (Alwin and McCammon, 2007; Biggs, 2007), organizational scholars have just begun to study how generational differences may impact the workplace (e.g. Smola and Sutton, 2002). In the next section we discuss the relatively limited academic research that has been completed on generational differences in the work environment. Research on generational differences in the workplace: In one of the first, large scale studies (n=335) to examine generational differences in organizations, Smola and Sutton (2002) compared the work values of Boomers and Xers. Of the twenty significance tests completed, only three resulted in significant generational differences. In line with the idea that Boomers work to live whereas Xers live to work, Boomers were significantly more likely to agree that work should be one of the most important parts of a person's life. Similarly, supporting the idea that Xers favor merit over seniority for performance decisions, Xers were significantly more likely to desire to be promoted quickly. Contrary to the belief that Xers are slackers, Xers were significantly more likely to agree that working hard makes one a better person. Most surprising, however, was the lack of significant generational differences Smola and Sutton (2002) found on most work values, including: being of service to others, feeling more worthwhile for working hard, enjoying work, feeling a sense of pride in one's work, being respected for one's work, getting more money, getting more fringe benefits, being complimented by one's supervisor, and having leisure and free time.Similar to Smola and Sutton, other organizational researchers have found relatively few of the generational differences suggested by previous research (e.g. Biggs, 2007). Of the nine work outcomes examined by Davis et al. (2006) only three (job involvement, normative organization commitment, and continuance professional commitment) were statistically significant, but just one relationship was in the expected direction. While continuance professional commitment was significantly higher for Boomers than Xers as predicted, contrary to expectations, job involvement and normative organization commitment were significantly higher for Xers. There were no generational differences on factors including work involvement, work group attachment, affective organization commitment, continuance organization commitment, affective professional commitment, and normative professional commitment.Likewise, Gentry et al. (2009) reported no significant generational differences in Boomers' and Xers' attitudes about learning and development. Despite suggestions that Xers are more protean (Hall, 1976, 1996, 2004) in their beliefs about learning and taking responsibility for their own career development, there were no significant differences between Xers and Boomers in beliefs about the importance of on-the-job learning as well as the belief that their firms develop them as employees. Although it would be expected that Xers would be more likely to intend to engage in developmental learning within the next year, only three of the 29 comparisons about plans to engage in developmental initiatives (e.g. learning another language, development of leadership skills) showed significant generational differences. As to preferences for the use of different developmental techniques (e.g. classroom instruction, web-based training, on-the-job training) for learning soft and hard skills, only six of the 30 comparisons made were significantly different. Overall, their findings suggest few generational differences in attitudes toward learning.Sirias et al. (2007) reported mixed results in their study of generational differences and individualism/collectivism. They found that Xers had significantly higher scores on self-reliance, competitiveness and solitary work preferences than Boomers. There were no significant differences between Xers and Boomers on their willingness to sacrifice personal pursuits for the good of the team or in the supremacy of group goals over self-interests (see also Karp et al., 2002).Using the framework of person-environment fit, Westerman and Yamamura (2007) also reported mixed results. They reported that when Xers and Yers perceived a good fit between their goals and organizational goals, they were significantly more likely to intend to remain with the firm and were more satisfied. However, goal fit had no effect on the satisfaction and intention to remain of Boomers. Relationship fit (e.g. social interaction and work friendships) had a significant effect on the satisfaction of Boomers but had no effect on Boomers' intent to remain. Relationship fit had no influence on intent to remain or satisfaction of Xers or Yers. Because Westerman and Yamamura combined Xers and Yers into one group, differences between these two generations were not considered.In contrast with much of the previous survey research, Beutell and Wittig-Berman (2008) using archival data from 1997 (n=3,552) and 2002 (n=3,504), found significant differences among Matures (i.e. Greatest Generation), Boomers, and Xers in attitudes toward work interfering with family and family interfering with work. There were significant generational differences in work-family synergy for the 1997 sample but not for the 2002 sample. For each generation, job pressures and mental health were the strongest predictors of both types of work-family conflict. Overall, Matures were significantly more satisfied than Boomers and Xers, with Xers being especially concerned about issues of balance.Unlike most of the studies on generational differences in organizations which used surveys and tended to report mixed results or relatively few differences (see Beutell and Wittig-Berman, 2008, for an exception), Gursoy et al. (2008) used focus groups (n=36 Boomers and 38 Xers) and found consistent generational differences in worldviews. Supporting previous research on generational characteristics, Gursoy et al. (2008) reported that Boomers:* live to work;* respect authority and hierarchy; and* enjoy being in charge.In contrast, Xers:* work to live;* desire instant gratification; and* are self-reliant.Like Gursoy et al. (2008), Jovic et al. (2006) used a qualitative approach (i.e. interviews with 34 Boomers and 18 Xers) but also collected quantitative data (i.e. surveys of 87 Boomers and 65 Xers) to examine the work attitudes and behaviors of physicians. Analysis of the interviews suggested that Boomers generally perceived Xers to be less committed to their careers. Boomers thought Xers worked fewer hours, worked less hard, and placed a greater emphasis on work-family balance. Interestingly, while the qualitative data suggested clear generational differences, analysis of the survey data found few significant differences. The quantitative analysis found no significant generational differences in working hours and positive attitudes toward patient care. Likewise, both generations reported similar amounts of balance, that work demands interfered with their family life, and that they lacked time to do the things they wished. The one significant difference between the two generations was that Boomers were more likely to report that their family responsibilities interfered with their work. This study is especially interesting in that most of the Boomers' perceptions of their Gen X colleagues did not match the self-reported attitudes and behaviors of the Gen Xers. These findings suggest that generational clashes may be due, at least in part, to perceptions of differences rather than actual differences between the generations.Overall, relatively little research has been completed on how generational differences may impact work attitudes and behaviors. Examining the eight major studies that have been published highlights the lack of consensus among organizational scholars about generational differences in the work environment. Because of this lack of agreement, scholars are unable to provide clear recommendations to organizational leaders on how to best manage the increasingly diverse workforce. To advance the research on generational differences, we utilize the Kaleidoscope Career Model (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006) to provide a theoretical framework for our examination of generational differences in workplace attitudes. The next section provides a description of this model and suggests hypotheses regarding generational differences in the needs for authenticity, balance, and challenge. The Kaleidoscope Career Model: The Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) is a relatively new career theory that was based on the results of five different studies (interviews, focus groups, and three surveys) of over 3,000 US professional workers (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006; Sullivan et al., 2007). Like a kaleidoscope that produces changing patterns when the tube is rotated and its glass chips fall into new arrangements, the KCM describes how individuals change the patterns of their careers by rotating the varied aspects of their lives in order to arrange their relationships and roles in new ways. Individuals evaluate the choices and options available through the lens of the kaleidoscope to determine the best fit among work demands, constraints, and opportunities as well as relationships and personal values and interests. As one decision is made, it affects the outcome of the kaleidoscope career pattern.Just as a kaleidoscope uses three mirrors to create infinite patterns, individuals focus on three parameters when making decisions, thus creating the kaleidoscope pattern of their career. These parameters are:1. Authenticity. Whereby the individual's internal values are aligned with his/her external behaviors and the values of the employing organization.2. Balance. Whereby the individual strives to reach an equilibrium between work and non-work (e.g. family, friends, elderly relatives, personal interests) demands.3. Challenge. Which is an individual's need for stimulating work (e.g. responsibility, autonomy) as well as career advancement.These three parameters are simultaneously active over the life span with the strength of a parameter to shape a career decision or transition depending upon what is going on in that individual's life at that particular time. Over the course of the life span, as a person searches for the best fit that matches the character and context of his/her life, the kaleidoscope's parameters shift in response, with one parameter moving to the foreground and intensifying as that parameter takes priority at that time. The other two parameters lessen in intensity and recede to the background, but are still present and active as all aspects are necessary to create the current pattern of an individual's life/career. Although relatively new, research has supported the basic tenets of the KCM (Cabrera, 2007, in press; Godshalk et al., 2007; Smith-Ruig, 2009).We framed this study using the non-traditional career model of the KCM as the theory base to examine the career values of Boomers and Xers. We suggest there may be generational differences in the career parameters of authenticity, balance, and challenge. Specifically, Xers, who have been characterized as "working to live" (Gursoy et al., 2008) and being more focused on non-work issues (Beutell and Wittig-Berman, 2008), are expected to exhibit a higher desire for balance than the workaholic Boomers. Likewise, Xers are more likely to exhibit a greater desire for authenticity than the Boomers. It has been suggested that Xers want more meaningful work that permits them to express their values (Westerman and Yamamura, 2007) whereas Boomers are more interested in extrinsic rewards (e.g. Callanan and Greenhaus, 2008; Hankin, 2004). In contrast, it is anticipated that Boomers, who have been characterized as "living to work" and who consider work one of the most important aspects of their lives (Smola and Sutton, 2002), will have a greater desire for challenge than Xers, who have also been called the generation of slackers. Using the KCM as our theoretical foundation, we propose the following hypotheses:H1. Compared to Boomers, Xers will report a greater desire for authenticity.H2. Compared to Boomers, Xers will report a greater desire for balance.H3. Compared Xers, Boomers will report a greater desire for challenge. Method: Sample Results: Table I contains the correlations, means, and standard deviations of the study variables. Generational membership was significantly correlated with both authenticity (r=-0.09) and balance (r=-0.14) in the hypothesized direction providing initial support for H1 and H2 that Xers would report higher needs for authenticity and balance than Boomers. However, generational membership was not related to challenge in the correlation matrix. T-tests were also conducted to examine potential differences between Xers and Boomers. The t-tests for authenticity and balance were both significant at the p<0.01 level. For authenticity, M=3.42 for Xers and 3.25 for Boomers; and for balance, M=3.44 for Xers and 3.18 for Boomers. The means for challenge between Xers (M=3.36) and Boomers (M=3.25) were not significantly different.To perform a more stringent test of our hypotheses, hierarchical multiple regression was performed with the control variables entered as the first block, and generational membership entered as the second block. The results are shown in Table II. In support of H1, Xers reported a greater desire for authenticity than Boomers (b=-0.07, p<0.05). H2 was also supported, in that Xers reported a higher need for balance than Boomers (b=-0.09, p<0.01). However, contrary to H3, Boomers did not report a greater desire for challenge than Xers.An examination of the control variables provided additional clarification as to factors associated with desires for authenticity, balance, and challenge. Women and those with higher education reported greater needs for authenticity. Higher needs for balance were reported by those who had children living at home, as well as by those who were married or living with a partner. Finally, those with higher levels of education and income reported greater desires for challenge. Discussion: Despite the increased generational diversity in the workplace and increasing questions from organizational leaders about how to strategically manage these valuable resources, there is little consensus among organizational scholars as to whether there are significant differences between Boomers and Xers. Moreover, while scholars in other fields have studied generational differences for decades, relatively speaking, organizational scholars have just begun to examine generational differences in workplace attitudes and behaviors. This study was completed in an effort to shed additional light on this issue by examining whether there are generational differences in the important career needs of authenticity, balance, and challenge.Using the KCM as a theory base, this study examined potential generational differences in three work attitudes. As predicted by H1, Xers did have a significantly higher desire for authenticity than Boomers. Although this finding is in contrast to the research of Smola and Sutton (2002) which found no generational differences on a number of other work values (e.g. being of service to others), it does support some research which suggests that Xers are more focused on obtaining a job that they enjoy and allows them to express their personal values (see Callanan and Greenhaus, 2008; McDonald and Hite, 2008). It is also consistent with Westerman and Yamamura's (2007) findings that when Xers (and Yers) reported a good fit between their goals and organizational goals, they were significantly more likely to intend to remain with the firm and were more satisfied.As predicted, Xers did have a significantly higher desire for balance than Boomers. Xers, perhaps because they were the latchkey children of dual career or divorced parents, may wish to obtain a better balance between their work and non-work lives for themselves and for the sake of others (e.g. children, elderly relatives in their care, friends). As suggested by prior research (Beutell and Wittig-Berman, 2008; Gursoy et al., 2008; Smola and Sutton, 2002) it seems while Boomers live to work, Xers work to live. However, in contrast to the findings for authenticity and balance, no significant generational differences were found regarding the desire for challenge. It seems that regardless of generation, individuals want challenging work. While the literature on generational characteristics and research on the protean career suggests that Xers are motivated more by factors like challenging work whereas Boomers are motivated more by money and status, our findings did not support such a difference. Perhaps other factors (e.g. personality, growth need strength) have more influence on needs for challenge than generational membership and should be the subject of further research. Limitations of the study and directions for future research: Although this study sheds additional light on generational differences in career needs, it is not without its limitations. First, while a number of disciplines have studied generational characteristics for over 50 years (see Alwin and McCammon, 2007; Biggs, 2007), there has been no agreement among scholars about which birth years should be used to classify individuals into generations. As noted by Smola and Sutton (2002), published research has varied greatly in what birth years have been used (e.g. Boomers beginning anywhere from 1940 to 1946 and ending anywhere between 1960 to 1964). Additionally, questions have been raised if individuals born on the cusp of two generations can be accurately described the same way as individuals whose birthdates clearly fall within assigned ranges (Alwin and McCammon, 2007). This lack of agreement on the classification of generations makes comparisons of findings across different studies problematic, hampers the advancement of this line of research, and may help explain the lack of consensus in research findings. Scholars should consider alternative methods of determining generational membership so there is consistency in classifications across studies. For example, in addition to the use of age, scholars could ask individuals to identify the key historical events from their youth that had a lasting impact on their lives. Such a method may be especially useful in classifying individuals on the cusp between generations.Second, like most of the research in the organizational sciences, this study is limited by the use of a single survey measurement and a cross-sectional design. Even though the presence of verifiable demographic variables makes the use of a single self-report survey less of a concern (Crampton and Wagner, 1994; Podsakoff and Organ, 1986), we still join other scholars in calling for the increased use of multi-method, longitudinal research designs to study career outcomes (e.g. Sullivan, 1999). The use of longitudinal designs is especially critical when studying generation differences because age rather than generation may be a major factor influencing these results. If we had employed a research design whereby data were collected at multiple times over the life span of individuals, we would have been better able to account for within person changes that were due to the aging process in addition to between person differences due to generational membership. The future use of such designs would enable scholars to determine within person changes over time, determine whether other factors such as career stage and the maturation process have more influence on workplace attitudes and behaviors than generational classification, and provide a more complete understanding of this complex phenomenon so that a consensus among scholars about the potential impact of generational differences can be reached.Third, although the overall regression models for authenticity and balance were statistically significant, it should be noted that the unique change in R2 accounted for by generational membership was small. While our use of a large national sample is a strength of the study, it also gives us the power to detect even relatively small differences. In practice, it may be that the importance of generational membership is overshadowed by other potential individual differences (e.g. personality traits). Future research is needed to determine whether generational differences have practical as well as statistical significance when examining individuals' needs for authenticity and balance. Implications for practice: Recently there have been calls for more study of generational differences in organizations (e.g. Callanan and Greenhaus, 2008). Specifically, questions have been asked including:* How can we best manage (Eisner, 2005), communicate (Reynolds et al., 2008), and train (Proserpio and Gioia, 2007) employees of different generations?* How can we assist members of older generations to best transfer knowledge to the younger generations of workers (Carraher et al., 2008; Kapp, 2007)?* How can organizations most effectively use generational differences for strategic advantage (Gorman et al., 2004)?While organizational researchers have begun to study generational differences in the workplace, much more study is needed in order to reach a consensus about these differences so that research-based recommendations can be offered to managers.Our findings offer important insights for the management of workforces composed of members from different generations. First, because many practitioners are getting their information from popular press books and seminars on managing "clashing" generations, scholars should caution managers not to readily accept sweeping generalities about generational differences without considering both possible similarities among the generations as well as the impact of individual differences. This is especially important when discussing negative perceptions of specific generations which are not empirically supported. For example, despite the belief that Xers are slackers, we found no significant differences in the desire for challenge between Boomers and Xers. Also, because previous research has reported that implementation of employee initiatives (such as those to enhance balance) and use of supportive leadership have been shown to positively impact organizational outcomes (Luthans and Youssef, 2002; Muse et al., 2008; Ozcelik et al., 2008), we suggest that organizations consider instituting such initiatives especially given the growing number of Xers in the workplace who may desire greater balance than previous generations of workers. Employees should not be penalized with reduced challenge for participating in such workplace programs. As this study found, challenging work is important to individuals regardless of their generation.Second, given our finding that Xers were significantly more likely than Boomers to have a higher need for authenticity, managers should consider how to initiate or enhance organizational programs that allow employees, especially Xers, to find a good fit between their values and the organizations' values. For instance, selection programs could make use of realistic job previews (RJPs) (Buckley et al., 2002; Wanous, 1991) and other pre-selection procedures (Buckley et al., 1998) in order to provide a clear picture of the organization's mission and goals to prospective employees. Using the information gleaned from the RJP, an individual could determine if his/her personal values are in alignment with the values of the organization. Organizations could also consider the increased use of employee benefits, such as time off or sabbaticals, so that Xers could choose to work on community or other projects (e.g. environmental issues, campaigns against cancer) that have special meaning to them.In conclusion, the workforce is increasingly composed of members of different generations who may view career outcomes much differently. The work environment has already seen the impact of this change in the form of increased worker mobility, with careers transforming from traditional linear patterns to more multidirectional forms (Baruch, 2004). Executives and human resource professionals must develop plans for the best management of this diverse labor force in order to recruit and retain the highest quality workers. These employment strategies are even more important as the gap between the demand for highly skilled workers and supply of these workers grows, especially in industries (e.g. health care) which are already facing labor shortages (Carraher et al., 2005, 2006; Ellwood, 2003; Grossman, R.J., 2005). Better understanding of the differences and similarities among the various generations in today's workforce can help organizational leaders make important decisions about human resource policies and practices.
The formation of public-public partnerships: A case study examination of collaboration on a "back to work" initiative	[ "Partnership", "Public sector organizations", "Qualitative research", "United Kingdom" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has implemented a commitment of returning disabled people into employment through a variety of initiatives including the "Pathways to Work" programme (Department of Work and Pensions, 2002). This requires, in part, that Job Centres form partnerships with providers of medical rehabilitation schemes to provide the Back to Work Programme (BTW). The UK Government has committed to expanding this Pathways service nationally during 2007.The programme is designed for people with chronic pain, which accounts for around a quarter of the 2.74 million incapacity benefit claimants (National Statistics Office, 2005). The programme required a public partnership between the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department of Health (DoH). As both of the partners are public sector organisations the working arrangement will be defined as a public-public partnership and will be referred to as such in this paper.The BTW programme requires staff within a Job Centre (DWP) to form partnerships with contractors who are primarily NHS based (DoH). The Job Centre staff provide suitable customers (Incapacity Benefit claimants) for the contractors who provide the rehabilitation service. The BTW programme was to be evaluated to gauge its effectiveness in helping these particular customers return to work and used to inform the development of the main Pathways to Work Programme. Although all the participants had experience in assisting people with chronic pain return to work, their experience of joint working between the participating organisations was limited. This project brought together the parties in a collaborative contracted agreement on a major project for the first time.The study examines the organisational issues that were faced in this public-public partnership when the staff at the Job Centre and the service providers (contractors) in the NHS attempted to build a collaborative partnership in order to provide this service. In particular it examines the individual perceptions of members of the partnerships who operated at various levels within their respective organisations. Literature review: The literature presented examines the key issues that underlie this study. It explores the importance and forms of collaboration, the nature of partnerships and the barriers to change that can prevent the successful formation of partnerships.Collaboration Research methods: The approach used in this study is in-depth semi-structured interviews with staff (DWP employees) and contractors (health care professionals) to explore their experiences and views on the BTW programme. By utilising a qualitative approach it is possible to explore the individual perceptions of their partnership relationship.Each interview lasted approximately one hour. All of the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. As the interviews were semi-structured they were neither a completely open conversation nor were they highly structured (Kvale, 1996). The initial interviews followed suggested themes and questions formed from the literature.The analytical procedure was designed to thoroughly explore and reflect the participants' perceptions. A thematic framework was applied to the data and the thematic charts were placed within thematic matrices (Ritchie et al., 2003). The framework was used to classify and organise the data according to themes, concepts and emergent categories to provide an overview of each respondent's attitudes towards key themes in a summarised, cross-tabulated format. This process involved frequent interactions between the transcripts and more abstract data and ensured that while thematising the data the richness of the text was not lost. Furthermore it enabled continuous refinement and development of the themes to ensure it reflected the participants' views.The sample Findings: The key themes are presented below using verbatim quotations drawn from the transcripts in order to effectively convey perspectives on the issues raised.Perceptions of the partnership relationship Discussion: The findings reported in this article reflect the importance of collaboration by suggesting that the formation of an effective partnership of some sort is necessary for the cohesive operation of the Back to Work Programme. As Hardy et al. (2003) suggest, for collaboration to be successful, it is necessary that all feel involved and in this case work together for the benefit of the claimants.The evidence suggests that individuals who comprise a partnership may not see the relationship in the same way. This perception is heavily influenced by their own personal role and previous interactions with individual partners and this experience may be substantially inconsistent to other members operating within the same partnership. Thus when examining the "partnership relationship" care needs to be taken as to "whom" we are referring to when the term is used. For example, the partnership relationship as described from a managerial viewpoint may be quite distinct from those employed lower in the hierarchy. This point is re-iterated through the work of Diamond (2006) who notes the need to examine the experience and practice of those involved. Unless there is a close examination of how individuals perceive the relationship then issues such as communication, openness and ethos of the partnership will be missed.Further influences on the perception of the partnership can be related to the formation of the partnership. Like PPP's the partnerships in this study are formed on a client supplier basis (Hebson et al., 2003). The Job Centre adopts the role of the client and the contractors supply the service and this influenced how individuals perceived the partnership arrangement.What is notable in the findings is how many of the interviewees do not feel that they were a participant in any type of partnership and this is problematic as local relationships between individuals is key in the development of relationships (Diamond, 2006). The majority had limited or no direct contact with any person from the partnering organisation, unless in a managerial role, hence the range of interactions is shallow and limited (Hardy et al., 2003). Without good communication it is difficult for the partnership to survive. The fact that a large number of interviewees felt they were not a part of the relationship provides further support for investigating partnerships at an individual level for without testimony from interviewees at a non-managerial level this issue may have been left unexplored. Conclusion: It is evident that this particular initiative was not effective, certainly no real partnership or effective collaboration was formed in any of the case study sites from the perspective of the interviewees. Furthermore the importance of inter-relationships at an individual level is clearly highlighted as being a key issue in the development of successful partnerships. To address these issues it is necessary that all individuals have contact with their partners if they are to feel a part of the partnership team. This could be achieved through improved formal and informal channels of communication and the development of a holistic partnership approach that ensures that communication is fed back to all parties.The "Pathways to Work" programme will be rolled out across many more regions and therefore there will be a growing number of public-public partnerships, so consideration as to how these partnerships operate is essential. However little of Government sponsored research of this programme aims to specifically examine the issues associated with this type of partnership working, despite the clear problems found when differing agencies attempt to work together. It is therefore desirable that a closer examination of these partnership issues is required if future Pathways partnerships are to be effective.
Assessing organizational innovativeness - evidence from corporate narratives	[ "Innovation", "Communication", "Intangible assets", "Multinationals", "Annual reports" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Context and research questions: Modern organizations must continuously adapt to today's highly dynamic environment (Salavou, 2004). Internally, they face constant pressure to innovate, alter managerial processes, and re-structure to fit changing surroundings. Externally, innovative organizations develop or modify new products or services for existing or new markets (Shoam et al., 2012). The ability to innovate, also called organizational innovativeness (OI), is becoming the single most important attribute in determining firm survival and succession (Doyle, 1998; Quinn, 2000; Rubera and Kirca, 2012). In general, the term "innovativeness" has been employed either to describe an individual innovation and its impact and relevance (Brockman and Morgan, 2003; Garcia and Calantone, 2001; Kleinschmidt and Cooper, 1991) or to describe the culture of an organization, such as its capacity to innovate (Hurley et al., 2005; Woodside, 2004), and thus as a precursor to innovative performance. As part of an organization's capacity to innovate, in later stages, OI reflects the potential to generate innovations (Paleo and Wijnberg, 2008). Methodology: To respond to the research questions, we focussed on corporations with high expenditures on R Results: This section presents the quantitative results to our research questions. Table II displays the descriptive statistics. Discussion and conclusion: This study quantified the communication of MNCs regarding OI and compared this to the actual investments in R
Examining competence factors that encourage innovative behaviour by European higher education graduate professionals	[ "Competence", "Intrapreneurship", "Employee‐driven innovation", "Higher education", "Employees", "Innovation" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Little research attention has been devoted to the competence factors that trigger innovative activity at work. This gap is also evident in closely connected topics related to the entrepreneurial behaviour of employees in established organisations (Zahra et al., 1999a, b; Amo, 2006). Entrepreneurship in this context refers to innovative, risk-taking, proactive behaviours, pursued at any level and within any area of the firm (Covin and Slevin, 1991). Hence, innovation becomes a tangible aim, in the presence of entrepreneurial activity that exploits opportunities as they arise in organisations (McFadzean et al., 2005).Moreover, it is hard to find research that investigates the effects of competencies on innovative behaviour in organisations at the level of individuals, and combines this with a higher education (HE) perspective. Competence development combines formal education with tacit knowledge and skills acquired through working experience. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of individual competencies and characteristics linked to educational programmes that contribute to the development of competencies conducive to innovation. This is done through an analysis of comprehensive survey data on HE graduates in twelve European countries. The paper draws on theories of innovation as well as theories of intrapreneurial competencies, that is, corporate entrepreneurship (CE). CE offers an important path that firms can take to make it possible for employees to engage in innovation, using competencies as a foundation (Ireland et al., 2006).Innovation is a process of turning opportunity into new ideas and putting these into practice more widely (Tidd et al., 2005) to lead to new or improved products, processes or business models (Utterback, 2004). Key internal factors that have been identified as having the potential to drive innovative activities include fostering an innovative culture within organisations (for instance through leadership), flatter organisational structures (enabling better sharing of knowledge and communication), teamwork, an external orientation towards customers and the presence of innovation champions or intrapreneurs (Tidd et al., 2005). Employee involvement in innovation can also lead to higher levels of innovative performance, efficiency and continuous improvement (Bessant, 2003; Schroeder and Robinson, 1991). However, little is known about the extent to which certain individual competencies are related to innovation introduced by employees (Bird, 1995; Mitchelmore and Rowley, 2010).In this paper we try to address these gaps in the literature and investigate the effects of different types of competencies among higher education graduates, which are acquired through education and working experience, on the probability of being innovative in terms of introducing innovations at work. Some studies have developed various competency-based frameworks and charts, which describe the individual competencies and underlying knowledge, skills and personality characteristics required for innovation to occur (Hayton and Kelley, 2006; Cerinsek and Dolinsek, 2009). Our study makes an empirical contribution to these issues, by examining a wide range of competencies associated with innovations introduced by higher educated workers, in multiple economic sectors, across 12 European countries.We acknowledge that other factors, such as a firm's external environment (Covin and Slevin, 1989), organisational culture (Zahra, 1991) and organisational structure (Miller, 1983) may facilitate corporate entrepreneurship. However, the role of individuals remains essential (Arrow, 1962). It is the employees who take proactive, formal and informal initiatives and who take responsibility for innovation in an organisation (Amo, 2006; Zahra et al., 1999a, b; Cerinsek and Dolinsek, 2009). Therefore, we view employee competencies, specific to the pursuit of entrepreneurial behaviour, as fundamental to companies' ability to nurture and sustain innovation.This article proceeds to describe the theory used and set out the hypotheses developed. It then moves on to a description of the data, variables and measures taken in the analyses and a discussion of the results. Finally, we present conclusions, implications of the study and future research opportunities. Theory and research hypotheses: Individual competencies Method: Data Results: Binary logistic regression is used to test the hypotheses. In binary logistic analyses, the dependent variable has only two outcomes. Hence, this analysis is appropriate for our dichotomised dependent variable, which is the probability of playing a role in introducing innovations (value 1 versus 0). The analysis identifies the effect of each independent variable, if the value of all other variables included in the model is kept constant.Three different models are employed (Table II). The first model includes only the control variables, the second model includes only the competence-related variables that are the focus of the four hypotheses, and the third model includes all variables. All models are checked for multicollinearity (Hair et al., 1998). The values of Pearson correlations, tolerance and variance inflation factors are within acceptable levels[6].Different models are used to examine whether the effects of the different variables change when all variables are included, for instance, whether the effects of the competence-related variables in Model 2 change when the control variables are included in the last model (Model 3). One possible expectation is that the competency variables will be of less significance when variables related to the workplace are controlled for, given the possibility that there is a strong relationship between competency profile and workplace characteristics. This is not found (see Table II).Model 1 Discussion and conclusions: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of individual competencies, acquired during formal education and in the workplace, on the likelihood of higher education graduates introducing innovations at work. In general, our findings suggest that certain individual competencies do promote innovative initiatives by HE graduate professionals in organisations, as do higher education programmes that emphasise entrepreneurship and practice. Furthermore, by having the opportunity to control for a wide variety of background factors, we have been able to identify the independent (isolated) effects of these competencies. By using a large representative European sample of higher educated workers across various economic sectors we are able to make a robust empirical contribution to competency-based approaches in corporate entrepreneurship and to innovation research, by identifying which competencies facilitate innovation among employees. The study also contributes to entrepreneurship education research by showing the significance of emphasising entrepreneurship and practice in higher education programmes, for later patterns of workplace innovation.The results show that graduates with higher levels of professional and creative competencies are more likely to introduce innovations at work, as we hypothesised. Furthermore, communicative and championing competencies are also found to be important for innovative activity, particularly competencies that involve the ability to present products, ideas or reports to an audience, and an ability to assert authority, which are typical characteristics of the role of executive champion/sponsor. Although the individual competencies relating to communications and championing skills, and professional and creative skills, do not appear to be decisive factors for innovative behaviour, as the isolated effect of each of them is not very large, the total effects of having the relevant competencies are considerable.On the other hand, the study suggests that competencies related to efficiency and productivity have no effect on innovation. This does not mean that innovation champion role is less important for innovation, but that efficiency and productivity do not enhance this role as expected. This may reflect that the specific observable behaviours needed for successful innovation championing are often culturally bounded (Shane and Venkataraman, 1996) and context-specific (Hayton and Kelley, 2006). Another reason may be, as another research stream suggests, the ambidextrous nature of organisations (Gupta et al., 2006; Birkinshaw and Gibson, 2004): organisations are forced to exploit current competitive advantages while exploring new opportunities in order to sustain these competitive advantages and stay ahead of their competitors. Consequently, individual employees also exhibit ambidextrous behaviour when they take initiatives, are alert to opportunities beyond the confines of their own job and perform dual roles. Competencies related to efficiency and productivity do not seem to promote innovative initiatives and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. This might have implications for any organisations that aspire to achieve strategic renewal through innovation, while also aiming to be efficient and productive.Such possible conflicts pose challenges for organisations to develop organisational structures, incentives and working regimes that allow employees to be creative and focus on innovation, without undermining efficiency. Future research studies could examine in more depth questions about how to manage the exploration-exploitation tension faced by individual employees, and whether competencies related to productivity and efficiency are important for exploitation.The findings also suggest that having employees with brokering competencies can be highly significant for sustaining employee-driven innovation. These competencies include taking the initiative in establishing professional contacts outside of the organisation and keeping professional colleagues informed about new developments. The knowledge gained from intrapreneurial activities has to be widely shared with other groups in the firm in order to be useful. The brokering role involves delivering new information to the technical innovator or champion, and drawing in information for use elsewhere in the broker's network (Hayton and Kelley, 2006). Communication and knowledge sharing undertaken by intrapreneurial employees are, therefore, important in order to take advantage of new innovation-based knowledge, as proposed by Zahra et al. (1999a, b). This is also confirmed by our findings.Unsurprisingly, the more a graduate's study programme emphasises the development of entrepreneurial competencies, the higher the probability of them being innovative at work. Another important characteristic is the extent to which project- and problem-based learning and participation in research project are emphasised as modes of teaching and learning: The higher the scores on these characteristics, the higher the probability of the graduate introducing innovation. These results support the idea that entrepreneurial competencies and innovative activity are learnable, as suggested by Bird (1995).It is also clear that the impact of the field and type of study can be considerable. As expected, science and engineering have positive effects on the probability of introducing innovation, while having graduated in business and administration has a negative effect. On the other hand, the economic sector "financial intermediation, etc., and other services", where a high proportions of business administration graduates works (up to 43 per cent of them), are significantly and positively related to innovative initiatives, regardless of the control for fields of study. These results may appear paradoxical but one conclusion is that these workplaces are often innovative, but those educated in business and administration in fact tend to be less innovative than other graduates. This is surprising, given that business and administration students are offered the most comprehensive entrepreneurship programs and courses. On the other hand, the proportion of entrepreneurship students in this field of study may be quite small compared to the number of other business students. Another interesting finding is that the graduates in the study field "agriculture, forestry and veterinary" have the highest probability of introducing innovations at work of all graduates. We assume that to a large extent this refers to persons working in small entrepreneurial businesses[8].Policy implications
Applying graph sampling methods on student model initialization in intelligent tutoring systems	[ "Computer-based learning", "Knowledge management", "Domain knowledge", "Domain knowledge graph", "Graph sampling", "Intelligent tutoring systems" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Throughout history, much time was dedicated to the idea of using the computer as a personal teacher. The complexity and the possibility of executing that idea grew after the appearance of intelligent teaching, with reference to artificial intelligence. Therefore, we can say that intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) began to develop at the same time with artificial intelligence, in the 1950s, and they are just as interesting now as they were before. Related work: Initial tests or some questionnaires are usually used for student model initialization. They are usually created manually by teachers for particular domain knowledge. When the domain knowledge changes, then all the questions for initial test have to be created and selected once again. Graph sampling: Since domain knowledge can be extensive, it is necessary to define such a subset of the domain knowledge that will worthily represent the whole domain knowledge. Thus, the representative subset of domain knowledge includes all the concepts and relationships that are relevant for some domain knowledge. In this paper, the selection of concepts in domain knowledge representative subset is done uniformly for every domain knowledge, using graph sampling methods. In this way, the problems related to semantical analysis done by field experts are avoided. The diversity of semantic representation showed the necessity of finding a mechanism for non-semantic mathematical determination of the domain knowledge representation independent of domain knowledge itself. Complex networks: A network is a set of nodes with links between them. Mathematically, it is represented by the graph in which the nodes are vertices and the links are edges. It can be said that the network comes from the real world, and that the graph is a network abstraction. Sampling methods: There are two goals of graph sampling process. The first is to find a sample and retain the network's properties. Here, we refer to the network properties, such as the average node degree or the average clustering coefficient. The second goal is to find a sample and preserve the network structure, such as shortest path distribution in the network or clustering coefficient distribution. Random Walk: A Random Walk method simulates a Random Walk on the graph. The initial node is chosen randomly and uniformly. Then, using a 0.85 probability among all its neighbors, if they exist, we choose one, again randomly and uniformly, and if it is not already in the sample, add it to the sample. With probability 0.15 (a fly-back probability) in a Random Walk, again we visit the initial vertex. It allows finding more neighbors in the sample. The probability does not have to be 0.15, but it is typically used (Frank et al., 2012). Metropolis-Hastings Random Walk (MHRW): In a Metropolis-Hastings Random Walk, a sample is built considering the distribution of node degree probability, to avoid the appearance in the sample that the nodes with a high degree are preferred (Nesreen et al., 2010). Snowball: A Snowball is a variant of Breadth First Search where it is possible to limit a search depth s and a number of neighbors k that are added to the sample (Goodman, 1961). The idea is to begin from some random set of people size k and that every man names, for example, k of his friends. After that, each of the named people name new k people that make the second sampling stage. Naming continues until sth stage (max_depth) is reached. In each iteration, in the sample are added only nodes that are not already in the sample and that is the way to avoid repeating. In networks that are not about people (when naming is not possible), the neighbors who enter the sample can be randomly selected. Forest fire: A Forest Fire is a combination of the Snowball and the Random Walk. It starts with randomly and uniformly selection of a node and then, for a random number x, x neighbors of selected node, that have not been visited yet, are selected. The procedure is repeated for the selected neighbors, until the targeted sample size is reached. If the sample stops growing ("the fire went out"), and the target size is not reached, new initial node is selected and the process continues (Frank et al., 2012). Represent algorithm: A Represent Algorithm is based on the search of the shortest paths in a graph. For every root in a graph (node with in-degree 0), among all the shortest paths between that root and all reachable leaves, the one with the maximum length is chosen and added to a sample. Evaluation: To test previously described algorithms, we have used citation networks that are directed (one newer work (child) cites another older (parent)) and acyclic (if work A cites work B, and work B cites work C, that means that work C is the oldest one between them, so it is impossible that work C cites work B or that work B cites work A). Two networks, cit-HepPh and cit-HepTh, are downloaded from the page http://snap.stanford.edu.pitt.idm.oclc.org/ and are used for testing the properties of samples gained by applying mentioned sampling methods. Conclusion: The goal of the ITS is to generate the course content offered to the student adapted to student's knowledge. To make this possible it is necessary to initialize the student model in a way that it grasps the state of the student knowledge without interrogating student too much. This can be done only using initial tests based on representative subset of domain knowledge. Since that subset of domain knowledge cannot easily be defined (if we use semantical selection done by experts), a rigid mathematical approach using sampling methods is more than welcome. A subset of domain knowledge that will represent whole domain knowledge can be generated using sampling methods undertaken from the field of complex networks (the RW, the MHRW, the FF, the Snowball) or algorithms created specially for the domain knowledge representation generation (the Represent).
The multiple facets of the bullwhip effect: refined and re-defined	[ "Stock control", "Value chain", "Value analysis", "Variance reduction" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been of interest for many years in literature (Oliver and Webber, 1982; Jones and Riley, 1985, 1987; Houlihan, 1985, 1987; Snowdon, 1988). Stock (2000) states that SCM is an influential ingredient in today's literature and thinking in the field of logistics. The synchronisation of business operations between multiple relationships in marketing channels is often referred to as SCM (Lambert et al., 1998). Alderson (1957, 1965) recognises the interdependence between companies' business operations in marketing channels. Forrester (1958) also acknowledges the linkages between business operations in marketing channels, e.g. in terms of the interactions between the flows of information, materials, money and manpower, and capital equipment. Forrester (1961) discusses dynamics in the business environment and writes that industrial dynamics views business as an integrated system. Furthermore, Weld (1916) stresses the importance of addressing the distribution channel as a whole. SCM addresses the supply chain from the point-of-origin to the point-of-consumption (Mentzer et al., 2001; Lambert, 1992; Cavinato, 1992). Svensson (2002) argues that there is a necessity to extend SCM towards other supply chains. Furthermore, SCM requires co-operation and co-ordination between companies' business operations in supply chains (Xu et al., 2001; Holmstrom, 1997). Otherwise, the stocking level variability in supply chains tend to be distorted as it is moved upstream in the supply chain (Towill, 1996; Lee and Billington, 1992).Lee et al. (1997a) write that the variance of orders may be larger than that of sales and the distortion tends to increase as one moves upstream in the supply chain. This phenomenon is referred to in literature as the "bullwhip effect" (Chen et al., 2000). In fact, practitioners and consultants have striven to deal with the bullwhip effect, e.g. in the automotive, textile, and retail industries. In the automotive industry the term just-in-time (Sugimore et al., 1977; Toyoda, 1987) has been used, while in the textile and retail industries the terms quick response (Stern et al., 1996; Fernie, 1994) and efficient consumer response (Kurt Salmon Associates, 1993) have been applied. These terms, or business philosophies, aim at reducing the stocking level variability in supply chains, and in the end improve profitability, reduce costs and increase the overall performance of the supply chain beyond judicial boundaries as a whole. Research objective: The bullwhip effect indicates that the stocking level variability in supply chains tends to be higher upstream than downstream, e.g. it is caused by factors such as deficient information sharing, insufficient market data, deficient forecasts or other uncertainties. Fransoo and Wouters (2000) write that the bullwhip effect refers to increasing variability of demand further upstream in the supply chain, and conclude that the theory of measurement of the bullwhip effect in a practical setting has received limited attention. The research of the bullwhip effect has considered inter-organisational echelons, such as two-echelons between companies (Yu et al., 2001; Chen et al., 2000; Fransoo and Wouters, 2000; Kelle and Milne, 1999), or three-/multi-echelons between a sequence of companies (McCullen and Towill, 2001; Jacobs, 2000; Metters, 1997; Lee et al., 1997a, b), or intra-organisational echelons, such as companies inbound and outbound logistics flows (Svensson, 2003), in supply chains. In addition, Svensson (2003) introduces the term "reversed bullwhip effect" (i.e. increased downstream variability) as opposed to the traditional term "bullwhip effect" (i.e. increased upstream variability). There is a need for further conceptualisation of the construct in terms of different levels of analysis and static versus dynamic features of the bullwhip effect construct in and between value chains and value systems (Porter, 1985). The objective of this paper is to describe a conceptual refinement and re-definition of the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect construct between stocking levels within and between value chains and value systems.The process of rational decision-making in companies' inventory management is in part based upon the postponement or speculation of business operations. In some circumstances a company maintains higher levels of inventories (i.e. speculation), while in others lower levels of inventories are kept (i.e. postponement), in the inbound and outbound logistics flows. The process of rational decision-making is also influenced by the companies' business operations adding value in a value chain or a value system. Lee et al. (1997a) conclude that the bullwhip effect results from the rational decision-making between the actors in a supply chain (i.e. inter-organisational echelons). This rational decision-making might also be based upon the relationship between actors within a company (i.e. intra-organisational echelons), such as the actors in charge of business operations dealing with procurement and physical distribution (Svensson, 2003). Theoretical framework: Companies' atomistic considerations (i.e. sub-optimisation of business operations) in a supply chain cause the bullwhip effect to occur. The co-operation and co-ordination between companies' business operations is necessary to avoid or minimise the stocking level variability in supply chains. Otherwise, the bullwhip effect might affect negatively the overall outcome or performance of the supply chain.The theoretical framework of this paper may be traced and connected to different historical topics, such as the functionalist theory of marketing (Alderson, 1965), industrial dynamics (Forrester, 1961), the total cost concept (Culliton et al., 1956) and the institutional school of marketing (Weld, 1916). However, the theoretical framework is limited to and underpinned by the value chain and value system concepts (Porter, 1985), the principle of postponement (Alderson, 1950), the principle of speculation (Bucklin, 1965), and the bullwhip effect (Lee et al., 1997a, b).Value chain and value system Multiple facets of the bullwhip effect construct: The fact that the bullwhip effect potentially exists between stocking levels in and between value chains and value systems means that the principles of postponement or the principle of speculation may be applied to a larger extent in one stocking level than in the other. This causes an increased stocking level variability upstream or downstream in the units of analysis, such as in and between value chains and value systems.This section conceptualizes the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect between stocking levels in and between value chains and value systems through a series of refinements, such as: a dynamics model of the bullwhip effect construct; a rubber band principle; a typology of stocking level variability; a framework that describes different levels of analysis of the bullwhip effect; and finally a re-definition of the bullwhip effect construct.The dynamics model Concluding thoughts: The refinement of the bullwhip effect construct has contributed to a typology of stocking level variability in and between value chains and value systems. It has been introduced as an underlying framework of the bullwhip effect construct. The dynamics of the bullwhip effect construct has also been pinpointed through a generic model consisting of two parameters, such as time and context, influenced by a third parameter of seasonality. Another contribution is a framework that describes different levels of analysis of the bullwhip effect between stocking levels in and between value chains and value systems. A re-definition of the construct is proposed that goes beyond current definitional state-of-the-art construct of the bullwhip effect. Finally, doubts of the bullwhip effect metaphor have been raised. Stocking level variability tends not to behave or react as a bullwhip, but rather according to the movements of a rubber band. Therefore, the rubber band principle has been introduced. It may be a more appropriate and accurate metaphor of stocking level variability in value chains and value systems, than the actual bullwhip effect metaphor itself.The refinement and re-definition of the bullwhip effect construct may be used to classify focal companies' bullwhip effects in and between value chains and value systems. The refinement and re-definition may be used for teaching and illustration of the bullwhip effect in different contexts, as well as to position and compare the outcome of replicating studies. This refinement and re-definition may also be positioned into wider theoretical and managerial contexts, such as the generic vertical and horizontal dependencies within and between value chains or value systems. Research proposals: The introduced refinements and re-definition of the bullwhip effect construct reveal a number of research potentials beyond the state-of-the-art construct in literature. It also reveals a research agenda. The potential research agenda of the bullwhip effect construct may be divided into four principle categories:1. The first category has a focus on the bullwhip effect within value chains. This means that the analysis to explore the stocking level variability is between an organisation's inbound and outbound logistics flows. This category of the research agenda offers great research potentials as it has been rarely explored in literature.2. The second category has a focus on the bullwhip effect between directly connected value chains. This means that the analysis to explore the stocking level variability is between two organisations' inbound and/or outbound logistics flows. This is an extended channel approach to the first category. Current research of the bullwhip effect has been mostly dedicated to this category, but none of them from the point of view of a potential reversed bullwhip effect (e.g. caused by seasonality of demand cycles in the marketplace).3. The third category has a focus on the bullwhip effect between indirectly connected value chains. This means that the analysis to explore the stocking level variability is between two organisations' inbound and/or outbound logistics flows that are separated by at least one value chain. This is an extended channel approach to the second category. On a few occasions, three connected value chains have been explored in terms of their mutual stocking level variability, but not from the point of view of a potential reversed bullwhip effect.4. The fourth category has a focus on the bullwhip effect between value systems. This means that the analysis to explore the stocking level variability is between two organisations' inbound and/or outbound logistics flows in two different value systems. This category corresponds to a competitive view of stocking level variability. This is an extended approach beyond the value system towards other value systems referred to in the previous categories one to three. This category of the research agenda offers great research potentials as it so far has not been explored in literature.An increased understanding of the bullwhip effect construct may be disclosed by following the introduced categories of the research agenda. For example, further research of the bullwhip effect in value chains (i.e. intra-organisational echelons) may be explored in order to understand why there is, or is not, an increase of variability in upstream or downstream stocking levels. Further research efforts may also be dedicated to explore the bullwhip effect between value chains or in value systems (i.e. inter-organisational or intra-channel echelons). Furthermore, comparative research between value systems (i.e. inter-channel echelons) would extend the current empirical state-of-the-art boundaries of the bullwhip effect construct. The impact of bullwhip effect in value systems is relative to the bullwhip effect in other competitive value systems.The different categories in the proposed research agenda of the bullwhip effect basically have an emphasis on inbound and outbound logistics in value chains and value systems, where one stocking level variability is upstream and the other is downstream (i.e. vertical view). Category four has a horizontal view. Accordingly, the categories may be based upon direct or indirect stocking level variability, as well as on internal or external variability, or on a combination of both. Furthermore, the levels comprise intra- and inter-channel analysis of stocking level variability in and between value chains and value systems. In sum, the proposed research agenda stresses the essence of this paper, namely the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect.
How organizational culture can shape leadership style: The example of Nigerian universities	[ "Organizational culture", "Leadership style", "Social exchange", "Nigerian universities" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: Along with factors like strategy and innovation, leadership is widely regarded as being critical to business success. Indeed, US author John Maxwell once identified leadership development as the factor with most impact on a company's potential. Types of leadership: It is therefore unsurprising that leadership has attracted so much scholarly attention. A large part of this has considered different forms of leadership and aimed to identify antecedents and characteristics of the chosen style. Various definitions of leadership persist. Nonetheless, these interpretations are largely centered on the notion of a person or people having the authority to influence the attitudes and actions of others. Individual and collectivist cultural characteristics: Over recent decades, this range of leadership styles has served to stimulate greater interest in the association between leadership and culture. One dominant idea to emerge is that behaviors and practices favored by leaders are strongly determined by the cultural context in which they operate. Leadership in Nigerian universities: For instance, many individuals appear heavily influenced by the hierarchical culture of their institution. This is illustrated in the rigid "top-down" approach where objectives are imposed rather than negotiated. Organizations mirror wider society in utilizing authoritarian traits in order to influence or sometimes even coerce followers. It likewise reflects the submissive tendencies within Nigerian culture enabled by high PD. There is a stark contrast with more democratic western societies where organization structures are flat and PD much lower. Comment: The review is based on: "The influence of organisational culture on leadership style in higher education institutions" by Akanji et al. (2020), published in Personnel Review. Prevailing cultural values of a particular society have considerable scope to shape the culture within its institutions. In turn, aspects of organization culture can then influence the style of leadership adopted by those with managerial responsibilities.
Barriers to women in the UK construction industry	[ "Construction industry", "Human resource management", "Organizational culture", "Gender" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The most up to date calculations of price, cost indices and outputs reveal that the UK construction industry contributes a healthy 6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP; Office for National Statistics, 2008). However, despite the negative impact of the credit crunch, the industry sector still faces an ongoing skills shortage and diversity-based recruitment levels are currently inadequate in meeting this severe skills gap (ConstructionSkills, 2008). The UK construction industry is attempting to fill this gap in the short term by hiring workers from low-wage economies, rather than recognising the longer-term business case advantage of expanding the recruitment of women (Gurjao, 2006). Although there has been a numerical increase in the numbers of women and black and minority ethnics (BMEs) entering the industry, this is only in line with the overall growth of the industry sector. In real terms, diversity-based percentiles have remained relatively unchanged, consisting of between 10 per cent and 12 per cent of women and 2-4 per cent of BMEs since the year 1990. The low numbers of women in the UK construction industry lie in stark contrast with the current all-industry employment standard of 46 per cent for women and 8 per cent for BMEs (ConstructionSkills, 2008). These issues also extend beyond the UK to European markets in terms of concerns over human resource (HR) management (Schloesser et al., 1999).The latest governmental figures from the Office for National Statistics (2008) have been a re-weighted since May 2008. Figures can therefore vary within a few percentiles according to differing measurements (Gale and Davidson, 2006). For this paper, those put forward by the latest governmental population weightings and employee base from the Office for National Statistics (2008) will be utilised; these are listed in Table I. In addition to a lack of gendered diversity there is the issue of a "workforce time bomb" of a rapidly ageing workforce (ConstructionSkills, 2008). There is a year-on-year increase in workers who are heading towards retirement age with a current inadequate supply of replacement workers (Gurjao, 2006). For example, those workers aged over 40 have increased on average by 2 per cent each year since 1990 with those aged over 60 doubling from 4 per cent of the workforce in 1990 to 8 per cent in 2007 (ConstructionSkills, 2008).Chan and Dainty (2007) argue in favour of a conceptual move towards a knowledge economy based upon principles of lifelong learning to improve the skills shortage. However, they point out that the organisational culture and make-up of the industry sector is hampering attempts at progress due to "the small firms who make up the vast majority of employers within the sector, normative labour market and taxation policies and quasi-regulatory attempts to control the industry's employment and training practices have seemingly done little to safeguard the long-term sustainability of skills provision" (Chan and Dainty, 2007, p. 375). The argument outlined above is of great interest to the authors of this paper, as it highlights some of the potential challenges inherent in the unique organisational culture and formation of the UK industry sector in providing effective skills training and in meeting the skills gap. Furthermore, these problems are predicted to continue (Chartered Institute of Building, 2008) and highlight potential obstacles in the provision of training to promote and expand the numbers of women in the industry sector, where they are severely under-represented (Agapiou et al., 1995).This paper sets out to investigate the barriers that women face in working in the UK construction industry. As this is a complex area of research, the authors will attempt to identify whether there are one or two main barriers, while maintaining an awareness of potential complex cross-fertilisations with other issues and themes. This paper will also investigate if there are indicators of age or job role differences in the barriers faced by women. The specific cohort of women have been drawn from the Women and Work: Sector Pathways Initiative funded by ConstructionSkills. The origin of funding for this project is to increase the numbers of women in industry sectors where they are under-represented with the provision of training and support opportunities. Thes "training cohort" consists of varying age groups and professions that originate from professional, managerial, administrative and other skills backgrounds. The continuous professional development (CPD) on offer is focussed upon communication, teamwork and management based training knowledge and skills, which can be generically referred to as 'soft skills' training. This type of training was specifically chosen due to its high demand by women placed at the very start of the Women and Work project. This demand formed the basis of the origins of this research paper, which has in turn led to a literature review that identified and strengthened the inductive research focus into organisational cultures. This paper will investigate the barriers that women face and analyse the potential role and impact of "soft skills" training in helping to address identified barriers.This paper will begin by providing a background literature review of organisational cultures existent within the UK construction industry, and not of societal cultures, which can also be engendered (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2004). The authors recognise that the limited data prevents an overall generic analysis of this type. Next, the paper will draw upon some of the prior research carried out in the specific area of the UK construction industry. It will not generalise to research being undertaken in the science, engineering and technology (SET) field. The reasoning behind this stance is to specifically focus upon an analysis of the unique formation and organisational cultures existent in the UK construction industry sector which possess an inherently large number of fragmented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and organisations. Within the limited space available in this paper, the authors aim to offer the reader the most thorough debate possible on the construction sector itself, rather than including it within a broader brush of "gender themed" research. Indeed, we have read with great frustration that some view it as acceptable to amass together other industries under one gendered framework of analysis. Instead, in the space available, we will attempt to analyse, assess and discuss our recognition of the complex and unique character existent within the UK construction industry sector.The next section of our paper outlines a specification of the methods and tools that were utilised within the project. Here, the usage of grounded theory (GT) is discussed, whereby issues and literatures have become emergent via an ongoing analysis of the empirical data. In this methodology, it is the empirical data that is central in directing the discovery and expansion of the background literature, in an ongoing and emergent process. The Methodology section will outline the number of participants, their professions and age groupings and the nature and origin of the data will be given. This paper concludes by identifying key themes, issues and areas, and argues for a need to enact positive change with the inclusion of CPD provision for women on an ongoing basis. The paper concludes by arguing for further research and analysis to more fully explore the role and impact of these changes in the facilitation of workforce equality and diversity over the longer term. Organisational world: a history of fragmentation: To understand more fully the UK construction industry as it stands today, there is a need to view it briefly within its historical context. In the 1980s the industry was changed, with the opening up of a freer market and weakening levels of direct governmental involvement. This led to a greater fragmentation of the industry, with contractors increasingly subcontracting work. This, in turn, facilitated a working environment that was more competitively and aggressively led by price and risk factors. By the 1990s, the industry sector hit a recession, with the collapse of over-inflated prices in the housing market. These problems were exacerbated with attempts by the UK government to control inflation and encourage external investments with overly high exchange rates and unnaturally low interest rates, and this in turn fed into economically damaging cycles of boom and bust.Within this economic climate, the UK government commissioned a report by Sir Michael Latham (1994), entitled "Constructing the Team", in an attempt to identify the problems existent within the struggling construction industry sector. The report recommended the importance of having wider economic stability and for greater governmental direct contact in order to improve both the economic and work flow base of the sector. The report included over 30 recommendations on how to achieve this - far too many to mention within the limited space of this paper. Interestingly, Latham (1994) also identified a number of inherent problems within the industry itself; including its natural fragmentation due to prior privatization policies and the reduction of governmental involvement, a severe skills shortage, a lack of training of its workforce, and its overall poor image. The report concluded by calling for greater uniformity of the sector, for the promotion and utilisation of best practice guidelines and for a change in UK legislation to encourage the resolution of "adversarial" disputes that had now become commonplace in the industry sector.Due to a disappointing lack of progress in the years that followed, a further report was commissioned by the government and completed by Sir John Egan (1998). In this report, Egan noted that research and development had fallen by nearly 80 per cent since 1981, that workforce trainees had almost halved since the 1970s, and that the industry was both time- and price-inefficient with low levels of client satisfaction. These findings led to "Rethinking Construction" initiatives that eventually formed Constructing Excellence, which still exists today. Egan (1998) also called for the standardisation of quality assessments and policies and for the introduction of partnering strategies to assist in reducing the effect and impact of industry fragmentation. The report also recommended the need for improved Health and Safety training for staff and for training at all levels, with a view that quality and training would derive beneficial outcomes. Of the many reports that have been commissioned by the UK government over the years, a main area of ongoing concern is the fragmentation of the industry sector. This area of the UK construction industry poses two problems:1. There are too many companies involved in the construction process, with subsequent wastage along the supply chain where information on potential improvements can get lost. This is due to the sheer volume of companies involved in these processes.2. The vast majority of companies are small, with only a small number of employees (Dainty et al., 2005).This leads to limited abilities and resources being available to impact upon the supply chain.In addition to its fragmented and competitive nature, the construction industry often places the value of "profit over people" (Dainty et al., 2007). This organisational culture under-values both the industry itself and the women who work in it (Bagilhole et al., 1997). Chan and Dainty (2007) argue that the issue of skills and people covers two areas:1. shortages in quantity; and2. shortages in area (i.e. gaps).These two areas of concern need to be differentiated, but also seen in the context of the industry sector as a whole in order to give a broader picture of the problems inherent in the industry.Efforts to explore the issues surrounding the entry, retention and progression of BMEs (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, 2005; Chartered Institute of Building, 2008) and of women (Ellison, 2003; Greed, 2000; Dainty et al., 2000; Gale and Davidson, 2006; Worrall et al., 2008) in the built environment profession is ongoing. Of the "untapped resource" of women (Fielden et al., 2000) who overcome the initial barriers of entry - such as the industry's poor image and prejudicial training and the recruitment barriers - barriers such as existing sexist attitudes and stereotypes that can place limitations on their roles and abilities have to be faced, while at the same time having to cope with difficulties in their work-life balance. Indeed, for nearly ten years, research has outlined that family-friendly policies aid the retention of white collar workers in this sector (Lingard, 2000). In this currently restrictive working culture, theorists such as Ellison (2003) are still arguing for the need to introduce improved flexible working practices and opportunities and for promotion and training, and this call is still continuing (Worrall et al., 2008). The need to promote expanded levels of equality and diversity in the construction industry sector is ever more prevalent. This is increasingly the case due to the latest UK governmental policy directives outlined in the Equality Bill (Equalities Office, 2008). This new legislation stipulates that companies will need to introduce greater levels of organisational transparency and of workforce auditing and monitoring in order to enhance their ability to procure contract work. There has long been the view that changes in the industry's old fashioned, inflexible and long-hours working environment will lead to improvements in the adversarial organisational culture inherent in the industry (Gale, 1992). Such changes, whether spontaneous or led by governmental legislation, could lead to an increased ability to meet future workforce demands (Agapiou et al., 1995).Although these claims need to be tempered within the current economic climate, the Chartered Institute of Building (2008) predict that senior and middle managerial skills will be in the greatest demand as far ahead as 2011, second only to demand for crafts and trades skills. This demand is being boosted with governmental plans to build more schools in the UK, ambitious housing targets and with the 2010 London Olympics. Therefore, the application of managerial and "soft skills" training to our trainee cohort and an analysis of their efficacy is very timely for two reasons:1. it provides a skills set that is predicted to be in the highest demand as far ahead as the year 2011, second only to craft and trades skills; and2. the managerial and "soft skills" gained serve to help women to negotiate and traverse difficult working environments and organisational cultures.This paper will now discuss the methodology utilised for the gathering of empirical data and provide details of the subject cohort. Methodology: The research project has utilised Glaser's (1992) GT methodology, which is based largely on qualitative data. However, our methodology also includes a quantitative analysis of the main barriers that women face within differing age groups and professions. We view GT as being ideal for this type of study as it is inherently inductive in nature. With GT, theories, issues, themes and sub-themes become emergent within an iterative process of an analysis of the data. For example, even at the start of our study, data emerged from many women communicating direct to the research team a strong need to receive CPD in "soft skills" training, to assist them in working within difficult white male dominated organisational cultures. This in turn inductively led to our analysis of literature on UK organisational cultures in the UK construction industry. From these initial findings and insights, we then designed our semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups topics to further investigate and explore these issues. It should be stated that we deliberately designed our questionnaires and focus groups to be semi-structured to allow for additional issues and findings to become emergent during our research process. An important feature of GT is theoretical sensitivity. This is where researchers develop insights from initial data that can lead to a research situation. These insights are conceptual rather than concrete and this initial stage is referred to as the creative aspect of GT. From these first steps, researchers can then obtain experience and knowledge in order to recognise important data to formulate and conceptualise dense theory.The participant cohort consisted of a diverse and random grouping of women aged between 18 and 65 years within administrative, professional/managerial and other roles (e.g. customer liaison managers). It should be stated that the project group does not include those from the crafts and trades. This group was excluded from this study due to their training and support being undertaken directly by the Standards and Qualifications team within the UK's Sector Skills council for construction, ConstructionSkills.The numbers of individuals within each of the nine focus groups varied between 20 and 30 people for each training session. At each training event, participants sat at a circular shaped table sized to accommodate between six and eight people. These seating arrangements were deliberately designed to facilitate face-to-face interactions with other subjects as part of a networking and action-based learning setting and process. Prior to each focus group taking place, participants were given a full background surrounding the research aims of the project and were informed of the confidentiality and anonymity of the research data. All participants were informed of the voluntary nature of investigation and 231 semi-structured questionnaires were returned.All respondents in both the focus groups and the semi-structured questionnaires were asked to identify their age grouping and their profession categorisation. Respondents were also asked to provide information on how long they had worked in the construction industry, to outline the top two barriers that they had faced in staying or progressing and any other additional personal or professional barriers that they had faced (or are facing) in being a woman in the industry sector. Additional questions were also asked regarding what type of training they would find useful in the future and whether they had any suggestions for training or support that would help women enter, say or progress within the UK construction industry. The questionnaires were handed in either at the end of each workshop or posted back to the research team after the training event had taken place. All research findings were analysed in an ongoing process and themes were identified via usage of keyword analysis in a series of Word documents. Both the literature and empirical data has been analysed in an ongoing GT basis, to which the findings have become emergent regarding the issues and identified themes, which will be both illustrated and discussed later in this paper.The quantitative data findings from the questionnaires in Table II outline the age and broad profession category of the women trainee delegates. Table II indicates a very complex picture of the potential for the growth of women in the UK construction industry based upon the range of their age groupings and profession. Table II seems to indicate that the majority of women are either in the 25-35 year or 36-45 year age group, with a smaller number being present in the 18-24 or 56-65 year age group. With regards to job roles, 78 were professionals/managers, 140 administrative, and 13 were in other job role categories, such as customer liaison officers.It should be stated that the numbers of women in our study were too small to be statistically significant and that the cohort may also have been affected by the nature and type of the "soft skills" training on offer. However, it was of interest to note the apparent "bell shape" distributions of age ranges that seem to have occurred in our trainee and support group cohort; although a much larger number of women would need to studied to ascertain the validity or reliability of these findings. Qualitative data: attitudes, behaviours and perceptions: The qualitative data has outlined the key impact that male-dominated organisational cultures have upon women attempting to stay and progress in the UK construction industry. The majority of the respondents outlined the negative affect of lowered self-esteem and reduced levels of confidence due to sexist and negative attitudes, with a particular emphasis upon experiences that occur "on site":Perception that a woman can't work on site or deal with build issues (36-45 year Professional).[...] Being called "love", "petal", "chuck" etc. [...] a put down (36-45 year Other).The role and impact of organisational cultures and pre-existing attitudes and behaviours can go much deeper than this, with women being made to feel less capable or by being undermined, with examples of prejudicial overtures:Unwarranted attention, stereotyping (36-45 year Professional).Hearing sexist comments on site (18-24 year Administrator).Managerially, it needs to be stated that there is some degree of support. However, this was found to be highly variable between differing individuals, company departments, work sites and organisations. The qualitative data revealed some evidence of a "glass ceiling" (whereby women can see but not attain higher level jobs and are blocked from career progression; Gurjao, 2006), with one respondent contentiously claiming that they had experienced regional variations in the UK:Hit glass ceiling in mid career [mid 30s]. North West has more traditional attitudes to women than London within the construction industry (36-45 year Professional).I think I would have progressed further, got more opportunities if I was male (46-55 year Professional).There is a perception from many of the respondents that women need to perform better than their male colleagues in order to progress their careers, but that "once proven" they seem to be finally accepted:I needed to prove myself more than a man but now all fine (36-45 year Professional).Being taken seriously as a contract manager - although I feel this is becoming less of a challenge the more knowledge I gain (36-45 year Professional).Linking in with the above issues is an over-arching perception of the majority of the respondents that women are initially seen as being less capable or assumed to be in an administrative role or similar:Perception that women only do administrative jobs in construction (25-35 year Administrator).Challenge of being seen as more than a provider of tea and coffee (25-35 year Professional).The findings outline that experiences of negative stereotypes, attitudes and behaviours seem to be prevalent. However, this forms just part of a complex picture. The following overlapping, yet distinct, key areas have been identified with regards to inherent work-life balance penalties.Inflexibility in working practices Quantitative data: the top barriers: Table III outlines the main barriers faced by women of differing age groups. The findings illustrate that younger women in the 25-25 and 36-45 age groups struggle the most with sexist attitudes, behaviours and perceptions.However, almost of equal concern for women in the 36-45 year age group were inflexible working practices, which often led to problems regarding their work-life balance. We found these findings particularly interesting as they cross-fertilised with the argument of the merits of providing "soft skills" training. It is not that women are "deficient" in needing confidence building, communication and leadership training - it is that the unique organisational culture of the industry sector is such that women are especially disadvantaged over men (Worrall et al., 2008). We would argue that it is inherently difficult (and a long-term vision) to change the organisational culture of the industry sector itself. In the short and medium term, we argue that women would benefit from "soft skills" training in order to be able to:* better traverse their way through a very white, male-dominated industry sector in working with both colleagues and customers; and* more confidently negotiate flexible working environments and career progression paths with senior colleagues, who often have entrenched ideas regarding working cultures and the job roles of women.We are aware that these views will no doubt draw their critics, but we would counter this by stating that it would be difficult to deny the white, male-dominated organisational culture of the UK construction industry, the inflexible and long hours working culture that is especially common in the industry sector and the vast numbers of women who leave the industry, which has often been described as being a "leaky pipeline" (Gurjao, 2006).Furthermore, the empirical findings indicate that attitudes, behaviours and perceptions are viewed as being a top barrier to women from all job roles and professions (averaging 39 per cent of respondents). Broken down into specific job categories, 40 per cent of professionals/managers and 39 per cent of administrative and other workers outlined this as being the main barrier. The second most important barrier, again, for all job categories was inflexible working practices, with an average of 25 per cent to within one percentile for all the job role professions. However, these averages were more greatly concentrated in the 25-35 and 36-45 age groups. Indicators as to why this is the case include those women with growing families who experience barriers and prejudice in being allowed to accommodate areas of work-life balance in the lifecycle of their careers.We argue that these barriers to women in the UK construction industry seem to be universally experienced, regardless of job role or profession. This strengthens the case by Gurjao (2006) on the importance of "inclusivity" in that, in addition to attracting more women to the industry by focusing on young entrants, returnees to work following a career break, those who seek a career change and retaining those in the sector, that there is a need to understand issues surrounding how women are employed and supported in the whole industry, including the supply chain. This study has found evidence that indicates the generic problem of inflexible working practices, which are experienced by women in all investigated areas of the supply chain. As these findings indicate universal problems, there could be a case for finding universal solutions. It could be argued that inflexible working environments and the inherent competitive organisational culture of the industry sector may negatively impact upon male colleagues as well due to the priority of placing "profit over people" (Dainty et al., 2007). We would like to argue that further research is merited on the potential positive gains for the workforce as a whole, with the expansion of "soft skills" training and supportive networks. However, what is clear is that women are also faced with white, male-dominated organisational cultures. It is with this additional (and one of the top two) identified main barriers to women that we argue for the specific merit of providing additional "soft skills" training for women. Conclusions: The socio-economic argument towards promoting and facilitating the entry, retention and progression of women in the UK construction industry is very strong. When viewed in purely economic terms, the industry sector is positioned as the UK's top employer and provides a sizeable proportion of its GDP. Although tempered by the current economic climate, there is still a predicted shortfall of workers, especially in middle and senior management positions, that is predicted to continue to 2011 and beyond. This is exacerbated by the existent "time bomb" of a rapidly ageing workforce where not enough "new blood" is coming through the ranks. The promotion and expansion of diversity to broaden the available pool of talent on offer makes good financial sense as the economy recovers from the current economic downturn. When viewed in its broader socio-economic sense, the literature review outlined a number of characteristics that are specific to the UK construction industry, including a series of historical events that have led to its current fragmentation and competitive-centric nature that places "profit over people". This has served to hamper an organisational climate of training and broader CPD support, for all people working in the construction industry. It can be stated that the "profit over people" and inflexible organisational culture of the construction industry can potentially disadvantage both men and women. However, denser theory leading from our GT leads us to argue that women also face the added problem of having to work within white male dominated organisational cultures. These findings provide a strengthened argument for the need to establish networks, mentoring and support systems for CPD for women, both in terms of promoting professional development opportunities and in providing women with the necessary "soft skills" in communication, people management and confidence building that equip them to negotiate difficult working environments and male dominated organisational cultures. The authors would like to argue that further research is required to ascertain whether the promotion and facilitation of equality and diversity is best achieved within a "bottom up" process, e.g. through the promotion of training through organisations such as ConstructionSkills and the enactment of CPD supportive networks, or whether a "top down" process through legislative or managerial policies and practices, serves as a stronger instigator of positive change to organisational cultures and the barriers that women face. Only time and further analysis will tell. For its part, the authors will be further analysing the role of a "bottom up" process and future papers will report upon the research findings and outcomes that have been achieved.
Comprehending customer satisfaction with hotels: Data analysis of consumer-generated reviews	[ "Customer satisfaction", "Three-factor theory", "Hotel management", "Consumer-generated review" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: It is natural for hotel operators to invest a tremendous amount of resources in satisfying their customers. As customer satisfaction constitutes a critical barometer for assessing hotel performance, an in-depth appreciation of the factors contributing to both satisfied and dissatisfied customers is paramount to hotel management. On one hand, very satisfied (or delighted) customers are more likely to return and recommend a hotel. Delighted customers exhibit behavioral patterns that are distinct from moderately satisfied customers. On the other hand, very dissatisfied (or frustrated) customers are likely to spread negative word of mouth that not only tarnishes the image and reputation of the targeted hotel but also decreases hotel revenue by deterring potential customers. Indeed, it has been documented that one negative review from an unhappy customer can translate into the subsequent loss of 30 customers (Olsen, 2010). 2. Theoretical foundation: Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction is a dominant research stream within extant literature and has attracted scholarly attention across multiple disciplines. Although there is no general consensus on the definition for customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, but consistent with the expectation disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1977, 1980), we conceive customer satisfaction as originating from the comparison between a priori expectations and a posteriori perceived performance of a product or service (Oliver, 1977, 1980). If perceived performance is greater than expectations, positive disconfirmation and satisfaction will manifest. In contrast, the lower-than-expected performance of a product or service will culminate in negative disconfirmation and dissatisfaction. Confirmation or positive disconfirmation thus culminates in satisfaction, whereas negative disconfirmation leads to dissatisfaction. In this sense, both satisfaction and dissatisfaction can be characterized by the direction and degree of disparity between customer expectations and perceived performance of a product or service (Anderson, 1973). Such conceptions also resonate with past studies that deem satisfaction and dissatisfaction to be two sides of the same coin; satisfaction can be regarded as the opposite of dissatisfaction and vice versa (Herzberg, 1959; Ou and Sia, 2010). In other words, we adhere to Herzberg's (1959) theorization of dissatisfaction as that of low satisfaction. 3. Methodology: In this study, we embrace a positivist approach by validating the three-factor theory by analyzing online hotel reviews generated by consumers. In recent years, we have witnessed the increasing popularity of consumer-generated reviews in hospitality industry. Consumer-generated reviews have also been touted to be an indispensable data source for research into customer satisfaction because they are objective and do not succumb to sampling biases that typically accompany traditional survey questionnaires (Schuckert et al., 2015). 4. Discussion and conclusions: 4.1 Conclusions
Organizational barriers to employee training and learning: evidence from the automotive sector	[ "Ghana", "Automotive industry", "Organizational learning", "Organization development", "Employee training", "Employee training and learning" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Organizational training is about equipping workers with skills, knowledge, new capabilities, and work attitude to enable them to perform their current job very efficiently and more effectively. It is generally accepted that effective training and development programs are major determinants of corporate effectiveness. Prior studies (Abugre and Adebola, 2015; Anlesinya et al., 2014; Kampkotter and Marggraf, 2015) largely focus on the outcomes of employee training and learning such as performance, retention, and commitment. Research context: The automotive industry in Ghana is currently being affected by constant technological advancement and increased customer awareness of various brand choices. As a result, most of the industry players are expected to encourage their workers to constantly build their capacity to adopt new technologies in their operations to meet the changing needs of their customers. Research design and methods: This study used a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design. The study targeted employees of a large manufacturing company in the automotive industry in Ghana. The company has 125 employees and 103 were selected based on the following criteria: Results and findings: The results are presented in Table I below. To obtain meaningful interpretations of the results, the following mean (M) intervals: "1.0 <= score < 1.8: strong disagreement; 1.8 <= score < 2.6: disagreement; 2.6 <= score <= 3.4: not sure/low agreement; 3.4 < score <= 4.2: medium agreement; 4.2 < score <= 5.0: strong agreement)" were adopted from Gravetter and Wallnau (2009, pp. 278-302). Discussions: The results identified four common barriers to employee training and learning: First, the culture of the organization does not encourage employees to participate in decision-making. This suggests that employees who have benefited from a training program are not encouraged to apply their new skills and knowledge effectively by making vital inputs to management decisions that affect their jobs. Recommendations: The study recommends that:
Perceptions and factors influencing the intention to do regular physical activities for the prevention of osteoporosis among Iranian working women	[ "Women", "Work and health", "Women’s health" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures (wrists, spine and hip). Today's special life style, including lack of or having little physical activities, is an important factor to be considered in this regard (Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, 2007; World Health Organization, 2010). In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced osteoporosis as the fourth main enemy of man after heart attack, stroke and cancer, and the most important cause of bone fractures in the world (Amini et al., 2014). Being known as "silent disease" in terms of its symptoms, osteoporosis first shows itself as fracture, which is considered the most common damage and loss caused by this disease. More than 200m people worldwide are suffering from this disease, and the WHO estimates that 75m people in the USA, Europe and Japan are suffering from osteoporosis among whom one out of three postmenopausal women live with the disease (Tarshizi et al., 2009). Increased risk of osteoporosis fractures might lead to increased morbidity and mortality. According to the Research Center for Rheumatology in Iran, 6m Iranians have osteoporosis and 2.5m out of 5m postmenopausal women suffer from the disease. Moreover, 50 percent of men and 70 percent of women over 50 suffer from osteoporosis or low bone density (Larijani et al., 2005). Women are almost four times more than men at risk of the disease and have less bone mass than men in all ages (Amini et al., 2014). Other symptoms of this disease include low quality of life, lack of fitness and deformities, pain, loss of motion, low self-confidence and loss of independence to do activities associated with daily living (Shanthi Johnson et al., 2008). Methods: The present descriptive-analytical study was conducted with the participation of the women working in Alborz University of Medical Sciences. The sampling was done through census and included all women employed in that university. Totally 217 individuals participated in our study. The required information was collected by going to their workplace in Alborz University of Medical Sciences. The inclusion criteria were: lack of diagnosed osteoporosis or osteopenia, being employed in Alborz University of Medical Sciences, the age range of 18-65 years and being interested to participate in the study. People with osteoporosis or osteopenia or any disease that was a barrier to do physical activities were excluded. Results: The greatest age ratio (50.7 percent) was in the age group 30-39 and the least (24.4 percent) was seen in the age group 40. Regarding education, as the results show, bachelor degrees and higher (76.5 percent) accounted for the most participating women (Table I). The results in Table I show that 67.7 percent of the participants were married and 43.5 percent of the participants had at least one family member with a history of osteoporosis. Also, 77 percent of the participants had strong religious belief on the duty to do physical activities. Discussion: Given that the benefits of physical activities for the prevention of diseases, especially the prevention of osteoporosis, are known, the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (2003) recommendation for the prevention of osteoporosis is to do physical activities. One of the most important things for designing a behavior change program is to determine the factors affecting behavioral intention. In this regard, identifying the perceptions is of great importance (Hatefnia et al., 2010). Conclusion: Since Osteoporosis is a common disease among women, especially in middle-aged and older ones, and since people's behaviors are closely related to their beliefs and perceptions, to change their behaviors, it is needed to change their beliefs (Heidarnia, 2003). In addition, according to the results of the present study in terms of the relationship that religious beliefs had with perceptions and the intention to do physical activities, taking into consideration the use of this important factor and cultural sensitivities in efficacy of the interventions to promote the intention to do physical activities is of great importance.
Creating a school context of success: The role of enabling school structure & academic optimism in an urban elementary & middle school setting	[ "Principals", "Schools", "Organizational culture", "Educational administration", "Organizational structures", "Success" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of enabling school structure (ESS) on academic optimism (AO) and school achievement (SA) in a predominantly urban school setting. A recent body of literature has pointed to the positive effects of AO; a culture that is characterized by trust, collective teacher efficacy, and academic emphasis (AE), on student achievement above and beyond the effects of student demographic characteristics such as socio-economic status (SES) (Bevel and Mitchell, 2012; Hoy et al., 2006; Kirby and DiPaola, 2011; McGuigan and Hoy, 2006; Smith and Hoy, 2007; Wagner and DiPaola, 2011). The current study seeks to determine the role of leadership in creating a culture that fosters success for all students. Theoretical framework: The press for accountability has focussed increased attention on school performance and school reform efforts. School leaders are pressed to find solutions to persistent performance gaps between majority and minority students and between affluent and poor schools. Along with this emphasis on achievement, attention is beginning to shift to school conditions that can potentially improve achievement for all students and to leadership that is less traditional and authoritative (DiPaola and Hoy, 2008; Leithwood et al., 2009). Hoy and Sweetland (2001) suggested that the type of leadership warranted is one that is collaborative and that enables teachers to do their work. According to Hoy and Sweetland the hierarchy of the school and the rules and regulations can either facilitate the work of teachers or hinder their work. When the structure of the school is enabling it promotes a culture of trust, one where teachers have decreased feelings of powerlessness, alienation, and fewer role conflicts. Moreover, we argue that ESS will elicit the openness necessary to identify problems in CE and trust and will create a forum for teachers and principals to work together to address these issues. The relationship between ESS and AO has only been tested two other times that we are aware of; once in elementary schools in the USA (McGuigan and Hoy, 2006) and once in elementary schools in Taiwan (Wu et al., 2013). McGuigan and Hoy found that ESS had a significant effect on AO in elementary schools in the USA. Wu et al. found that both ESS and collective responsibility had significant effects on AO in elementary schools in Taiwan. We believe that because of the known connection between ESS and AO, as well as the relationship between ESS and trust, (Adams and Forsyth, 2007; Hoy and Sweetland, 2001), one of the primary components of AO, that we will have similar findings in the elementary and middle schools in our predominantly urban school sample. The following discussion highlights our conceptual perspective on the following elements under study: ESS, AO, faculty trust in clients (FTC), CE, and AE and provides a rationale for how these elements work together to improve SA. Hypotheses: This study will utilize correlational analysis and SEM to test the effects of the variables in our study. Leadership theory and results from previous studies that have explored the relationships between the variables in our study, lead us to believe that ESS will have a significant direct effect on AO and that these two variables will work together to predict a measure of SA. We argue that leadership is necessary to establish structures that are enabling and that lead to the establishment of a culture of optimism, thus counteracting the effects of poverty and the pessimism often found in schools grappling with problems associated with low SES. Hoy et al. (2006) argued that the components that make up AO have a powerful effect on achievement because they shape school norms and behavioral expectations. Because these are group properties, teachers who work in schools that have high levels of trust for parents and students, AE, and CE will feel pressed to comply with these norms. Moreover, these three variables are interrelated and dependent upon one another. Each dimension when present serves to strengthen the other dimensions. Since the study of AO is in its infancy and studies that have linked ESS and AO are few there is a need not only to confirm these relationships but also to extend the study of these constructs to other contexts, which is the focus of this study. Methodology: The unit of analysis for this study was the school: therefore, individual subject scores were aggregated to the school level. The predictor variables were ESS and AO which included the three sub-components of AO (collective teacher efficacy, AE, and teacher trust in clients). The dependent variable was SA which was a latent variable composed of prior school achievement (PSA) and current school achievement (CSA). CSA represented the average school score on the national Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-10) exam in reading and mathematics for the 2010-2011 school year. PSA was measured as the average school score on the national SAT-10 exam in reading and mathematics for the 2009-2010 school year. SES as determined by the proportion of students not eligible for the free and reduced lunch program and school level were added as control variables. School level was added as a control variable because of its correlation with several of the variables in our study such as faculty trust, CE, and AE which in prior studies has been shown to be higher in elementary school and tends to wane as students move through school (Adams, 2008; Forsyth et al., 2011; Mitchell, 2006). Analytic technique: The Intra-class Correlation is a reliability index that is particularly useful when justifying aggregation of data (Shrout and Fleiss, 1979). We calculated intra-class correlations for ESS, CE, FTC, and AE because they were conceptualized as school properties and because they were measured as aggregated scores of teacher perceptions in each school. We calculated both the ICC-1 and the ICC-2. ICC-1 represents the variance attributed to group membership whereas ICC-2 represents the within group agreement between teachers in the sample. Each ICC provided an estimation of group dependence. The ICC-1 tested for the variance attributed to differences in teacher perceptions between the schools in our sample whereas the ICC-2 tested for homogeneity of perceptions between teachers within the school. Both ICCs were calculated using a random effects ANOVA, which measured the reliability of the group means (Bliese, 2000). Results: This study examined the relationships between ESS, AO (FTC, AE, and CE), and a latent variable used to represent SA that was made up of two indicator variables (PSA and CSA) while controlling for elementary level and SES. Discussion: This study confirmed that AO once again is a latent construct that is comprised of FTC, collective teacher efficacy, and AE. Moreover, this study adds to the literature on AO by exploring the relationship between ESS and AO in elementary and middle schools. It appears that ESS sets the stage not only for AO in a school but for higher SA. In our study ESS was both positively correlated with and predictive of AO such that schools with significantly higher ESS had significantly higher AO. It would also seem that ESS works through AO to produce increased SA above and beyond the effects of SES. We note that ESS had a significant indirect effect on SA, which is in line with findings by Leithwood et al. (2010). This is an important finding because it suggests that there are specific things that leaders can do to affect achievement. Our study would suggest that one of the things leaders can do is establish an ESS. This was more pronounced for elementary schools as prior studies have indicated (Adams et al., 2009; Forsyth et al., 2011). Elementary school status in our sample of schools was positively correlated with AO and its three components, namely, FTC, CE, and AE. It would seem that these conditions decline in middle school. We suspect that increased departmentalization, specialization, complexity of task, and decreased parent involvement in middle school and beyond may be some of the reasons for this decline. Because ESS is not affected by these changes it is likely that it is all the more important as a resource for improving AO in middle schools and beyond. These findings provide a source of hope for school leaders in diverse urban settings. Rather than adopting a sense of pessimism based on concerns about the effects of SES and other uncontrollable demographic variables, leaders can seek ways to create enabling structures in their schools with the knowledge that such structures will have an effect on the degree of AO and in turn may have an effect on school wide levels of achievement, as demonstrated in this study, thus creating a culture of academic success.
The effects of employer SNS motioning on employee perceived privacy violation, procedural justice, and leave intention	[ "Electronic monitoring", "Intention to leave", "Procedural justice", "Social networking sites (SNS)", "Facebook", "Privacy violation" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Social networking sites (SNSs) are broadly defined as web-based services that allow members to construct a profile detailing their personal information, create and view a list of users they have connections with, and navigate their and others' connections (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). SNSs take the form of either personal networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) or professional networks that connect applicants with potential employers (e.g. LinkedIn) (Smith and Kidder, 2010; Hanna et al., 2011). 2. Literature review: 2.1 Electronic monitoring 3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample and procedure 4. Results: 4.1 CMV and non-response bias 5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Discussion
Using a business simulation to develop key skills - the MERKIS experience	[ "Management games", "Simulation", "Teaching methods" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: MERKIS is a new comprehensive business simulation game that teaches team building, strategy, communication skills, financial management and an enterprise-wide perspective of how the whole organization works together, as well as many other skills and concepts. This game is designed for companies that would like to gain a strategic business advantage over their competitors. Structure of the seminar: The game has rounds which we call "years". Each year is 50 minutes long. After each year each team produces a profit and loss statement and evaluates how they have done based on the goals they set at the beginning of the year The company is managed over a number of years, thereby providing the participants with the ability to see the results and consequences of decisions made in the past and the way those decisions influence further development of the company. They also build relationships, within the team and with customers and suppliers, and quickly recognize the impact of their relationship, or lack of relationship, on their ability to get work done.The simulation happens in real time. Time management has a real impact during the game. Participants have to manage their time as well as the new technologies through which it is possible to increase production while decreasing production time, which is important. Here, as in real life, time is money.Each team member also has a separate role, such as president, head of marketing, head of finance, chief engineer, head of production and production worker. Team members are assigned roles, keeping in mind that they will learn from what they do, not from what they already know.The seminar is structured so that each round teaches skill sets, theory and/or strategy issues.The power of MERKIS lies in its ability to immediately test and apply the skills learned between years during the next year of the game. The participants will not have to wait until the end of the training to apply the skills to real work. The cycle of learning, application, and reflection speeds and deepens learning.The biggest benefit of the MERKIS game is that players get the big picture of how the whole enterprise works. They can then make their decisions, based on how the decisions align with the organization's goals and the effect those decisions will have on all other parts of the enterprise, and ultimately on the profit and loss of the company. This is particularly important for large companies where people perform only narrow functions and have difficulty getting the big picture.This simulation is also used for teaching communication skills and team building, as people work together in a division. When communication skills are taught by the trainer, participants can then apply them in the game environment. The trainer gets immediate feedback about how well individuals are applying the skills and concepts, which need to be reinforced.Participants find the process fun, engaging and physical. We purposely do not use computers. We find that when people manually calculate profit and loss, they gain a deeper understanding of how their income statement is done. Participants very much enjoy the physical activity of planning, producing products, running the railroad, meeting production goals, figuring profit and loss, planning for the next year, and other activities required in the game.MERKIS is a very flexible tool. Its biggest advantage is that it can be applied to different purposes, achieving different goals and outcomes. There are some standard processes within the game and it can be tailored to specific business issues the company is facing. Company- or industry-specific issues can even be incorporated or included in the game, so that people solve problems in the game rather than making mistakes in real life. Case 1: an American brewing company in Europe: The company had a multi-country structure and 12 large breweries, with the management team overseeing all of those breweries. Within the management team the newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer from the company came from a financial background.The American who had been serving as Chief Executive Officer resigned and went back to the USA. The company promoted their Financial Manager to become CEO. He was not feeling confident about his leadership abilities in managing people who were once his peers.In this case we placed him in the role of team leader. Within the course of the game, roles are switched. Participants get different experiences from working in different roles within the company. When we switched the roles we put him in the position of President of the company, where he had to work with his former peers. Conflicts arose with them, which increased his insecurity.We provided him with an executive coach who gave him real-time feedback on his leadership style and skills. We also did some coaching work with him before the session. The combination of coaching and his roles in the simulation prepared him well for taking on his leadership role.Ultimately, he took very well to the training. He became a real leader for his team, and his team out-performed the other teams playing the game. The most important thing is that he really took the leadership coaching and applied it in the game. He reported in coaching sessions that he has taken his leadership style into his whole life. Case 2: a pharmaceutical company: When discussing with the management team of a pharmaceutical company what they expected from the game and what the real-life challenges were, it appeared that they were facing two challenges. The first was a new competitor who had developed a product similar to theirs, therefore threatening their market position. The second challenge was a decision about a merger they were considering. Those were the two biggest issues at the corporate strategy level. We created the following scenario: we took the executive management team of 12 people and played the game in two teams. They played for two days, learning skills and concepts. On the third day they arrived from their hotel rooms to play the game to find a third factory - another team of people working there (actually their direct reports). Suddenly, they were facing their real problem - their competitor had entered the market. Not only was their competitor right there, but they had a factory up and running with even better technology. So what did they do? They had to face the reality, compete, and work out their strategies.In the next round they decided to play out the merger. Then they had to deal with the problems created by the merger. What were they going to do with people who may now be redundant? Now, instead of 12 people in a team they had 14. They had to decide who was doing what and how to allocate resources, what to do with the factories and all the other problems that come with a merger.When people play this game their real-life strategies really come out, and they see how they act in situations like this. Their reactions are remarkably similar to "real life".In the simulation people develop strategies and learn from mistakes. In real life they may see their mistakes within a year, and two years. Sometimes even three or five have passed before they see the effects of their actions, especially in strategic decisions. Only then do they learn from their decisions, when it is too late to change anything. Here, by adjusting the simulation to the problems a company is facing, they can see results within a half a day before implementing certain changes in real life. Case 3: a European construction company with an American head office: At one point, the American head office imposed a specific new long-term system of planning on their European branches. Our client's management team was both openly and covertly opposing the new system and still adhering to the old system.The CEO asked for our help. What we did was play the MERKIS game. We incorporated this long-term planning into the simplified version of the MERKIS forms and MERKIS work. What they had to do was to use a new form - a simplified version of their planning.Of course, people opposed it at the beginning. In the training we set it up so they had to use the new form At the end of the training, five or six game years had passed, and they really saw the value and benefits of this new form, how it was much better and actually easier to use than the old form. In the real world of their work, the transition to the new form was much smoother, and almost nobody objected to it. Case 4: a software company in California, USA: We were asked to teach communication skills to teams of high-level engineers. Over four days, they played MERKIS with communication skill training sessions between rounds. After each round they received feedback from their peers, coaches, and trainers. Their communication skills vastly improved after four days. We continued to facilitate and coach MERKIS sessions for this company. Over time people reported seeking out people with this background when they were forming project teams. MERKIS: Benefits
Community-based social partnerships in crisis resilience: a case example in Greece	[ "Social capital", "Crisis", "Community resilience", "Community-based social partnership", "Community managed self-organized emerging networks", "Resilience building" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Global development has been challenged by the crises and disasters of recent years. In an interconnected world, new structures and strategies are needed to address these challenges effectively. Due to the interconnectedness, crises and disasters can potentially affect people and systems at local, national and international levels. In the humanitarian logistics (HL) context, effective disaster relief can be achieved with collaboration between humanitarian organisations, governments, civil society, the military and businesses (Tomasini and van Wassenhove, 2009). Humanitarian partnerships are thus formed each time a disaster occurs between actors that would not have an incentive to collaborate otherwise. Community participation in the disaster relief efforts has been seen as a benefit in humanitarian supply chain design (Pardasani, 2006; Gaillard, 2010; Matopoulos et al., 2014). Furthermore, sustainable disaster relief requires development of resilient communities, thus partnerships may exist beyond the disaster response phase to collaborate with local communities. Community resilience relates to collaboration and effective coordination of all stakeholders within their social and economic systems (Stewart et al., 2009). Stakeholders include public, private and civic sectors and individuals. Therefore, it can be defined as an adaptive process which integrates stakeholders' capabilities in ways that lead to positive adaptation after a disaster (Norris et al., 2008). In a different approach, it has been defined as an innovative process with transformative capabilities, a participatory process that passes the responsibility for action to citizens and enables trust building between experts and individuals (Rogers et al., 2016). Key concepts interrelated to resilience are vulnerability and adaptive capacity, whereas proactive and transformative capabilities link it to social capital (Weichselgartner and Kelman, 2015). Cutter (2016) has pointed out that community resilience can be seen as the social dynamics and interactions within the community and the social capital that is important in enhancing connectivity and action, whereas new measures are needed to capture these characteristics. The community resilience to crisis approach in this paper integrates the definitions given by Stewart et al. (2009) and Norris et al. (2008) while it also infers active citizen participation, social interactions and social capital. 2. CBSPs and related concepts: The concept of partnership has been identified as an organisational model for local development (e.g. Craig, 1995). Local development initiatives have been identified as enablers for the broader concept of sustainable development which includes besides economic development, social, community and environmental dimensions (e.g. Walsh and Meldon, 2004). Nelson and Zadek (2000) argued that the key European challenge in the twenty-first century was how to achieve economic competiveness and social cohesion simultaneously. They suggested that a mechanism to address the new challenges was the formation of new types of social partnerships between public, private and civic sectors. A consequence of the new structures was a blurring of the boundaries between sectors (Prakash, 2002; O'Riain, 2000; Selsky and Parker, 2005). Different terms are used for these wider partnerships, such as new social partnerships (Nelson and Zadek, 2000), or cross-sector social-oriented partnerships (Selsky and Parker, 2005). 3. Research methodology: The presented CBSP is described in-depth for the first three years since its formation, however it is an ongoing partnership. Research method was based on both formal and informal interviews as well as written communication with various members of the partnership. Data collection took place in the period between October 2013 and November 2014. Interviews were taken in the period between July and November 2014. In total, 11 semi-structured and informal interviews and five feedback documents from six private companies and two NGOs were used for the research analysis. Feedback documents mainly provided additional details on secondary data. The interviewees represented private and civic sector members. In most of the cases, interviews were taken from participants representing different departments of each organisation and included marketing managers and employees, an assistant general manager, responsible for communications, a head of strategic marketing and communications, a social investment coordinator, private sector employees, an NGO director, NGO representatives from different departments and logistics staff, in order to have a complete picture at the operational as well as technical levels. An interview questionnaire document was used as a guide for most of the interviews. Additional written communication was exchanged in order to verify partnership's characteristics. Some of the interviews were taken by phone. Secondary data sources included the partnership's website, social accounting reports of the participants and media news reports. Secondary data were mainly used to assess part of the outcomes of the partnership. 4. "All together, we can" CBSP: 4.1 Aim of the CBSP 5. General issues of the CBSP: 5.1 Trust mechanisms - relationship building 6. Conclusions: The purpose of this paper is to describe in depth a partnership type for building community resilience, a CBSP, with the case example of one such ongoing partnership in Greece, emerged in response to the community distress caused by the financial crisis. The partnership is a grass-root self-organised national network, with members from the private, public and civic sectors, that sensitises the audience, individuals, via a national media campaign to participate in voluntary actions for the community in sectors such as health, nutrition and education. A shared risk, i.e. loss of society's social cohesion, and the partnership's national media campaign have been catalysts in motivating the audience to participate in the actions, whereas the leading company is a media sector company.
The physician of Packingtown: the life and impact of Dr Caroline Hedger	[ "Labour", "Working conditions", "Management history", "Caroline Hedger", "Packingtown", "Public health history" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: In February, 1906, Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle, which graphically described the living and working conditions of the residents of Packingtown, a Chicago slum located next to the stockyards district of the city (Sinclair, 1906a, b; Braeman, 1964). Sinclair was a young aspiring novelist and socialist who believed that his work would awaken a stronger movement in the US for labor reform and a pro-socialist agenda. The impact of his novel; however, was much different than he expected, as the public focused on the unsanitary meat-packing conditions and the woefully inadequate government inspection system that was in place to monitor it. "I aimed at the public's heart," Sinclair stated, "and by accident I hit it in the stomach" (Sinclair, 1906a, p. 594). Despite lamenting the effect of his work, The Jungle was a powerful piece of fiction that motivated a strong response. Initially, readers were skeptical of the claims made in the novel, but its popularity spurred the people in the Packingtown community to take action to confirm claims' veracity. In May, 1906, the magazine The World's Work published three compelling articles concerning Sinclair's claims under the overall title of "Selling Diseased Meat" (Braeman, 1964). One of these articles was written by a female physician named Caroline Hedger and was titled "The unhealthfulness of Packingtown". Living conditions in "The Jungle": As reports by Hedger and others later confirmed, the descriptions of living conditions in the Packingtown district were quite accurately described by Sinclair's (1906a) novel. The owners of the largest meatpacking operations, Philip Armour and Gustavus Swift, never discouraged the development of the deplorable tenement community outside of their enormous production facilities (Horowitz, 1997). Sometimes referred to as the "Back of the Yards," the community in which the meatpacking workers lived was abysmal. Surrounded on all four sides by unbearable odors, smoke, human and animal waste, disease, and refuse, Packingtown was a geographic eyesore (Miller, 1996) (see Figure 1). Working conditions in "The Jungle": The slaughtering process in the meatpacking plants was brutally efficient yet lacking in sanitary necessity. Animals were transported to the stockyards by rail, briefly housed in outdoor pens, and brought into the meatpacking plant in mere hours (Miller, 1996). For example, hogs were herded up an inclined chute and hooked by chains to a large wheel that lifted them as it rotated and carried them to an overhead railway. This rail ran on a descending angle through the length of the plant from the top to the bottom floor. As it descended, a pig's throat would be sliced open and the blood collected for fertilizer. Further down the track, it would be released into a vat of boiling water that scalded it and loosened its hair and bristles before its pink carcass was removed and placed in a scrapping machine that shaved its body. It was then hitched up again by the overhead rail and gravitated to a yet lower section of the plant where workers butchered it as it glided by. On its final leg down to the lowest point of the plant, a pig was cut down the middle and the halves were pushed into chilling rooms to firm up in preparation for further processing. This sequence took less than ten minutes in total (Miller, 1996). From the stockyard pens to butcher shop destinations, the meatpacking companies became increasingly vertically integrated allowing for their domination of the entire industry. This domination was further enhanced when the owners of the largest meatpacking operations, including Armour and Swift, began to collude by allocating sales territories and setting wholesale meat prices (Horowitz, 1997) (see Plate 3). Labor unions in "The Jungle": Multiple unsuccessful attempts at unionization were made by the stockyards district employees. Strikes in 1879, 1886, and 1894 all failed, as the meatpackers hired replacement workers, and state militia, Pinkerton agents, and local police contributed in defeating their efforts (Miller, 1996). Armour forced his employees to sign contracts agreeing not to join unions and systematically blacklisted union organizers. Labor organization was also hindered by divisions between the workers themselves due to ethnic and skill differences. The Irish and German workers deeply resented the unskilled Eastern European immigrants' willingness to take their jobs. Later migration by black workers to the city from the south further increased these divisions, and allowed this non-union environment to prevail. It would not be until the 1930s that serious labor reforms would take place leading to the formation of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA; Horowitz, 1997). Armour believed that the only answer to the labor issue was to be what, in his opinion, was a good employer. He reasoned that he must drive his laborers as he did to keep production costs at a minimum, lowering prices for the product and, therefore, enabling him to employ thousands of individuals. The best that any employer could do was to provide the jobs that the people desired (Miller, 1996). This perspective is referred to as the minimalist view of Corporate Social Responsibility indicating that a business needs only to pay taxes and obey the law to do its duty. Employing workers and providing goods and services at reasonable prices is the only social obligation when this view is held (Bovee and Thill, 2011). Once again it is hard to imagine that the proponents of Scientific Management would approve of the harsh treatment of these employees despite their views regarding the issue of union formation (Wren and Bedeian, 2009, p. 151). Taylor was adamant in his argument that Scientific Management should emphasize both a commitment to scientifically sound techniques and friendly cooperation between employees and management (Nyland, 1996). His work clearly indicates that he believed that paying employees a fair wage and fostering friendly cooperation between employees and management would eliminate the need for union formation (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). Hedger's impact on Packingtown: Dr Caroline Hedger faced these conditions when she moved into the University of Chicago settlement house in Packingtown near the beginning of the twentieth century. Settlement houses were institutions developed in the late nineteenth century to help combat poverty, especially among immigrants in overcrowded industrial cities (Wade, 2004). Hedger's article "The unhealthfulness of Packingtown" in The World's Work magazine may have had one of the most significant impacts on the national landscape of all her work (Hedger, 1906). In it she describes in devastating detail the living and working conditions of the laborers in the Packingtown neighborhood as previously described. Hedger did not back down from confronting the powerful beef producers. The article ends with several significant and strongly worded recommendations to improve the current state of affairs in the stockyards district, "for their own sakes the American people should consider the health of the 32,000 packinghouse workers, a center of infection by tuberculosis... It must be realized in Packingtown that the workers are human beings and must have decent living and working conditions" (Hedger, 1906, p. 7510). She further argued that overcrowding must be reduced and inspections of living facilities conducted. Legislation should also be passed to protect women and children in industry. Education must be provided to the residents on cooking and proper ventilation. Last, there must be a search for and treatment of all early symptoms of tuberculosis to make Packingtown a habitable and healthy community (Hedger, 1906). As noted, this article was published with two others in The World's Work that detailed the failures of government meat inspection and added credence to the claims made by Sinclair in The Jungle. Ultimately, this led to reforms within meatpacking plants, but outside of the plants was a different story. Her calls for reform were noble and had much foresight, but change would come slowly for the people of Packingtown. Conclusion: The life of Caroline Hedger was one of extreme compassion. Her writing demonstrates her desire for the people that she worked with to improve themselves by healthy living and being contributing members of American society. Her emphasis on good health for workers and their families cannot be understated and is an often overlooked aspect of management history. Hedger had many strong beliefs about the value of humanity and urged the people she interacted with to achieve positive health by not only curing disease, but finding ways to prevent it. Her attempts to reduce worker fatigue and promotion of positive health are reminiscent of modern discussions of work-life balance. She believed that industry must be responsible for improving and maintaining the health of its workers; ideas which were a precursor to Corporate Social Responsibility issues. Her work in the Packingtown neighborhood of the Chicago stockyards exemplified her life work of helping other people and seeking proactive solutions to the social problems of her times. The owners of the meatpacking plants instituted harsh working conditions in their efforts to maximize efficiency and profits mirroring some aspects of Taylor's thoughts on Scientific Management; however, Hedger worked to encourage other aspects of Taylor's philosophies such as cordial relations between workers and employers by vocalizing the need for compassionate treatment of employees and their families specifically through their improved health. Her role in exposing the living and working conditions of the people of the stockyards district was vital in helping others to see the challenges that these people endured. Her support of labor union activity through her affiliation with the Women's Trade Union League of Chicago was just one of the many ways she promoted social change throughout her life by attempting to enhance worker health. These efforts strongly relate to the evolution of management history over time. Her career with the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund traveling throughout the country as a lecturer encouraging others to improve the lives of children, helping parents to do a better job with their families, and finding ways to bring immigrants into the mainstream of American social life impacted uncounted people. In many ways, her efforts mirrored those of other reformers of her age such as Nell Nelson and Jane Addams (Nobelprize.org, 2012; Liguori, 2012); however, her emphasis on health makes her contribution unique and provides a different perspective from which to view the evolution of management history. Healthy workers supported by healthy families would impact industry in a vital way. Hedger was able to influence public thought on this issue by expressing her ideas to others and exposing poor management practices that fostered unhealthy working conditions.
Environmental and social sustainability in Producer Organizations' strategies	[ "Sustainability", "Cluster analysis", "Environmental measures", "Firm strategies", "Producer Organizations" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Since 1996, Producer Organizations (POs) have been the main instrument of EU Fruit and Vegetable (F&V) Common Market Organization (CMO). They mainly have the task to plan, aggregate and place the products of their members on the market, to reduce production costs, as well as to give assistance to their members. Reg. (EC) 2200/1996 (European Commission, 1996) stated that the production and marketing of fruits and vegetables should have taken full account of environmental concerns in cultivation practices and the management of waste materials. Accordingly, it provided co-funding of Operational Programs (OPs) which should include actions to develop the use of environmentally sound techniques by producer members with regard to both cultivation practices and the management of waste, promote the creation of organic product lines, integrate production or other methods of production that respect the environment, protect the quality of water, soil and landscape and preserve and/or encourage biodiversity. 2. Sustainability and firm strategies: In last few decades, the attention for environmental and social issues has increased and the environmental concern has been recognized to come along economic and social change within a holistic approach. As a consequence, responsible behavior is supported and encouraged at different levels (consumers, producers, civil society) and implies different fields of action. Referring to firms, the higher environmental pressure they face has often pushed them to modify the business strategy, and a growing number of companies have embraced environmental and social sustainability policies by improving energy efficiency and resource use and waste reduction. The extent to which that happened is notably different from one sector to another but, also within the same sector, business models can vary according to firms' driving motivations and environmental orientation (Hartmann, 2011). 3. Data and methods: To analyze if sustainability is a main goal in the POs' strategy and how it is translated into specific actions, we carried out a field survey on Italian POs by submitting a questionnaire aimed at collecting data and information on three specific fields: POs' characteristics (size, products and territorial coverage, forward integration); the way POs feel about sustainability issues and objectives of POs and actions undertaken in their OPs. Moreover, questions on the adoption of certifications and on the relationship with upward stakeholders were included to have a more comprehensive vision about how POs implement sustainability at different levels. Information on environmental orientation was based on 11 statements measured on a Likert-type scale[3] (1= strongly disagree; 5= strongly agree), while as far as goals are concerned, POs were first asked to indicate the relevance (low, mean, high) of eight different objectives and then to order them according to the priority level. 4. Results: 4.1 The exploratory analysis 5. Conclusions: The aim of this work was to analyze environmental strategies in the F&V sector. In particular, the attention was focused on POs as they represent intermediate structures of the F&V supply chain that can play a relevant role both by directly carrying out sustainable initiatives and by promoting more environmentally friendly practices of their members.
School students' introduction to the world of work	[ "UK", "Work experience", "Employability", "Part-time work", "School students" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Reviewing two decades of research in Britain Hobbs and McKechnie (1997) found that for many young people their first experience of paid employment is gained while they are still school students. They focused on school students who were still within compulsory education (i.e. under 16 yr of age) and argued that the majority would have gained experience of paid part-time employment before the end of compulsory education. Later research showed that those who stayed in school beyond the compulsory education stage (i.e. 16-18 yr olds) were even more likely than the younger students to combine part-time employment with full-time attendance at school (Canny, 2002; Payne, 2003; Howieson et al., 2006). Studies have also shown that this pattern is not unique to Britain but is evident in the USA, Australasia and Western Europe (Mortimer, 2003; Caritas, 2006; Stuart, 2008; McCoy and Smyth, 2007; Paone, 2006). Findings: A majority experience Discussion: The evidence from this study demonstrates that combining part-time work and full-time education is a common experience for school students. These findings are in line with previous research. However, our primary concern in this paper is to ascertain whether there is any value in such work: school students' perceptions of their jobs would lead us to conclude that it does, indeed, have value. A similar picture emerges when we look at the activities carried out in the students' work place.
Enhancing graduate employability through work-based learning in social entrepreneurship: A case study	[ "Graduates", "Workplace learning", "Social responsibility", "Social entrepreneurship", "Graduate employability", "Responsible entrepreneurship", "Work‐based learning", "Enterprise education" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Employability is high on the agenda for Australian higher education institutions for several reasons, including those related to government policy, employer demand, shortage of skills in the Australian workforce and the needs of students (Hager and Holland, 2006). A 2009 survey of 500 chief executives by the Australian Industry Group and Deloitte identified skills in communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative and enterprise, planning and organising, self-management, and learning and technology as key considerations in graduate employability. In response to these drivers, in 2009 the Bachelor of Business Entrepreneurship (BBE) programme at RMIT University in Australia introduced a series of work-based learning (WBL) courses as part of its strategic aim to enhance graduates' employability and capabilities to deal with the complexities of the new economic era arising from the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global recession (Krugman, 2008; Rae, 2010). Another compelling reason for the programme's renewal was the need to develop a curriculum that supports learning "for" rather than "about" entrepreneurship (Hartshorn, 2002; Hannon, 2005; Pittaway and Cope, 2005; Rae, 2007a); and the notion of "responsible" entrepreneurship education and learning (Rae, 2010; Blundel and Spence, 2009; Chell, 2007), which business schools worldwide have been criticised for failing to provide (Noble, 2001).This case study highlights the benefits of enhancing graduate employability and responsible entrepreneurship education through the use of WBL curriculum in the context of "social entrepreneurship" - an area that is relatively novel and under-researched within the field. The paper also examines the extent to which the challenges associated with designing and implementing WBL have been successfully addressed through the curriculum innovation in social entrepreneurship - one of the courses within the renewed RMIT entrepreneurship programme that integrated WBL.This paper begins with a critical analysis of the relevant literature on graduate employability, WBL and enterprise education, followed by a discussion of the key benefits and challenges associated with WBL, and identifies a research gap in exploring these issues in the context of social entrepreneurship. The section on the data collection method comprises a description of the participants, procedures and tools. Following a discussion of the context, content and delivery module of the enhanced curriculum, the paper concludes with an in-depth discussion of the findings, and an outline of the implications for higher education providers and future research. Skills development and graduate employability: Over the past 20 years a dramatic shift has taken place in the way policymakers and students view higher education and the role of universities. The idea that one goes to a university to become "intellectually enlightened" has been substituted with the notion that the primary purpose of higher education is to "service" industry (Reeve and Gallacher, 2005; Yorke, 2006; Gunn et al., 2008; Rae, 2010). In keeping with this view, employment and skills development are now seen as central to the role of universities (Murdoch, 2004; Evans, 2008). For example, the intent of RMIT's Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Policy (2007) is to make a significant contribution to RMIT graduates' work and industry readiness, specifically the development of the core skills and capabilities of practice. The policy focuses on students "learning by doing in context and with feedback", with the expectation that the experience of the workplace will improve their employability (RMIT's WIL Policy, 2007). This vision of higher education's role in workplace preparation encompasses creative elements that call upon students to manage their own learning by engaging with material presented to them, developing their own thinking and finally applying this to real-world situations (Gunn et al., 2008; Moreland, 2006; Candy, 1990).In response to these changes, various pedagogical constructs in the field of learning and teaching have emerged. One view is that our teaching philosophy and instructional practices should integrate more democratic and egalitarian views of education that allow for different kinds of learning, in turn enabling dramatic improvements in student motivation and engagement (Brookfield, 1995; Weimer, 2002). Students should be taught to not only be competitive but also cooperative in their approach to learning. At the core of our teaching philosophy should be constructivism, which emphasises learners actively constructing their own knowledge rather than passively receiving information transmitted from teachers and textbooks (Biggs, 2003). Constructivism prescribes a whole new level of student involvement whereby content becomes the means to knowledge rather than the end. In this process, the role of the educator should be that of a learning facilitator, making essential contributions to students' learning by being far more around the classroom than in front of it (Weimer, 2002). Teachers should inspire students to become self-directed learners during their formal education, and to use these skills throughout their professional and personal lives. WBL: The principles of experiential learning are to a great extent also built on these tenets, advancing the notions that individuals should generate the meaning of theory, understanding and wisdom through real-life experience; and of the adult learner as self-directed and self-managing, competent, reflective and autonomous, able to abstract out and articulate their learning from the everyday routines of practice and/or work projects (Kolb, 1984; Brookfield, 1995; Sobiechowska and Maisch, 2007).WBL involves far more than the commonly known "experiential" learning, as it provides an opportunity to learn theory in conjunction with practice. Theory may also be introduced after rather than before experience to allow learners to question assumptions of practice. According to Raelin (1997, p. 564), WBL incorporates two fundamental dimensions: theory and practice modes of learning, and explicit and tacit forms of knowledge. If we believe that knowledge is constructed and transformed, then it is as much a dynamic as a static concept. Sims and McAulay (1995) suggest that learning be seen as a verb or process rather than a noun or product. Thus, WBL blends theory and action, as theory makes sense only through practice, but practice makes sense only through reflection enhanced by theory (Raelin, 1997).Studies on the potential of WBL to enhance undergraduate skills have identified that students participating in experiential or WBL exhibit a number of critical skills employers demand, including maturity and emotional intelligence, and team-building, negotiation, communication and interpersonal skills (Little et al., 2004; Brennan, 2005; Anderson and Green, 2006; Nicholls and Walsh, 2007). The wider contextual learning gained through work experience and extra-curricular activities; the parallel personal development of the graduates in terms of their personality, motivation, identity and culture; and life experiences have all been identified as important drivers of employability (Griffiths and Guile, 2003; Rae, 2007b).Scholarly teaching as understood by Kreber (1999) includes reflection on curriculum, instruction and pedagogy at the levels of course rationale, process and content. Hutchings and Shulman (1999) view scholarly teaching as involving other aspects of scholarship, namely, the scholarship of discovery, integration and application. Since by nature WBL utilises a wide variety of settings for learning, where much of students' learning can be informal, implicit and shaped by the context in which it occurs (Hager, 1997), a number of challenges are faced in pursuing scholarly practices using WBL, as follows:* As WBL is frequently under-resourced, there is often reluctance to adopt this approach due to challenges in making scholarly practice using WBL cost and time effective (Reeders, 2000; Reeve and Gallacher, 2005; Nixon et al., 2006).* Given workplace learning is implicit, affected by a higher degree of unpredictability than found in the classroom setting, and bound to the context in which it occurs, it is challenging to articulate, assess and evaluate learning. This is an issue of control (Hager, 1997; Hughes, 1998).* WBL involves the challenge of aligning the goals of a wider range of players than is required in class-based learning (Ashworth and Saxton, 1992; Gleeson and Keep, 2004; Hillier and Rawnsley, 2006).* There is an issue of capacity - it is challenging to match the educative potential of the workplace with learners' needs (Sobiechowska and Maisch, 2007). According to Reeders (2000), variables include students' competence and confidence, the demands of their tasks, the level of their access to organisational and professional knowledge, and the facilitative capacity of workplace mentors or supervisors.* Related to the issue of capacity is the challenge of customising WBL strategies to enable us to respect and draw upon the life experience of students, while also devising strategies that best achieve shared goals (Reeders, 2000). Enterprise education in the new economic era and how WBL fits in: There is strong support for reconceptualising entrepreneurial curriculums to incorporate responsibility, ethics and environmentalism (Gibb, 1996, 2002; Gorman et al., 1997; Hannon, 2005; Pittaway and Cope, 2005: Cope and Watts, 2000; Rae, 2005, 2008). This shift from an "old" to a "new" entrepreneurial learning and education paradigm has been reinforced by the emergence of the new economic era (Rae, 2010) resulting from the international financial and economic crises in 2008 and 2011. As argued by Rae (2010, p. 593), "the challenge is how to regenerate economic activity, new jobs and sources of wealth creation, especially for young people, without the easy certainties of either corporate or public investment; to which entrepreneurship, and learning to work in the new era are vital contributions". According to Hytti and O'Gorman (2004, p. 11), "national competitive advantage is increasingly dependent on the skill base of the workforce, and more specifically, on the ability of both firms and individuals to engage in innovative activity and in new economic activity. This has created an imperative for both general skills, as these, it is suggested, are related to innovation, and for specific enterprise skills, which are related to new venture creation".Extant literature has often defined enterprise education as a distinct activity by distinguishing between entrepreneurship studies and "traditional" management studies (Gibb, 1999; Solomon et al., 2002). However, Hytti and O'Gorman (2004) argue that the boundary between the two is often blurred, with enterprise education frequently perceived as synonymous with other concepts such as work-related learning (Dwerryhouse, 2001), action learning (Smith, 2001), experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) and entrepreneurial learning (Gibb, 1999; Rae, 2000). They have proposed that enterprise education programmes should seek to achieve the following three aims: learn to understand entrepreneurship, learn to become entrepreneurial and learn to become an entrepreneur. The proposed conceptual schema of Hytti and O'Gorman (2004) for capturing the objectives of enterprise education programmes highlights the importance of enhanced "employability" by creating more entrepreneurial individuals who will act as independent entrepreneurs, and preparing individuals for a world where they will increasingly need to manage their own careers and lives in an entrepreneurial way. In this context, there is also growing recognition that social entrepreneurship can provide a frame of reference for "responsible" entrepreneurship education and learning (Chell, 2007; Blundel and Spence, 2009; Frost, 2009) "based on the principle that entrepreneurial activity can create social good whilst reinvesting financial returns in community development" (Rae, 2010, p. 595).The literature convincingly argues for the importance of WBL in facilitating the "employability" agenda of the higher education sector, particularly within enterprise education programmes. However, it is evident that social entrepreneurship as an important element of entrepreneurial learning and education has received scant attention within scholarly practice in WBL. The literature highlights that national and organisational responses to increased global competition have provided an impetus to WBL in enterprise education as a vehicle to break away from the passive and didactic "chalk and talk" learning approaches to embrace dynamic learning in uncertain and volatile environments (Gibb, 2002; Cope, 2005). However, there is little recognition within the WBL literature of the drive for the social enterprise sector to become more professional and business-like in order to survive in the new economic era, and how WBL programmes within the context of social entrepreneurship education can prepare graduates for this changed business climate. Our exploratory study is intended to address this research gap. Methods of data collection on student feedback: Between 2008 and 2011, we conducted exploratory research into the planning, implementation, evaluation of and reflection on, a WBL curriculum for social entrepreneurship at RMIT. According to the course enrolment data, at least 50 students would be surveyed each year, aggregating to a target sample of 200 students. The pre- and post-course experience surveys (CESs) were adapted from those used in the Fastrack Innovation Programme (Gilbert, 2012). At the beginning of the semester, the students in social entrepreneurship were asked to participate in a pre-CES and complete a largely open-ended questionnaire to provide their initial feedback on the WBL curriculum, in particular regarding the problem-based learning mode, the skills and capabilities they expected to develop, and the impact this might have on their employability. The pre-CES was distributed to the students with an addressed envelope. They were asked to complete the questionnaire in their own time and return it to the school of management assignment drop-box. Similarly, at the end of the semester, the students were asked to participate in a post-CES.The pre- and post-CESs with the entire class were followed by a focus group discussion (FGD) with ten to 15 students at the end of the semester to validate the key themes arising from the survey findings. In addition, the not-for-profit (NFP) industry partners were interviewed for their feedback on the piloted curriculum and the possible benefits for graduate employability of the use of WBL within the social sector. The qualitative data were analysed through the identification of key themes and the case analysis method. Case analysis methods are useful when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 1994, p. 13), providing researchers with opportunities to uncover pertinent contextual conditions. Such methods are also suitable for investigating "how" and "why" questions that seek to "explain" (Yin, 1994; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Eisenhardt, 1989). The context, the content and module delivery: Social entrepreneurship, a core senior-year course in the BBE programme, is a practitioner-oriented course which examines the methods and techniques used by social entrepreneurs from various industry sectors around the world. The resourcing requirements and orientations of both for-profit and NFP organisations in the pursuit of "social" opportunity are compared. In 2007, the programme team inherited a two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial mode of delivery for the course, as this was the standard mode of delivery across most courses in the school at the time. With a view to making the lectures relevant and interesting, the course content was organised into three categories: the theoretical underpinnings of social entrepreneurship, the practicalities of operating a social enterprise and the application of social entrepreneurship in different business sectors. In the tutorials students analysed a number of international case studies on social entrepreneurs in relation to the issues covered in the lectures, and then summarised their learning.The 2007 CES generated mixed results, with students appreciating the knowledge obtained from the course but not feeling confident about its application because the learning did not take place in a relevant context. This was reflected in the good teaching scale (GTS) of 34.7 per cent and overall satisfaction index (OSI) of 39.6 per cent. The students in general appreciated the notion of "responsible entrepreneurship" informed by the theoretical constructs and practices of social entrepreneurship, but were not able to develop the capacity to transfer the knowledge and skills developed through the course to real-life problems. Their primary focus was to have the opportunity to develop graduate attributes that would enhance employability. This prompted the course team to review the course content and especially the delivery mode, and consider the possibility of introducing a WBL component through an NFP industry linkage, building on a successful, industry-embedded model (the Innovation Fastrack Programme) developed in the capstone course of the BBE. An NFP WBL approach in collaboration with a diverse set of industry partners was developed. The aim was to avoid didactic, passive delivery by providing dynamic learning contexts that deal with real-world problems and opportunities (Rae, 2007b, 2010; Gilbert, 2012). Combining WBL with a problem-based approach: Between 2008 and 2011, the course team formed collaborations with ten nationally reputed NFPs, who agreed to act as host organisations to offer WBL opportunities for students. The projects the students were engaged in were varied in nature, and included investigating corporate social responsibility among a cross-section of the private sector with a view to assisting a host organisation working for youth development to design their corporate relations strategy; developing a marketing plan for a nascent NFP that builds youth empowerment in dealing with AIDS; feasibility analysis of public-private partnerships in socially integrating international students; and new product development for the visually impaired.The course adopted an enquiry and problem-based approach, requiring students to "move beyond the cognitive understanding to 'knowledge in use' (the ability to translate their knowledge into practice in real organisations)" (Kloppenborg and Baucus 2004, cited in Gunn et al., 2008, p. 77). Research suggests that such an approach enhances student learning in terms of depth of knowledge and graduate employability, as they learn to use knowledge in real-life contexts (Savery and Duffy, 2001; Kloppenborg and Baucus, 2004; Dolmans et al., 2005). Course content and delivery: The course content and delivery were redesigned to address the issues raised by students in the 2007 CES that also reflected feedback from the industry partners. In response to the issues identified and in addressing the shortcomings of WBL approaches identified in the literature, a redesigned curriculum for social entrepreneurship was developed. To this end, the course content and delivery model were focused on the following two key areas.(1) Interactive learning opportunities to develop sound conceptual and operational knowledge about sustainable NFPs along with an understanding of the scope, demands and constraints the sector faces globally and in Australia. With a view to enhancing the learning experience, weekly lectures were offered on theoretical underpinnings of the NFP sector, as well as various strategic and operational issues it faces. Guest speakers from various NFPs and corporations were invited to interact with the students and share their understanding of and experience in the sector, and enable students to contextualise their learning.(2) Opportunities for students to apply their conceptual knowledge and understanding to real-world problems and/or opportunities within the NFP sector in ways that address the challenges of the WBL approach. The redesigned curriculum was intended to address the shortcomings of the WBL approaches, which have recently been divided into the following three broad categories by Gilbert (2012, p. 157) as: differing stakeholder perspectives and evolving expectations, variability in the student experience and level of industry partner engagement.Differing stakeholder perspectives and evolving expectations: before the commencement of the semester, academic staff held several meetings with key people from the partner organisations. At this initial stage, it was critical for the course team to articulate the value proposition of the proposed collaboration to the students, industry partners and university. The key outcomes of these meetings were the establishment of detailed project briefs that clearly outline project scope, key deliverables and milestones; the skills and knowledge required of the implementing team; the key contacts for the students in the partner organisation; and the structure for communication and progress reporting. The course team played a significant role in guiding the industry partners to design "problem-based projects" that were realistic and achievable by undergraduate students. The course team was also instrumental in assuming a "facilitator" role in managing the uncertainty and complexity of the projects; students' preparedness and motivation; the engagement of industry partners; and above all, the reconciliation of disparate expectations.Variability of the student experience of the course: it is evident within the WBL literature that students' actual experience of a course varies depending on the projects and partners involved. Although we were conscious of this issue, we could not altogether eliminate the variability in student experience of this WBL curriculum. Before project commencement, a series of workshops with key staff members from the partner organisations were held to provide students with an overview of all available projects, along with specific strategic and operational issues the participating organisations were facing in relation to their projects. Detailed project briefs were provided to students, who were then asked to self-form teams based on common interests, and complementary skills and aptitudes, to effectively undertake a particular project. Students were allowed to self-determine their teams of no more than five people, where each team had to have a gender balance and at least one international student (to facilitate socialisation of international students in the programme). These teams were then asked to submit expressions of interest for any two of the available projects and to bid for the project of their first choice. The expressions of interest were then jointly reviewed by the course team and NFP partners to decide on the final allocation of projects. Through this approach, an attempt was made to reduce the mismatch between the key social outcomes targeted by the partner organisations and the student teams, which contributed to the variability in student experience in 2008 when the WBL curriculum was introduced. More importantly, to address the variability in student experience during the project implementation phase, each team was required to undertake peer-to-peer progress reporting in the weekly tutorials, whereby the entire class collaboratively reviewed the key challenges faced by each team and developed action plans drawing upon cross-project learning and knowledge spill-overs.Level of industry partner engagement: the WBL literature recognises that a high level of engagement from industry partners is essential for a successful student learning experience. However, in reality, unless there is proper work allocation for a nominated staff member or small team within the partner organisation to actively support and mentor students, the availability of and support for organisational inputs to the progress of WBL projects will likely become ad hoc and compromised. The course team emphasised this to the industry partners, particularly in relation to how the level of industry engagement would establish the basis for the ultimate outcomes and value for the students, partner organisations and university. A factor contributing to the success of the WBL curriculum in this case was that the course team had successfully negotiated clear workload allocation for relevant key people within the partner organisations to supervise and mentor the student teams. As a result, the teams were required to meet with their organisational mentors at least weekly to report on project progress and bottlenecks and to obtain the necessary advice and/or resources to proceed and meet project milestones. Student and partner organisation evaluation of the enhanced curriculum: The outcomes of the WBL curriculum in social entrepreneurship have been measured longitudinally in three ways:(1) by analysing student responses to the pre- and post-CES and FGDs according to key themes;(2) through triangulation of CESs of social entrepreneurship, which were independently conducted by the University Survey Centre between 2008 and 2011, referencing 2007 (the pre-WBL approach) as a baseline for improvement; and(3) by partner organisation evaluation of the enhanced curriculum and its potential benefits for graduate employability.Pre-CESs Conclusions and further research: The findings obtained from a rigorous evaluation of the course mirror and strongly align with the longitudinal results from the Innovation Fastrack Programme (in for-profit contexts) from which our approach was adapted (see Gilbert, 2012). The results particularly data gathered from industry partners suggest that there are clear benefits for graduate employability in integrating WBL in a course like social entrepreneurship. Moreover, the students gained understanding of a range of strategic and operational issues faced by NFP organisations in largely for-profit environments. They also came to recognise the value of responsible entrepreneurship, and experience the reality of starting and managing a social enterprise; and of the nature of the work in the sector. Furthermore, students acquire and develop other higher-order skills in demand among employers in both for-profit and NFP sectors such as maturity and emotional intelligence, and team-building, communication and interpersonal skills, as well as problem-solving/opportunity conversion skills and the ability to think critically - capabilities required to succeed in today's globally competitive and volatile business environment. In addition, the detailed approach to project management was found to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning, become self-directed and motivated to be life-long learners, and use these skills throughout their professional and personal lives.The case study has clearly demonstrated opportunities for WBL within the context of the NFP/social sector to enhance graduate attributes and employability. The paper has also provided insights into how to overcome the key challenges relating to designing and implementing WBL models. Furthermore, this paper has developed a case for how WBL in the context of social entrepreneurship can help produce more socially aware graduates capable of adding value to both for-profit and NFP organisations in the new economic era. The findings highlight that higher education providers could benefit from incorporating WBL in a climate where employers are increasingly seeking graduates who possess entrepreneurial skills and a sense of social awareness. Such positive outcomes of WBL for the future workforce will enhance not only national competitive advantage, but also the ability of young people to rejuvenate economic activity and sources of sustainable wealth creation. However, there needs to be clear recognition and support within the higher education sector to stimulate and engage academic staff to design and refine curriculum changes in collaboration with industry partners that offer novel and innovative approaches to realising significant improvements in graduate employability and learning "for" entrepreneurship.Further longitudinal research on the impact of this curriculum innovation on the employability of programme graduates is required to clearly demonstrate causality between WBL and graduate employability. Future research should also investigate whether there is any major difference in the associated benefits and challenges of WBL initiatives between the social enterprise sector and the "for-profit" sector. Finally, this case study reveals that, despite implementing strategies to minimise variability of student experiences in the course, such variability persists. Hence, there is a need for continuous innovation in designing and implementing WBL curriculum to address this challenge.
An examination of strategies under the financial tsunami	[ "Financial risk", "Research", "Business performance", "China", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: The US investment bank, Lehman Brothers, one of the most powerful players on Wall Street and the fourth-largest securities firm in the USA, filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2008 as the last resort to save the company. Since then, an influential and forceful financial tsunami started and the global economy has experienced a knockout punch. The failure of Lehman Brothers has induced a chain reaction which badly affected the international financial markets. Global stock prices began a downward plunge, numerous companies got squashed, international trade tumbled, unemployment rates surged, etc. All these have posed significant threats to companies worldwide.Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong unfortunately could not escape from this tsunami. This fact has been revealed from information released by the Hong Kong Census and Statistical Department in 2009. In the third quarter of 2009, the Gross Domestic Product declined by 2.4 percent in real terms from a year earlier, compared with the 3.6 percent decrease in the second quarter of 2009. It seems that although it is already several months after the arrival of the financial tsunami, the economy as of yet, has not recovered from its impact. Therefore, it is worth investigating how enterprises can survive and maintain continuous growth by looking closely at the relationship between a number of factors and corporate business performance.According to Ibrahim (1993), there is a strong relationship between the types of strategies adopted and corporate business performance. Chen and Hambrick (1995) also pointed out that the size of the firm is a factor which moderates the relationship between the strategy adopted and business performance. Therefore, the above two factors are the focus of this research, in addition to analyzing the current economic situation. This research aims to assist the SMEs in Hong Kong to cope with the ever-changing and competitive business environment. It is believed that this will be useful and will contribute to their future development through helping them to maintain continual growth and profitable prospects.The paper is divided into six main sections. Section 2 provides the related literature for the study. In Section 3, the theoretical framework and hypotheses are set out. The research design and methodology is proposed in Section 4 while the results and analysis are presented in Section 5. Based on the analysis, relevant discussions and managerial implications are presented in Section 6. Finally, the conclusion about the study is made in the last section. 2 Literature review: The unstable business environment of today poses a significant threat to companies worldwide. There have been a number of surveys conducted during the economic recession with a similar objective, to investigate the various factors that affect corporate performance under such unfavorable economic conditions. This section presents a literature review of the factors that determine the business performance and the survival ability of a company. Special attention is also paid to examining how and to what extent these factors have an effect on the SMEs in Hong Kong. In addition to this, the consistency between the results from this study and those from previous ones are analyzed and reviewed.Some existing management researchers urge that a turnaround strategy is required during the phase of recession (Schendel et al., 1976; Hofer, 1980) while some claim that more studies should be done on exploring how firms survive during the period of economic recession (Pearce and Michael, 1997). Upon investigation, it is widely agreed that suitable marketing actions and management planning results in an enhancement of the competitiveness of a firm as well an improvement in its business performance. In other words, a company's marketing strategy is vital in determining a firm's ability to survive. Abonyi (2003) asserts that it is crucial to find different ways that helps SMEs to grow and develop effectively as SMEs comprise over 90 percent of all enterprises in the world and provide the backbone of the private sector in economies. SMEs often account for 50-60 percent of the total employment and an even larger share among manufacturing employment.A number of performance indicators are used for measuring business organizational performance, especially financial performance. Financial performance can reflect the actual performance of a company (Scholtens, 2008). According to Wen et al. (2008), financial measures can be divided into several dimensions, including efficiency (e.g. return on investment), growth (e.g. changes in sales) and profit (e.g. net profit margin). In this research, three financial indicators are used in the evaluation process including:1. sales;2. net profit; and3. return on investment.According to Nahm et al. (2006), financial performance measurement is commonly used in existing studies by researchers to determine the success of firms. Kotey and Meredith (1997) stated that subjective measurement is easier to collect and is effective for measuring a firms' performance. The respondents rated their relative position in each aspect. The study of Spanos et al. (2001) has collected data from successful Greek SMEs and large Greek firms by conducting a survey. The study focuses on the main direction of the competitive strategies adopted as well as the different responses of large firms and SMEs in advanced economies. The results indicate that such direction and the difference between these responses depend on firm size. Owing to size-related disadvantages, SMEs appear to be less able or willing to carry out a strategy change when facing some formidable challenges.Chang et al. (2003) conducted a survey with 87 firms in the machinery and machine tool industries in Taiwan. The statistical results indicated that the compatibility between manufacturing flexibility and business strategies is critical to a business's performance. Gupta and Somers (1996) have also verified the relationship between business strategy, manufacturing flexibility and business performance. As mentioned by Ibrahim (1993), there is a strong relationship between the strategies adopted by a business and its performance. Chew et al. (2008) reinforce the above findings by showing that core capability and competitive strategies have the ability to influence the performance of SMEs. Jermias (2008) goes further by investigating the effects of competitive intensity and business strategy on the relationship between financial leverage and the performance of firms. The study has found that it is necessary to consider moderating factors including the right choice of strategy in coping with the ever-changing and competitive business environment. In addition, Morgan and Strong (2003) concluded that a positive relationship exists between firms' strategic orientation and business performance. Chan and Chin (2007) examined the importance of the key success factors (KSFs) of strategic sourcing and investigated the relationship between KSFs and sourcing performance in the Hong Kong toy industry. Kess et al. (2010) identified critical five key factors for effective business value chain in the electrical and electronic industries, which can benefit private firms in industry operations.After reviewing the previous literature, it is clear that there are indeed different factors affecting the performance and survival ability of firms. Companies can definitely obtain an advantage if they are able to understand these factors thoroughly and make good use of them in a flexible manner. Therefore, this research aims to review the past studies with an objective to investigate whether consistency exits between them and this study. Moreover, constructive suggestions will be made for companies to assist them in tackling the challenges ahead in the foreseeable future. 3 Theoretical framework and hypotheses: The hypotheses Hij are built based on a number of factors and on financial performance indicators where i and j refer to factors i and indicator j, respectively. In this case, four critical factors including cost-reduction strategies, competitive strategies, capabilities and KSFs that affect financial performance are considered. Also, the influence of the three financial performance indicators, which are total annual sales, net profit and return on investment, is examined. Therefore, 12 hypotheses are set up to test the relationship between various factors and financial performance indicators. These are shown in Figure 1. On the other hand, the results of firms of different sizes and which pursue different strategies, which may affect the firm's ability to survive, are also presented.3.1 Influence of cost-reduction strategies on financial performance 4 Research design and methodology: This is quantitative research, which is survey based. The target group is the SMEs within the supply chain network in Hong Kong. In order to investigate the effect of the strategy on firms' financial performance, the data collected through questionnaires is from the viewpoint of business owners and managers. The research methodology, which is shown in Figure 2, can be viewed as a two-stage process. The first stage involves extensive literature reviews to help identify the key factors and research objective. Then, the theoretical framework and hypothesis for the study are set up. The second stage involves the distribution of questionnaires and the analysis of the results of the survey.4.1 Survey development 5 Results and analysis: The Statistical Package for Social Science is used to analyze the data collected from the surveys. Several statistical methods including factor analysis, reliability analysis, linear and multiple regressions were applied to test the validation of the hypotheses. In this paper, factors that determine the success and failure of firms during the Asian economic crisis were examined.5.1 Preliminary analysis 6 Managerial implications: In order to survive and prosper during a recession, more effort should make to help entrepreneurs in the SMEs. It is obvious that proper use of strategy in doing business is very important. The company should make use of the economic crisis as a chance, as it is not necessarily bad for the company. It creates several factors, such as lower rent and lower salaries, so the company is urged to turn this crisis into an opportunity and grasp the opportunity to develop their business. Appropriate action should be taken promptly to cope with challenges faced in the future. According to the result of regression analysis, the cases with different groups of "number of employees", "age of company" and "value of company's assets" are selected. The result shows the influence of different dimensions of strategies and factors on return on investment for companies with different backgrounds. In a somewhat broader sense, an examination of factor analyses reveals that enterprises need to pay attention to the following areas which these factors constitute, in order to achieve excellence in performance.6.1 For the company with less than 200 employees 7 Conclusion: Hong Kong is a place where SMEs flourish. Limited by size and resources they may not have well thought out strategies in their management, especially during difficult periods or when facing an economic crisis. Under the constraints of inadequate capital and little government support, appropriate investments and strategies should be given priority so as to achieve better business performance in difficult situations. The significance and importance of strategies adopted during an economic crisis is the SMEs' main concern in these few years. Therefore, it is vital to strengthen SMEs and arouse in them the awareness of better strategic business policy for future development of the economy of Hong Kong. In order to increase their competitiveness, SMEs need to have prepare well to face any crisis and be keenly aware of the influence of the strategies they adopt.This study has provided investigations into four dimensions of strategies and related factors, which are:1. cost-reduction strategies;2. competitive strategies;3. capabilities; and4. KSFs, that influence the financial performance of SMEs.Through statistical analysis, a number of critical strategies are identified which will help SMEs to survive in an uncertain business environment. The financial performance will further strengthen if there is an efficient and effective internal operation that creates new opportunities for development and expansion of business and enhancement of the quality of customer service. Furthermore, increasing the morale of staff and building up a shared company culture is a crucial success element of every company. However, this research was only conducted in Hong Kong, and there is a limitation that the results obtained may not applicable to other countries with different business environments. Thus, further studies need to be conducted in other countries.
Creating business intelligence from course management systems	[ "Management techniques", "Action research", "Knowledge management", "Data collection" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The streamlining of business practices and the more efficient use of information technology are necessary for higher education institutions (HEIs) to cope with pressures to improve productivity. To accomplish this, HEIs rely on transactional information systems such as the financial management system (FMS), the human resource management systems (HRMS), student information system (SIS), as well as course management system (CMS). Each time a student register for a course, modify an address or settle an account, a transaction is performed by the SIS or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Each time a lecturer upload results to the SIS a transaction is performed. Each time a lecturer or student logs into the CMS, participates in online discussions, completes an electronic quiz or reads an electronic document, a transaction is performed. With each transaction performed, data are captured and stored by the transactional system. As a result loads of data are created, which is often only archived for record keeping purposes and not used to support decision-making.The business intelligence guru, Ralph Kimball defines business intelligence as "a generic term to describe leveraging the organization's information assets for making better business decisions" (Kimball and Ross, 2002). Business intelligence entails the gathering of data from internal and external data sources, as well as the storing and analysis thereof to make it accessible to assist in better decision making (Wikipedia, 2006). For the design and building of HEI data warehouses a top down approach is followed by institutional infrastructure providers to equip decision makers with information to support decision-making. Individual learning facilitators - on the other hand - focus on their own individual area of interest when analyzing data for purposes of action research. Zuber-Skerrit (1992) describes action research as "a critical enquiry by academics themselves [rather than expert educational researchers] into their own teaching practice, into problems of student learning and into curriculum problems". Action researchers increasingly draw upon data provided by CMSs to analyze the effectiveness of their teaching practice. Purpose: This article addresses the gap between individual action researchers that use CMS data to support decision making and course design, on the one hand, and institutional infrastructure providers that are responsible for institutional business intelligence on the other hand. The following research questions are asked:RQ1. What is the structure and content of a typical HE business intelligence framework? Methodology: The first two research questions are addressed by a survey of literature. To address research questions 3 and 4 a prototype data mart is designed that draw upon data from existing CMSs and SISs to enable the queries typically performed by individual action researchers. Measures for 47 undergraduate courses presented to Industrial Engineering students during 2005 are investigated to discuss the usefulness of these measures. Business intelligence within context of a higher education institution: Table I shows a business intelligence framework for a typical HEI. Data are created and stored whenever a transaction is performed by a transactional source system. These systems - as indicated on the right hand side of Figure 1 - serve as sources from which data are extracted, transformed and loaded (ETL) into the data warehouse. From the data warehouse ad hoc queries can be drawn by users to support decision making as indicated on the right hand side of this figure. Ultimately, standard processes are designed to manage business measurements consistently.An increasing number of higher education institutions (HEIs) are developing institutional data warehouses to leverage information assets. Educause maintains a directory of data warehouses in higher education as part of the activities of the Educause decision support and data warehousing constituent group (Heise, 2005). Since the first contribution was made to this directory on 16 November 2000, the number of participating HEIs has grown to about 100 institutions, primarily from the USA, but also from Europe. This is not an exhaustive directory of data warehouses in higher education, but provides an overview of the typical source system, technology to extract, transform and load data (ETL), data warehouse architecture and business areas addressed by these data warehouses. An overview follows, structured according the framework shown in Figure 1.Source systems Typical action research analyses based on CMS data: Most learning facilitators that use CMS data for purposes of action research, perform statistical correlation tests to determine the correlation between CMS activity per student and some other quantitative student attribute. CMS activity is typically measured as the total number of CMS transactions performed ("hits") by each student. This information is made available by the CMS in the form of student tracking reports. This information is derived from the original transaction data. Only the total number of transactions per student per course is published by these reports.All action researchers under investigation, who measured the correlation between frequency of CMS hits and final examination results found a significant positive correlation (Alstete and Beutell, 2004; Bongey et al., 2005; Green et al., 2006). However, none could determine if this correlation should be attributed to the effect of CMSs on the quality of learning or to the effect of CMSs on course administration, or to the effect of CMSs on the facilitation of assessment events.Learning styles are "characteristic cognitive, affective, and psychological behaviours that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment" (Felder and Spurlin, 2005). A few action researchers measured the correlation between learning styles and CMS activity (refer to Table I). Business intelligence approach: The value of a business intelligence approach in the first place is that more measures are available. The correlation of student performance and learning style with activity per CMS tool can be measured, which enable analyst to ascertain if the correlation should be attributed to the impact of CMSs on the quality of learning, or to the impact of CMSs on course administration, or to the impact of CMSs on the facilitation of assessment events. Second, a business intelligence approach enables the standardization of measures within an institution, which in itself contributes the usefulness thereof. In the section that follows a data warehouse design is proposed to not only enable measurement in terms of total CMS hits, but also in terms of hits per CMS tool. This enables the CMS facilitator to determine if the correlation between student success and CMS usage is an effect of higher quality teaching or the effect of CMS course administration or the effect of the fact the students are assessed within the CMS environment.Data warehouse Case study: WebCT has been used as CMS by the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, since 2001. From 2005 all 47 undergraduate courses of this department have a WebCT presence. The purpose of this case study is to determine if the data warehouse design proposed here would yield more significant results. For purposes of this case study, Perl script and Visual Basic was used to extract, transform and load all access logs for all 47 undergraduate modules presented in 2005 to undergraduate industrial engineering students. The data warehouse is designed in MS Access. Data aggregation and correlation tests are performed in MATLAB 7.0. MS Excel is used for presentation purposes.The Felder index of learning styles (Felder and Silverman, 1988) was used for this study. Coffield et al. (2004) emphasize the important of determining the status of a learning style instrument and suggest that the following questions are asked: Is the instrument reliable? Is the instrument valid? How should tutors and managers be responding to the learning styles of their students? The first two questions concerning reliability and validity was considered by, amongst others, Felder and Spurlin (2005), Van Zwanenberg, Wilkonson and Anderson (2000) and Zwyno (2003). They conclude that this instrument is indeed reliable and valid as long as it is not used to label individual students, but rather to modify instruction to fit their labels. This article addresses the third question only partially. A business intelligence approach is suggested to equip learning facilitators with information to support decision-making and respond to learning styles of their students. However, pedagogical implications of this information are not explored.The Felder instrument use 44 questions to measure learning styles along four dimensions:1. Active-reflective;2. Sensory-intuitive;3. Visual-verbal; and4. Sequentially-globally.A total of 482 undergraduate engineering students completed the Felder ILS questionnaire for purposes of this study. The average learning style indices are shown in Table III together with results from similar studies amongst engineering students from other HEIs.For each module a query can be drawn to measure the correlation and significance thereof (p<0.05 indicate a significant correlation) between the frequency of CMS tool usage per student and the effectiveness of teaching in terms of student results and learning style index. The number of modules that show a significant correlation (p<0.05) between CMS tool frequency and learning style or performance indices are listed in Table IV.When a correlation test yield a p-value of less that 5 percent, it is generally accepted that the correlation between the sets of data is significant. Still, the chance of a type II error is 5 percent. Hence, one should be careful to base conclusions on the information provided by the previous tables. For the discussion that follows, only instances where more that 20 percent of the modules show a significant correlation are considered:The "Homepage" should be viewed as a gate, rather that a tool. To access all other tools a student always need to enter the "Homepage" gate. Correlations found between "Homepage" use and learning styles or performance, are probably an effect of a correlation with another tool.Reflective and sensing learners make more use of CMS. Reflective learners prefer to observe and think, before doing. Sensing learners prefer routine and facts. Engineering students are quite balanced as far as the active-reflective and sensing-intuitive learning dimensions are concerned. Since CMSs tend to complement the learning styles of reflective and sensing students, engineering educators could make an effort to address the learning needs of students that tend to learn actively and intuitively.As far as final school score (M-score) is concerned, approximately the same number of correlation instances exist for "Homepage" and "Content" than in the case of semester mark and examination. The correlation in those instances is probably an effect of the students' intrinsic motivation, rather than the cause of an improved learning process. It seems as if the administrative elements of the CMS ("E-mail", "Calendar" and "MyGrades) indeed contribute to the semester mark, notwithstanding the students' aptitude as portrait by the M-score. The assessment tools ("Assignments", "Discussions write" and "Quizzes") showed in most instances a significant correlation with semester mark, which confirms that it is the way in which a course is organized by the CMS that effect student performance and not necessarily the learning that take place.In this article a business intelligence approach is suggested to equip learning facilitators with information to support decision making and respond to learning styles of their students. However, pedagogical implications of this information are not explored. Table IV only shows aggregated results, but the data warehouse design proposed in this article could allow drill down facilities to allow course facilitators to see the measures for their specific course. Examples are given below:For Productivity 210 a significant correlation was shown between the visual-verbal dimension and quizzes. This served as indication to the lecturer that the way in which the questions are asked caused the visual learners to spend more time to answer quizzes, which prompts the lecturer to critically consider the way in which questions are set. The same lecturer found a significant correlation between semester mark per student and the "MyGrades" tool. All assignment and test results were published on "MyGrades" from the beginning of the semester. This served as motivation for students who accessed this information regularly and also made the rectification of faulty results possible. Conclusion: "Advances in technology have dramatically enhanced the level of productivity and efficiency of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) ... However, despite the availability of powerful computers, advanced network and communication infrastructure and sophisticated software applications, university decision makers, still lack access to the critical information necessary for informed decision making" (Guan et al., 2002).Many facilitators of learning draw manually the same type of queries from CMS data for purposes of action research. On the other hand, more and more HEI infrastructure providers create data warehouses to support many kinds of decision-making. It is possible and valuable to follow a business intelligence approach to facilitate the queries drawn by individual action researchers from course management systems (CMSs). Much of the value still remains undiscovered. An intelligent educational system could enable the combination and comparing of results within and between curricula. The cases presented in this article are based on a prototype data warehouse. The expectation exists, however, that as the technology on which CMSs, as well as business intelligence tools are built evolves, the creation of fullscale business intelligence will become more feasible and scalable.
An empirical study on productivity analysis of Indian leather industry	[ "Data envelopment analysis", "Productivity", "Indian leather industry", "Technology closeness ratio", "Grand efficiency" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Industrial revolution is considered as one of the landmark events in the history of social evolution. Over the years, the revolution has not only increased the production capacity but also intensified the competition among the manufacturing firms based on their performance in resource productivity (Marisa et al., 2008; Ferioli et al., 2010; Roulet et al., 2010; Oo and Lim 2011). Additionally, in order to achieve the competitive advantage in the market, along with the existing price, speed, best delivery services, the manufacturers are compelled to supply products with innovative and sustainable designs (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991; Ulrich and Eppinger, 2004; DeBrito et al., 2008; Michael, 2008; Unger and Eppinger, 2009, Meybodi, 2013; Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2016; Geng et al., 2017; Papadopoulos et al., 2017). Initially, the definition of productivity used to focus on consumption or requirement of single input for producing a unit of output. Labor hour, as an input, was very widely considered for this purpose. The present literature defines it as partial factor productivity or labor productivity (LP). However, mechanization of industry has propagated the need to include other inputs in the form of capital, material and energy as the important factors of production (Blackburn, 1991; Jacobs and Chase, 2011). The existing literature (Hilmola, 2007; Wu, 2009; Grieco and McDevitt, 2012; Jola-Sanchez et al., 2016; Tang, 2017; Tsionas and Izzeldin, 2018) defines this as total factor productivity (TFP) or multifactor productivity (MFP) or total productivity. The factors which influence TFP are numerous that includes useable knowledge (Kuznets, 1966; Lovell, 2003; Xue et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2013; Kapelko et al., 2014), difference in technological advances, resistance to the use of better technologies (Mokyr, 1990; Pinto and Prescott, 1990), differences in working environment and practices, firm size and age (Little et al., 1987; Lundvall and Battese, 2000; Cheng and Lo, 2004; Dubey et al., 2017; Duman and Kasman, 2018). There are many techniques to assess the TFP of a business unit. However, technical efficiency (TE) is one of the very commonly used measures to assess relative productivity of a business unit. Mahajan et al. (2014) opined that the purest form of TE implies the effective proportion of input-output ratio on a predefined scale. Farrell (1957) introduced the concept of TE which recommends exploring the frontier of best performing firms. The frontiers are also known as efficient frontier or curve which is made up of various combination of inputs and outputs. There are predominantly two approaches for measuring the distribution of TE of a group of firms - data envelopment analysis (DEA) (Charnes et al., 1978, Banker et al., 1984) based on linear programming methods and stochastic frontier analysis (Aigner et al., 1977; Meeusen and Vanden, 1977) based on econometric methods. These methods have been widely used for manufacturing (Goldar, 1985; Little et al., 1987; Bhavani, 1991; Bhandari and Maiti, 2007; Odeck, 2009; Brkic and Putnik, 2013; Foresight, 2013; Putnik, 2012; Putnik et al., 2013; Gunasekaran et al., 2017) as well as for the service sector (Athanassopoulos, 1995; Barros and Dieke, 2008; Avkiran, 2009, 2011; LaValle et al., 2011, Tweney, 2013; Langley, 2014; Lazaroiu et al., 2017). In tune with the other researchers, Coelli (1996) confirmed the availability of different deterministic and stochastic production frontier models to facilitate productivity of decision-making units to covert inputs into outputs. Mahajan et al. (2014) explored the TE of large Indian pharmaceutical firms through DEA while setting benchmark for inefficient firms and suggested some alternative measures to improve their efficiency levels. We have applied DEA to our analysis because it provides information related to return on scale for a particular firm (Banker, 1984; Banker et al., 1984; Sufian, 2011; Wang et al., 2017). 2. Literature review: Indian manufacturing industry has seen rapid development after the implementation of the New Industrial Policy of 1991 (Joshi and Little, 1996; Tendulkar et al., 2006). The reform initiatives of the policy have led to improvements in TFP for most of the industries (Krishna and Mitra, 1998; Unel, 2003; Ray, 2002, 2011; Pattnayak and Thangavelu, 2005; Moktadir et al., 2018; Xing et al., 2018). During the initial year of industrialization, government has given priority to small-scale industries which contribute significantly to gross domestic products, employment generation and export (Nagesha and Balachandra, 2006; Melo et al., 2018). However, many studies also highlighted the negative aspect of small-scale industries such as inefficient use of resource, poor environmental compliance (Gaudin, 2008; Chakraborty, 2011; European Commission, 2013; Venkatesh et al., 2014; Longoni and Cagliano, 2015; Adebanjo et al., 2016; Zhou and Kohl, 2017; Gangopadhyay et al., 2018) and sub-standard working conditions (Chakraborty and Chakraborty, 2007; Hubacek et al., 2007) which has direct bearing on productivity performance of a firm. While for a large firm, it is easier to exploited economies of scale to enhance its productivity. Mukherjee and Ray (2004) and Babu and Natarajan (2013) have found variation in TE across states which could be attributed to difference in infrastructural development such as access to power, transport and communication facilities (Mitra et al., 2002). The leather industry in India has faced many challenges and bans since 1990s (Gupta et al., 2018). This is because of its undoubting contribution toward environmental degradation (Sankar, 2006a, b). Roy (2012) discussed three stages for leather processing to receive the end/finished leather product. First, the hides and skins of animals (sheep, goat, etc.) are used which are available domestically for production purpose. This stage is also called as pre-tanning stage. Second, the collected hides and skins are converted into leather which releases immense pollution. It can also be said that this stage produces the maximum pollution in leather industry. In the third stage, all labor intensive and highly value added tasks takes place. It is also named as post-tanning stage. In the environmental context, the researcher (Roy, 2012) opined that India derives an ample income from in the form of foreign exchange earnings since early 1970s. Copeland and Taylor shared mix opinion that on the one side, the high scope of export and on the other side, the pollution producing intensity of this industry has made its distinct identity in India. Now in this twenty-first century, Government of India (GoI) would like to project India as manufacturing hub with "Make in India"[1] as a brand. As of now, the goal seems to be quite ambitious, the Indian manufacturing industry has a long way to go in terms of its performance improvement[2]. The focus should be on productivity enhancement with no compromise on products' quality while keeping in mind the SWOT analysis (see Figure 1) of Indian leather industry (Italian Trade Commission, 2010). There are many studies conducted to analyze the productivity performance in the context of Indian leather industry[3] (NPC, 2010; Ray, 2011; Bhandari and Maiti, 2012; AERB, 2015; Irani et al., 2017). 3. Research methodology: This study applied the various concepts of productivity, i.e., LP, capital productivity (CP), material productivity (MP) and energy productivity (EP) to assess and compare the performance of the leading states of Indian leather industry - Tamil Nadu (TN), West Bengal (WB) and Uttar Pradesh (UP). DEAP 2.1 application software developed by Tim Coelli has been used for DEA analysis (Coelli, 1996). With reference to the consulted literature, the technique of DEA can be used in two ways, i.e., input approach and output approach. Input approach implies the minimized use of inputs/resources to receive/fetch the desired or same level of output. In contrast, output approach of DEA signifies that how much output can be enhanced while keeping a constant approach toward the amount of input. The output approach is more crucial and important because it directs to achieve same level of output with minimized/constant inputs (Singh et al., 2000; Uri, 2000, 2001, 2003; Facanha and Resende, 2004; Resende, 2008; Sreekumar and Mahapatra, 2011). According to Cooper et al. (2000), the technique DEA has gained a lot of momentum and has managed to grow as one of the powerful analytical tool for measuring and evaluating performance, that too, in a very short period of time. To capture the variation in performance, statistical parameters like median (the middle value or the middle score in a statistical analysis is termed as the median. In case here are two even values, then we take the average score of the two middle values, Ramsey and Schafer, 2012) and inter-quartile range (IQR) have been evaluated (IQR explains the extent of diffusion among/within the given data sets while reflecting its relationship with the already calculated median value, Groebner et al., 2004). Further, to test the influence of various attributes of industry, significance of correlation coefficients has been tested with t-statistics (this test is placed under the umbrella of inferential statistics. It confirms the existence of significant difference between two groups with a normal distribution, Carpenter et al., 2007). For the present study, the market share in India's export is 37.8, 25.17 and 13.56 percent for TN, UP and WB, respectively (CLE, 2015; Gupta and Racherla, 2018). We have analyzed Annual Survey of Industry (ASI)[4] data from 2007-2008 to 2011-2012 for firm-wise productivity analysis, whereas, from 1998-1999 to 2011-2012 for aggregate state-wise analysis. 4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Analysis based on aggregate data 5. Key findings and practical implications: This study applied the various concepts of productivity to assess and compare the performance of the leading states of Indian leather industry, namely, TN, WB and UP. The productivity analysis reveals that WB leather clusters have performed remarkably better in terms of partial factor productivity and TE, followed by TN and UP. This can be definitely attributed to shifting of leather cluster of WB to a state-of art leather complex with many avenues for resource conservation. Further, the findings of the study suggest that firm size and partial factor productivities have significant positive correlation with TE which supports technological theory of the firm. Thus, government must monitor the progress of the clusters to ensure the optimum utilization of resources and implement the concept of prevention is better than cure with its policy measures. With respect to the implications of the present study, the existence of leather industry confirms environmental degradation which happens due by adopting environmental non-friendly technologies while its production. Another implication is related to end users of this industry, i.e., consumers who are in turn expected to choose products carefully and save environment. 6. Limitations and scope for future research: This study has considered secondary data related to resources consumption and output value till the year 2012 only due to non-availability of the updated data. In future, the productivity analysis could be extended to analyze the impact of changing policy paradigm, such as Zero Liquid Discharge, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Mega Leather Cluster scheme, etc., of new government regime in India. Moreover, we have also realized the need for micro assessment of the leading leather states (UP, TN and WB) separately in order to find out the influence of local business environment on various factor productivities. As Indian leather industry is mainly export oriented, so to remain competitive we recommend that a well-structured benchmarking protocol need to be developed to compare the performance of various productivity parameters with the leading countries, such as Italy, China, Vietnam, etc., in the leather sector.
Legal aspects of e-books and interlibrary loan	[ "Copyright", "E‐books", "World Intellectual Property Organization", "European Union", "Germany", "United States of America", "Canada", "Copyright law", "Electronic resources", "Lending services" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: Each year libraries around the world lend out millions of printed books. The common herd regards book lending as the core activity of libraries. When in the late 1990s the Open eBook format was developed and a little later the first e-book appeared on the consumer market, libraries immediately started to offer this new item to their clients (Genco, 2009). With the classic loan service of libraries in mind, librarians from the very beginning labelled their new activity "e-book lending" ("e-lending"). This term is now well established in countries and languages around the world, but it does not reflect the legal realities. To quote America's great poet Bob Dylan: "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is!" (Dylan, 1993). Almost no one in the library community knows the legal foundations of library book lending. Blinded by the sparkling glamour of the term "e-book lending", the library community at no point guessed that any library service regarding e-books would not fall under the same legal regulations as printed books. This short article is an attempt to shed light on the legal framework that underpins e-book lending in libraries. It starts with a description of the lending right in general, moving from analogue books to digital objects. 1. Library lending of printed books: To understand the legal side of lending a book from a library a look at the factual situation is essential. A printed book is a tangible object, i.e. you can hold it in your hands. During the loan process in a library, this object is taken from the library stacks and placed into the hands of the library user. The item is moved from the library to the user and back again. A printed book is protected by copyright law from its date of publication up to 70 years after the death of its author. In copyright law the act of moving of a work from one person to another is known as distribution. The right of distribution, as one of the central rights of an author, is described in the WIPO World Copyright Treaty:Article 6Right of Distribution(1) Authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing the making available to the public of the original and copies of their works through sale or other transfer of ownership.(2) Nothing in this Treaty shall affect the freedom of Contracting Parties to determine the conditions, if any, under which the exhaustion of the right in paragraph (1) applies after the first sale or other transfer of ownership of the original or a copy of the work with the authorization of the author (World Intellectual Property Organization, 1996).The article first describes the exclusive distribution right of an author and in the second part clears the way for national copyright laws to establish conditions for an exhaustion of this right after the first transfer of ownership, typically done through sale of the work. To solve further problems with all kinds of secondary distribution of works (resale, second-hand market, gifts, etc.), the regulation in Article 6(2) offers a solution for national legislators. In almost all the countries of the world the "exhaustion" or "first sale" doctrine has been incorporated into national copyright law. To clear the picture, a close look at some examples seems appropriate, first at European Union law and then at two national copyright law solutions.1.1 European Union copyright directives 2. Libraries, e-books and the law: To begin with, the actual scenario of library activities with e-books reveals that the object called an "e-book" is in fact a digital file in a standardized format. Two formats predominate for text e-books:1. EPUB is emerging as the preferred solution for retail and library e-book use; and2. PDF is page-oriented and provides a fixed image of text and image on the device screen, and is therefore the preferred format for books with visual content.In most cases a patron interested in reading an e-book will get it "transferred" to his reading device (computer, tablet, smartphone, Kindle, etc.) for a limited period. After the end of the reading phase the file is automatically erased or dissolves. There is no giving back of the file to the library or to its service partner. At a technical level this means the user gets a reproduction of a copyright-protected work that is downloaded into his reading device. The patron will never get the source file. The original e-book file remains on the intermediary's server within the copyright owner's domain. A printed book is reproduced on paper long before it is sold on the market. In strict contrast, any market activity (selling, renting, lending) with an e-book involves an implicit copying act. This is the main difference between the handling of printed books and e-books. It should be remembered that in the perception of the general public, "e-book" refers to text downloadable to a handheld device.Copyright law calls this transaction with digital objects "reproduction". The reproduction right of an author has been laid down in Article 9 of the Berne Convention (World Intellectual Property Organization, 1986), and there is no connection between it and the distribution right of the WCT. Both rights are autonomously regulated in different international legal instruments. The first sale/exhaustion doctrine is tied intrinsically to the distribution right only, and does not apply to the reproduction right. On the other hand - and in strict contrast to the distribution right - the reproduction right does not differ between analogue or digital works. The legal regulation in Article 9 of the Berne Convention covers both kinds of objects. Although e-book services obviously could be categorized as an act of reproduction, it is also worth consideration to subsume them under the legal term of Article 8, "Communication to the public" (World Intellectual Property Organization, 1996).At the national level copyright law remains silent about e-books. At the moment no country has a statutory regulation in copyright law for e-books. But the international legal instruments provide some important words, which are relevant for our topic. A close look at the WCT shows a footnote at the end of Article 6:Agreed statements concerning Articles 6 and 7: As used in these Articles, the expressions "copies" and "original and copies," being subject to the right of distribution and the right of rental under the said Articles, refer exclusively to fixed copies that can be put into circulation as tangible objects (World Intellectual Property Organization, 1996).The e-book may be a fixed copy under specific circumstances, but it can never be a tangible object. So it appears that the right of distribution plus the first sale /exhaustion doctrine is absolutely inapplicable to digital objects.The European Union Directive 2001/29/EC in recital 29 states about the exhaustion doctrine:The question of exhaustion does not arise in the case of services and on-line services in particular. This also applies with regard to a material copy of a work or other subject-matter made by a user of such a service with the consent of the rightholder. Therefore, the same applies to rental and lending of the original and copies of works or other subject-matter which are services by nature. Unlike CD-ROM or CD-I, where the intellectual property is incorporated in a material medium, namely an item of goods, every on-line service is in fact an act which should be subject to authorisation where the copyright or related right so provides (Directive 2001/29/EC, 2001).In these sentences digital objects without any material fixation are labelled as "services" or "on-line services". The EU Directive says it very clearly and literally that these "services" cannot become the object of lending unless the copyright protected work is fixed into a tangible medium (CD or DVD). At the moment copyright law worldwide grants the exhaustion or first sale doctrine only to tangible objects such as printed books. Digital objects do not fall under this legal construction as they are seen as "services" or intangible objects. In most countries, they are not mentioned explicitly in copyright law at all. So the result of a look through copyright regulations is without any doubt: from a legal point of view e-books cannot be lent out by libraries. There is no statutory legal instrument available for e-book loan services by libraries. Instead, these activities are subject to authorisation by the author, publisher, or rightsholder. In the language of the law authorization gets understood as permission, consent, declaratory act, deeply anchored in private law and completely based on the freedom to contract. The rightsholder of an e-book can allow or prohibit any library related service. The legal form for that authorisation is a mutual contract. There is no other way. 3. E-books, libraries and private companies: With the single exception of legal deposit a library builds its collection largely through buying items. The acquisition of books, serials, etc., is based on sale contracts. A contract evolves its legal power out of reciprocal will declarations. Contract conclusion is always based on the free will of the contracting parties, while statutory regulations of contract law provide only a legal framework. If a tangible item like a printed book becomes the object of a sales contract, copyright law partly may override the freedom of contract law. Because of the first sale/exhaustion doctrine further distribution of the item cannot be prohibited, even if this clause was written down in the sales contract. So contract law regarding printed books cannot provide problems for the traditional library loan activity. With e-books the situation is absolutely different. An e-book could be the object of an acquisition contract, but there is no copyright provision available in favour of the buying library.The market for e-books is growing with breath taking rapidity, especially in the USA and Asia. Therefore it is only natural that more and more libraries offer an e-book service to their users. To stay on the legal side with their e-book activities, libraries cannot rely on copyright regulations. Instead, they need a license to offer e-books to their clients, yet they do not obtain permission to supply e-books directly from the author or the publisher. In fact, all the time there is a private company involved. In Germany it is a corporation called Onleihe[3], in the UK it is a firm operating as "Public Library Online"[4], and in the USA most libraries work with market-dominating OverDrive[5].In all these cases the library must sign a licensing agreement with the intermediary, which works as an agent between the publishers of e-books and the libraries. Every relevant legal aspect is based on contract law; nothing is regulated by copyright law or any other statutory instrument. Library e-book service requires a license from the rightsholder or their approved distributor. The latter two contract parties are in a very strong position, as they can dictate both the availability and, if the work is made available, the terms and conditions on how the content is used by the purchaser. EU Directive 2001/29/EC in recital 29 calls this legal power "authorisation": the author/rightsholder can allow or prohibit library loan activities with his e-book (Directive 2001/29/EC, 2001). This fact stands in absolute contradiction to the author's legal position regarding a printed book, where he has lost the distribution right once the book is sold. 4. Licenses: a burden for libraries: Libraries do not like license contracts for many reasons (Giavarra, 2001). The EU Commission made an inquiry among European libraries and described the problem in a document entitled "Copyright in the knowledge economy" with these words:Libraries and universities underline the complexity and fragmentation of the current system of licensing agreements with publishers. A typical European university is required to sign a hundred or more licenses governing the use of digital research material supplied by various publishers. Examining what each of these individual licenses permit with respect to e.g. access, printing, storage and copying is a cumbersome process. (Commission of the European Communities, 2009).From the EU Commission's position the next steps should be:The licensing burden encountered by a typical European university should be reduced. The Commission will consult relevant stakeholders on best practices available to overcome the fragmented way by which universities acquire usage rights to scientific journals (Commission of the European Communities, 2009).Licenses could all be well and good when negotiations are conducted by equal parties. In the case of copyrighted material; however, it must be remembered that one party has an exclusive right (monopoly right) over the material. Most of the licenses are written by lawyers and are often in English. The technical language used may not be familiar to librarians, is off-putting to read, and can be difficult to understand. Therefore, it should not surprise that libraries see the license business as a daily burden that they try to avoid whenever possible. They ache for the same legal security for printed books and for e-books. The perfect remedy for the problem with books in whatever physical form would be an all-inclusive exception or limitation in copyright law. For printed books as well as for e-books there ought to exist the same legal solution available. Licenses would be obsolete, and legal security could dominate. However, these days no legal instrument, neither as part of an international treaty nor on a national level, offers a remedy. 5. Treaty proposal on limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives: If copyright law is seen as part of natural rights, it should offer a similar level of protection in all countries. In pursuit of this aim, the states of the world have signed international copyright treaties since the nineteenth century as a legal fundament to harmonise national copyright law. So if we discuss a new exception or limitation in copyright law for e-book services by libraries, this is best accomplished as part of an international treaty.The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is currently working with WIPO Member States to gain support for a binding international instrument on copyright limitations and exceptions to enable libraries to preserve their collections, support education and research, and lend materials. The proposed draft treaty suggests a basic foundation for all countries, setting out a framework for national copyright laws that is flexible and consistent with both existing international law and a positive way forward to implement the agreed statement concerning Article 10 of the WCT. IFLA has produced a Treaty proposal (known as TLIB) to guide WIPO's Member States in updating limitations and exceptions for libraries worldwide (IFLA, 2011).The Treaty Proposal describes library lending in Article 6:1) It shall be permitted for a library to lend copyright works incorporated in tangible media, or materials protected by related rights, to a user, or to another library (IFLA, 2012).Up to this point the wording of the article harmonises completely with the WIPO World Copyright Treaty (WCT) and subsequent national copyright laws. But now libraries are dealing with new technologies that enable them to purchase access to e-books, for example, and to provide access to library users for a limited amount of time. While this is commonly known as "e-lending", legally it is regulated in a very different way as shown above."Lending" is a term from the analogue world, used in copyright law for tangible objects only. Lending in the context of copyright law means the distribution of a tangible object from a library to a user and giving it back after a limited amount of time. We should avoid using the same wording for library activities regarding printed books and e-books. Clear language is the best starting point to create a new legal instrument for library e-book services. In IFLA's opinion the word "access" could be taken into consideration for the TLIB draft. Libraries are giving access to digital information like e-journals, databases etc. Alternatively, with a look at the EU directives the phrase "e-book service" could be used. So that regulation for e-books might be contained in TLIB, the content of Article 6 has been expanded to include this second clause:2) It shall be permitted for a library to provide temporary access to copyright works in digital or other intangible media, to which it has lawful access, to a user, or to another library, for consumptive use (IFLA, 2012).It is up to the WIPO member states to decide about TLIB. The library world can only hope that its e-book program will be recognized by the legislator as an important cultural activity worthy of regulation by an international treaty. 6. Conclusion: E-book "lending" is not controlled by copyright law, it requires authorisation from the rightsholder. But the necessary license contracts are a burden for libraries. Libraries need a statutory solution for their e-book activities.To that end, the European library organization EBLIDA suggests in its position paper "European libraries and the challenges of e-publishing":An updating of the copyright regime for e-books, e-lending and e-content in order to enable libraries to continue to perform their services for all European citizens (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations, 2012).
Agile manufacturing practices for new product development: industrial case studies	[ "Product development", "Agile manufacturing", "Product innovation", "Small- and medium-sized enterprises", "Engineering design", "Product strategy" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: The inevitable growth of competitiveness in the business world has led to the development of different management philosophies. Over many years these management philosophies were focussed on a competitive advantage based on mass production and lean production that thrived on reducing costs and standardized processes. But in markets with increased and increasingly volatile demands, these philosophies seemed to bring more than appropriate responses. That is when other philosophies oriented customized responses, more agile and flexible production systems, as the case of agile manufacturing started to emerge. 2. Literature review: 2.1. Agile manufacturing 3. Methodology: The present study uses the principles of realistic philosophy since facts and credible data are analyzed and explained by its context. It also respects an inductive approach since it does not establish a cause-effect relationship of the points studied, it does not generalize the survey results and by always taking into account the context and macro surrounding of these points (Lewis et al., 2007). The exploratory study is mono-method with a strategy of multiple case studies. Since the primary data are collected through direct observation and semi-structured interviews, the study has a cross-sectional time horizon (Lewis et al., 2007). 4. Case studies: 4.1. Company A 5. Limitations of the case studies: A major limitation of this study was the subject of consolidation of the agile manufacturing, since it refers to a concept still evolving. The own motivations for this study can also be interpreted as limitations. The idea of multidimensional concept entails the difficulty of correct applicability of the approach, which does not lead to measures to identify immediately if we are dealing with agile manufacturing or not. Moreover, there is also the possibility that there is no strict separation between the different approaches and that a company may be a mix of approaches or even still an intermediate transition stage between approaches. It is issue to verify when an approach ends and another begins. 6. Discussion and conclusions: The concept of agility as the ability to respond to the changing market and take advantage of them was defined. To consolidate research the principles of agile manufacturing and the elements that define it were studied: drivers, enablers and performance objectives. All companies interviewed have differentiation as a strategic orientation with objectives of delivering customized solutions and highly customized products.
Patients' perceptions of healthcare quality in Ghana: A review of public and private hospitals	[ "Customer loyalty", "Ghana" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The health services industry has witnessed significant changes in recent times in response to rising service expectations from patients, increasing competition, demand for greater accountability and emerging trends in holistic health and well-being (Andaleeb et al., 2007; Francis, 2010; Gaur et al., 2011). Zwier and Clarke (1999) argue that to survive the emerging demands in the health services industry, private and public healthcare providers have to prepare for the increasing emphasis being placed on patients' satisfaction via service quality (SQ) improvements. In this regard, healthcare providers have come under increasing pressure to demonstrate superior SQ in their healthcare practices in order to deliver customer satisfaction (CS) (Naidu, 2009; Chahal and Kumari, 2010; Shabbir et al., 2016) and customer loyalty (CL) (Kessler and Mylod, 2011). Additionally, scholars have underscored the need for healthcare providers to develop quality orientation in their healthcare delivery, since the issue of quality is relatively more important in healthcare than other sectors (Tabibi et al., 2001; Anabila et al., 2018) given its attendant risks and the serious consequences on health, well-being and longevity (Rashid and Jusoff, 2009; Padma et al., 2010; Tenkorang, 2016). Theoretical background and hypotheses development: Nature of SQ Methodology: Research instrument Results: Prior to analysing the results, it was important to establish the suitability of data for the analysis to be conducted. Due to the relatively high response rate, test for non-response bias was not undertaken (Ledden et al., 2011). Next, test for common method variance bias was undertaken since all of the data for this research were conducted using a single questionnaire. This study performed the Harman's (1967) one factor test based on the approach described by Podsakoff et al. (2003). Exploratory factor analysis with extraction of only one factor showed that the factor accounted for about 44 per cent of variance explained (which is less than 50 per cent variance). Furthermore, measures were taken in the questionnaire design to minimise acquiescence bias (Lings and Greenley, 2010). Conclusion and implications: This study sought to investigate patients' perceptions of SQ and its resultant effect on CS and CL to determine their underlying relationships and implications on healthcare SQ in Ghana's health sector. The study also examines the relative SQ performances of the private hospitals vis-a-vis their public counterparts. SEM was used to test the underlying relationships. Our H1, H2 and H3 were largely confirmed. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between SQ and CS in line with Alaloola and Albedaiwi (2008), Arasli et al. (2008), Alhashem et al. (2011) and Anabila et al. (2018). The study also found a significant positive relationship between CS and CL which ties-in with prior studies by Aagja and Garg (2010), Gaur et al. (2011) and Kessler and Mylod (2011). This implies that with the present quality revolution and the trend towards patient empowerment in the healthcare services landscape, health practitioners and policy makers should accord greater attention to SQ as the cornerstone for achieving CS and CL. CS and CL implicitly reflect the trust and confidence that patients have in a healthcare provider, and this is particularly important in health services where human lives are involved (Rashid and Jusoff, 2009; Padma et al., 2010; Tenkorang, 2016).
Returning to work after injury: factors that influence the timing	[ "Commitment", "Employee compensation", "Return to work", "Workplace injury" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: Occupational hazards are an unfortunate way of life for workers in many industries. For some, the risk of serious injury or illness is considerable. More positive is the decline over recent decades in the number of such incidents reported. Workplace injury and its costs: However, in Western nations the cost of injury or illness at work remains substantial. Statistics show that in European Union (EU) countries, it can range between 2.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent of GDP. When to return: Incentives and pressures: Employees in North America will, on average, receive around two-thirds of their salary while absent from work through injury or illness. In contrast, most of their counterparts in Italy are compensated to the tune of 100 per cent of their pre-injury earnings. The only potential loss is overtime pay. Firms in the country pay premiums to the Italian national workers' compensation agency (INAIL). This organization pays part of the disability benefits while an individual is off work. The remainder has to be met by the employer. Laws and union rules determine these compensation levels for injured Italian workers. Employee-related characteristics: It is probable that the pressure to RTW early varies between different employee groups. That companies have to bear a proportion of the compensation paid to injured workers means it will benefit them if RTW times can be shortened. Gain is even greater where higher-earning employees are concerned, as it costs the company more when they are absent. Comment: The review is based on "Injured workers and their return to work: Beyond individual disability and economic incentives" by Galizzi et al. (2016). Factors that might influence employee RTW following injury are explored in this comprehensive article. Italy is the setting for the investigation and the authors conclude that certain groups of workers are likely to feel pressured to return sooner than ideal, largely because of the economic implications to their firm.
The labour dispute arbitration system in China	[ "China", "Disputes", "Industrial relations", "Industrial arbitration", "Industrial law" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is attracting increasing attention in market economies, such as the USA, as a means of allowing both unionized and non-unionised employees to discuss their grievances in the presence of outside third parties (Hagglund and Provis, 2005). Labour arbitration is one major ADR mechanism for settling conflicts outside labour litigation in court and has been advocated by practitioners and scholars in the areas of industrial relations and human resource management. Due to the declining influence of the political and administrative mechanisms and the complexity of litigation for resolving labour disputes, more reliance is placed on labour arbitration, an issue which has received almost no attention in the Chinese industrial relations literature. Research in this area therefore is scarce and has not yet recognized the reality of labour arbitration in China during the past three decades. This paper analyses the characteristics of Chinese labour arbitration by looking at key issues, including:* The development and implementation of the labour arbitration system,* Labour arbitration procedures, recruitment of arbitrators,* Labour arbitration's role in settling labour disputes, and* Limitations of the labour arbitration system.Industrial relations were never the Chinese Government's concern during the planned economy. China's transformation to a much-lauded "socialist market economy" has now fundamentally changed the way that China conducts its industrial relations, and in fact, has ended the harmonious employment relations in the nation for ever. The changes have resulted in widespread worker rights violations and a high level of discontent among the workers affected. Labour disputes are caused mainly by job loss, no payment or delay payment of wages, pension and unemployment compensation and industry accidents (Shen, 2006). In addition, an undeveloped free labour market and undeveloped social security system leave many workers in an almost helpless situation. The Chinese workforce who used to be kept docile under the "iron rice-bowl" system (Walder, 1986) has started unruly standing up for their own rights in different ways. Their struggles take many forms, from appealing to unions and local governments, strike and other more violent collective actions, such as surrounding government buildings and blocking roads, in the ways that they are not used to. At the beginning of the economic reform workers were reluctant to take these actions. Gradually, they have become more prepared to do so and become more experienced in selecting which form of action to take.As Lee (2000, p. 41) observed, labour unrest is considered by the Chinese Government to be the "biggest threat to social stability" that threatens the ruling of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Therefore, there have been concerted attempts from the Government at all levels to protect workers' rights and resolve labour disputes. The 1993 Regulations on the Resolution of Enterprise Labour Disputes and the 1994 Labour Law (revised in 2001) have been promulgated to regulate legally labour relations. During the past two decades, a comprehensive labour disputes resolution framework has been established. The framework includes political and administrative means, tripartism, labour arbitration and labour litigation (Chen, 2004; Clarke et al., 2004; Fox et al., 2005; Shen, 2006; Zhu and Warner, 2005).The political and administrative means involve local governments and trade unions. Under the planned economy, the Chinese Government was responsible for production, pricing and human resource management. Labour disputes were rare and they were resolved effectively through administrative means involving the CCP organs and local labour bureaux. With the deepening of the economic reform, the enterprises have been given almost unlimited power over labour relations (Zhu and Warner, 2005) and under most circumstances, the CCP organs and local labour bureaux have lost power in deciding labour issues at the enterprise.In the transition to the socialist market economy the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has been redefining its role as "representative of workers" to respond to the constituents' cry for protection. It has been trying to expand its representation in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs), assuming that the lack of union existence is a factor of increasing labour disputes. However, an intrinsic weakness of China's trade unions is their traditional subservience to the Party-State in general and enterprise management in particular as the Chinese Government resists any attempts to independently organize workers across the industrial sectors and cities. China's trade unions operate as enterprise unions rather than industrial ones, and, thus, as Baek (2000) noted, obscure the differentiation of interests between labour and management. China's trade unions at higher levels are the major proponent of establishing the tripartism and collective contract systems in order to reposition the ACFTU and legitimatize its continuing existence in the socialist market economy when its traditional role, including being production campaigner and welfare benefit distributor, diminishes. However, when workers appeal to them the unions play only a "messenger", "mediator" or "moral supporter" role in resolving labour disputes as a result of being dependent. Moreover, unions at the enterprise are a part of enterprise management and at most time act against workers (Shen, 2006, 2007).Tripartite consultative bodies are being established throughout China as the mediation channel in the hope that such consultation will forestall or resolve increasing instances of labour disputes. The Chinese tripartism system, at first, looks like a trilateral consultation mechanism. In fact, due to the trade union's subordination to management priorities and to the labour administration organizations, this system has normally become a bilateral negotiation system between the labour authorities and enterprises. The former tries to represent the interests of both the employer and employees, but it is the latter that actually represents the interest of the employer. Institutionally, the major role of the tripartite consultation is confined to analysing situations and putting forward suggestions on labour relations. Although the labour administration departments chair tripartite consultation committees (TCC) at various levels, they are unable to settle labour disputes at their will. The tripartite consultation system is nothing like collective bargaining, but based on the traditional assumption of the unity of interests of employers and employees. Such assumption is contradictory to the reality that employers have always had an opposite stance to employees. Consequently, tripartite consultation plays a limited and diminishing role in resolving labour disputes. Moreover, labour litigation is usually a time-consuming process and it requires disputants to go through arbitration first before they bring cases before the court. Therefore, Chinese workers are in a great need for hearing of their grievances by impartial third parties, through which labour disputes can be settled and the settlement is enforced by law. However, so far there is a paucity of existing studies looking at the Chinese labour arbitration system. This study contributes to literature by moving a step toward this direction. Arbitration in the market economy: Arbitration is the process by which two adversarial parties submit their claims to a third party, who is supposed to be independent, disinterested and unbiased. The arbitrator then considers the arguments and evidence provided by the parties and decides in for favour one of the claimants or issues a decision that is a compromise between the two competing positions. The decision is known as an award or order. When the parties have agreed to abide by the arbitrator's ruling, his decision is final and binding. Although the result of a labour arbitration hearing may not please the parties, the outcome is usually preferable to continuing a strike or other action that in the long term benefits nobody. Normally, there are penalties for breaching such decisions. A party normally cannot later seek another determination in an employment relations agency or a court.The arbitration committee "will initially endeavour to settle the matter by conciliation. When conciliation fails, the dispute is referred to arbitration" (Chelliah and D'Netto, 2006, p. 486). Unlike mediation, where mediators sometimes provide ideas, suggestions, or even formal proposals for settlement, arbitrators listen to the arguments of both sides, review whatever evidence has been presented, and make a decision. If either or both parties do not want the arbitrator to make a decision, the problem may be taken to a court. In market economies arbitration is not a process regulated by the legal system but a form of "handshake diplomacy". However, if both parties submit their positions to a mutually agreed upon arbitrator in good faith, they are expected to abide by the resulting ruling.A good arbitration system should be impartial, independent, immune and neutral. According to Bishop and Reed (1998), an impartial arbitrator is one who is not biased in favour of, or prejudiced against, a particular party or its case. An independent arbitrator has no close financial or professional relationship with a particular party or its counsel, and should be neutral in dealing with disputes. According to Song et al. (2003, p. 180), arbitrators "are at the core of the arbitration system because they guarantee the quality of arbitration". The ideal arbitrator should be independent, unbiased and have adequate expertise and knowledge in order to deal with cases effectively and fairly. Therefore, "the selection of the members of the arbitral tribunal is probably the single most important step in the arbitration process, yet is one can be fraught with unknown consequences" (McLaren, 2003, p. 233).Arbitrators may be selected either by the parties, by independent appointing authorities (trade association, arbitral institution, etc) or by a "list system" (McLaren, 2003, p. 234) as in market economies, such as the United States. When a "list system" is used, each party selects an arbitrator(s) from a list that is recommended or published by the arbitration committee. The arbitration committee then appoints an arbitrator(s) in accordance with the two parties' preference. The benefits associated with the list-appointed method are that firstly, it offers the parties some control over the selection process; and secondly, possibly a less partisan panel because the opposing party's agreement is required for all the arbitrators (McLaren, 2003). Where the party-appointed method is used, each party offers the names of arbitrators and reaches agreement on their appointment through negotiation, or each party nominates an arbitrator and they jointly select the third arbitrator. This method enables the parties to exercise maximum control and leads to the parties having increased confidence in the arbitral process (McLaren, 2003). The disadvantage of this method is that it may compromise the neutrality of arbitrators. The development of the labour arbitration system in China: The first legislation on arbitration matters in China appeared in 1912 and in 1921 the Commercial Arbitration Department was established by the Beiyang Government (1912-1928) (Song et al., 2003). In 1950, one year taking power on Mainland China, the triumphant CCP established a labour arbitration system. The Ministry of Labour issued rules for labour arbitration commissions in municipalities and regulations on procedures for arbitrating labour disputes. During the 1950s China transformed most privately-owned enterprises (POEs) into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and collectively-owned enterprises (COEs) and since then SOEs and COEs became the dominant form of production in the Chinese economy. According to socialist ideology, workers are the owners of SOEs and COEs, and labour disputes would not occur since they owned the enterprises. "Even if there was any dispute, it ought to be resolved through various administrative and political means for settling internal differences, rather than any formal or informal proceedings" (Mo, 2000, p. 21). Subsequently, the labour arbitration commission was abolished in 1957. From then on there was no labour arbitration in China until the economic reforms of the late 1970s got underway.With the expansion of the economic reform and resulting widespread labour disputes, there was a growing need for a system whereby disputes could be resolved. The arbitration of labour disputes, as an institutional channel, was regarded by the Chinese Government as a helpful mechanism to minimize social unrest (Lee, 2000). China officially adopted the labour arbitration system in 1995 when the 1994 Chinese Labour Law was promulgated and implemented. Shanghai established the first street level labour dispute arbitration committee in Beizhang Street in 1996. By the end of 2001, the Beizhang Street Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee (LDAC) had established 33 arbitration advisory points in residential areas. In 2001 alone it dealt with 52 labour dispute cases. Since then, the LDAC system has been adopted by most industries in Shanghai. Workers usually seek resolution of disputes through labour arbitration and labour litigation rather than trade unions; 58.5 percent of disputes had been dealt with through arbitration in Shanghai from 1996 to 2001, with an annual growth rate of 67 percent (SHMTUC, 2002). Between January and June 2001 dispute resolution organizations in Shanghai received a total of more than 30,000 arbitration requests, and the majority of them involved non-SOEs and non-COEs (SHMTUC, 2002). Table I shows labour dispute arbitration cases in enterprises of different economic ownership in Shanghai in 2001.The situation in Shanghai reflects China's situation nationally. By September 2005, 232,000 labour arbitration committees (LACs), including 8,891 regional and industrial LACs and 115 labour arbitration institutes, had been established nationally in the unionised organisations, covering 59,407,000 employees (the ACFTU, 2005). However, according to the 1994 Labour Law, the Chinese labour arbitration does not cover government servants, workers at non-profit and social organizations, labourers engaged in farming activities and housemaids. Nonetheless, the reality is that labour arbitration committees sometimes still deal with disputes involving these groups.In addition to labour arbitration there is the personnel arbitration system that refers to the arbitration of labour disputes involving government organizations, non-profit and social organizations and their staff. In China people working in these said organizations are regarded as cadres who are administered by the Ministry for Personnel Affairs. Personnel arbitration is an independent category of arbitration, which runs parallel to the labour arbitration system. The organizational structure, arbitrator appointment system, arbitration procedure and the award enforcement are basically analogous to labour arbitration. As personnel arbitration is not the focus of this paper and therefore is not discussed in detail. The labour arbitration system in China: On applying for arbitration The appointment of arbitrators: China has a unique system in that its labour arbitration committees appoint the arbitrators. The appointment of arbitrators is regulated by the Regulations for Appointment of Labour Arbitrators issued by the Ministry of Labour on 22 March 1995. To deal with a labour dispute, the Chinese arbitration committee creates an arbitration tribunal within seven days after the case is filed. A labour arbitration tribunal is normally composed of three arbitrators with one of them being named chief arbitrator. If the dispute is simple, a single arbitrator will be appointed (Articles 15, 16, Regulations). Most often an arbitration hearing involves a team of two or three arbitrators. This situation occurs most often in disputes where the issues are complex. The arbitration committee appoints arbitrators from government and trade union officials, experts and scholars and lawyers. The arbitrators are not chosen by the disputing parties. The disputing parties can apply for the withdrawal of an arbitrator on the grounds set up in Article 35 of Regulations. These grounds include when the arbitrator: is a party to the dispute or a party's agent in the dispute; is a relative of or has a special relationship with a party in the dispute; may gain and lose some interest in the settlement of the dispute; and may be regarded to be not neutral for other reasons.Arbitrators can serve in either a full-time or part-time capacity. Full-time arbitrators are essentially government officials who work in labour administration departments specialising in labour dispute resolution. Part-time arbitrators can be officials from labour authorities or other government departments, officials from trade unions, experts, scholars or lawyers. Full-time and part-time arbitrators have equal rights in dealing with cases. By the end of 2005, there were 7,424 full-time and 12,906 part-time labour arbitrators nationally. In total, 5,575 union officials had gained the arbitrator licences (the ACFTU, 2005).In the USA, arbitrators may be lawyers but they do not need legal experience before commencing arbitration. Once a person has successfully performed as an arbitrator, it will establish a reputation that will be a recommendation. In China, however, the conditions of being a part-time arbitrator are more tightly controlled. An individual must:* have dealt with labour disputes for over three years or worked in a labour dispute resolution-related job, such as labour administration, human resource management, trade union or law for five years;* have registered in the labour and social security department of the local government that is in charge of issuing arbitration practising licences. An individual who has not dealt with a minimum number of required dispute cases or not attended the minimum number of training sessions cannot serve as an arbitrator;* hold above tertiary level education;* have attended a 40-hour training course, organized jointly by labour and social security administration, trade unions and employer associations;* be physically healthy and fit so that the arbitrator is able to perform the duty of hearing; and* have passed an examination administered jointly by labour and social security administration, trade unions, or employer associations. Applicants have to pass the examination in order to gain an arbitration license.It is almost impossible to ascertain the actual qualification, arbitration experience and expertise of arbitrators because such information is not made public. In addition to the stringent rules described in the preceding section, an individual must meet other criteria such as Party loyalty, supporting the Four Fundamental Principles1, honesty, trustworthiness and no criminal record. Arbitrators are banned from meeting privately with disputing parties and their agents, or accepting gifts from them. Appointment of an arbitrator is for a term of three years, which can be renewed if the person has passed a professional proficiency exam. According to the 1995 Regulations for Appointment of Labour Arbitrators, members of labour arbitration committees are all qualified to be labour arbitrators. Due to the fact that standard arbitration committees are not independent but controlled by the Government's labour authorities; it is inevitable that some arbitrators may be inclined or predisposed to one party or the other.Labour arbitration procedures The role of labour arbitration in resolving labour disputes: The number of dispute cases dealt with by labour arbitration nationally increased from 47,591 in 1996 involving 189,120 employees to 260,471 in 2004 involving 764,981 employees. In 2005, the LACs at the organisation level dealt with 193,000 and settled 42,000 labour disputes. The regional and industrial LACs dealt with 65,000 and settled with 51,000 labour disputes (the ACFTU, 2005). From 1996 to 2004, labour disputes settled by arbitration exceeded those settled by mediation channels in 27 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities throughout the country (China Labour Statistical Yearbooks 1997-2005; China National Statistics Yearbooks, 1997-2005). In the same period workers involved in collective labour disputes that went to arbitration increased by 418 percent from 92,203 to 477,992. Collective disputes involving more than 30 employees accounted for 60.61 percent of the total workers involved in labour disputes.From the perspective of employees labour disputes are mainly caused by no or delayed payment of wages and insurance and welfares, dismissal resulting from revocation or termination of labour contracts, changed labour contracts, and injury in the workplace. From the employers' perspective, the foci of labour disputes are two-fold: first, an employee's resignation (normally skilled workers or managers) without the permission of the employer; and second, damage to factory equipment by workers. Cases brought by employers to arbitration are relatively fewer than those requested by workers. The arbitration cases applied by employers accounted for an average rate of 6.51 percent. Table II summarises labour disputes that were dealt with through labour arbitration and the analysis of arbitration applicants for the period 1997-2003. According to Thireau and Hua (2003), less educated workers tend to take their grievances to the Government's Visits and Letters Offices that are run by the cities' Labour Bureaus, People's Congresses or Party organs, while the more educated and skilled employees more often take their cases to legal arbitration.While applications for mediation or negotiation cases resolved successfully through negotiation or mediation are declining, those settled successfully through labour arbitration have been increasing since the system was reintroduced. From 1994 to 2004 the number of labour disputes settled through arbitration, including the disputes settled by conciliation during the arbitration process, grew from 12,827 to 194,108 representing an astonishing increase of 1,413 percent. The average settlement rate of cases submitted to arbitration is 93.6 percent. Table III shows labour arbitration outcomes between 1996 and 2004.Figure 1 shows that, while the numbers of labour disputes settled through arbitration, conciliation and arbitration awards have been increasing since 1996, the number of awards exceeded that of conciliation from 1999. This change indicates that labour disputes have become more complicated and consequently harder to settle in conciliation.Overall, between 1995 and 2004 employees won about half and partially won one third of the arbitrated cases (see Table IV). However, the rates of cases won by employees are still lower than that of cases submitted by them. Moreover, Chinese workers currently have disadvantages over and less bargaining power than employers in the labour arbitration process. This results in workers compromising their rights when submitting disputes to arbitration. For example, if the worker was dismissed unfairly and s/he realised that there was no way for reinstatement, s/he has to compromise by submitting a request for unemployment compensation only. Even if s/he has won the case his right to re-employment is not fully protected. Situations like these are very common in China where the Party-State has granted unlimited power to employers, particularly to fire or hire and pay. Furthermore, workers' "representatives" - trade unions - are not considered an independent party when serving on the labour arbitration committee. Their subordinate status has affected the neutrality of the appointed arbitrators and put workers in a worsen situation.In the following section, ten arbitral cases that were all published on the websites of labour and social security authorities as "role models" of how China's labour dispute arbitration should be conducted (Arbitration in China, 2004) are analysed to illustrate to what extent the arbitration system upholds the Labour Law.Case 1: dismissal Discussion and conclusions: Labour arbitration has become increasingly popular over the last decade as the preferred mechanism for resolving labour disputes in China. It is deemed better than those processes such as appealing to government and trade unions and tripartite consultation. Workers are learning from experience not to rely on or trust the political and administrative means for settling labour disputes. Moreover, labour arbitration is less expensive and time-consuming than labour litigation. Arbitration plays an irreplaceable role in resolving labour disputes and reducing labour unrest, as demonstrated by the growing number of cases that have been settled through arbitration and workers have won.However, today's Chinese labour dispute arbitration system has some limitations that prohibit it from fully upholding the Labour Law and protecting workers' rights. First, Chinese labour arbitration is a government activity and administered by labour bureaus at different levels. Arbitrators are normally appointed by local labour administration units and trade unions' councils, which themselves are integral parts of government and enterprise management. Relying on an institution to appoint arbitrators effectively reduces control of the process by the parties (McLaren, 2003) and compromises the neutrality and objectiveness of arbitration rulings. Second, Chinese arbitration is a compulsory procedure for disputing parties when filing a lawsuit. A lack of mutual agreement upon arbitration often leads to unwillingness of one or both parties to abide resulting rulings. Third, it is a fact that access to labour arbitration by disputing parties is limited due to inadequate labour arbitration bodies, a complicated application procedure, resulting in many disputes not being promptly and thoroughly dealt with. Fourth, there is limited information about arbitrators in that the general public has no legal right to access information regarding arbitrators' background or expertise, which effectively prohibits the parties involved in disputes finding more suitable arbitrators. Fifth and finally, there is a lack of openness in the process of arbitration due to two parties and a third party who have interests in cases, having no access to case information, including cases that have been settled.The findings of this study have significant implications for Chinese practitioners. First, fundamental to an effective and fair labour arbitration, an independent system free from government interference is critical. The Chinese government should gradually reduce its intervention in labour arbitration activities, particularly regarding the formation of the arbitration committee and eventually allow the arbitration committee to become an independent and private body. Second, the current committee-appointing arbitrator system is problematic. A "list-system" is recommended in order to provide both parties with some control in the selection of arbitrators so as to have more confidence in the eventual decision when it is issued. The public should have access to the background of registered arbitrators so as to appoint arbitrators who are competent to act as impartial third parties. Third, in order to facilitate public review of arbitration decisions to improve the public's confidence in the system, information about labour dispute cases, especially regarding causes of disputes, the issues involved, any evidence provided to support the arbitrator's decision, and the outcome of each case should be made available to the public.Furthermore, the policy that the two parties involved in a dispute are currently not allowed to file lawsuits directly to the court is problematic. It normally takes a few months to proceed with arbitration and when the ruling comes it is not necessarily compulsory. In many circumstances the handling of labour disputes is delayed this means that the best time to settle issues has been lost, with the result that violent actions occur. In industrialised nations, although there is a range of pre-legal labour dispute resolution mechanisms that act as filters of conflict, disputants are free to bring cases directly before the courts. Therefore, the current policy banning the bypassing of labour arbitration should also be reviewed.While there is a growing literature on labour disputes in China, there is unfortunately a scarcity of literature concerning labour arbitration, resulting in many unanswered questions. Nevertheless, this study has identified a range of avenues for future research. These avenues include the following questions. First, how do employees compromise when they bring labour disputes to arbitration? Researchers should examine the differences between the causes of labour disputes and the claims made by workers. Second, to what extent labour arbitration upholds the labour laws? To answer this, an examination of regional or national arbitral cases for a certain period is needed. Third, what are the best ways in which to improve the neutrality of arbitrators and arbitration committees?
Improving care coordination using organisational routines: Care pathways as a coordination mechanism	[ "Hospitals", "Standardization", "Coordination", "Care pathways", "Organizational routines", "Organization-of-care" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Coordination of care is essential to provide good patient outcomes (Argote, 1982) and deliver high-quality care in hospitals (McDonald et al., 2007; Ovretveit, 2011). Improving coordination is also considered central to accelerate progress towards continuous learning, best care and lower costs (Institute of Medicine, 2013). However, coordination across departments and functions in hospitals is a challenge (Institute of Medicine, 2001, 2013; Hofmarcher et al., 2007). Coordination of care: the case of standardised care pathways: Care pathways are used in the delivery of all types of hospital work which include out-patient, in-patient or acute care. A care pathway is defined as "a complex intervention for the mutual decision-making and organisation of care processes for a well-defined group of patients during a well-defined period" (European Pathway Association, 2014). Importantly, standardisation of work processes and multidisciplinary teamwork are central in a care pathway (Vanhaecht et al., 2010). A care pathways usually take the format of formalised written artefact (Cabitza et al., 2008) where the degree of detail varies from detailed to generic (De Bleser et al., 2006); i.e. offering less and more professional autonomy, respectively. The challenge of coordination in organisations: division of work, specialisation and interdependence: Division of work is fundamentally about specialisation (Smith, 1776/1976). Specialisation in hospitals means that health care services or processes are divided into sub-tasks that are carried out by different medical specialities, health care professionals and others. Specialisation is driven by the objective to provide highly specialised and high-quality care to patients and to meet advances in health care technology (Strauss et al., 1997). Specialisation also leads to productivity gains through the resulting benefits of dexterity and learning-by-doing (Darr et al., 1995). Coordination: management of interdependencies: Coordination is about managing interdependencies to achieve a shared goal (Malone and Crowston, 1990). One way of conceptualising coordination is to categorise it into programmed and non-programmed mechanisms (March and Simon, 1958). Coordination is programmed if choice and decision making are prespecified responses to predefined stimuli. A standard operating procedure is one such coordination mechanism (Cyert and March, 1963). Organisational routines: a repetitive pattern of collective actions that share ten characteristics: Organisational routines are important to organisations because they offer advantages such as coordination, uncertainty reduction, truce and organisational memory (Nelson and Winter, 1982). In the next paragraphs are routines defined and described by highlighting their ten characteristics (Becker, 2004) and the connection between routines and coordination is elaborated. Bringing theory of routines to bear on care pathways: a systematic analysis using the ten characteristics of routines: The following analysis systematically relates the ten characteristics of routines to care pathways. The explanatory power of routines is used to develop theoretically guided propositions that provide insights into and identify ways to address open questions in the care pathway literature about the coordinating and organising role of care pathways, the way they change and can be replicated, the relation between care pathways and the organisation they are embedded in and how such standardised work processes can influence health care professionals. Discussion: The present paper systematically relates the characteristics of routines to care pathways and uses the explanatory power of the former to develop theoretically guided propositions. The following divides the propositions into five categories and argues that these can be useful starting points for future empirical research of care pathways. In relation, future areas of research about emergent coordination and care pathways and the hospital as a contemporary organisation are discussed. Finally, other hospital processes that could be relevant to investigate using the theoretical backdrop of routines are discussed. Conclusion: This conceptual paper systematically applies the ten characteristics of routines to the widely used hospital concept known as care pathways in order to provide insights into open questions in the care pathway literature.
Proposal for a new Shari'ah risk rating approach for Islamic banks	[ "Basel III", "Sharīʿah non-compliance risk", "Rating models", "Islamic banking industry", "Sharīʿah supervision" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Islamic banking customers tend to pose a highly relevant question pertaining to the Islamic banking business: Are banks labeled as "Islamic banks" really Islamic? Dar's (2013) question "Is Islamic banking as exploitative as conventional banking?" reflects the fact that there is still skepticism among customers about the practice of Islamic banking and that it extends to the issue of Shari'ah compliance of Islamic banks. Islamic banks address this concern by sharing the fatwas (Islamic legal rulings) of their respective Shari'ah boards or other competent authorities on the Shari'ah compliance of their business activities. Islamic banks tend to place high emphasis on the eminent personalities who constitute the members of their Shari'ah boards to assure the public of their Shari'ah compliance. In practice, bank customers do not rely solely on the fatwa or credentials of the Shari'ah board members validating the banks' financial products in their decision to patronize Islamic banks. Nonetheless, the aspect of Shari'ah risk - that is, the risk of Shari'ah non-compliance - is an important factor to which customers pay special attention in their decision to endorse Islamic financial products. Moreover, it is argued that the level of Shari'ah compliance of a bank cannot be qualified in absolute terms as "yes" or "no"; rather, there should be a rating system which scores an institution's Shari'ah compliance across a range; for example, high, satisfactory, weak and non-compliant. This is deemed commercially attractive, as banks with higher levels of Shari'ah compliance should be able to fetch higher ratings and enjoy a better market positioning in Islamic financial markets. Research objective: The objective of this paper is to develop a Shari'ah risk rating model to measure the Shari'ah risk of Islamic banks. It aims at answering the question relating to Shari'ah compliance of Islamic banks in a more satisfying manner to convince a larger set of customers that are still skeptical about the Islamic banking industry. The scope of this paper is limited to reviewing the existing risk rating models with respect to their relevance to measuring Shari'ah risk, coming up with a more relevant Shari'ah risk rating model, testing the model on Islamic banks for its accuracy, and finally providing a risk score that represents the Shari'ah and financial risk of an Islamic bank. It is noted that the model does not calculate financial risk, which is already available from the ratings of conventional rating agencies. The overall score derived from the model can be used by customers to evaluate the level of Shari'ah compliance of Islamic banks and by the banks to determine the adequate amount of capital that should be allocated to mitigate this risk. Review of existing rating models: Existing market practices to evaluate banking sector risk and Shari'ah compliance revolve around three areas, notably: Proposed methodology: The proposed rating model has two parts: Testing of the Shari'ah risk rating model: The newly developed Shari'ah risk rating model was applied to three banks to evaluate their degree of Shari'ah compliance. These ratings were conducted on an unsolicited basis. The summary of results is provided in Table III. Conclusion: The Shari'ah risk rating model proposed in this paper includes 14 Shari'ah risk rating factors to determine the degree of Shari'ah compliance of an Islamic bank. The model has clearly differentiated the banks on basis of Shari'ah non-compliance risk. The weights assigned in the model were based on personal judgments, and these were correct to the extent that the end score calculated for each bank has clearly highlighted their strengths and weaknesses. This model can be used by individuals and the public to check the Shari'ah compliance score of any bank. This rating will introduce a healthy competition among Islamic banks to comply with Shari'ah laws and regulations. Further research is required to apply the model to more Islamic financial institutions.
Value creation measures: an industry-based study	[ "Shareholder value", "Industry analysis", "Economic value added", "Market value added" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The ever-increasing search for excellence, efficiency, and performance enhancement by the management of organisations seems to be fuelled by new performance measures, accounting systems, reporting requirements, and business standards that are created by academics, consulting firms, and stock broking research houses. Consulting firms make sweeping statements regarding the effectiveness of their products. Academics continuously and unabatedly conduct research on products and measures that are created by themselves (and consulting firms), whilst government and government agencies contribute in their own way towards the growing complexity of measuring business performance. Literature review: There are various reasons for the popularity of shareholder value as a research topic in financial management. Maybe the most obvious reason is the most predominant feature of shareholder value measure research, namely the vast number of measures that has been created over the past decades. Apart from traditional accounting-based measures such as ROE, ROA, or EPS, there has been a proliferation of economic-based shareholder value creation measures developed by management consulting firms. Myers (1997) listed measures such as Stern Steward's EVA, Holt's CFROI, Boston Consulting Group's total business return, McKinsey's Economic Profit, and LEK/ALcar's shareholder value added. Research methodology: The industries selected for the analysis, the dependent and independent variables, and the statistical techniques applied, are discussed in this section. All for this study were obtained from INET BFA, a South African supplier of quality financial data. Results and discussion: The empirical results of this study are discussed by first commenting on the descriptive statistics, followed by the empirical results (the latter based on a number of rounds of statistical calculations). Findings, analysis, and interpretations of the results are considered throughout. Conclusion: The present study set out to refine the search for a fair and equitable shareholder value creation measure, namely a measure that is applicable to a particular industry or firm. To achieve this objective, the study analysed more shareholder value creation measures than have been addressed in previous studies, and applies these shareholder value creation measures to nine different categories of firms.
Supervisor support and turnover in hotels: Does subjective well-being mediate the relationship?	[ "Hospitality industry", "Turnover intention", "Subjective well-being", "Perceived supervisor support" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The common adage that "employees do not leave places, they leave managers" is often used to explain turnover. Managers and their actions and behaviors, which are part of an employee's work environment, can help retain employees or cause them to leave (Davidson and Wang, 2011; Hinkin and Tracey, 2000; Mohsin et al., 2013). In this light, person-environment fit posits that the relationship between people and the environment together, rather than separately, impact outcomes such as attitudes and behavior (Iplik et al., 2011), and supervisors are part of the workplace environment. Studies have shown that support by supervisors can directly impact turnover (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000; Karatepe, 2014; Kim and Jogaratnam, 2010; Nichols et al., 2016). However, turnover has also been found to not be directly impacted by supervisor support (Cho et al., 2009; Eisenberger et al., 2002; Kang et al., 2015; Mathieu et al., 2016), but rather indirectly through factors such as perceived organizational support (Cho et al., 2009; Eisenberger et al., 2002), job satisfaction (Mathieu et al., 2016) and organizational commitment (Kang et al., 2015; Mathieu et al., 2016). However, these mediators are all aspects of the workplace and not necessarily employee-centric characteristics. Therefore, this study aims to not only reconcile the theoretical and empirical discrepancies of the supervisor support-turnover intention relationship by introducing a mediator but also to explore a mediator that pertains to the employee, which is subjective well-being (SWB). Literature review: Subjective well-being Methodology: Sample and data collection Results: Prior to the analysis, the data were screened including missing data analysis, descriptive statistics and reliability. List-wise deletion was used where any cases with missing data for the three main constructs were not used in the analysis resulting in 187 usable surveys. Correlations were found among the three variables indicating that relationships are present. The correlation between SWB and PSS was positive and modest (r = 0.452). The correlation between SWB and turnover intention was negative and modest (r = -0.357) and the correlation between PSS and turnover intention was also negative and modest (r = -0.416). Reliability of each variable was checked using Cronbach's alpha with 0.70 or higher used as the cut-off (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). The SWB variable had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.797 and the PSS variable had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.924. The turnover variable's initial reliability was 0.561 due to the item that was reverse coded. This item was dropped and the Cronbach's alpha improved to 0.763. Therefore, the turnover variable ultimately included only two of the three items. Table II outlines the means, standard deviations, reliabilities and inter-correlations among the variables. Discussion and conclusions: Conclusions
Three-stage supply chain allocation with fixed cost	[ "Supply chain management", "Distribution management", "Genetic algorithms", "Fixed cost transportation problem", "Factorial design" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into finished products and the distribution of these products to customers. For any supply chain, logistics or distribution plays a key role in its success. Eskigun et al. (2006) observe that logistics costs amount to 30 per cent of the total production costs. Huq et al. (2010) suggest that most of the inefficiencies associated with supply chain management (SCM) costs are due to the wasteful practices such as inefficient, unnecessary, or redundant stocking practices, or inefficient transportation. To gain a competitive edge in the market, supply chains must overcome these inefficiencies. According to Jain and Benyousef (2008), in future, the competition will not be between individual enterprises, but between competing supply chains. The performance of a supply chain depends mostly on the effective and balanced allocation of customers to distribution centres. Hence, designing an effective production-distribution network is of vital importance for firms aiming to reduce their logistics costs and maintain their competitive positions.This paper focuses on a distribution allocation problem in a three-stage supply chain model with fixed cost. Fixed charge problem or fixed cost problem is a practical problem in the industry (Jawahar and Balaji, 2009). The fixed-charge transportation problem (FCTP) is a special case of traditional transportation problem (TP) (Adlakha and Kowalski, 1999). Unlike TP, FCTP considers a fixed cost for a route in addition to the unit cost which depends upon the quantity of goods transported that is constant for a particular route. Fixed costs include the toll fee on the highways, the reward given to the driver, landing fee at the airport, permit fees or property taxes, etc. When fixed cost is also taken into account, the TP is known as FCTP.The objective of any FCTP model is to find that combination of routes, which can transport goods or services minimizing the total cost. The presence of fixed cost causes discontinuity in the objective function which makes FCTP more difficult to solve. The problem cannot be solved by direct application of the transportation algorithm and it has been shown to be non-deterministic polynomial (NP) hard (Clover et al., 1992). Hence, the solution methodologies adopted in the literature are heuristic algorithms and meta-heuristic algorithms such as GA, tabu search, and simulated annealing extensively.Most of the works in the literature consider the allocation problem in a single-stage supply chain. A single-stage supply chain consists of a set of manufacturing plants and a set of distributors (or customers). Adlakha and Kowalski (1998) consider a TP with the more-for-less (MFL) paradox and Adlakha and Kowalski (1999) analyse a FCTP model with MFL. An MFL paradox occurs when it is possible to ship more total goods for less or equal total cost while shipping the same amount or more from each origin to each destination, keeping shipping costs non-negative. Adlakha and Kowalski (2000) discuss the problem in the order of loading when multiple absolute points are present while solving an FCTP. Using Hungarian and Vogel approximation methods, Adlakha and Kowalski (2003) solve a single-stage FCTP as a small FCTP. Kannan et al. (2008b) formulate a TP of a single-stage supply chain with fixed charge and obtain optimum results using a local search heuristic known as Nelder-Mead method. Raj and Rajendran (2009) propose a simple heuristic algorithm for solving a single-stage FCTP wherein the performance of the algorithm is compared with the existing best method by making use of benchmark problem instances.GA is applied for combinatorial optimization problems. GA is found to be a very effective means to solve location-allocation problems in supply chains (Gen et al., 2001). Han and Damrongwongsiri (2005) apply GA to derive optimal solutions for a mathematical model of a stochastic multiple-period, two-echelon inventory with the many-to-many demand-supplier network problem. GA has been widely used by researchers to find optimal solutions for an FCTP. Gottlieb and Paulmann (1998) propose a GA-based permutation representation for the FCTP. Gen and Li (1998) develop spanning tree based-GA (st-GA) for TP using Prufer number encoding. Gen and Li (1999) use the st-GA approach for FCTP. Jo et al. (2007) consider a non-linear FCTP for a single-stage-supply chain consisting of a plant and a customer. This work depicts the transportation graph of a non-linear FCTP as a spanning tree with the use of Prufer numbers. The model is solved using st-GA. Kannan et al. (2008a) have commented on the work of Jo et al. (2007) stating an error in the total transportation cost. Gen et al. (2005) summarize the recent research work on network design problems that use GA.It is evident from the literature that researchers have mainly focussed on a single-stage FCTP with a set of manufacturing plants and a set of distributors. In the two-stage FCTP, the entities involved are manufacturing plants, distributors, and retailers. To the best knowledge, only Jawahar and Balaji (2009) have developed a two-stage distribution model with fixed cost. GA-based heuristic is proposed for the solving the two-stage model. Hence, there exists a research gap for solving an allocation problem in an FCTP supply chain model with three or more stages. This paper deals with the modelling and analysis of a more general FCTP supply chain model with three-stages comprising of manufacturing plants, distributors, retailers, and customers.In most of the studies pertaining to the area of FCTP, GA is found to perform better. In GA, there are two categories of parameters, namely structural and numerical. The chromosome representation, operator types and termination criterion are some of the structural parameters. The initial population, population size, number of generations, crossover probability, and mutation probability are the numerical parameters. The performance of GA depends on the numerical parameters. With the same structural parameters, if the numerical parameters in GA are not chosen properly, the population may converge prematurely to a local optimum that is hard to escape from. Hence, there is a need to design the parameters to be used in GA. Furthermore, researchers use the most commonly adopted parameter value in the literature or the trial-and-error method to adjust parameter design manually. To the best knowledge, there is no research work reported on the methodology for parameter design for GA in a three-stage FCTP. This research adopts factorial design as a systematic parameter design method to effectively obtain the best combination of the numerical parameters of GA.Considering the above research aspects, this paper deals with an allocation problem in a three-stage FCTP supply chain model. A supply chain comprising of a set of five manufacturing plants, five distributors, five retailers, and five customers is considered for detailed investigation. This supply chain represents a medium sized supply chain encountered in practice. A fixed cost for a distribution route between two entities (manufacturing plant-distributor, distributor-retailer, and retailer-customer) is taken into account. An integer programming model for the three-stage supply chain is formulated. The model is solved using GA-based heuristic. The best combinations of the numerical parameters are determined using the factorial design concept. Thus, the contribution of this work is two-fold:1. it models and solves a three-stage FCTP supply chain; and2. it identifies the best combinations of numerical parameters in the GA-based heuristic.The organisation of this paper is as follows. Section 2 describes the problem formulation. Section 3 explains the solution methodology. Section 4 provides the analysis of results. Section 5 discusses the conclusion. 2 Problem description: The problem considered is a multi-echelon supply chain allocation. The supply chain includes entities such as manufacturing plants, distributors, retailers, and customers. The product is manufactured in the manufacturing plant, transported to the distribution centres, to the retailers, and then to the customers. A random demand for the product occurs at the retailer end. The model assumes that the demand is satisfied from the local inventory at the retailer. The retailer can replenish its inventory from multiple distributors. Similarly, the distributor can replenish its inventory from multiple plants. Figure 1 shows this three-stage supply chain network.The mathematical formulation for this three-stage supply chain with a set of m plants (i=1, 2, ... , m), a set of d distributors (k=1, 2, ... , d), a set of r retailers (l=1, 2, ... , r), and a set of n customers (j=1, 2, ... , n) taking into account a fixed cost for a distribution route is described in this section.2.1 Assumptions 3 Solution methodology: The problem is solved using a permutation based-GA. Generally, GA consists of a string representing the points in the search space, a set of genetic operators for generating new search points and a stochastic assignment to control the genetic operations. It typically consists of four phases described as follows.3.1 Step 1: coding phase 4 Results and discussion: A supply chain comprising of five plants, five distributors, five retailers, and five customers is considered for the purpose of illustration. This supply chain represents a medium sized supply chain observed in the real-world. As discussed in Section 2.1, the present work also discusses the method for the selection of numerical parameters in GA so as to provide a better solution.A sample problem data is generated according to uniform distribution as follows:* Unit cost of transportation in each stage: U (5, 10).* Fixed cost for a transportation route in each stage: U (10, 100).* Capacity of suppliers: U (100, 300).* Demand of customers: U (100, 300).The data thus generated is shown in Tables I-V.The code for GA-based heuristic is developed in MATLAB 7.8.0. Using the GA code, the distribution allocation problem in the three-stage supply chain with fixed cost is solved. The allocation is given in Tables VI-VIII.After the allocation with GA-based heuristic, the TORA software (Taha, 2008) is used to find the lower bound value for the problem. The FCTP model is converted to RTP and is used in TORA. The allocation using TORA is given in Tables IX-XI.A comparison of total cost is made for the following:* RTP model solved using TORA (i.e. considering equivalent cost).* FCTP model solved using GA-based heuristic.* The allocation obtained for the RTP model using TORA (i.e. considering the fixed cost and variable cost for the allocations).The results of comparison thus obtained are shown in Table XII.The total cost obtained using GA-based heuristic is the actual total cost since it considers the fixed cost and the variable cost of transportation. In the reduced problem, the fixed cost and variable cost are used to derive an equivalent cost and the problem is solved using this equivalent cost. Hence, even though the total cost for the reduced problem is slightly less than that of the total cost (actual cost) for GA-based heuristic as shown in Table XII, it is not the actual cost. Thus, GA-based heuristic provides an attractive solution methodology for solving the FCTP.4.1 Parameter design for GA-based heuristic 5 Conclusions: Supply chain system is an integrated production system which aims at quick and efficient service towards the customers. In a supply chain system, distribution plays a significant role in maintaining the uninterrupted flow of goods and services between the manufacturer and the customers. The performance of a supply chain depends mostly on the effective and balanced allocation of customers to distribution centres. In this study, supply chain modelling and optimization is perceived as determining the allocation of distribution activity between partners. In today's world, managers have to cope up with the growing markets and greater customer expectations. The measure of success of any company is in terms of lower costs, shorter lead time, lesser stock, reliable delivery and better customer service. This can be achieved by the effective allocation of customers among the different facilities. The FCTP has been studied extensively because of the considerable merit of practice, even though it is a non-polynomial deterministic problem. The objective of an FCTP is to find the combination of routes that minimizes the total costs while satisfying the supply and demand constraints.This study models a three-stage supply chain allocation problem with fixed cost. The formulated model is solved using GA-based heuristic and a systematic method is carried out for the parameter design of the proposed GA-based heuristic. The parameters are kept at various levels and using the factorial design concept, it is found that the optimum population size for the selected problem is 100. The mutation probability for better solution is found to be 0.30. The objective function value at the above mentioned levels is better than that obtained at the other combinations. Factorial design provides the best combination of levels of the factors that are investigated. Thus, the present study provides a better insight to managers about the FCTP in a three-stage supply chain and design of numerical parameters for GA. This is a significant contribution to the literature.In the present study, the mathematical model developed for the three-stage supply chain assumes a single product environment in a single period with the consideration of transportation costs. This work can be extended to include costs of production and inventory. Further, a multi-product, multi-period environment can also be investigated. In the parameter design of GA, the levels selected are three or four. More levels can be selected so that more combinations can be experimented and better values can be obtained.
Restaurant dependence/autonomy in the supply chain and market responsiveness: The moderating roles of information technology adoption and trust	[ "Information technology", "Trust", "Market responsiveness", "Restaurant dependence/autonomy", "Restaurant-supplier relationships" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Beginning in the 1990s, the year-over-year growth rate percentage of annual restaurant sales in the USA has remained relatively flat with few exceptions (e.g. the snack and non-alcoholic beverage categories; NPD Foodservice, 2016). During the 12-month period of 2014-2015, the number of independent restaurants declined by 3 per cent compared with a 1 per cent growth reported by chain restaurants. This resulted in a 1 per cent net loss in growth of "Total Restaurant Units" (NPD Group/ReCount, 2015). Conceptual development and hypotheses: Restaurant relationships with suppliers: dependence and autonomy Control variables: Extant research has suggested that several factors beyond dependence and autonomy can have significant effects on the operators' ability to respond to market conditions. The variables we see as most critical are as follows: "Business environmental dynamism," referring to the degree of instability of business environments that are significantly associated with length of product life cycles, speed of the development of new products (Dess and Beard, 1984); "Business environmental competitiveness," or to the degree of competition derived from the number of competitors in the market (Miller, 1987); and "Business size", commonly measured in numbers of employees or average revenue (Spence, 1999). Therefore, to control for the effects of such variables upon market responsiveness, we included four control variables representing environmental dynamics, environmental competitiveness, number of employees and customer average check. The relationships hypothesized above along with the control variables are presented in Figure 1. Method: Sample and data collection Results: Measurement assessment Conclusions: Theoretical implications
The importance of co-operatives to the New Zealand economy: Constructing a co-operative economy	[ "Co-operatives", "Co-operative advantage", "New Zealand co-operative sector", "Size of co-operative sector", "Value added methodology" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: This paper measures the size of New Zealand's co-operative sector, in terms of its direct contribution to output and employment as well as its indirect impact (the multiplier effect), using a very basic and transparent methodology. The findings here are based on data derived largely from surveying the co-operative sector in 2012. It revises prior and incomplete estimates produced by Statistics New Zealand and those available through the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), based on earlier estimates provided by the New Zealand Co-operative Association in 2007 (now known as Co-operative Business New Zealand) (New Zealand Co-operative Association, 2012). What is a co-operative: According to the ICA, the governing body of co-operatives worldwide (International Co-operative Alliance, 2015a):A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise [...]. Co-operatives are businesses owned and run by and for their members. Whether the members are the customers, employees or residents they have an equal say in what the business does and a share in the profits. As businesses driven by values not just profit, co-operatives share internationally agreed principles and act together to build a better world through co-operation. Co-operatives and the world economy: The largest 300 co-operatives in the world contributed USD2.2 trillion to the world economy in 2012, which we estimate to be about 2.2 percent of World Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is argued that this represents about 80 percent of the entire output of the co-operative sector. Hence, it is possible that the co-operative sector contributed 2.8 percent to total world output (2.2/0.80). The USD2.2 trillion is equivalent to the size of the Brazilian economy (GDP) (derived from International Co-operative Alliance, 2015b; World Co-operative Monitor, 2015a, b). A very short history of co-operative business in New Zealand: While the first recorded co-operative was established in Fenwick, Scotland in 1769, the generally accepted foundation of the modern co-operative model is from Rochdale England. In 1844 a group of consumers came together to achieve lower prices on basic necessities by buying in bulk and developed a set of value bound rules to govern their business, which have become known as the Rochdale Principles (Rochdale Pioneers Museum, 2016). These principles have been used as the basis for governance of many co-operative businesses throughout the world and have been incorporated into the ICA's own set of core values that co-operative should uphold (Co-operative Business New Zealand, 2016). Policy: Co-operatives were recognized legally in 1996 when the Cooperative Companies Act was passed. This act differentiated co-operatives from IOFs in a number of ways. Mainly it allowed for powers relating to the control and issue of shares. For example, it gave co-operatives the power to issue shares at nominal values. Further, it prevented non-co-operative firms from having the title "co-operative" or any variation of this within their name. Beyond what is laid out in this act, co-operatives are subject the same legal requirements and restriction as an IOF as laid out in the Companies Act 1993 (Ministry of Economic Development, 2013). Economic impact of co-operatives: In 2012, the New Zealand Co-operative Association (now Cooperative Business New Zealand) and the Ministry of Economic Development (now Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment) commissioned Statistics New Zealand to estimate the contribution of co-operatives to New Zealand's GDP. The report that was issued found that co-operatives contributed 5.8 billion New Zealand dollars to GDP, or approximately 3 percent of New Zealand's GDP in 2009. The report also found that 35,937 people were employed by co-operatives in New Zealand (New Zealand Co-operative Association, 2012)[2]. These are the most rigorous estimates thus far produced on the co-operative sector. Revising estimates for the New Zealand's co-operative sector: This study develops, we would argue, a more robust measure of the contribution of co-operatives to New Zealand's GDP. A thorough survey was conducted on co-operative businesses in New Zealand that encompass co-operatives large and small. This survey collected data on the revenue, assets, employees, members, and employees employed by members. It is based on a list of firms provided to us by the New Zealand Cooperatives Association. Also used are the annual reports of co-operatives, where available. The results of this survey are aggregated and presented in Table I[3]. Conclusion: Our revised estimates of the size of the co-operative sector, using a combination of surveys and annual reports, suggest that New Zealand's co-operative sector is much larger than previously thought, both in terms of output and employment. These estimates are carefully constructed using value added methodology and also taking care to introduce assumptions, where necessary, that err on the side of generating lower-bound as opposed to upper-bound estimates. Therefore, our much higher revised estimates are lower-bound. These estimates contribute to efforts by the ICA and the United Nations to generate robust estimates of the contribution of the co-operative sector to the economy. It is important to note that our estimates are for 2012 and not all firms are covered, albeit these are the smaller players. Needless to say, revisions and improvements to our estimates are warranted.
Perceived diversity climate and employees' organizational loyalty	[ "Diversity management", "Organizational loyalty", "Organizational citizenship behaviour", "Perceived organizational support", "Employees attitudes", "Employees" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: World market is integrating through globalization and the multinational corporations (MNCs) are becoming commonplace (Bhadury et al., 2000). As most countries now have a multicultural makeup in terms of demographical structure (Loo, 1999), organizations are faced with the rapidly changing composition of the workforce in attempt to standardize cross-border implementations of these businesses (Bhadury et al., 2000; McGuire et al., 2002). In this scenario, organizations need to deal with multicultural workforce structure by departing from national boundaries and challenge cultural obstacles in order to obtain competitive advantage (Canen and Canen, 1999; Seymen, 2006).Resource-based theories view diversity as a resource that adds to performance through cognitive benefits. Such theories predict higher levels of performance from a diverse organization and view diversity as a business necessity (Barney, 1991; Barney et al., 2001; Wright and McMahan, 1992). In light of the growing evidence of the relationship between diversity management and firm performance (Armstrong et al., 2001), researchers and HR managers are increasingly showing interest in the subject. However, most of the existing studies on diversity have been conducted in the USA. Thus, they may not represent the situations of Asian countries, in which cultural values significantly differ (Magoshi and Chang, 2009). Moreover, Magoshi and Chang (2009) highlight that most of the studies on diversity issues have focussed on diversity among work group members and its impact on team and organizational performance. Whereas, the impact of diversity management on employee attitudes and behaviors, has been widely ignored. Specifically, when diversity management is viewed as a key HR initiative to attract and retain talent (Cooke, 2011), it becomes necessary to validate the intended impact.Our purpose is to test the impact of diversity management in organizations on employees' organizational loyalty, in the Indian context. Organizational loyalty, as employee behavior, is of specific interest to us because it entails promoting the organization to outsiders, protecting and defending it against external threats, and remaining committed to it even under adverse conditions (Organ et al., 2006). In other words, loyal employees stay with their employers and establish a positive image of the employer in minds of the outsiders through their positive word of mouth. Previous research has demonstrated that employee word-of-mouth referrals are highly effective in attracting a diverse pool of outside talent and have a positive effect on pre-hire recruitment outcomes such as the quantity and quality of the applicant pool (Breaugh and Starke, 2000; Collins and Han, 2004). Thus, the impact of diversity management on employees' organizational loyalty will corroborate its utility as a key HR initiative to attract and retain talent.We selected India as a venue for this study as it has a markedly different societal context for diversity from western countries and is one of the most diverse nations in the world (Sowell, 2002; Budhwar, 2009). It makes diversity management an important HR issue and offers a rich ground for studying diversity management (Cooke and Saini, 2010). In addition, India is a rising economic powerhouse in the global economy with sustained high growth rates (see Astill, 2008). MNCs are attracted to India because of its vast potential markets and less expensive resources (labor) it offers for production activities (Khanna, 2007). However, a major HR challenge to in India has been the shortage of a skilled/professional workforce (Budhwar, 2009). Thus, firms are increasingly involved in a "war for talent" to attract and retain the best available talent from the available talent pool. Some firms have deployed diversity management as one of the key HR initiatives to attract and retain talent (Cooke, 2011; Cooke and Saini, 2010).In this paper, we first present our understanding of diversity management and organizational loyalty concepts. Subsequently, we discuss the rationale behind the hypothesized relationship of two constructs. In quest of exploring the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship, we draw from the concept of "perceived organizational support" and hypothesize its role as a mediator between diversity management and employee's organizational loyalty. Finally, we test the hypothesized mediation model using structural equation modeling approach and present the findings and implications. Diversity and diversity management: The word "diversity" is defined as a mixture of people with different group identities within the same social system (Fleury, 1999). If the workforce profile in an organization is composed of worker groups that show differences depending on demographic or other characteristics, diversity emerges. The criteria discriminating these groups include race, geographic origin, ethnicity, gender, age, functional or educational background, physical and cognitive capability, language, lifestyles, beliefs, cultural background, economic category, tenure with the organization, and sexual preference (Galagan, 1991; Bhadury et al., 2000).Workforce diversity can generate both advantages and disadvantages for organizations (Shen et al., 2009). The advantages include mainly enabling access to a changing marketplace by mirroring increasing diverse markets (Cox and Blake, 1991; Iles, 1995), better-quality solutions to brainstorming tasks and displaying more cooperative behaviors (Wilson and Iles, 1999), among others. The disadvantages are the existence of segregated ethnic communities within the organization, increased conflict, increased training costs, communication breakdown, low cohesion, and high turnover (D'Netto and Sohal, 1999). The key to capitalizing on the advantages and minimizing disadvantages of workforce diversity is to effectively manage diversity (Beauregard, 2008).Managing diversity involves understanding that there are differences among employees and that these differences, if properly managed, are an asset to work being done more efficiently and effectively (Bartz et al., 1990). Diversity management initiatives are specific activities, programs, policies, and any other formal processes or efforts designed to promote organizational culture change related to diversity (Wentling, 2000). The objective of diversity management for organizations is to increase awareness of cultural differences; develop the ability to recognize, accept, and value diversity through organizational intervention to minimize patterns of inequality experienced by those not in the mainstream; and modify organizational culture and leadership practices, so that members of all socio-cultural backgrounds can contribute and achieve their full potential (Soni, 2000).Main business benefits of focussing on diversity management are the ability to recruit from a wider selection of people and retain better workers for longer (Iles, 1995; McKay et al., 2007), broader market intelligence and internationalization (Cox and Blake, 1991), greater creativity and innovation (Gardenswartz and Rowe, 1998; Iles, 1995; Armstrong et al., 2010), diverse perspectives on business issues and improved problem solving and decision making (Flood et al., 2001), improved marketing (Metcalf and Forth, 2000), improved community relations and an enhanced company image (Nykiel, 1997), increased productivity (Armstrong et al., 2010), reduced costs linked to turnover and absenteeism (Armstrong et al., 2010), and increased resilience and flexibility (Gardenswartz and Rowe, 1998).Diversity management is inclusive of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policies, but it is regarded as a better approach than those as it focusses on valuing people as unique individuals rather than on group-related issues covered by legislation (cf. Cooke and Saini, 2010). Moreover, as compared to affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policies, managing diversity seems to be a proactive strategy with the aim of maximizing the utilization of employees' potential (Subeliani and Tsogas, 2005). Some initiatives that are included in the gamut of diversity management initiatives include flexible working arrangements, work-life balance initiatives, education and training programs to raise cultural awareness, and equal opportunity policies and practices (Cooke and Saini, 2010). In this study, we measured employees' individual-level perceptions of a firm's diversity management, which is alternatively termed as perceived diversity climate (Mor Barak et al., 1998). Organizational loyalty: Organizational loyalty entails promoting the organization to outsiders, protecting and defending it against external threats, and remaining committed to it even under adverse conditions (Organ et al., 2006). Particularly, organizational loyalty includes employee's retention with the organization and spreading positive word of mouth about it.Retention, here, refers to employees' upholding their professional relationship with the corporate brand due to the feelings of affective commitment to the organization. It prevents significant economic impact of losing a knowledgeable employee (Ramlall, 2004; Snell and Dean, 1992) by driving down recruitment and training expenditures costs of a new employee (replacement) and all the cost efficiencies which accrue from skilled workers who are up to speed and familiar with both the tasks at hand and their customers. Ultimately, employees' retention improves an organization's profits (Rust et al., 1995).On the other hand, it is well established that word of mouth, as an information source, is more persuasive than commercial sources like advertising because it does not exist for a commercial purpose (East et al., 2005; Laczniak et al., 2001). On the basis of the accessibility-diagnosticity framework, word of mouth, as a source of employment information, influences potential applicants' attraction to organizations because of its accessibility and diagnosticity (Pornpitakpan, 2004). In support of the argument, Van Hoye and Lievens (2005) found that exposure to positive word-of-mouth enhanced perceptions of organizational attractiveness. Collins and Stevens (2002) also observed a strong effect of receiving positive word of mouth on self-reported application decisions. Moreover, past research has demonstrated that employee word-of-mouth referrals have a positive effect on pre-hire recruitment outcomes such as the quantity and quality of the applicant pool (Breaugh and Starke, 2000; Collins and Han, 2004).Overall, employee's organizational loyalty is completely dispositional in nature. Therefore, it is considered as an extra-role behavior and considered as an organizational citizenship behavior (Organ et al., 2006). In light of the organizational benefits of employee loyalty, it is crucial that loyalty/commitment-based initiatives are devised by the organizations. Since, diversity management is claimed to be one such initiative, we discuss its impact on loyalty in the next section. Relationship between perceived diversity climate and employees' organizational loyalty: Employees associate both instrumental functions and symbolic meanings to a company (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003). Instrumental image dimensions describe the organization in terms of objective, concrete, and factual attributes that are inherent of the organization, such as pay, advancement opportunities, job security, task demands, location, etc. (Lievens, 2007). Employees are attracted to these instrumental attributes on the basis of their utilitarian need to maximize benefits and minimize costs (Katz, 1960). Symbolic image dimensions describe the organization in terms of subjective, abstract, and intangible traits, and are similar to what other researchers have labeled as organizational personality perceptions (Slaughter et al., 2005). Employees are attracted to these symbolic traits because they enable them to maintain their self-identity, to enhance their self-image, or to express themselves (Aaker, 1997). Although individuals may associate a variety of traits with organizations, research has shown that these symbolic traits are best represented by five higher-order factors that generalize across different contexts: sincerity, innovativeness, competence, prestige, and robustness (Lievens and Highhouse, 2003).Employees regularly evaluate their employers on these dimensions. Both instrumental and symbolic image dimensions are associated with employees' organizational attractiveness and recommendation intentions (Lievens et al., 2007; Van Hoye, 2008). But, symbolic dimensions explain more variance in organizational attraction than instrumental attributes (Lievens et al., 2005; Van Hoye and Saks, 2011).Human resource diversity management programs follow the principles of equality and fairness and make use of diversity (Shen et al., 2009). These attempts to manage diversity hint at organization's sincerity and competence. Thus, by satisfying employees' need to maintain their self-identity and express themselves, organizations develop an attractive image in their minds. Organization as an employer should be perceived attractive by its employees for a continued affective relationship. If an organization fails to attract its employees, attrition rates may rise (Ambler and Barrow, 1996; Jiang and Iles, 2011). On the other hand, there are many possible actions associated with an attraction toward an employer including recommending it to friends, recommending its services, and continuing employment there (Andreassen and Lanseng, 2010; Jiang and Iles, 2011).Therefore, we hypothesize:H1. Perceived diversity climate is positively related with employees' organizational loyalty.The mediating role of perceived organizational support Method: Sample Results: For validating the factor structure of individual constructs, we loaded items on their respective latent factors (first-order). Apart from one item (measuring perceived organizational support), all the items loaded on their respective latent factors with a factor loading more than 0.4. This item was removed from further analysis and rest were retained. CFA1, CFA2, and CFA3 refer to single-factor models of perceived diversity climate, perceived organizational support, and employees' organizational loyalty, respectively. All the three models revealed a good fit to the data: CFA1 (kh2[21]=34.98, CFI=0.99, NNFI=0.99, RMSEA=0.05, SRMR=0.02); CFA2 (kh2[8]=12.86, CFI=0.99, NNFI=0.99, RMSEA=0.05, SRMR=0.02); CFA3 (kh2[10]=16.38, CFI=0.99, NNFI=0.99, RMSEA=0.05, SRMR=0.02).Before all the proposed relationships were tested simultaneously, the discriminant validity of the measurement model was verified. A measurement model where all items load on a single factor was compared with a measurement model where items load on the three factors: perceived diversity climate, perceived organizational support, and employees' organizational loyalty. The results reported in Table I show that the one-factor model does not fit the data well and three-factor model fits the data better. Thus, support for the discriminant validity of the variables in the current study is provided. Moreover, as the one-factor model did not fit the data well, common-method variance is not a great concern in the data; and is unlikely to confound the interpretation of results.A preliminary correlation analysis was then performed. The findings, presented in Table II, confirm that relations proceeded in the expected directions. Perceived diversity climate is positively correlated with perceived organizational support and organizational loyalty.We formulated two hypotheses to test our theory-derived relationships. H1 was concerned with testing the direct relationship of perceived diversity climate with employees' organizational loyalty. Our analysis supported the direct positive relationship between the two (path coefficient=0.72; p<0.01). Thus, H1 was supported.Next, we specified a model with hypothesized relationships and control variables. After controlling for the effect of job level and tenure on perceived organizational support, and tenure, job level, gender, age, educational level, and marital status on employees' organizational loyalty, data supported the existence of partial mediation by perceived organizational support in the relationship between perceived diversity climate and employees' organizational loyalty. Among the control variables, only job level significantly positively related to perceived organizational support. The overall model (Figure 1) showed a good fit to the data (kh2[4]=1.76, CFI=1.00, NNFI=1.00, RMSEA=0.00, SRMR=0.01). Overall variance explained in employees' organizational loyalty was 55 percent and perceived organizational support was 39 percent. Discussion: Among the many environmental trends affecting organizations in recent years is the rapidly changing composition of the workforce, a phenomenon known as workforce diversity (Bhadury et al., 2000). Organizations have devised diversity management programs to unleash the power of diversity and gain competitive advantage. But, it is still not much evident if these programs are beneficial for firms in the intended way. Diversity management literature is silent on how the company's diversity strategy influences employees' attitudes and behaviors at the workplace. Moreover, despite being a rich ground for diversity management studies, not many studies have considered the Indian context.Purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of diversity management programs in fostering employees' organizational loyalty (considered as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)). We tested our hypothesized relationships on a sample of 229 Indian IT professionals. Past diversity research (see Shen et al., 2010) has recognized that perceptions of the significance of diversity, and effectiveness of diversity management vary considerably among individuals from different diversity backgrounds. Taking into account the view that when employees perceive the characteristics of HRM differently they display relative levels of OCB (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Nishii et al., 2008) it is likely that personal demographic factors could have an effect on organizational loyalty. Therefore, we controlled for tenure, job level, gender, age, educational level, and marital status.In past research, Shen et al. (2010) found a positive impact of diversity management on OCB, consisting of six dimensions: altruism, courtesy, cheerleading, peacekeeping, civic virtue, and sportsmanship. Moreover, in turnover research, McKay et al. (2007) have found a negative relationship between perceived diversity climate and turnover. In extension to the past research, we found that after controlling for the demographic variables, diversity management programs do have a positive impact on employees' organizational loyalty. Indeed, as employees develop the perceptions of organizational support, they reciprocate with increased loyalty to their employers (allegiance and positive word of mouth about their employers).Implications
Student employment and school-to-work transition: the Russian case	[ "Student work", "Employability", "Starting earnings", "Vocational education and training", "Higher education", "Graduates", "Competency" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: The paradigm of school-to-work transition started to transform during the second half of the twentieth century. The number of full-time students combining work and study increased quite rapidly (Beerkens et al., 2011; Darmody and Smyth, 2008; Lucas and Lammont, 1998). Today, the education and labor markets are not as clearly separated from each other as they used to be (Lucas and Lammont, 1998; Roshchin, 2006). The boundary between these social institutions is becoming symbolic and relatively easy to overcome as the modern labor market provides students with unprecedented employment opportunities due to the development of part-time employment, distant work, freelancing and so on (Roshchin and Rudakov, 2017).Another reason for the growth of student employment is students' use of work experience as a competitive advantage on the labor market (Ibid). This source of motivation is especially important for students in Russia and other postSoviet countries because of the recent transition from elite to mass higher education that has evoked discrepancies in the quality of tertiary education (Belskaya et al., 2014; Platonova and Semyonov, 2018; Timoshenko, 2011). These changes have led to the devaluation of university diplomas (Yudkevich, 2017), which currently serve as an insufficient signal of potential worker productivity and have to be reinforced with work experience for better employment prospects.At the same time, students work in order to meet their consumption needs (Beerkens et al., 2011). This is particularly important for young people from low socio-economic backgrounds. For them, additional incomes can help to satisfy basic needs rather than enabling conspicuous consumption or other luxuries. Moreover, some students work to pay for their own education. This factor is particularly significant for students from countries such as the United States where the cost of education is predominantly covered by households (Roshchin and Rudakov, 2017).Generally speaking, financial motivations for student employment prevail in advanced economies where education certificates have retained their signaling function (Ford et al., 1995). In transitional economies, the motivation to combine work and study stems from the desire of both additional income and work experience (Roshchin, 2006).We should note that student employment brings benefits not only to individuals but also to society as a whole. Young people combining work and study constitute a flexible supply of labor (Baert et al., 2017). In addition, the traditionally high youth unemployment serves as a motivation for governments to develop policies aimed at promoting student employment (Quintini, 2015). Such policies include targeted employment subsidies, the development of dual systems and the creation of new opportunities for internships, apprenticeships and so on (OECD, 2002; Scott-Clayton and Minaya, 2016). However, there is mixed evidence for the impact of student employment on future labor outcomes. Some articles claim that work during study leads to higher subsequent wages (Ruhm, 1997), while others argue that it has no significant direct impact (Ehrenberg and Sherman (1987); Hozt et al., 2002). This inconsistency makes it particularly interesting to study the effects of student employment on future success on the labor market.In 2016, the Russian Federal State Statistic Service conducted a survey of 36,000 Russian vocational and tertiary graduates, focusing on their school-to-work transition. Our study is based on data from this survey. In our research, we strive, first of all, to analyze the statistical relationship between labor market outcomes (employability and earnings) and work experience during study. Second, we examine the impact of the correlation between students' jobs and their majors on their future likelihood of employment and wages.Previous studies based on Russian data examined the factors affecting the probability of student employment (Roshchin and Rudakov, 2017), the effects of student work on later employment chances and wages (Roshchin, 2006) and the consequences of the job-education mismatch for tertiary graduates (Rudakov et al., 2019). Another study delved into the impact of student work on later labor market outcomes for vocational graduates (Dudyrev et al., 2019). The key contribution of the present paper lies in its comparative approach to analyzing the school-to-work transition of HE and VET graduates, taking into account the correlation of student work and field of study. This perspective is especially important in the Russian context that is marked by significant mismatch and overeducation among graduates entering the labor market (Gimpelson et al., 2009; Rudakov et al., 2019). Holders of university degrees and VET diplomas often compete with each other for the same positions. Research conducted on a nationally representative sample helps to paint a complex picture of school-to-work transition in Russia for both HE and VET graduates.With regard to international research, this paper presents additional empirical evidence that supports studies of the impact of student work on later labor market outcomes. The Russian labor market has a number of distinctive features that distinguish it from the rest of Europe excepting CIS countries (Gimpelson and Kapeliushnikov, 2011). This research helps to understand how young people with different educational backgrounds are rewarded for combining work and study on labor markets that have evolved from a planned economy. 2. Theoretical approaches explaining the impact of student employment on later labor market outcomes: The positive impact of student employment on later school-to-work transition (i.e. the period after graduation when work becomes the sole key activity) can be explained with at least two well-known classical economic theories. One of them, the human capital theory (Becker, 1964), posits that work helps students to acquire additional marketable skills. In other words, combining work and study allows students to make the most of their years in formal education by multiplying specific, job-related and transferrable competencies. Subsequently, individuals with more advanced qualifications are rewarded on the labor market. Their payoff can be expressed either in increased employability or in higher initial wages (or in both criteria of successful school-to-work transition).Another theory that explains how student employment adds value to future employability and wages is the signaling Theory (Spence, 1973). According to this approach, the experience of combining work and study plays the role of an additional productivity indicator that helps employers to overcome the problem of information asymmetry. In this case, the labor market payoff is rooted in marketable competencies that were not developed through student employment, yet it served as a prerequisite for the acquisition of successful work-study experience. Assistance in selecting the most productive workers from a pool of new graduates is gaining particular importance with the rise of the average formal education level. Admittedly, the unprecedented growth of tertiary graduates is likely to exacerbate credentialism. This, in turn, leads to the further massification or increase of university enrollment and graduation, which causes the devaluation of credentials, particularly at lower levels (Goff, 2013). This cycle creates incentives for employers to look for supplementary indicators, especially when it comes to recruiting graduates from less prestigious educational institutions.It must be said that the aforementioned theories are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they can supplement each other by providing additional explanations. Employed students may have prior qualities or competencies (e.g. initiative, responsibility, time management skills and so on) that help them to combine work and study successfully. Furthermore, their work may contribute to the further development of these marketable competencies and the acquisition of new job-specific traits. Some studies suggest that students' work experience sends signals to employers about their ability to perform well (Geel and Backes-Gellner, 2012; Robinson, 1999; Ruhm, 1997). Thus, work experience might be considered as evidence of the ability to work, and it does not really matter whether the latter is due to inborn characteristics (human capital theory) or to characteristics obtained from juggling work and study (signaling theory).Such theoretical approaches describing the mechanisms behind the positive impact of work and study on later labor market outcomes. Notwithstanding, some theories challenge the seemingly unquestionable benefits of student employment. These conceptions are based on a corpus of literature that identifies negative statistical relationships between student employment and educational attainment, which indirectly influences later outcomes in life (labor market success, wealth and so on) (French et al., 2015; Neyt et al., 2019).Many of these papers make use of the intuitively derived zero-sum theory (Warrant, 2002) that is based on the idea that student time is naturally restricted. When students combine work and study, they inevitably spend less time on school-related activities. Thus, student employment diminishes their educational experience and consequently reduces, to a certain extent, their acquisition of individual skills. With regard to vocational and higher education, it is important to consider the role played by the correlation between student work and field of study. If these two domains diverge, students achieve less mastery in their chosen careers insofar as they neglect certain educational activities and do not compensate this loss through learning by doing at the workplace.Some authors argue that students reduce leisure time instead of education-related activities, which testifies against the zero-sum theory (Triventi, 2014). Another consideration is that tertiary students have more flexible schedules in comparison with students at lower educational levels and can therefore be more successful in balancing work and study, making the zero-sum theory less valid for them (Ibid). However, this is not the case in Russia, where the flexibility of course schedules of full-time students at upper secondary, postsecondary nontertiary, short cycle tertiary and higher education is practically the same [1]. There is some variation depending on specific educational programs and fields of study but not on levels of education.Another theory that explains the negative impact of combining work and study on academic performance is the primary orientation theory. It suggests that students who combine work and study develop socio-psychological factors prioritizing employment over study (Baert et al., 2018). Thus, they prefer to work instead of engaging in educational activities, which leads to poorer performance. However, it should be said that not all working students are work-oriented and that some of them do prioritize education; such students tend to work less and study better than their peers, whose primary orientation is work (Ibid). 3. Prior research: The latest international data on student employment is presented in a report of the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). According to the report, 39% of students between 16 and 29 years worked in 2012 [2] (Quintini, 2015). As the calculation methodology counts all apprentices as individuals combining work and study, countries with long and well-established traditions of apprenticeship (such as Austria, Germany and Denmark) are among the leaders on the list. The group of countries with over half of students combining work and study also include Anglo-Saxon countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. The share of working students in Russia is below average (about 35%).Another important issue is the correlation between students' jobs and their fields of study. OECD data show a notable disparity in this indicator among countries participating in PIAAC. This variation is probably due to national labor market particularities and cultural characteristics. The countries with the highest level of correlation between work and study of employed students (over 50% of young people that combine work and study have jobs matching their study programs) include the Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium), Estonia, Germany, France and Austria. The countries with the smallest levels include the United States, Korea and Japan (less than 40% of working students have jobs that match their fields of study). In the Russian Federation, the number of students working and studying in the same field amounts to 49% (results obtained through the expert juxtaposition of reported occupations and fields of study) (Quintini, 2015).Empirical research on combining work and study can be divided into two groups. The first group focuses on the indirect impact of student employment on future success on the labor market. Papers in this group analyze the relationship between student employment and student grades or educational attainment (Baert et al., 2018; Beerkens et al., 2011; Bonnal et al., 2019; Dadgar, 2012; DeSimone, 2008; Jewell, 2014; Kalenkoski and Pabilonia, 2008; Neyt et al., 2019). The second group includes articles studying the direct effects of student employment on future labor outcomes such as employability and earnings (Di Paolo and Matano, 2016; Ehrenberg and Sherman, 1987; Hozt et al., 2002; Parent, 2006; Polidano and Zakirova, 2011; Robinson, 1999; Ruhm, 1997).Research shows that the impact of student employment on academic performance depends on the number of hours a student works per week. When the intensity of student employment reaches a particular level (more than 24 h per week), academic performance starts to deteriorate significantly (Roshchin and Rudakov, 2017). On the contrary, combining moderate work and study is quite beneficial. A study by Dadgar (the only paper devoted to the analysis of employment among VET students) shows that student work of less than 10 h per week has little negative impact on the GPA while contributing to the accumulation of credits (Dadgar, 2012). Nevertheless, a high intensity of employment is more harmful for students studying at vocational organizations than for university students; Kalenkoski and Pabilonia report that the negative effects of an increase in working hours are greater for two-year students compared to four-year students (Kalenkoski and Pabilonia, 2008).In 1987, Ehrenberg and Sherman presented a complex study that covered both academic performance and future wages of working students. It showed that student employment does not have a direct impact on wages; however, it does influence earnings indirectly through a negative impact on academic performance (Ehrenberg and Sherman, 1987).Ruhm's study of high-school students demonstrated that students working during their final year of school obtain significantly higher wages 6-9 years after graduation (Ruhm, 1997). These results are confirmed by Robinson and Lyn, who also found a positive correlation between high-school student employment and future earnings and employment (Robinson, 1999). However, other papers testify against wage returns for combining work and high school (Hozt et al., 2002; Parent, 2006). According to Holz et al., the application of the dynamic selection method made the positive effects of student employment statistically insignificant. Parent's analysis of Canada's 1991 School Leavers Survey demonstrated that work during study increases the probability of dropping out of high school and is therefore likely to lead to employment in low-paying occupations (Parent, 2006).Studies of postsecondary education usually focus on the impact of student work on the likelihood of future employment. According to Polidano and Zakirova, "being employed during the final year of study improves the chances of finding full-time employment, even three years after completing the course" for both vocational and university students (Polidano and Zakirova, 2011, p. 3). Di Paolo and Matano came to similar conclusions; tertiary graduates have a higher probability of being employed if they combined work and study (Di Paolo and Matano, 2016). Moreover, this probability is significantly greater for students whose jobs matched their fields of study.It should be said that most studies (including our paper) estimate the effects of combining work and study over a relatively short-term period. This is an important limitation of such research, insofar as one is likely to overlook some variables from the broad range of formal education outcomes. For instance, researchers usually use the starting salary as an indicator of school-to-work transition success. Students who combined work and study tend to have bigger starting wages because of their work experience. However, there is a nonzero chance that they acquired fewer fundamental skills, knowledge and values during their studies. The consequent lack of competencies can lead to slower salary growth and career advancement, and thus working students can lag behind their peers in the long run. 4. Institutional setting/background: 4.1 Vocational education and training 5. Methodology and data: Data were taken from the National Statistical Survey of Graduate Employment (SGE) conducted by the Russian Federal State Statistic Service (Rosstat) in 2016. The SGE contains information on graduates from vocational or higher education programs between 2010 and 2015. The sample includes only respondents aged 18-29 and is representative of the general population of graduates in Russia. The descriptive statistics of the data set are presented in Table 1, which shows that 21.9% of VET graduates and 36.3% of HE graduates combined work and study. It is noteworthy that only half of them were employed in areas that matched their fields of study.As for employment after graduation, 79% of VET graduates and 84% of HE graduates had jobs at the time of the survey. It should be said that, in our employability analysis, we combined the unemployed and the economically inactive into a single reference group. While these social statuses refer to different phenomena, there are two arguments for such a decision. First of all, large-scale studies of labor market transitions in Russia show that most individuals become employed after being economically inactive without passing through the unemployment stage (Gimpelson and Scharunina, 2015). Secondly, Rosstat has adopted a new conceptual framework of the labor force that was developed by the International Labor Organization (Rosstat Order No 680 of December 31, 2015). As a result, the term "unemployed" has become broader, and part of the economically inactive are now counted as unemployed. The SGE was based on the "old" definition, and it is therefore reasonable to combine the unemployed and the economically inactive for a more modern and comprehensive analysis of graduate employment.Let us mention other important features of the analyzed sample. The most popular segments of employment among all working graduates are wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing (Table 2). The average monthly salary amounted to $354.8 for HE graduates and $298.4 for holders of VET degrees (expressed in US dollars based on the average exchange rate of the Central Bank of Russia in 2016).To answer the research questions, we tested two dependent variables regarding school-to-work transition as follows: employed versus unemployed and data on monthly earnings. Logistic regression was used for modeling graduate employability.During the second stage, we assessed the impact of student work on subsequent wages with the Mincer equation, which was estimated by the OLS method (Mincer, 1958). The general equation is(1.1)Ln(Wagei)=bjXji+gDi+eitwhere Ln(Wagei) is the logarithm of the wage of individual i; Xji is the vector of control variables; Di is an indicator of student work during education (Di=1 - no work, Di=1 1 - a job that matches the ith student's field of study, Di= 2 - a job that does not match the ith student's field of study) and ei includes independent and identically distributed residues.In their paper, Lin et al. (2013) discuss the impact of a large sample size on the static significance of regression analysis results. The authors postulate that the large sample size starts with 10,000 observations although we are talking about the samples, which are several times larger (500000 observations and more). Indeed, statistical significance increases with the increase of a sample size. The authors offer several methods to improve reliability of the obtained results (Lin et al., 2013). In our case, the following three methods were applied: (1) confidence intervals were additionally presented in the results; (2) additional calculations were made on smaller size subsamples; (3) tables with regression analysis results including size of effects and marginal effects were calculated for probability models (estimation of probability of graduates' employment).An important note is that the increase of a sample size has no effect on the size and direction of an effect, which are important for our analysis (Lin et al., 2013; Thompson, 1989). These evidences allow us to emphasize that even in our samples of 15000 to 25000 observations (depending on the specification of the equation) there are variables that do not have any statistically significant effect on the probability of employment and on graduates' wages. 6. Analysis and discussion: Table 3 shows that VET graduates have more difficulty getting jobs in comparison with HE graduates. This corroborates the results of previous studies (Denisova and Karceva, 2007; Cherednichenko, 2010) that provide evidence for both higher employability and higher salaries of HE graduates. The number of years that has elapsed since graduation has a positive impact on the employment of all graduates. At the same time, this relationship is somewhat stronger for university degree holders. This can be explained by the fact that university students tend to have better socioeconomic backgrounds that give them the opportunity to search for an appropriate job longer (Dudyrev et al., 2019). This hypothesis is supported by evidence that VET graduates are more money-oriented in their job search than HE graduates, who pay more attention to the nonmonetary conditions of a job (Arzhanykh and Gurkina, 2015).Fee-based education does not significantly affect the employability of VET graduates. However, it is a negative predictor (p < 0.01) for the employment of HE graduates. This is most likely a consequence of the rapid growth of the higher education sector, including the appearance of low-quality fee-based programs (Belskaya et al., 2014; Yudkevich, 2017). Such programs may have undermined the image of fee-based university study, which is associated by employers with higher risks of worker incompetency.With regard to the effects of student work on future employment, our analysis shows that combining study with any job is useful for both VET and HE graduates. Furthermore, the greatest increase of employability is associated with a situation in which students find jobs that match their fields of study. The connection between work and study is especially important for VET graduates, for whom the benefits from study-related jobs are about two times greater than from jobs that are unrelated to study.Nevertheless, it is important to analyze not only employment but also its characteristics. Earnings are the crucial feature of job quality. Table 4 provides an overview of the effects of education-related, work-related and sociodemographic variables on the monthly earnings of graduates. Analysis shows that the holders of higher education degrees not only earn more at the beginning of their careers (p < 0.01) but also tend to experience greater salary growth over time; the years elapsed since graduation correlate more positively with their earnings than in the case of VET graduates.According to the regression results, graduates of fee-based HE programs tend to earn less than their peers who graduated from state-funded programs. The opposite is true of VET graduates; people who paid for VET study tend to earn more. This difference can be explained by the fact that fee-based education is not very popular in the system of vocational education and training. One of the key reasons for this is the relatively low ability of the families of VET students to pay for education (Dudyrev et al., 2019). Students' motives for choosing a particular vocational program can usually be classified in two basic groups as follows: "easy access" and "high quality" (Roshchina and Dudyrev, 2016). Students that prefer easy access pay attention to such factors as free or inexpensive education, the relative simplicity of study programs and the short travel time between home and school. On the contrary, young people who choose VET programs for quality reasons tend to give preference to such considerations as the acquisition of a high-paid occupation, high-quality training, the prestige of the VET organization and so on.It should be said that free access to vocational education and training is guaranteed in Russia by Federal Law #273 "On Education in the Russian Federation", paragraph 5. In practice, this means that young people have guaranteed access to the VET system but not to specific professions, majors or schools. Thus, the decision of households to pay for vocational education points, as a rule, to the predominance of quality-related motives. Consequently, VET students who prefer fee-based programs may have stronger motivation to study. In contrast, free education is not guaranteed for HE students. As paying tuition for university study is a widespread practice (50% of HE students are enrolled in fee-based programs), it does not imply any particular attitude or motivation.Regarding the relationship between monthly earnings and student employment, only the variable "employed in jobs that match their field of study" significantly and positively correlates with salaries for both VET and HE graduates. The holders of university degrees get individual returns from study-related jobs even if their employment was not related to education (p < 0.10). In contrast, holders of vocational degrees who had jobs unrelated to their field of study do not get higher earnings in the future. These results give evidence for differences in the makeup of marketable competencies of VET and HE graduates. Employers seem to be ready to pay more for both professional and transferrable competencies of university graduates. When it comes to hiring holders of VET credentials, the labor market offers greater returns only for those who are more competent or can provide more evidence for being competent in a particular field. This corresponds to the general idea that higher education is responsible for preparing a universal high-quality labor force, while VET is a source of deep yet narrow qualifications. 7. Conclusion and policy implications: The general objective of this paper was to explore the effects of VET and HE student work on future employment chances and monthly earnings. These statistical relations were examined by type of student employment (whether a job matched a student's field of study or not). The regression models also used a number of control variables providing data on education-related and sociodemographic characteristics (such as fee-based programs, continuing involvement in education, gender, age and so on). This project was an ideological continuation of an earlier study on school-to-work transition in Russia (Roshchin, 2006). Its original contribution is a comparative perspective on the effects of students' work on school-to-work transition among vocational and higher education graduates. As students of these educational levels often compete for similar jobs, differences in their experiences of entering the labor market are highly interesting.One should note that the school-to-work transition has specific features in Russia. First of all, Russian young people try to find employment as soon as possible after graduation without waiting a long time for better jobs. Indeed, they often have to take the first available job because of regulations in the social sphere (in particular, a very low minimum wage and scant state unemployment assistance) (Dudyrev et al., 2019). Thus, it is important to analyze the success of school-to-work transition with more indicators than just the fact of being employed. Second, statistics show that work and study are still quite demarcated for the majority of Russian students because on average only 29% of them combine these activities.In this context, our research provides evidence that student work is useful for successful school-to-work transition. However, the returns depend on the education level and especially on the correlation of students' jobs and study fields. With regard to employability, student work increases it significantly for both VET and HE graduates. At the same time, this connection is stronger for graduates whose student work was closely correlated with their education.The same pattern characterizes the dependence of graduates' earnings on their student work experience. Graduates that combine education with study-related work get the highest wage bonuses. At the same time, nonstudy-related student work has a positive impact on earnings only for university degree holders. Nonstudy-related student work offers no salary advantages for VET graduates.Our study supports earlier results that showed that student work increases graduates' employment chances (Di Paolo and Matano, 2016; Polidano and Zakirova, 2011). In addition, it corroborates the view that student work leads to higher chances of employment when it is well-matched with the study field.Furthermore, in contrast to Ehrenberg and Sherman, 1987, we found a statistically significant correlation between student employment and earnings. However, only student work related to education is significantly associated with higher monthly earnings for both vocational and university graduates. Nonstudy-related work does not have any significant effect on the earnings of VET graduates, which corroborates the aforementioned study to a certain extent. As our dataset does not reflect the indirect effects of student employment on future salaries (through its impact on academic performance), there is some doubt whether the mediated negative impact described by Ehrenberg and Sherman holds for Russian VET graduates.Working students are subsequently recognized as being more competent on the labor market. This is expressed in both higher earnings and employability or, in some cases, in higher employability only. Moreover, the greatest individual returns from student work can be attained by finding a job that is well-matched to the field of education. However, not all students have the opportunity to find such jobs in the current situation, which shows the need for governmental initiatives in this domain.Such initiatives may include increasing the share of work-based training including apprenticeships, dual education programs, internships and so on. This can be especially useful for VET students, who get income returns only from relevant work experience. It should be emphasized that both the education system and the labor market require incentives for change - such as modernized curricula that would assign greater importance to work-based learning and tax incentives for enterprises that offer flexible and relevant employment for students.Another possible consideration for policymakers concerns evaluation procedures. While we do not know whether graduates with work experience actually have more competencies than their peers who only engaged in study, they definitely have more evidence that proves their competencies. This raises the issue of the quality of certification procedures.
Dimensions of price salience: a conceptual framework for perceptions of multi-dimensional prices	[ "Prices", "Perception", "Pricing policy" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: Consumers are frequently exposed to prices that consist of more than a single number (e.g. "$729 dish washer, plus $45 installation fee and $99 delivery charge"). Estelami (2003a, b) broadly defined such a price as a multi-dimensional price (MDP). Some examples of MDPs include price discounts (e.g. "$599 regular price, 25% off"), partitioned pricing where a total price is divided into two mandatory parts (e.g. "$799 airline ticket plus $50 airport charge," see Morwitz et al., 1998) and pennies-a-day pricing where the aggregate one-time expense is divided into a series of ongoing smaller expenses (e.g. "$299/month for 36 months," see Gourville, 1998). A unique aspect of MDPs is that consumers must perform a computation in order to assess the total price. Ample research findings show that consumers subjectively perceive even uni-dimensional prices (e.g. Compeau and Grewal, 1998; Grewal et al., 1998). Thus, perceptions of MDPs should be even more subjective. Perceptions of multi-dimensional prices: The way prices are presented to consumers influences consumers' processing of price information and evaluation of the offer (see Krishna et al., 2002 for a recent review). The impact of price presentation on deal perception has been investigated in various research streams including the work on MDPs (Estelami, 2003a; Morwitz et al., 1998; Gourville, 1998).Although Estelami (2003a) proposed six types of MDPs (see Table I), for clarity and brevity we re-cagoterized them into three groups: discounted prices, surcharged prices, and per unit prices. Discounted prices refer to prices that have a percentage- or dollar-based discount. Surcharged prices are prices that consist of a base price and a surcharge or surcharges. Per unit prices contain a dollar dimension that is distributed or aggregated over a unit dimension. The unit dimension typically consists of time or product quantity (e.g. $30/month for 24 months or five apples for $5). In the sections below, we draw on existing research to show how price perceptions are formed and what their consequences are in these three categories of MDPs.Discounted prices Price salience: Salience in pricing research Dimensions of price salience: In this section, we propose and discuss four basic dimensions of price salience:1. visual;2. semantic;3. computational; and4. magnitude.We will use three groups of MDPs (i.e. discounted, surcharged and per unit prices) as examples to explain different dimensions of price salience. We feel it is important to state here that these four dimensions are not mutually exclusive and can co-occur in various combinations and to a continuum of degrees. Table I and Figure 1 summarize characteristics of each price salience dimension and practical implications. Thus, practical implications will not be discussed in detail in this section. Further, based on our discussion of the four dimensions of price salience, we offer several propositions.Visual salience General discussion: In this research, we identify the four basic dimensions of price salience:1. visual;2. semantic;3. computational; and4. magnitude price salience.Although previous research employed price salience as a key variable, no systematic conceptualization of what makes a price salient was provided. Our framework of how different dimensions make a price salient has important implications for both researchers and practitioners.Our conceptualization of price salience is the first to integrate existing findings of the role of price salience. Different researchers examined different dimensions of price salience. Thus, "price salience" was loosely used in research. We have shown here that "price salience" is not a one-dimensional construct. We integrated isolated and scattered findings of price salience into a conceptual framework that enables researchers to systematically tackle issues related to price perception.However, the different dimensions of price salience are not mutually exclusive. A dimension can interact with another dimension to further influence price salience. For instance, magnitude salience augmented with visual salience should together cause a greater increase in price salience than when either dimension is used separately.This research also underscores the need for more research on perceptions of MDPs. Price salience is integral to perceptions of MDPs because consumers tend to pay attention to and process only salient components of MDPs - the more salient MDP components are, the more accurate consumers' processing becomes. In other words, high price salience increases consumers' elaboration.For practitioners, this research provides a guideline to understand how their price presentation influences consumers' processing of price information. By utilizing the findings of this research, practitioners can better devise price presentation tactics by identifying how and when to make a price component less or more salient.Finally, we must acknowledge an ethical dilemma in this research: we in effect provide tactics to manipulate price salience that can be taken advantage of by unethical marketers.It is apparent that if used deceptively and unethically, marketer-controlled salience manipulations could further influence price perceptions. Thus, consumer protection becomes a crucial issue. The Depository Institutions Deregulations and Monetary Control Act of 1980, in general, protects consumers from confusion that may stem from marketer-driven manipulation. Further, the Federal Trade Commission guidelines protect consumers from the abuse of manipulation of price presentation (for discussion see Kaufmann et al., 1994). For example, if a retailer makes a price presentation such as "Was $999, Now $99!", the reference to the old price is intended to make the new price salient. However, if the retailer has never sold a product at the old price, and if the demand significantly increases due to the old price, then the pricing tactic may be deemed deceptive under the FTC guidelines.
Knowledge sharing and firm innovation capability in Croatian ICT companies	[ "Croatia", "Knowledge sharing", "ICT companies", "Firm innovation capability" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Innovation is defined as the development and implementation of new ideas by people who engage in transactions over time with others within an institutional order. The need for understanding and managing innovation appears to be widespread (Van de Ven, 1998). Innovation is no longer the sole province of a company's research and development division. Companies that have mastered innovation (well-known industry leaders such as Google, Apple, BMW, P&G) have gone beyond R&D to ensure that innovation is an integral part of their organizations and their extended value chains. In doing so, these companies have not only achieved notoriety but also significant and valuable competitive advantage. Nowadays other companies are looking and learning from these innovation leaders (Yadav et al., 2007). 2. Theoretical framework: Previous research has listed different factors that facilitate knowledge-sharing behavior. In this research knowledge-sharing enablers will be categorized into three general factors, individual, organizational, and technology factors. Individual and organizational factors will be examined through two main subfactors, enjoyment in helping others and knowledge self-efficacy as individual factors, and top management support and organizational rewards as organizational factors. Related to technology factor, ICT use will be examined as a subfactor. 3. Methodology: Method used for collecting the sample is non-probability sampling by purposive sampling which indicates selecting samples based on specific criteria (Sekaran, 2003). Employees in ICT firms in Republic of Croatia was criteria used on sample selecting in this research. Total sample counts 196 employees. 4. Findings and conclusion: 4.1 Data analysis and results
Evaluation of an online "teachable moment" dietary intervention	[ "Behavioural change", "Dietary behaviour" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The importance of a healthy diet Method: Participants Results: The results were analysed to describe participant demographics, and to assess the impact of the intervention on intentions to eat healthily, healthy eating behaviour at one month follow-up, and target health outcome (weight or symptoms) at one month follow-up. Discussion: Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is important for good health and may be particularly beneficial for a range of health problems, including overweight and food intolerance. Through adjusting the focus of the motivation to suit individuals with differing problems (overweight and food intolerance) the intervention successfully increased intentions to eat healthily in both groups. It was also successful in increasing healthy eating behaviour, with similar findings for the intention-to-treat and explanatory analyses. According to Cohen's (1992) guidelines, the intervention had medium and large effects on healthy eating behaviour and intentions, respectively. Previous research has retrospectively described the mechanisms related to behaviour change and has suggested that teachable moments may trigger change that can be sustained in the longer term (Epiphaniou and Ogden, 2010; Ogden and Hills, 2008; Ogden and Jubb, 2008; West and Sohal, 2006). This study extends previous research to show that individuals can be encouraged to see everyday events as a "teachable moment", and that this in turn can be used to produce changes in intentions and reported eating behaviours in two diet-related areas.
The influence of the Internet on destination satisfaction	[ "Tourism", "Internet shopping", "Customer satisfaction", "Leisure activities", "Travel" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The development of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) in the 1990s as a means for the global sharing of information has opened up a whole range of new possibilities in marketing practice. The Internet serves as a new communication and distribution channel for e-travellers and suppliers of travel services and products (Law et al., 2004). The significance of the Internet as a commercial channel in the context of tourist information search and provision has been well recognized in previous studies (Bonn et al., 1999; Marcussen, 1997). These studies suggest that it is virtually impossible for tourism organizations to overlook the Internet in their marketing mixes due to its advantages, which include global accessibility, convenience in updating, real-time information service, interactive communications features and unique customization capabilities. The World Tourism Organization declared that the key to Internet success lies in the swift identification of customer needs and the establishment of direct contact with consumers, offering them comprehensive, personalized and up-to-date information (Vich-i-Martorell, 2003). Also, they are expected to become instrumental in differentiating tourism supply (Buhalis, 1998).Tourism suppliers can remotely control their servers to display information on services/products at an electronic speed (Inkpen, 1998; Law, 2000). The factors contributing to the success of a travel website are lower distribution costs, higher revenues, and a larger market share. As far as travellers are concerned, the Internet allows them to communicate directly with tourism suppliers to request information, and empowers consumers to develop and purchase their own itineraries at any time and any place (Buhalis, 1998). More and more tourists are utilizing the Internet and on-line resources for their information needs (Gursoy and McCleary, 2004). Buhalis (1998) argues that the rapid development of the Internet provides unprecedented and affordable opportunities for the global representation and marketing of tourism.Given the current and potential future importance of the Internet as an information source in the tourism sector, it appears necessary to analyse the consequences of tourist satisfaction with the information obtained through the Internet. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the effect that the Internet, especially Internet satisfaction, may have on destination satisfaction. More specifically, the study will analyse the relationship between the satisfaction with the search for holiday-related information offered by all tourism entities on the Internet and the satisfaction with the destination selected. If the positive effect of the former on destination satisfaction were to be demonstrated, it would provide overwhelming empirical support for the inclusion of that information source in the promotional mix of tourism destinations. Moreover, the present study focuses on the moderation effect of destination experience as well as Internet experience on this relationship. These variables may well alter the proposed effect due to the typology of the product under analysis (experience product) and the necessary experience in the use of the Internet medium. Consequently, the study will focus in the main on empirically testing the advantages that, from a merely conceptual perspective, are becoming evident in the use of Internet in the tourist sector.The paper is organized in three parts. The following section is a review of the literature dealing with the effect that information sources can have on consumer satisfaction with products and services along with the possible moderation effect of consumer experience on that relationship. The subsequent section, after formulating the hypotheses, lays out the methodology of the study and the results it has produced. The closing section discusses the main conclusions and implications. Literature review: Relationship between Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction Methodology: Research design Study results: In order to test the proposed hypotheses, it is worth considering the use of the moderated regression analysis (MRA), an option which was tested here. This procedure, however, on incorporating the interaction effect, gave rise to serious collinearity problems. Although it has been common practice to use mean-centred scores to reduce such collinearity, Echambadi and Hess (2007) and Kromrey and Foster (1998) demonstrate that this technique fails to alleviate collinearity problems in MRA. Other ways of overcoming this problem, such as estimating the main effects model and the interaction model separately, or eliminating one of the variables, would result in a specification error, which would impede the interpretation of the interaction effect (Echambadi et al., 2006). In line with this last study, many researchers split continuous independent variables into categorical variables in order to reduce collinearity concerns. This is also the approach taken in the present study, by dichotomizing the variable of satisfaction with the information searched out on the Internet into two groups - one comprising individuals with high or very high satisfaction and the other composed of subjects with low satisfaction.The analysis of variance technique allows us, on the one hand, to work with factors measured in a categorical manner, as is the case of the two moderating variables in this study while, on the other hand, permitting us to test the fulfilment of the conditions which according to the literature have to be satisfied in order to ensure the existence of a moderation effect (see Sharma et al., 1981; Ambler, 2001), benefits which prompted the choice of this technique in the study.Before testing the different moderation effects, we are going to analyse by means of an ANCOVA whether there is a relationship between Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction, previous attitude towards the destination functioning as a co-variable (Table III).As can be inferred from the above, satisfaction with the information sought on the Internet is a determinant factor in the overall satisfaction with the selected destination. This result provides empirical support for H1. The use of the Internet in the planning of a holiday contributes to a greater enjoyment of the holiday irrespective of previous attitude towards the destination. This effect is illustrated in Figure 1.A moderator is a metric or non-metric variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent or criterion variable (Baron and Kenny, 1986). Moreover, a moderating variable should not have a major effect on the dependent variable since in that case we would be dealing with an independent or quasi-moderating variable (Sharma et al., 1981).We are going to perform another ANCOVA with a view to testing the existence of a moderation effect of previous destination experience on the relationship between Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction. The results of the analysis are illustrated in the Table IV.As can be seen, one can assume that the conditions relative to the significant effect of the principal factor (Internet satisfaction) and the absence of a relationship between the moderator and destination satisfaction have been duly fulfilled. The interaction effect between the moderator and the factor is significant at 90 percent of the confidence level. In conclusion, one can assume the existence of a moderation effect of previous experience on the relationship between Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction. Nevertheless, the level of significance obtained for the interaction effect seems to advise only a guarded acceptance of that conclusion as well as suggesting the need for further research into that issue. In general, it is possible to conclude that the data provide partial support for hypothesis H2.As Figure 2 shows, if a tourist has no previous experience of the destination, Internet satisfaction does constitute a significant and positive determinant of destination satisfaction (p-value=0.06). However, if the tourist has visited the destination previously, the satisfaction with the information searched on the Internet does not contribute to a greater enjoyment of the holiday. This lack of influence is attributable to the tourist's previous knowledge of the destination. In such a case the Internet will not appreciably contribute to enhancing the experience of consuming an experience good such as a holiday.The procedure for testing the moderation effect of Internet experience on the relationship between Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction is identical to the one applied in the previous case. Table V shows the results of the corresponding ANCOVA.The analysis shows that the effect of Internet satisfaction on the dependent variable continues to be significant once the moderating variable has been included. The direct effect of the moderating variable on destination satisfaction is not significant although the interaction effect with the factor considered is significant. In conclusion, the different conditions required for concluding the existence of a moderation effect of Internet experience on the relationship between the tourist's Internet satisfaction and destination satisfaction appear to be fulfilled. Thus, hypothesis H3 obtains empirical support.The interpretation of this moderation effect is illustrated in Figure 3. Only when the tourist possesses high experience of the Internet do the different levels of satisfaction with the information sought on the Internet have a significant effect on destination satisfaction (p-value=0.03). Tourists with higher Internet satisfaction have their holiday enjoyment enhanced (mean=9.34) in comparison with those who display lower satisfaction (mean=8.26). Nonetheless, in tourists with low (9.19 vs. 8.64) or medium Internet experience (8.91 vs. 9.08), information satisfaction is not a significant determinant of destination satisfaction (p-value=0.45 and 0.65, respectively). This result might be due to information overload which makes the users take ill-informed decisions as to their holiday. Thus, in situations of low Internet experience, the information sought through that medium does not significantly improve the selection of a holiday destination.In general, the results of the study appear to confirm the importance of the Internet in the tourism industry as it does seem to contribute to greater destination satisfaction. However, this effect is only confirmed in those tourists who have no previous experience of the destination and have more than a basic familiarity with the Internet. Conclusions and implications: This study centred on analysing the effect that the satisfaction with the Internet as an information source may have on satisfaction with a holiday destination. From an academic point-of-view, this investigation provides an insight into an as yet little studied relationship, especially with regard to the Internet. From a professional viewpoint, the aim of the study was to help explain how the tourist's satisfaction with the information obtained form the Internet affects his or her satisfaction with the selected destination at the end of the holiday. This information may well assist decision makers in designing a more effective communication mix. To that end, we carried out a survey of tourists who had used the Internet as information source in the planning of their holidays.The results seem to show that the Internet has a positive impact on destination satisfaction through the satisfaction with the information sought on the Net. This result provides empirical support for the theoretical arguments in favour of a mutual adaptation between the Internet and the tourism sector (Christian, 2001; Poon, 2001; Buhalis and Licata, 2002) and the convenience of an increased use of this communication and sales channel in the said sector.The effect of Internet satisfaction on the enjoyment of a holiday may well be due to the larger amount of information available to an Internet-using tourist, which allows him or her to plan a holiday better suited to their needs and wishes. One can state that the information currently available on the Internet is of considerable value to the tourist. This positive effect is appreciable even among the effects of other important determinants of destination satisfaction such as the tourist's pre-visit attitude.The added value of the Internet with respect to other sources and a comparative analysis of both would be a promising line of research for future investigations. In the present study we have tried to make the first steps along that line.The impact of Internet satisfaction on destination satisfaction is not significant for the different groups of tourists. It is necessary to consider, according to the results obtained, two important moderators of this relationship. First, given that a holiday is an experience good, the tourist's previous knowledge of a destination must be the principal source of information for the configuration of another holiday at that destination. The tourist will only resort to external information sources when the information retrievable from memory is insufficient to plan the holiday (Fodness and Murray, 1997; Schul and Crompton, 1983). Therefore, for tourists re-visiting a given destination, the extra information obtained on the Internet will be of merely residual value in relation to the global enjoyment of the experience. Nonetheless, tourists planning a first-time visit to a destination will make every effort to find information through secondary sources, among them the Internet (Fodnes and Murray, 1997; Schul and Crompton, 1983). Consequently, it is within the group of tourists with no previous experience of the destination, where satisfaction with the Internet has a significant influence on holiday satisfaction.Second, another moderation effect stems from characteristics specific to the Internet. The Internet is a relatively new medium and, by the same token, its users are not possessed of a high level of expertise in its use. Besides, the vast amount of information stored on it along with the fairly inefficient search mechanisms that come with it result in the fact that not all users carry out information searches adequate enough to enable them to make efficient decisions. Thus, individuals with lower Internet experience face a higher probability of developing information overload which will lead them to take inefficient decisions. In those individuals, higher Internet satisfaction does not translate into higher satisfaction with the holiday destination. Nevertheless, the tourists with high Internet experience are capable of processing the information obtained from the Internet in a manner that will contribute to enhancing their ability to make correct decisions about holiday destinations. In those tourists higher Internet satisfaction leads to an increased satisfaction with the holiday destination.The results of the present study throw up a number of practical implications. The first one is related to the relationship empirically demonstrated in this work between the tourist's Internet-derived information satisfaction and destination satisfaction. This positive relationship underscores the need for public institutions to avail themselves of this new information channel in the promotion of tourism destinations. The Internet, thanks to its unique characteristics as an information source (absence of space limitations and variety of message formats) makes it possible to plan a more satisfying holiday. The Internet complements other, traditionally used, information sources such as the travel agency. Therefore, both public and private institutions would be well-advised to pay particular attention to the factors that shape tourist Internet satisfaction.Notwithstanding the above, the Internet as an information source is not equally adapted or advisable for all tourists, but rather for a highly specific kind of tourist. In other words, the positive effect of Internet satisfaction on destination satisfaction occurs only in a highly specific set of circumstances. On the one hand, in accordance with the moderation effect of previous knowledge of the destination, the Internet does contribute to attracting tourists to a destination although not to retaining their interest in it. The reason for that lies in the fact that the satisfaction of those who have visited a destination before is not augmented through Internet satisfaction.On the other hand, the moderation effect of Internet experience means, in practical terms, that the people in charge of the promotion of tourism destinations would be well advised to make use of the Internet as a communication channel with the proviso that the information should be targeted at people with a considerable level of expertise in Internet use. Moreover, considering that it is not feasible to try to restrict access to the information published in cyberspace to people with low Internet experience, it seems essential to put in place systems which would prevent information overload in inexperienced users. That is achievable by setting up websites that are well-structured and fitted with efficient and user-friendly search engines. Ease of use will be instrumental in averting the threat of information overload from the Internet-using tourist. As Johnson et al. (2003) have demonstrated there are differences in the rate at which individuals learn to use different websites, which gives those e-businesses a competitive advantage. Therefore, it will be essential to facilitate the learning process for the tourist logging on to a given website. In respect of the visual side, it seems advisable to use, as far as possible, pictures relevant to the message to be put across rather than text, as pictures take fewer cognitive resources to be processed and, at times, say much more than words.One must look at the results of the present study mindful of a series of limitations. In the first place, an experimental design would have enabled a greater degree of control over the influence of third variables on the relationship between information satisfaction and destination satisfaction; it is worth noting, though, that some of these third variables are under control, such as previous attitude towards the destination, destination experience or information source experience. Furthermore, an experimental design would have permitted firmly establishing the direction of the relationship between the two satisfaction variables, a drawback partially alleviated by the presence of the theoretical bases discussed in the literature review section and the fact that the procedure employed in the study closely followed the one described by Carte and Russell (2003) for testing reverse moderation effects. The procedure yielded a result supporting the direction assumed by the study.Second, as regards the variable destination experience, a more sensitive measure, such as the number of previous visits, might have been a better choice to operationalize this concept, a question well worth pursuing in future studies.Third, although the ANCOVAs showed that the means were significantly different, the effect sizes were small to modest. Nonetheless, these effect sizes are consistent with other studies in consumer behaviour (Peterson et al., 1985; Aguinis et al., 2005).Future studies could also tackle the specific effects that the different kinds of information obtainable from the Internet have on destination satisfaction, as well as the role played by Internet-mediated information in tourist decision-making.By way of conclusion, the results of the study lend support to the importance of the Internet as an information source in the promotion of tourism destinations which contributes in particular to attracting new visitors. However, its development will depend heavily on improvements in the ease of use of the information highway and will progress with the passage of time and the concomitant increase in the Internet experience of its users.
Benchmarking the efficiencies of Indonesia's municipal water utilities using Stackelberg data envelopment analysis	[ "Benchmarking", "Data envelopment analysis", "Indonesia", "Artificial neural network", "Municipal water utility", "Serviceability", "Profitability" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: In their effort to meet Millennium Development Goals, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) set the national target for piped water service coverage at 68.87 percent of Indonesia's total population by 2015 (78.19 percent of the urban population and 61.60 percent of the rural population; Ministry of Public Works, 2010). However, while the GoI did make considerable progress in this area - urban and rural coverage in 2009 were 47.23 and 11.5 percent, respectively, indicating increases from the 2004 levels of 41 and 8 percent, respectively - it fell short of its initial targets by about 13 and 18.5 percent, respectively. 2. Indonesia's water supply sector: The history of Indonesian MWUs may date back to as early as the Dutch colonialism of the nineteenth century; however, the real precursor of contemporary MWUs was established in 1962, when the GoI enacted Act No. 5, which regulated local enterprises, including those responsible for waterwork systems. The responsibility for providing water, from production to distribution, traditionally rested with the central government; with the establishment of a number of waterwork agencies, some functions were delegated and the central government was only responsible for water treatment plants. However, this sharing of responsibilities did not always work smoothly, due to agencies' limited resources. 3. Benchmarking efficiencies in the water sector: Benchmarking, according to its simplest definition, is the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance (Camp, 1989). Inherent in this definition are two issues: who is the best and what are best practices? (Bell and Morey, 1994) and whom it is compared against and what is compared? (Barber, 2004). Benchmarking is more formally defined as the continuous process of measuring products, services, and practices against the company's toughest competitors, or against companies recognized as industry leaders (Camp, 1992). 4. Research methodology: In this section we will explain the research methodology we used to meet our objectives. This section mainly consists of model development, a brief overview of how the leader-follower model was applied, identification of input and output measures and exogenous variables, data collection, and data analysis methods. 5. Results and discussion: When serviceability was treated as the leader (Model 1), the LP solutions yielded the first-stage DEA scores. These scores ranged from 16 to 100 percent, with a mean of 55 percent. The scores for the second stage ranged from 0 to 100 percent, with a mean of 32 percent. The overall efficiencies were between 0 and 100 percent, with a mean of 20 percent. These levels of performance indicate sizable opportunities for improvement. A total of 19 and five DMUs had first- and second-stage DEA scores of unity, respectively, but there was only one performer with a perfect overall score of 1.00 (MWU Banyuwangi, see Table II). Again, due to the length constraint on the present paper, Table II only presents the 20 best performers based on overall efficiency scores. 6. Concluding remarks: We have presented a yardstick comparison of efficiencies for 269 of Indonesia's MWUs, under the framework of a two-stage Stackelberg leader-follower DEA model. A substantial number of MWUs were found to be operating at inefficient levels as compared to their peers. Our analysis indicates that systematic and comprehensive measures to enhance the country's water-sector efficiencies are urgently needed, especially if the GoI is concerned about achieving MDGs. Due to the limited resources of both central and municipal governments, the highest priority for technical and financial assistance should be assigned to MWUs suffering from below-average efficiencies for both serviceability and profitability. The next-highest priority should be given to MWUs that are performing poorly at either for either serviceability or profitability.
Reflections on the PING! table tennis initiative: Lessons and new directions for sports development?	[ "Public sector", "Ethnography", "National governing bodies", "Sports development", "Table tennis", "England" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction and background: The management of public sector sports provision has grown increasingly complex due to the multiple layers of government that are involved, including local and sub-regional government, national governing body of sport (NGB) organisations, national policy departments and the quasi-non-governmental agencies (Devine, 2012; Green and Collins, 2008; Houlihan, 2005; King, 2012; Sam, 2009). Within this complex landscape, NGBs play a central role in the implementation of the dual, and sometimes conflicting, goals of achieving elite sporting success and mass participation (Bloyce and Smith, 2010; Green, 2009; Hogkinson and Hughes, 2012; Mackintosh, 2011). The extant literature has focused on factors that determine elite sporting success (De Bosscher et al., 2006), critiques of NGB governance structures (Taylor and O'Sullivan, 2009), athlete talent development systems (Stotlar and Wonders, 2006), the workforce implications of government policy change (Lusted and O'Gorman, 2010) and strategy and management practices related to organisational performance (Bayle and Robinson, 2007). Data and methods: The research combined quantitative and qualitative methodologies both involving primary data collection. This included a brief, participant survey supported by qualitative ethnographic case studies. The cities of Birmingham and Liverpool were selected by the NGB as the choice of focus for the research as one had been involved in the previous year and the other was a new partner city. Only two cities were chosen due to the constraints of time and resources. ETTA staff and PING! volunteers administered the survey across multiple sites in each city. Questions focused on understanding the participant's profile, satisfaction levels and future participation intentions. A total of 375 valid surveys were collected across the two cities, which were double inputted into SPSS 19. Results and key findings: Participant motives, profile and past playing experience Discussion and conclusion: The research project examines the impact of the PING! initiative which was established amidst an increasingly target driven and evidence-informed performance management culture of NGBs in England (Bloyce and Smith, 2010; Collins, 2010; Houlihan, 2005). This is part of a wider NGB trend that has also been identified in many other international public policy contexts (Bayle and Robinson, 2007; Piggin et al., 2009; Sam, 2009). In England Collins (2010, p. 374) identifies rather problematically that "increasing participation has been a role for some NGBs, but for many their raison d'etre has been to win matches and develop performance athletes". Thus this paper is both timely and of significance to the NGBs striving to increase participation in the UK and beyond in international settings.
Perceived quality and intention to revisit coffee concept shops in Malaysia: A mixed-methods approach	[ "Perceived quality", "Service", "Experience", "Product", "Coffee shop", "Intention to revisit" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Although luxury coffee might have once regarded overtly expensive, consumers today see it as an affordable extravagance. Subsequently, perceived quality (PQ), including the added value, has become an indispensable component to define the success of coffee businesses (Giacalone et al., 2016; Woodruff, 1997). Hence, the ability of coffee concept shops to deliver superior quality is essential to consumers' favourable behaviours (Ting and Ramayah, 2016). When products are perceived as of high quality, they will likely convert intangible responses into tangible behaviours, such as repurchase and revisit (Kang et al., 2011; Wakefield and Blodgett, 1996). 2. Literature review: 2.1 PQ 3. Methodology: In order to understand the intention to revisit coffee concept shops in developing markets between the regular and irregular consumers, the framework proposed by Pine and Gilmore's (2000) is adopted along with the TRA as the basis to look into the effect of PQ of the product, SQ and EQ on intention to revisit. In terms of the research design, mixed-methods approach which assumes pragmatism is used to complement the findings and articulate the implications of the study (Creswell and Clark, 2007). Particularly, sequential explanatory design is adopted whereby a qualitative study is conducted to confirm, complement and triangulate the findings from the quantitative study (Venkatesh et al., 2013). The inclusion of a qualitative approach is believed to be able to validate the quantitative results and provide more practical insights (Granek and Nakash, 2015). 4. Findings and discussions: 4.1 Preliminary study 5. Implications and conclusions: The present study utilises TRA to provide some valuable insights into the perceptions on PQ, SQ, EQ and intention to revisit coffee concept shops in a developing market. Although Pine and Gilmore's (2000) framework is generally supported, there is little evidence to suggest that PQ and SQ are less important than EQ for regular consumers. Nevertheless, EQ plays a crucial role in augmenting the product and service, thus reinforcing consumers' intention to revisit coffee concept shops (Clark and Wood, 1998; Walls et al., 2011). As such, it is imperative that managers of coffee concept shops devise comprehensive strategies to reinforce PQ, SQ, and EQ simultaneously without losing sight of its core business. It is a challenge not only to the coffee concept shops, but also the food and beverage industry in general to meet consumers' changing needs and wants by providing added values to their core products.
The potential effect of end-users on energy conservation in office buildings	[ "Energy conservation", "Simulation", "Office buildings", "Electricity" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Throughout the world, energy conservation is ranked as a high priority on the environmental agenda. Because of its large share of overall energy consumption (30-40 per cent) and the potential for economic improvements, the property presents a major energy conservation opportunity (Georgopoulou et al., 2006; McGregor, 1994; Hanemann and Farrell, 2006; UNEP, 2007).One of the dilemmas of energy conservation in buildings is the minor financial significance energy represents in most end-user organisations. In office buildings, the energy costs are often dwarfed by the initial investment cost or the rent of the premises (Davies and Chan, 2001). Often, even the most profitable energy improvement measures, remain unimplemented. The contrast is even more extreme when the energy costs are compared with labour and other operating costs of the end-user organisation; the energy costs are typically less than one percent of the running costs of an office organisation (Junnila, 2004; Kats et al., 2003; Leibowitz, 2001).However, in recent years, there has been an increase in the proportion of building occupants that demand greater control over their space (McGregor, 1994; Ornetzeder and Rohracher, 2004). Many companies appear committed to energy conservation based on their environmental or other values (Nousiainen and Junnila, 2006; Nousiainen and Junnila, 2005). This group of sophisticated office occupants could open new possibilities for energy conservation in building sector.To date, energy conservation studies in buildings seem to have focused on technologies (Georgopoulou et al., 2006; Davies and Chan, 2001; Kowalczyk, 1985; Smith and Fazzolare, 1979) and, to some extent, on the end-user involvement in the design phase of the building (Ornetzeder and Rohracher, 2004; Lukas, 2000; McGregor, 1994). Some authors have also drawn attention on the post-occupancy evaluation as a tool for more sustainable production and consumption of the built environment (Cooper, 2001). Few studies have focused on quantifying the end-user effect on the energy conservation of offices. At the same time many managers are still considering the end-user's influence on energy consumption to be negligible or insignificant (Lukas, 2000).The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of end-users effect on energy conservation in office buildings. The study estimates the current level of energy management of four end-user organisations and quantifies the energy conservation potential of their offices by simulating several end-user scenarios for energy conservation. Methods: Research design The cases and scenarios: All of the four case organisations were banking industry organisations occupying a relatively similar size of office stock (ranging from 160,000 net m2 to 270,000 net m2) in four Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway). Most (60 to 80 per cent) of the occupied building stock is in all cases built before the 1990s, the share of new buildings built after 2000 is low, ranging from 0 to 10 per cent. The facilities management in all of the organisations had a relatively active history in energy conservation (routinely using energy audits of office buildings). The current level of annual electricity consumption in organisations varied from 120 to 180 kWh per net m2 with the average being 144 kWh per net m2.The energy conservation potential of the organisations was estimated by comparing the current energy consumption of office equipment and lighting (Base Case) to the developed energy conservation scenarios. The energy conservation scenarios contain several simultaneous energy conservation actions. The order in which the energy conservation actions were applied to the scenarios was first suggested by the researcher but ultimately determined (heuristically) by the organisation representatives based on the feasibility of each action. The energy conservation scenarios were calculated separately for office equipment and lighting. The tested energy conservation actions are presented in Table II, and the cumulative scenarios in Tables III and IV. Results: Office equipment Discussion and conclusion: Currently, the wide-ranging literature on energy efficiency of office buildings does not provide good data for estimating the energy conservation potential through improved end-user-energy management. This study estimated the potential magnitude of end-user influence on the energy consumption of four banking organisations in the Nordic countries by quantifying the impact of nine end-user-energy-conservation scenarios. The study found that noticeable potential for energy conservation exists in the proper end-user-energy management. The potential for energy conservation through enhanced use of office equipment and lighting was found to be around 40-50 per cent equalling approximately 20 per cent of the overall electricity consumption of the organisations.The magnitude of estimated savings (some 20 per cent, in energy consumptions through the end-user actions alone) is already close to the amount, 20-40 per cent, often presented in the literature as a easily reachable goal for energy conservation in new office buildings by employing energy saving techniques (Lockwood, 2006; Edwards, 2006; Diamond et al., 2006; Bodart and de Herde, 2002). Although the user behaviour may be more challenging to manage than pure technology, it could be quite profitable. All the energy conservation actions included in the study involved only measures with no or very low investment costs, but at the same time, they would save around EUR0.3 to 0.5 million every year for the case companies, when calculated with the current price of EUR60 per MWh for electricity in moderately large energy users (EU, 2006). Another positive implication of end-user-energy management is that the competence gained there is linked to the organisation and not to the facility. Even if the end-user moves to new premises, the improved performance in energy management stays with the organisation. Furthermore, the end-user-energy management would offer an excellent means for service industry to realise their environmental targets. The electricity consumption of offices is assessed to be the largest single source of environmental impacts in service sector organisations (Junnila, 2006a; Junnila, 2006b). In many occasions, with 20 per cent conservation in the end-user-energy consumption alone, the services industry companies could fulfil the targets of 7 to 8 per cent suggested by the Kyoto protocol for EU and the US (Kyoto Protocol, 1997).The scope of the study was limited to the end-user's interest and possibilities for energy conservation. It is highly probable that similar or better energy saving measures could be found in other areas of energy management, such as by adjusting the operating hours of ventilation plant. Moreover, in the best case scenario, it was also assumed that all of the energy conservation actions would be implemented simultaneously. In practice, it would probably take several years to implement all of them. Thirdly, the simulation methods used, especially for lighting, only give an estimation of the "best case" type of situation for all tested scenarios, in which it is assumed that all the end-users would start to behave according to the scenario In practice, all individuals can hardly ever accomplish such a best case behaviour. Fourthly, it seems that the relatively similar results in some of the cases are due to the quality of source data used for calculations. For example, only two of the four cases had specific information for the lighting power density and control practices of their buildings, thus for others, industry average data based on the construction year of the building had to be used. Similarly, only one organisation had specific data about power consumption of the different modes of their PCs. Again, for all the other organisations, an industry average data had to be used. Finally, the multiple case study focused only on four Nordic countries and banking organisations. As the banking industry tends to be more conservative than many other industries, and on the other hand, the Nordic countries are relatively advanced in energy conservation, the saving potentials assessed are not necessary valid for offices in other industries and countries.However, based on the results, it seems that proper end-user energy management (using automation to replace the users' lack of activeness in energy conservation or involving users in energy conservation behavioural training) could offer a new opportunity for improving the energy efficiency of office buildings. For service sector companies, such as banking, in which office related work constitutes a major part of the operations, end-user-energy conservation could also have some financial significance. Especially, the energy conservation actions involving no investments, such as enabling the power management options of office equipment, could be highly feasible in the competitive company environment. The future studies could concentrate more on the actual management of end-user energy. In particular, it would be interesting to determine the best party to provide the end-user-energy management: could it, for instance, be a facilities management organisation that could provide the end-user-energy management as a new commercial service.In the future, further analysis of actual energy consumption of equipment and lighting through exact localised monitoring would be needed in order to have an access to more accurate consumption data. Practical recommendation for office organisation could be to organise their end-user electricity management, at least in the organisations occupying large amounts of office space, just like any other multi-million euro operation in the company. In addition, for those companies that have environmental objectives, the end-user-energy management could offer a cost-effective way for complying with their targets. Finally, the smaller companies could start to improve their end-user energy management as well, if the suggested EUR2 per m2 business with 20 per cent profit would comprise a meaningful improvement for their business.
Usage control architecture options for data sovereignty in business ecosystems	[ "Architecture", "Business ecosystem", "Design science research", "Data sovereignty", "Usage control" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: The on-going digitization process of the industrial sectors brings with it disruptive developments for how enterprises conduct business. The explosion of the volume of data influences business models at their core. In the digital world, enterprises need to build business ecosystems to be able to share data to provide products and services (Acatech et al., 2014). A central issue with data is the simplicity with which they are copied or shared. For example, in the music industry, songs in MP3 format can easily be shared between people without taking into consideration the owner's copyrights (Ma, 2017). Business will grow ever more codependent and form digital business ecosystems. Therefore, the questions about the capabilities of being self-determined concerning its data will become more critical for businesses. The required capabilities are summarized under the term data sovereignty (Otto et al., 2017). Business partners do not only need to specify access rights toward shared data but also need to set usage control (UC) policies, which specify how third parties can use their data (Karafili and Lupu, 2017). 2. Background and related work: 2.1 Approach for literature review 3. Research design: 3.1 Case setting and description 4. Requirements for data sovereignty and usage control policies: In this section, the authors analyze existing literature for data sovereignty and usage control policies requirements. Furthermore, they conduct a case study to survey requirements from the industry. 5. Usage control architecture options in business ecosystems: The following section comprises an introduction to the used policy enforcement framework and the different architecture options to implement data sovereignty by using this framework. 6. Evaluation: For evaluating the feasibility and industrial applicability of the developed architecture options, the authors perform a case study with practitioners from the automotive industry. Although representing different companies, the participants have taken on both perspectives, because they are both data providers and data consumers. In a one-day workshop (see Workshop D in Figure 1), the following steps are conducted as a focus group discussion: (Step 1) assessment of the most suitable architecture option for the CSCRM use case, (Step 2) discussion of implementation prerequisites and implications in practice, (Step 3) feasibility assessment of the architecture options. The discussion of all three steps is based on the data sovereignty requirements (see Table II) and the UC policies (see Table III) from Section 4. 7. Conclusion: The digitization of business brings with it new challenges for inter-organizational collaboration, e.g., in the exchange of data to develop digital products and services.
Cognitive and behavioural determinants of trust in small and medium-sized enterprises	[ "Cognition", "Channel relationships", "Trust", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Electronics industry", "United Kingdom" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The forces associated with the development of business relationships have received considerable attention because of the recognition that it is possible to increase profitability through relational exchange (governed by norms of long-term cooperation, mutual satisfaction, shared trust and open communications) rather than discrete transactional exchange that is at arm's length, short-term and centred on self-interest (see for example Storbacka et al., 1994; Weitz and Jap, 1995). As a result research related to the study of establishing, developing and maintaining successful business relationships between customer and supplier firms has grown considerably (see special issues on the subject of Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Management, and Journal of Business Research). Within this domain, a construct that has received particular attention within the domain of b-to-b relationships is trust (Ganesan, 1994; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Doney and Cannon, 1997; Geyskens et al., 1998). Empirical evidence presented in numerous academic and practitioner articles has consistently shown that trust reduces conflict, increases commitment, propagates cooperation and enhances longevity in business relationships (see for example, Anderson and Narus, 1990; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Andaleeb and Charles, 1996).Focusing on SMEs, two main reasons support the proposition that such companies should pay particular attention to the development of inter-organisational trust. First, mostly SMEs have a weak performance record and need trust as a "device for convincing/reassurance" to attract potential partners, investors and customers (Johannisson, 2001). Therefore trust can help SMEs to leverage their less-known profile which gives them a "soft edge" in being competitive. Second, particularly within an asymmetric set-up where SME could be vulnerable and exposed to larger firm's actions, some sort of security is needed. Trust, by infusing predictability (through enhanced information sharing) and mutual understanding into a relationship, provides a cushion against uncertainty (Luhmann, 1995; Huston and Burgess, 1979). In turn, this provides a safety net for financially-constrained SMEs which cannot put in place tangible assurances in the form of mutual investments but can rely on inter-organisational trust.However, despite the above, review of trust-related literature has highlighted that the research contributions so far have largely addressed the behaviour of trust in business relations between large organisations and that the study of trust within SME business exchanges has been largely ignored. Although some literature examining relational exchange within SMEs exists (Buckley, 1989; Lee and Jang, 1998; Perren, 1998; Silversides, 2001; Chiou et al., 2004; Houghton and Winklhofer, 2004)) the study of trust in SMEs is considered to be both scant and underdeveloped (Hu and Korneliussen, 1997; Lee and Jang, 1998; Coulter and Coulter 2002). With the exception of Chiou et al. (2004) the SME trust studies reviewed were found to: be treating trust as a unidimensional construct mostly operationalised using single item measures; be limited in scope in terms of examining trust related constructs; and be based on small scale studies thus raising questions regarding the generalisability of the reported results. Responding to these observations this study aims to provide a systematic examination of the importance of trust developing constructs and the impact of trust on long-term orientation (LTO) within the domain of SME business relationships. Research framework and research hypotheses: In order to achieve the above stated aim, the research model presented in Figure 1 and grounded in related literature has been developed.Conceptualisation of trust Research methodology: The research took the form of a self-completion survey of SMEs within the UK electrical and electronic industry. The sector was chosen because: it is characterised by an abundance of SMEs; the dynamic and volatile disposition of the sector makes it suitable for inter-business trust based relationship study; and specialist and capital-intensive products evoke long-term exchanges. The Electronics and Electrical Buyers Guide 2001/2002 published by CMP Information Limited provided the sampling frame that included over 5,000 entries. For each entry, in addition to contact details, the publication provided a wide variety of information such as annual turnover, number of employees, names of executives etc. Given the lack of widely accepted definition of SMEs we employed the criteria of less than 250 employees used by the DTI, the European Commission and specified in the UK Companies Act 1985. Systematic sampling of those fulfilling the above criterion resulted in a sample size of 987 potential respondents.Most of the research measures were borrowed from research papers published in the top ranking journals (Hult et al., 1997) (see Appendix for source of measures). Because the "borrowed" measures were developed in studies focused on large organisations, a small-scale pilot test was carried out that indicated no serious problems with the adopted operationalisations. In total, using a seven-point Likert scale, information on 37 items representing the seven model constructs was collected. Potential respondents were requested to consider their major customer when completing the questionnaire. All measures were considered to represent reflective latent variables (see guidelines provided by Jarvis et al., 2003).Given the wide dispersion of the target population, it was decided to use a self-administered postal questionnaire for the collection of the data and the questionnaire was addressed to the highest ranked manager in each of the selected companies. In total 229 completed questionnaires were received. After allowing for unusables a 36 per cent response rate was obtained which is comparable to other similar studies (see Klass et al., 2002; Chiou et al., 2004) and provides an adequate basis for analysis (Hair et al., 1998). The usual tests of non-response bias (i.e. limited follow-ups, comparison of early and late responses etc.; Armstrong and Overton, 1977) were carried out and we were satisfied as to the representativeness of the sample. Analysis and results: Given that the constructs have been operationalised as multi-item scales, before testing the model each construct, except trust, was assessed for unidimensionality. For each construct Table I presents the initial number of items and the final number of items after purification. The Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability values for all constructs were above 0.70, in addition for construct with more than three items the GFI values associated with confirmatory factor analysis were above 0.90.Trust was tested as a second order construct of benevolence and credibility. The results confirmed its second order status in terms of overall fit (kh2 = 0.64; df = 1, p=0.422; GFI = 0.998; AGFI = 0.984; RMSEA = 0.001) and significance of the Trust-Benevolence (0.84, p < 0.001), and Trust-Credibility (0.68, p < 0.001) pathways. Consequently, it can be concluded that the results support the proposed structure of the constructs employed. In terms of validity the average variance extracted values associated with each construct were in excess of the recommended benchmark of 0.50 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981) and the square root of a construct's AVE is considerably higher than its bivariate correlations with the other constructs (see Table II). As a result of the above we are satisfied with the psychometric properties of the measures and proceed to test the structural model.The results related with the research model presented in Table III indicate that although the solution has some merit (e.g., GFI and NFI values greater than 0.90) there are also concerns (e.g. significance of the kh2, GFI marginal and RMSEA above 0.08; Hair et al., 1998; Byrne, 2001). Consequently, substantive revisions to the research model were carried out through deletion of non-significant pathways and examination of the impact that additional theoretically justified pathways have on the solution.The revised model meets the various goodness of fit criteria, more specifically the kh2 is not significant, GFI, AGFI and NFI are above 0.90 and the RMSEA below 0.08. In terms of pathways, the only original pathway not supported is that of Skill-Trust while three additional pathways have been incorporated in the original model (Skill-LTO, Skill-Credibility and Coercive Power-LTO). Conclusions and discussion: The research reported here has attempted to provide a systematic examination of the importance of the proposed trust determinants and the impact of trust on the development of LTO within the domain of SME business relationships. Grounded on extant literature a research model has been developed and tested. On the strength of empirical evidence some limited modification of the research model has been deemed necessary before a satisfactory solution was obtained. Before we proceed to debate the solution related to the revised model we should state that, overall the results obtained are very much in line with those reported from research based on business relationships between large companies thus confirming that the boundary conditions of such trust related literature extends to SMEs.The proposed conceptualisation of trust as a second order construct of credibility (cognitive) and benevolence (behaviour) dimensions has been supported. This, in conjunction with subsequent debate, implies that the development of trust requires a balanced approach that comprises both cognitive and behaviour elements or actions. In addition, given that, with the exception of skill, none of the trust antecedents included in the model have been found to be significantly related to either of the two trust dimensions further supports the claim that trust should be treated as a single higher order construct. Focusing on the proposed antecedents of trust we observe that reputation has the greatest impact on the development of trust, thus confirming the importance of reputation in initiating and developing trust within the SME domain. This in turn implies that SMEs should concentrate on the development and consolidation of their product reputation, brand reputation and individual's reputation especially the reputation of the managing director/owner who is considered to have a strong influence on the company's image and identity (Blomqvist, 2002). Given earlier debate as to the specific strengths of SMEs in terms of flexibility, it is not surprising to find that this was the second most important determinant of trust. Consequently, SMEs should aim to maintain and/or further develop fast responding capabilities and adaptable organisational structures that will allow them to react to uncertainty and market changes quickly. It is considered that such flexibility, by allowing discretion, gives more space to the relationship especially when there are contradictions between values, attitudes and emotions.Although the provision of both informal and formal information have been found to be significant determinants of trust, as already hypothesised, there is evidence of differential behaviour between these forms of communication. Consistent with earlier debate the provision of informal communications has been found to be more important than formal communications. Consequently we suggest that the sharing of informal information reduced uncertainty which in turn develops and preserves shared and improved understanding of the relationship through regular and open dialogue (something that is consistent with the notion of social exchange). At the same time the provision of timely and relevant formal information should not be overlooked because it helps to add a tangible element to informal modes of communication (see for example impact of Websites; Houghton and Winklhofer, 2004). The latter is considered to be especially important in sectors, such as the one under examination, that are characterised by rapid technological development where the need for continuous exchange of information related to design details, product specifications is especially acute (Metcalf et al., 1992; Metcalfe and James, 2000).The proposed relationships between coercive power (negative) and transaction specific investments (positive) and trust have been supported. We consider that these results are complementary because they reflect the (relatively) weak financial and bargaining position of SMEs. Consequently, efforts should be made towards accommodative behaviour that in turn signals that the business partner cares for a relationship and is willing to invest time, effort and irrecoverable resources as a demonstration of trusting behaviour. Such actions engender reciprocal actions that safeguard against opportunistic behaviour, reduce risk perceptions and consequently lead to higher levels of trust. The importance of power is further highlighted by its significant direct impact on LTO (i.e. the impact of coercive power on LTO is both direct and indirect through trust).In terms of the final antecedent of trust, as already stated, the behaviour of skill does not conform to expectations (i.e. the Skill-Trust pathway was not significant). Instead skill has been found to have a significant direct effect on credibility (the only antecedent to directly affect either of the trust dimensions) and LTO. It is suggested that these findings imply that, unless a business partner has the necessary skills or competencies a capability gap develops that raises doubts about the customer's ability to use the goods or services provided (i.e. lack of credibility). The relative lack of resources available to SMEs and, in some cases, the small scale contracts undertaken means that efforts by the supplier to bridge such gaps are not always cost effective. The converse applies to cases where customers have the necessary skills. This ensures increased effectiveness and leads not only in the development of trust but also to intention to remain within a specific business relationship. Finally, the positive relationship between trust and LTO has been supported thus we confirm that established behavioural control enhances relationship predictability and transparency that reduces opportunism and inculcates LTO. Through trust improved understanding of the relationship is acquired by working through partner's strengths and weaknesses. This moves the relationship from a short-term into a long-term phase.The results presented here must be considered contingent on a number of limitations. First, the scales used in the operationalisation of the model constructs were largely borrowed. Even though all the scales met accepted reliability and validity criteria there is still danger that they may contain inherent shortcomings when measuring a complex phenomena such as trust in a new environment (Zaltman et al., 1982). Second, the results may be confounded by the nature and scope of the research, consequently research is needed in order to examine the moderating impact of the type of the customer organisation (i.e. whether another SME or a large organisation). Third, the stability of the results reported here in terms of the development of both upstream and downstream business relationships needs to be examined. Finally, the impact of time on the manner in which trust develops merits attention (Silversides, 2001). Not withstanding the above, it is hoped that this paper will generate further interest into SME trust-based research and in particular the examination of multi-dimensional trust across various levels of distribution channel and within different industrial sectors.
Measuring the impact of corporate social responsibility practices on brand equity in the banking industry in Bangladesh: The mediating effect of corporate image and brand awareness	[ "Corporate image", "Corporate social responsibility", "Brand awareness", "Brand equity" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a widespread notion in the global marketplace (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). CSR refers to the relations between organizations and the society in different dimensions. Businesses adopt CSR measures because of their community demands, and commercial, legal, social and ethical expectations (Venus, 2005). At present, companies are interested in engaging diverse forms of CSR such as cultural programs, arts programs, environment protection programs, employee rights protection programs, etc. (Barone et al., 2000). Literature review and hypotheses development: Corporate social responsibility Relationship between CSR and brand awareness: Brand awareness defined as "the ability of the potential buyer to recognize and recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category" (Aaker, 1991). Kotler (2008) stated that when an organization is fully involved in CSR activities, it will create strong customer awareness regarding the company's brand. Although advertising program generates customer awareness about the company's products and services, CSR can be the more useful tool to create more positive awareness compared to advertising (Berger et al., 1999). Skory et al. (2004) acknowledged that companies are continuously trying to participate actively in CSR programs so that they can create strong brand awareness among the consumers. Bankas (2010) conducted a research on examining the role of CSR on brand awareness in the telecommunication industry in Ghana. He found that there is a positive relationship between CSR and brand awareness, if CSR program will perform successfully. Empirical evidence is also provided by (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004) recognized that an effective CSR program successfully builds BE due to the connection with customers. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed in this study: Relationship between CSR and corporate image: The corporate image origins from the customer's feelings, ideas and their expectations of the level of services received from the businesses (Aydin and Ozer, 2005). According to Keller (1993), a positive perception of the company by the customers is known as corporate image. So, CSR is the combined perception of stakeholders towards the organization (Abratt and Kleyn, 2012). Customers entirely depend on the company's image to evaluate the firm's product or service when they have insufficient information about the quality of a product or a company (Schinietz and Epstein, 2005). Furthermore, companies with a bad image in the market can effectively change into a good image through CSR program because people perceptions are positive towards socially responsible companies (Yoon et al., 2006; Mitra, 2011). Fombrun (2005) recognized that increasing the corporate image is an extrinsic motivation for corporations to engage in more CSR activities. Fatma et al. (2015) conducted a research on building company reputation and BE through CSR and showed that CSR initiatives successfully enhance positive corporate reputation or image in the mind of the target customers. In addition, Lai et al. (2010) provided evidence that customer perceived CSR has significant positive effect on company's image. Branco and Rodrigues (2006) also confirmed that CSR activities positively lead to enhance a firm's image to the large group of stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, competitors, and even bankers. Therefore, firms can use CSR initiatives as a tactical tool to create a positive image which in turn differentiates the firms from those of competitors (Hsu, 2012). From the above background, the following hypothesis can be proposed: Relationship between CSR and BE: Most of the companies today actively participate in CSR activities because the misuse of CSR activities will have significant negative effects on company BE. Hoeffler and Keller (2002) stated that corporate societal marketing programs can create BE by building brand awareness, brand image, brand credibility, brand feelings, brand engagement, and creating brand communities. Jones (2005) offered a daisy-wheel model of brand equities where he stated that BE is an output of interactive communication between the brand and its customers. Customers expect that company will perform its operations socially responsible manners which will create strong BE for the company (Jones, 2005). Brickley et al. (2002) argued that a company's image solely depends on socially responsible behavior which is a crucial part of its brand capital. Lai et al. (2010) conducted an empirical research on the effects of CSR on brand performance. They showed that CSR activities can positively influence industrial BE and brand performance. Further, another study conducted by Wang (2010) who also empirically proved that CSR will enhance the credibility of a brand and increase consumer's expectation on the firms which will turn into BE. Hur et al. (2013) also proved that CSR is the most important determinants of BE. The above literature can come up with the following hypothesis: Brand awareness as mediating variable to BE: Mediating variable describes the association between the antecedents and the outcome (Baron and Kenny, 1986). According to Keller (2003), a high degree of brand awareness and brand familiarity, as well as strong brand associations in memory can create customer-based BE. It has a significant role in consumer decision-making process. When individuals are aware of a company's CSR initiatives, they show more positive attitude towards the company's products and services compared to the individuals who are unaware of CSR initiatives (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001; Klein and Dawar, 2004; Bhattacharya et al., 2007). Singh and Verma (2017) conducted an empirical study on how CSR affects BE of Indian firms and suggested that brand awareness has the mediating relationship between CSR and BE. In line with this view, Alhaddad (2015) proposed a model where he showed that brand awareness is the mediator of BE in social media. Thus, the companies should use socially responsible programs constantly in order to alter the total perception of the customers regarding the firms and its brands (Till and Nowak, 2000). The above literature can come up with the following hypothesis: Corporate image as mediating variable to BE: Companies can build the positive image in the minds of the customers when they are committed to support non-profit groups, economic development, employee welfare and maintain an ethical code of conduct in their organization. According to Jones (2005), highly competitive global markets, organizations are continuously using CSR as a tactical tool to respond to the expectations of various stakeholders like public opinion, media, nongovernment organizations, and customers, to construct a favorable corporate image which in turn creates BE for the firm. Mudambi et al. (1997) indicated that the corporate image is the way to create strong BE in the industrial markets. Esmaeilpour and Barjoei (2016) acknowledged that corporate image as a mediator of BE. Likewise, Singh and Verma (2017) confirmed that corporate image is a mediator between CSR and BE. McWilliams et al. (2006) asserted that CSR is a strategic investment for the purpose of creating and maintaining corporate reputation. CSR has the capability to develop the corporate image for the firm (Arendt and Brettel, 2010). Vazifehdust et al. (2014) investigated the effect of CSR on company image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty in the banking industry. They found that CSR has significant positive impact on company image and its brand. Kim and Hyun (2011) also investigated the combined impact of the marketing and brand image of the company on BE in the software sector of information technology. They suggested that the brand image influences perceived quality which in turn creates BE. Based on the above literature, the hypothesis can be proposed in this way: Conceptual framework: In Figure 1, the conceptual framework was demonstrated based on the above literature reviews. The relationships among the constructs both direct and indirect (mediating) are shown in this figure that will be proven by hypotheses testing. Method: Sample and data collection Data analysis and results: The demographic profiles of the respondents have been shown in Table II. The demographic outputs present that majority of the respondents were male (57.5 percent) whose age in between 35 and 45 years (50.5 percent). On the other hand, a large number of respondents had master's degree 61.5 percent while 38.5 percent having bachelor's degree. It represents a significant demographic feature in the context of Bangladesh because individuals with higher education are more knowledgeable about the concept of CSR and BE and they value those banks that involve extensive CSR practices. Therefore, my selected sample is representative for Bangladesh banking industry which is somehow different from banking industry of developed countries like USA, Canada. In addition, it is also found that most of the respondents had the bank account in the private bank at 93.5 percent compared to public bank 6.5 percent. Data analysis and results: The impact of CSR on BE through mediating brand awareness and corporate image is tested by using the Baron and Kenny (1986) method because it is appropriate for a small group of data. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA): Table III shows various fit indices for CFA model. To measure the reliability and validity of CFA model, kh2, goodness of fit (GFI) and other indices must reach the cutoff point of each fit indices. GFI index and CFI, NFI, IFI, TLI should be 0.90, Adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI) index should be greater than 0.8. Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) should be 0.08. Structural model: After evaluation of the measurement model, the next step is to develop the structural model. GFI index, CFI, NFI, IFI, TLI should be greater than or equal to 0.90. AGFI should be greater than 0.8. RMSEA should be less than or equal to 0.08. From the above Table V, it illustrates that all the fit indices meet up the cutoff point which is a good sign of acceptability of structural model. Hypothesis test: The hypothesized relationship between the constructs can be tested by the structural model. Table VI shows that CSR has a positive direct effect on brand awareness. The estimated path is statistically significant at 0.001 level (b=0.364, p=0.000 <0.001). Likewise, CSR has a positive direct effect on the corporate image which is statistically significant at 0.001 level (b=0.366, p=0.000<0.001). Furthermore, CSR has also a positive direct effect on BE which is statistically significant at 0.01 level (b=0.283, p=0.009 <0.01). Therefore, these findings support hypothesis H1, H2 and H3. Mediation effect: The indirect or mediating effects of this study can be tested by a method offered by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Williams et al. (2003). To conduct the method, four conditions need to be fulfilled. First, the relationship between the independent variable (CSR) and the mediating variables (corporate image and brand awareness) needs to be significant. Second, the relationship between the independent variable (CSR) and the dependent variable (BE) needs to be significant. Third, the relationship between the mediating variable (corporate image and brand awareness) and the dependent variable (BE) needs to be significant. Finally, the independent variable (CSR) with the mediating variable (corporate image and brand awareness) to the dependent variable (BE) needs to have a significant relation. Discussion: After the extensive review of BE literature, it is found that most of the CSR research is conducted in developed economics and the findings were more positive and consistent. On the other hand, very few empirical studies have been conducted in developing nations and the results were a little bit incoherent with developed economies because of poor financial conditions and less focus on CSR initiatives. Therefore, the study is an attempt to measure whether the CSR has any direct or mediating (indirect) effect on building BE in the banking industry in Bangladesh which is a developing country. Firms in developing nations can create competitive advantage by practicing CSR because most of the firms do not use CSR initiatives as a differentiation strategy. According to the results shown in the preceding section, CSR practices have a significant positive direct effect on brand awareness. Thus, it is empirically proved that socially responsible banks can easily enhance brand awareness regarding their financial services through CSR practices. This finding is consistent with the finding of Hsu (2012). He found that there is a positive relationship between CSR and brand awareness. Likewise, CSR practices have a significant positive direct effect on the corporate image. This finding shows that bank can create a positive and compelling image in the mind of customers through CSR initiative which is consistent with the finding of Lai et al. (2010). They asserted that CSR practices as a mechanism to enhance company's image in the mind of target customers. Furthermore, CSR practices have also the significant positive direct effect on BE. This empirical result is also in line with the finding of Fatma et al. (2015). They recognized that the CSR initiatives taken by the retail banks can directly create a strong BE which is the most important tool in the highly competitive market because of homogeneous financial services provided by the banks. Moreover, findings imply that brand awareness and corporate image partially mediate the association between CSR and BE. Brand awareness has the bigger mediating effect (b=0.2412, p<0.001) between CSR and BE compared to the corporate image (b=0.0999, p<0.001) between CSR brand equity. This finding is also backed by Singh and Verma (2017). They showed that there are mediation effects between CSR practices and BE through brand awareness and brand (corporate) image. Conclusion: CSR practice is a promising aspect into the banking and financial sectors in Bangladesh. The full commitment and active involvement of brand managers to CSR can bring outstanding results in this regard. This study has shown that CSR has both direct and indirect effect on BE. The mediation factors of brand awareness and corporate image are the bridge between CSR and BE. The paper has proposed a framework for measuring BE in the banking sector in Bangladesh. The results of this research will help bank managers to develop customer-driven marketing strategies. In addition, CSR practices by the financial firms will also create an emotional bonding with the company and their services. Theoretical contribution: This study is an endeavor to fill the present gaps and contribute CSR literature by empirically proving the impact of CSR practices on BE while brand awareness and corporate image considered as key mediators. Although CSR practice by the corporation is a sign of differentiation (Hsu, 2012), none of the studies conducted to examine the nexus between CSR and BE in the banking industry in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study is a unique attempt to examine the impact of CSR practices on BE in the context of Bangladesh which will extend CSR literature. Second, many studies were conducted on the impact of CSR practices on BE but most of the previous studies did not consider the perceptual components (brand awareness and corporate image) as key mediators between CSR and BE. Thus, the present study will overcome the pitfalls of previous studies. Finally, this study shows the relationship between CSR practices and BE and corroborate the mediating relations of brand awareness and corporate image. Lai et al. (2010) asserted that the role of CSR on BE while corporate credibility is a key mediator between CSR and BE. However, the results of this study recognize that brand awareness and corporate image are formed by successful CSR practices by banks which subsequently influence BE. Managerial implications: CSR initiatives taken by the banking industry in Bangladesh increased significantly since 2008 because Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, made mandatory for all the banks in Bangladesh to contribute certain percentage in the CSR activities from net profit before tax (Bangladesh Bank, 2017). To take the advantages of investments in CSR initiatives, banks should inform their CSR activities to stakeholders for the purpose of getting favorable responses from them. Previous research indicated that customers response favorably when a company involves with community welfare (Minor and Morgan, 2011). Thus, CSR activities should be performed carefully so that it does not create any mistrust among stakeholders. Limitations and future research directions: The study is conducted on few samples of public and private bank account holders in Bangladesh. The result of the study may vary when conducting this study with a large sample. On the other hand, all the dimensions of BE are not considered in this study. Thus, future study should consider other dimensions such as perceived quality, brand loyalty and conduct an empirical study on them.
Innovation and ICT use by firms and households in the EU: A multivariate analysis of regional disparities	[ "Internet", "Technology adoption", "Diffusion theory", "Digital divide", "Information society", "IT penetration" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Innovation and information and communication technologies (ICT) have become cornerstones for economic growth at the regional level in the European Union (EU). The Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 program considers these to be two of the main drivers of regional development in Europe (European Commission, 2010a). Together with product, process, marketing, and organizational innovation (OECD and Eurostat, 2005), the Europe Strategy 2020 defines innovation more broadly as any "change that speeds up and improves the way we conceive, develop, produce and access new products, industrial processes and services. Changes that create more jobs, improve people's lives and build greener and better societies" (European Commission, 2010b, p. 1). In turn, the Digital Agenda for Europe (European Commission, 2010c) highlights the need to enhance ICT access and use to boost innovation and promote innovation activities associated with ICT adoption. In this context, the EU aims to reinforce synergies between both areas. From the "smart specialization strategies" perspective (Camagni and Capello, 2013; European Commission, 2010a) both innovation and ICT use are sources of competitive advantage associated with local knowledge creation and knowledge diffusion that may increase competitiveness and economic growth at the regional level. 2. Conceptual framework and empirical evidence: From a theoretical perspective, the important role played by innovation and ICT use in the creation and diffusion of knowledge has attracted the interest of academic literature to examine their determinants. Within the scope of the regional development literature, the so-called linear model emphasized the role played by research and development (R&D) activities to generate innovations. However, the regional innovation system (RIS) approach (Cooke and Morgan, 1994; Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993) considers innovation to be the result of an interactive and complex set of relations among different actors: people, firms, and institutions. Innovation is not only the result of R&D activities, but is the consequence of the interaction between a large number of social, institutional, and economic structural conditions. These regional features that may favor knowledge flows constitute what some authors refer to as "social filters" (Rodriguez-Pose and Crescenzi, 2008). Other strands in the literature also highlight the role played by location and spatial proximity (Gossling and Rutten, 2007) as they facilitate face-to-face communication and the diffusion of tacit knowledge (Storper and Venables, 2004), and knowledge spillovers (Fujita and Mori, 2005; Tappeiner et al., 2008) that are relevant in generating regional innovations. Several academic strands have thus highlighted the importance of R&D, the institutional framework, and specific socio-economic and spatial features as key drivers for innovation activities at the regional level (Rodriguez-Pose and Crescenzi, 2008; Todtling et al., 2013). 3. Research model and methodology: Our main research questions are as follows: 4. Data and variables: The data used in our analysis are taken from two different European data sets. The variables about ICT adoption by workers have been obtained primarily from the European Working Conditions Survey 2010 (Eurofound, 2012). This survey is conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, which is an autonomous agency of the EU. The survey collects information about the adoption and use of computers and the internet by workers within firms in the EU-27 with a sample of more than 40,000 interviews. This information is used to measure the level of ICT use by workers (computers and internet) in the main paid job at the regional level in the EU, and it is considered a proxy of ICT use by firms. The rest of the data used in our analysis are taken from the database of the European regions (Eurostat, 2013), at the first level of disaggregation, according to the Nomenclature d'Unite Territoriales Statistiques (NUTS1) defined by Eurostat. The study group contains all 27 member countries of the EU, totaling 97 regions. 5. Empirical analysis: 5.1 Factor analysis 6. Conclusions and discussions: In this paper, we have aimed to identify interpretable, combined patterns of innovation and ICT use by firms and households in the European regions.
A putative East Asian business model	[ "Asian studies", "Economic models", "Globalization" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: There is as much literature on the East Asian economic "miracle" model as on its sudden, fierce "meltdown" since the 1997 Asian crisis, checkmating its relevancy (Richter, 2000). The Asian crisis is symptomatic of emerging geoeconomics, geopolitics and creative destruction of new technology, altering growth trajectories. East Asia including Northeast and Southeast Asia is diverse and heterogeneous in levels of economic growth and development, cultural and socio-political contexts. First-generation Northeast (Japan, Korea and Taiwan) and second-generation Southeast Asia (Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN) developmental states took off in different environment[1]. Many ASEAN economies have yet to make the transition from the old to new economy. Even matured Northeast Asian economies seemed unable to cross the paradoxical divide to first world political economy democracies for all their industrial and socio-economic achievements.Efficacy of institutions, processes including business systems affect responses to challenges and issues to balance internal balance in employment, price stability and growth with external balance in exchange rate and balance of payments equilibrium in open, interdependent economies. This paper aims to distill from both sets of developments before and after the Asian crisis a generic East Asian business model in the context of globalisation, information communication technology, knowledge-based economy, deregulation and emerging competition. The generic business model considering the creative and innovative nature of intellectual capital is a qualitative macroeconomic development model rather than a quantitative or econometric micro-level business modeling for firm or industry-level. Section 2 reviews what worked before the Asian crisis, what went wrong after, to evolve the putative generic business model in Section 3, followed by customised, national idiosyncratic models in Section 4. Comparative business model analysis in the concluding section on how East Asia does it in its way may be an alternative to Anglo-Saxon business models. 2 What worked, what went wrong: 2.1 Growth models/theories 3 Emerging East Asian generic business model: Generically, the new Asian model is a hybrid management model though the cultural root of management is not easy to change or set free from history. As Asian firms find their traditional management, including neo-Confucianism management less suited to the new economic environment, they look West to reinvent. From the West, Asian businesses learn product knowledge, technology, and management models in quest for excellence and need to catch up. As in not throwing out the baby and with the bath water, Asian firms must modernise management practices without jeopardising cultural foundations.The role of the developmental state and the political economy of power and legitimacy it wields for the politicians may be a price to consider. A permeable network combines the stability of traditional business network with flexibility of market transactions. The traditional Asian business model must take an intermediate role between its closeness and the market way of openness and interlocking with other networks. As a network of networks, such a permeable intertwining describes the logic of cooperation and alliance of firms. To a certain extent, Northeast Asian business model as in keiretsu and chaebol may have reached a more matured level of alliance capitalism. But both Japanese and Korean business models have to be more open. Not only are mergers and acquisitions of keiretsus a break of the traditional pattern as in asset swaps among chaebol, they have to go further and deeper outside their own networks.Strategic alliances across borders and cultures help internalised product knowledge and culturally-based organisations and management adopt and adapt Western best practices and ways of doing business. Alliances act as catalysts for new organisational behaviour within firms with some convergence to American and European corporate cultures. Alliances have been the Japanese way to catch up and leapfrog, from technology to management alliances. Strategic alliances and organisations with permeable, multiple boundaries within an economic field of closely interconnected firms is more appropriate with business networks and mergers and acquisitions.The short-term agenda to fix Asian management weakness concentrates on core business, discard preferential financing and restrict government influence. The long-term agenda is to adjust the strength of Asian management as a third way to Anglo-Saxon restructuring. As short-term results must impress shareholders by layoffs, plant closure and asset sale, the long-term agenda requires the generic Asian business model to review the possibility of structural high unemployment in the context of some institutionalised welfare state.The middle ground is for the generic Asian model to retain a strong sense of responsibility to the collective, look West for ideas on technology and management as in entrepreneurship, venture business and globalisation have proven in multicultural environment. Good media and investor relations constitute a matter of best practice too. Openness and transparency would help share price to build up, gain investor confidence to access to funds. Asian family business financing traditions to keep both ownership and control ignores the efficiency of larger external capital markets. Accepting globalised capital markets is, however, neither easy nor comfortable as best practices in governance and accounting are demanded by shareholders.In general, proactive transparency would reduce nepotism and opaque practices. Governance in generally becomes acceptable as accountability and accounting practices are measured on global scale. Result-oriented reporting system, new technology like internet are common, but important tools in opening to greater transparency and improving information asymmetry with universal access. The basic social structure may, however, remain regardless of economic and political change if such information access and symmetry are means and facilitators to the end or quest of a better Asian business model.Modern technology for personal communication, internet and mobile phones have reinforced the Asian system of mutual trust by removing some of the obstacles to the diffusion of personalised knowledge. Instead of the rule of law in West, uncodified information regulates Asian transactions. Humanistic trust beyond immediate sphere of influence, beyond family and network members linked through crossholding, even overseas markets. To a certain extent, more efficient and effective information communication technology may make quanxi and relations-based practices less relevant if information is more accessible and symmetrical. In reality, personalised information and networks still matter as the cultural glue, not the means of communication. 4 Customised, national idiosyncratic models: 4.1 Matured Northeast Asian business 5 Conclusion and putative East Asian business model: One redeeming virtue in East Asia culture and value is the ethical, moral dimensions of integrity. A global moral architecture amidst global capitalism, global marketplace and globalisation suffers from a misuse or failure of moral capital. Maybe corruption, cronyism and nepotism in East Asia is no better as ethical governance than Anglo-Saxon corporate scandals like Enron or Worldcom. Many questions remain like whether effective democratic checks-and-balances in the political system, legal, judicial and institutional processes can help reinforce the moral economy. Another is as East Asia arrives at the first world economy league, conventionally benchmarked by OECD economies, how well would East Asia accept controversial Western definitions and concepts of democracy, human rights and such. Would it continue to have the first world economy, but third world political culture or suffer the paradoxical divide? Would it compatible and comfortable with its familial and communitarian culture, values and networks and Asian and Anglo-Saxon business systems agree to disagree in their respective environments? How does East Asia defend its economic miracle to economic meltdown, even Japan not crossing the paradoxical divide and not resuming its economic trajectory? While democracy is not the ultimate solution even in highly Western capitalist economies which are not crisis-resistant or without moral hazard, how does East Asia defend its moral capitalism? Many more economic, social, cultural, technological and other trends can be discussed, but the point is the ever-changing environment which affects the design of any generic or customised business model in East Asia."Glocalisation" of morals looks to formulate universal guidelines of behaviour while respecting the richness of cultural pluralism and dignity of difference between nations. Morality does matter. Its upgrading requires a paradigm shift in mindset from individuals to public and private institutions. Some moral virtues or ethical standards are universal or near universal, but they still have to be interpreted in the light of different cultural mores. John Eatwell noted the "market is as good servant of the people, but a bad master" and Edward Burke similarly observed civil liberty could only flourish if individuals "put moral chains on their appetites" (Dunning, 2003, pp. 366-7). The lesson is for the generic East Asian business model to have both market and moral capital in tandem, rather than the ubiquitous developmental state alone.Two sets of conclusions are presented, the first relating to repackaging what is inherent in various Asian business models in recognition of path dependency, politics of the political economy and certain fundamental Asian values and management practices. Whatever the business model, some overarching criteria with regard to good governance and democratisation and concerns with innovation and social security and social welfare, remain. All are faced with the same domestic challenges including demographics impinging on employment and employability, economic and social competitiveness and such. More important is the external challenge as in globalisation, information communication technology, deregulation and competition. Another over simplification as it may be, the more enlightened East Asian developmental state or mature industrialised economy would have grasped the challenges and issues better and faster to set change in motion with all resources, transformative capacity and political will they can muster. The relative speeds and quality of change and reinvention of respective business models between true reformers and laggards is as much a function of the political economy for better or worse as recognising the need to move from inertia to change.The second set of conclusions is related to hybridisation and fusion as benchmarking and best practice can be adapted and learnt from Anglo-Saxon, Western models. East Asia has always learnt from the technology of the West through DFI and MNCs. These features plus the reliance on trade with the USA and Europe despite growing intra-Asian trade, are likely to influence both business environment and business models in East Asia for a long time to come. Political will and transformative capacity to garner the resources for change provide the wherewithal. There will be economic, social and political costs. Paradoxically, a more democratised mature setting with possible alternative government and opposition parties as well as a functioning civil society, may take more time and will before the right things get done. An authoritarian state may perverse just take command and act so long as it is a benign hegemon and institutes the developmental state once more to get to another growth trajectory.A moral economy, a technologically innovative and creative society for sustainable long-term growth and prosperity is desired regardless of East-West or developing-developed country divide. Best practice and benchmark as identified for global competitiveness may be a good starting point and it id not a cultural or value issue unless it pertains to how regions measure up as well as size, which matter as noted in Chapter 6. The common good whether in the collective or individual form cannot be so different as human wants and aspirations are universal even if the standards and barometers may differ somewhat. Even human rights or environmental standards may still be controversial as they are also a function of development or underdevelopment, prosperity or poverty.Learning and adapting from each other in business models and systems become inevitable in the new networked economy, more so than the old already internationalised via trade, capital, labour, technology and other flows. With greater interdependence as driven by globalisation, information communication technology and the new economy, there is as much collateral resources to be garnered and shared as there is collateral damage. There is some truth to greater uncertainty and risk as a collateral damage. When a crisis strikes, contagion spreads from sheer herd instinct or market sentiment or what Keynes referred to as "animal spirit". There is no insulation, only cooperation and collaboration to deal with collateral damage. Having best practice and benchmark from each others' business models would help as a basic understanding is already forged.Nothing is ever definitive and final about any business system and model. Future research is continuing research in all aspects of socio-economic and political economy aspects, as well as in technology which paces most business systems and models. The research agenda has to be holistic as in being comprehensive in all areas, integrated as in taking policy-making and implementation across-the-board in a multidisciplinary way and systemic issues and problems tackled as well. More national studies which incorporate robust conceptualisation and quantitative methods of measurement and evaluation should come about as this study is merely a qualitative first cut at best.
Managerial psychology: state-of-the-art	[ "Content management", "Work psychology", "Conflict" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: What is the difference between applied, business, occupational, organisational, managerial, vocational or work psychology? And what precisely is Organisational Behaviour? Differences lie in history, culture and custom. The Americans favour organisational, the British occupational and the European work psychology as terms/description. So is it any more than custom or are there real but subtle differences between different factions or schools in this area? More importantly is this area of psychology genuinely making progress? Do we have more powerful and parsimonious theories and explanations? And are our interventions based on these theories successful? The individual vs the group tension: At the heart of many managerial questions are differences in perspectives between three different approaches. Differential and personality theorists seek to explain behaviour such as team or organisational success (morale, productivity) and failure (absenteeism, accidents) in terms of the personality traits, temperaments and dispositions. They are essentially individual difference theorists.On the other hand social psychologists stress the power of situational forces like corporate climate and culture and their role in shaping people inside organisations. They are always particularly interested in strong situations, which appear to coerce maladaptive behaviour such as counter productive behaviours in the workplace.Thirdly sociologists stress societal factors. They point out that organisations are embedded in the wider society whose forces are such to shape individuals, groups and whole organisations. Thus they compare first and third worlds, east vs west, developing vs developed societies, noting their impact on organisational development.Many of the papers in Vol. 21 of Journal of Managerial Psychology are specifically concerned with individual differences in personality traits (Djurkovic et al., 2006; Lilly and Virick, 2006; Pappas and Flaherty, 2006) or decision making (Furnham and Petrides, 2006; Varma et al., 2006).There is in the journal a whole issue (Number 4) which is dedicated to an individual difference issue, namely "self-leadership". This is defined in the lead article which is a fine overview, by Neck and Houghton (2006) as "a process through which individuals control their own behaviour, influencing and leading themselves through the use of specific sets of behavioural and cognitive strategies" (p. 270).The five other papers in the area explored the concept through the development of new models (Bligh et al., 2006; DiLiello and Houghton, 2006) as well as looking at its cross-cultural applicability and relevance (Alvis et al., 2006) as well as quite naturally an attempt to provide a robust, psychometrically valid assessment tool (Neubert and Wu, 2006). The final study uses hierarchical linear modelling to show how various approaches to leadership can be combined (Yun et al., 2006).Cynics might argue that the word leadership is over used and that the proliferation of terms like "servant leadership" or "creative leadership". Yet it is difficult and unwise to deny the powerful and pervasive effects of leadership especially on the experience of being managed (Porr and Fields, 2006).However, the individual vs group focus does appear in other issues. Thus Taggar and Haines (2006) explore team work problems and the nature of task interdependence, while Davies and Kanaki (2006) also look at team roles in work groups. Work specific vs out of work behaviour: If the day can be divided it is possible to argue we spent around a third at work, a third asleep and a third doing something else. Known as the work-life balance issue it is an area of research but little debate.Many organisations ask explicitly or implicitly total allegiance, engagement and commitment of their staff. They ask them frequently and commitment of their staff. They ask them frequently to "go the extra mile" and they exhort the virtue of loyalty. They like to believe that a person's life should and does revolve entirely around their work. Work not only brings monetary rewards but a total package of psychological benefits from a profound sense of identity to a source of creativity and mastery. You live to work, not work to live. Work is a crusade: it must be an all encompassing passion. It is very much the mantra of a macho, 1980s perspective.This has procured a significant backlash of those who resent any organisation having the effrontery to believe they own both your soul and your free time. Using the loaded and probably inaccurate term "life" as opposed to "work" the "work-life balance" supporters argue that organisations not only have no right to "eat into" or "colonize" your non-work time but also that a healthy balance leads to a healthier individual. It has become a feminine issue and has been championed by many such that it is now "politically correct" to support the idea even though not everybody supports the idea.Hence, there are inevitably papers which deal with this issue (Montgomery et al., 2006). Beauregard (2006) addresses what she calls the "interference between work and home". The science vs practitioner tension: In all the areas of applied psychology like clinical or educational psychology there is always a tension between the academic scientists and the consultant practitioners. Frequently the tension is so great that there are two societies or divisions representing their different interests. Consultants complain that academic research addresses trivial, irrelevant or too complex problems. Further their criteria of important are certainly not those of clients. Academics on the other hand are swift to point out all the (many) limitations in the "research" of consultants which include such things as very small or biased samples; no control groups; excessive use of self-report; use of out-of-date measures and complete lack of statistical sophistication.Occasionally researchers attempt a "marriage" between those drive to derive models of process and those who want some practical advice regarding what to do with all the complications and implications of model development. A good example of this is the paper by Cooper-Thomas and Anderson (2006) which though heavier on research propositions and model development than practical implications underlines why both are fundamentally important. The bright side (healthy optimistic) vs dark side (unhealthy, pessismistic) tension: It was said that until the "birth" of positive psychology, psychologists wrote one hundred books on depression for every one on happiness. They seemed not very interested in the causes of happiness but much more on its opposite. They appeared to believe happiness was not always an issue, a state or a condition worth investigating.To some extent the opposite is, or was, the case in management psychology. Certainly if one considers popular management books they seem to present a relentlessly simple positive view on the "business of management". The process of management is portrayed as straightforward and managers as swash buckling heroes. They tend to emphasise the positive nature of people, the relative ease of change and universatility of the management process. Many are even evangelical in their tone and content (Covey, 1999).However there is now a serious interest in what may be called the Dark Side of behaviour at work (Furnham and Taylor, 2004). This is concerned with when, why and how management derailment occurs. It examines in detail individual pathology which leads to organisational failure. The literature tends to be dominated by a clinical and individual differences perspective.Dark side issues are explored in different ways. There is a growing and fascinating literature on personality disorders in managers and how they lead to derailment Goldman (2006). There is also a long standing interest in all the negative features at work like the causes of absenteeism, accidents, stress and turnover. For instance Strong et al. (2006) looked at the importance of common problems of workers intention to quit in a call centre. They tested a multivariate model to show how various stresses influence job satisfaction, need for support, commitment etc. all of which impacts on retention.Similarly Le Fevre et al. (2006) in an important review looked at positive and negative stress (eustress and distress) and at the differential effectiveness of stress management interventions. Darkside dysfunctionality is essentially about leadership (Van Fleet and Griffin, 2006). The idea is that toxic leaders lead to dysfunctional organisational cultures and thence an entirely dysfunctional organisation (Balthazard et al. 2006; Goldman, 2006). Dysfunction leader-member interactions can and do lead to bad decision making (Harvey et al. 2006). Darkside dysfunctional managers go under many different names like "internal terrorists" (Van Fleet and Van Fleet, 2006) but whatever they are called are clear harbingers of doom. The power of single senior individuals to unstable an effective organisation remains surprising. The quality vs quantity; modern vs post modernist tension: Management psychologists are diverse in their interests, training and approaches. They are also usually fairly pragmatic and eclectic in the methodologies they use. Whilst few are particularly sophisticated the last 20 years has seen some powerful epistemological rifts between different camps.This is manifest partly in the quant vs qual divide which may represent a richer more profound divide between empiricism and relativism. That is, epistemology informs methodology.The advent of structural equation modelling as well as access to longitudinal data banks has completely transformed the quality of qualitative research because it has allowed a real exploration of multivariate causal patterns. An example of this is the research note of Tang et al. (2006). Other studies are more methodological in nature trying to address the issue of faking in questionnaires (Robie et al., 2006). Fairness vs efficiency tensions: For many years there has been a passionate debate between advocates of ensuring equity in the work place. This is often about identifying all the stakeholders in the work-place and trying to ensure an optimal balance between their different needs.The caveat emptor, profit maximising, school sees the duty of managers to maximise returns for shareholders, customer and employees while staying within the law. For then morality and ethics are not business issues. Managers should concentrate in open and free competition and without fraud or deception to produce goods and services as efficiently and effectively as possible.On the other hand there are more and more advocates and researchers in business ethics who believe in other principles like the charity principle, the stewardship principle, the idea of nobles oblige. They are cognizant of the large number of stake holders in all businesses, of the wide "duties" of any company to the society in which it is located and also issues around fairness in the workplace. Stress is on equality over equity; of fairness over efficiency; of health and happiness over productivity.The high-point of the growth of interest in business ethics has probably passed yet there remains a healthy interest in the topic. Thus Cardy and Selvarajan (2006) looked at the effects of ethics on judgements, while Ritson and Charlton (2006) were specifically interested in the issue of health and shift work. Others looked at the interesting concept of equity, sensitivity which Foote and Harman (2006) defined as how people perceive, react to and attempt to change situations of equity and inequity.The fairness theme can be seen everywhere such as in status differences in organisations (Martin et al. 2006) to how people react to pay differentials (Thozur et al., 2006). Still others are concerned with how downsizing affects commitment (Lee and Corbett, 2006).Other issues like office politics (Poon, 2006) reluctance to give negative feedback (Yariv, 2006), and fear in organisations (De Lara, 2006) are all connected by concepts of organisational justice which is at the heart of the fairness approach.Extra-role behaviours is a topic that has attracted a good deal of interest (Chiaburu and Baker, 2006). But perhaps along with organisational justice the most explored topic remains job satisfaction which because job commitment and is now usually called job engagement. Central to this research is the topic explored by Saks (2006) namely the cause and consequence of employee engagement. The universal vs the culture specific tension: For some the management of individuals like parenting is pretty well fundamental and universal. That is there are some rudimentary but important pointers to how to manage. Set people clear but attainable targets; support them in achieving them, given them regular feedback and reward success.Universalists assert that management processes are essentially the same in Addis Ababa, Antwerp and Atlanta. They celebrate cross-cultural replication but essentially hold that theories, processes and explanations are invariant across time and place. They assert the "twas ever thus" school of thinking and may therefore rejoice in the unity of mankind.Anthropologists and cross-cultural psychologists on the other hand have as their raison d'etre the concept of difference variability. They are eager to point out how national, religious and corporate culture makes all the difference. Their retort is more likely to be "Yes, but not among the Bonga Bonga" meaning that things "work differently" in different culture. Some enjoy cross-cultural comparisons while others believe that is essentially impossible because of the number and complexity of mediating and moderating variables.Tzafir (2006) specifically examines the culture specific vs universalistic perspective on the relationship between HRM practices and firm performance at different points in time. His conclusion is that cultural difference are both important and really do make a difference.Many studies that favour a culture-specific approach do so by looking at an issue, process or procedure in a country often not well understood in the west. Thus Linz et al. (2006) look at worker morale in Russia, while Zhao (2006) examined recruiting practices in China or stress in Greece (Antoniou et al. 2006).Clearly by far the majority of management psychology research is conducted in the developed west and published in English language journals hence the interest large developing countries with big markets which are trading partners of the west.As well as national culture there is also an interest in corporate culture and most important if, how, why and when cultures have direct or indirect influences on business performance (Xenikou and Somosi, 2006). Other tensions: Within psychology and the other social sciences in general, there are many other tensions, some going back many years. Thus one could list:* Affect vs cognition: That is the heart vs the head, sometimes (erroneously) portrayed as left and right brained thinking. Management science has been dominated from the cognitive perspective with extensive investigations into judgement, decision-making etc. and neglecting the important role of emotions at work. This may be in part responsible for the great interest in emotional vs academic tension.* Case studies vs representational research: A great interest in neuroscience has made the study of individuals quite acceptable. Whereas in the business world of management psychology the case study approach usually consisted of hagiographic biographies of high profile business men or historical enquiries into great thinkers. Most researchers demand homothetic as opposed to idiographic research with its possibilities of extrapolation to larger populations. However, there does seem to be a growth in the acceptability of case studies.* Social science vs neuroscience: The relatively sudden, but profound growth in neuroscience with its powerful methodologies is beginning to have its effects felt in management psychology, some from a more traditional and old fashioned social science background have rejected what has been called "electrophrenology" while others have seen exciting possibilities for development in this area. Conclusion: What does the examination of a volume of a journal tell us about the discipline? Is it a sufficiently large representative sample to make a useful comment? Are we too close historically to see the significant of this snapshot?Three things do seem to stand unit from this exercise. Firstly, that management psychology is a healthy, growing, vibrant enterprise. There is reason to be joyful and optimistic. Managerial psychology has kept abreast of developments in theory and methodology. More than that it is not simply derivative from and therefore dependent on other disciplines for its theory methodology. It has a definable mission and identity. There is a real sense of progress.Secondly, it is diverse from three perspectives. It is certainly an international enterprise. Researchers from all over the world share common problems and methods to investigate them. It seems because of the importance and ubiquitousness of management people from all over the world are interested in the topic. It is also diverse in the range of topics researched. Many fields are much narrower and exclusionary than managerial psychology which by definition of its raison d'etre has to be inclusive.Thirdly, it does make a difference. It is easy for academics to remain in their isolated fairy castles pouring over complex theories and data sets that seem of little practical use to those in the business of actual management. Management Psychology is really as applies science where practical issues drive research agendas and where practitioners look to academic experts for a steer on their politics.The theme of this review was that there are healthy tensions at the heart of managerial psychology. But does this signal a paradigm shift in the Kuhnian sense? Indeed is there desire, a will or even a hope of ever achieving praxis?Certainly it is true that these tensions are not evidence of grand theories competing. There are not great tectonic plates over-riding one another with earth quake shattering results. But there are those who take different disciplinary and methodological positions that have consequences for low problems are framed and how questions are answered.What needs to be done next? Management psychology has many stakeholders. But for researchers there seems to be at least three issues that need to be considered. Firstly, there are dramatic and very important developments in the brain sciences. Over the past decade cognitive neuroscience and behavioural genetics has made impressive progress in many areas. Through ever more sophisticated technology, powerful insights are being made regarding how people process information about their world. We are also learning to understand the complex interactions between genes and their environment.These findings will impact on all the social sciences. Although some like sociologists and economists who prefer to understand phenomena at a group level and prefer to aggregate data may ignore or downplay this work it is clear it will have an answer to many problems from whether, how and when people differentiate brand to whether job satisfaction has a genetic basis. Managerial psychology, a hybrid discipline at best, cannot afford to ignore developments in the brain and neurosciences. At this point in the time it looks as if there will be major breakthrough in our understanding of many issues for all behavioural and social scientists.Next there have been important developments in the way data are analysed. Most management science studies have of necessity many variables. Understanding and modelling process related to people at work always or should involve measuring many variables. The problem lies in analysing the data. The last decade has seen significant progress in structural equation modelling which provides powerful and parsimonious ways to model data exploring causal pathways.Many journal editors are becoming more and more sceptical about studies that simply correlate and compare self-report measures (i.e. questionnaire or even interview data). They call for actual behavioural data. Further, to understand causal pathways they prefer longitudinal data. For the journal editor the ideal paper has more than one sample, tested at different periods of time, using different methods (self-report behaviour, observer studies) and analysed through structural equation models. This is difficult, expensive, high investment research but it does yield answers that less powerful methods cannot. The top journals in managerial psychology are currently moving in that direction. It bodes well.Equally important is the development and appropriate popularity of meta-analysis. Over the years in different journals, at different times, and with different populations researchers have investigated the same problem or set of problems. What a good meta-analysis sets out to do is bring together all studies around the same topic that achieves a specific scientific standard then look at the underlying pattern of the results. It provides a supremely useful tool to summarise what we know and look at the pattern and power of relationships. Again it is a very time consuming job to do these analyses but the rewards are manifest. There exist many important meta analyses and no doubt there will be many more.The third development is the response to practical problems. Every organisation in the west has a more diversified work force. Societies are ageing and people are working for many more years. Technology has changed. Legislation changes how, when and why people do or do not work. Changes in how people work throw up new problems and issues for researchers to investigate. Changes in the structures of society has had a great impact on the workplace. New work place problems and issues call for elegant, effective and evidence-based solutions. Consultants and researchers are asked to help understand, then solve, problems which often start whole research agendas. For instance the work-life balance area was a result of more married women working.Managerial psychology is driven by a pure and an applied agenda. It is therefore not always easy to predict how practical problems will generate research interest. One issue that appears to be gaining considerable attention is that of climate warming and how it can be most effectively dealt with. All sorts of workers are becoming aware of their carbon footprint. They are being induced to change all sorts of behaviours to reduce it. As yet there is not a defined academic managerial psychology literature on this topic. However, it is an example of where real-world, practical issues influence research.
Private label brands: a relationship perspective	[ "Supply chain", "Private label brands", "Buyer–seller relationships" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The Australian retail market has traditionally been dominated by two players - Coles and Woolworths, both have vast networks of stores and marketing and distribution channels, which have seen their dominance in the $112bn grocery market continue to grow (Kruger, 2012). As a result of this dominance, suppliers are highly dependent on these retail markets to maintain a viable operation, especially owing to the lack of other alternatives in the highly isolated Australian market (Ferguson, 2012). Coles and Woolworths are marketed as "full-service" supermarkets, and therefore, these stock a full range of premium "branded" products. Although, shelf-space is being increasingly taken up by "private label" brands, currently accounting for 20-25 per cent of the total stock for Coles and Woolworths, this number is expected to rapidly increase (Battersby, 2013). Private label brands: Private label brands are the supermarkets' own products, which are sold exclusively on their premises in direct competition with the established "branded" products. Historically, in the Australian market, these products have been predominantly targeting the lower end of the market, with basic packaging and lower-quality and extremely low prices (Williams, 2011). Owing to the perception of low quality attached to these products, they did not pose a significant threat to the "premium" branded products, and were usually competing against only staples such as flour and sugar. However, over time, private labels have evolved significantly to target the higher end of the market, with Coles and Woolworths now emphasizing on their quality, rather than their price (Battersby, 2013). Theoretical underpinnings: In more traditional economic theory, the underlying focus of a business is assessing costs and risks with the aim of producing the greatest returns (Johanson and Vahlne, 2009). While this remains very important, more recently, the importance of networks and the various relationships associated with a firm have been identified as key to business success. One underlying concept that has been developed by the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group since the 1980s is the interaction approach (Ford, 1998; Blomqvist et al., 2002). This approach takes into account a range of key relationship dynamics such as trust, commitment, power, etc., thus focusing on the early stages of the relationship and how dynamics are established. Previous theories such as the transaction cost approach had emphasized a transaction-based model, which focuses on building value through single transactions, a very short-term perspective (Williamson, 1981). The concept behind the interaction approach is that firms can add value through establishing and building these long-term connections over time. This is key to business success, as firms have limited resources, which can only be changed slowly and at a significant cost, and so traditionally, retailers have kept a close set of suppliers as part of a long and fruitful partnership. Methodology: The aim of this study is to understand the influence of private label brands on the dynamics of the relationships between supermarkets and their suppliers. Given that private label brands are a relatively new phenomenon in the Australian market, there is little prior research in this area. It was therefore decided to use a qualitative, exploratory approach, as this allowed more in-depth knowledge to be gathered through interviews with suppliers (Gillman, 2000). A flexible qualitative approach was considered most appropriate. Discussion of findings: As previously mentioned, the catalyst for undertaking this study was the rapid growth in private label products and their ever-increasing presence on supermarket shelves. The interviews reveal more in-depth knowledge on the background of this growth, as well as the effects on suppliers and what is being done to respond to this significant issue. The main themes to emerge from the analysis were pursuit of higher margins for supermarkets, supermarket tactics, supplier consolidation, supplier business model, relationship dynamics, the political/legal environment and innovation. The following section will discuss these themes in more detail. Conclusions: The findings support the proposition that the intense level of concentration in the Australian supermarket industry has wide-ranging effects on supplier-retailer relationships. Furthermore, the sheer geographical size of Australia means that in some product categories, it is simply not possible to produce in one area and distribute for sale in another area, for example, milk, which faces significant logistical challenges not relevant in smaller and less geographically diverse countries such as the UK. The other significant geographic issue, which makes the Australian supermarket landscape unique is its isolation, meaning that there is a lack of alternative markets for suppliers and consumers to turn to. As such, while some European countries have a high concentration of supermarket players, suppliers have the option to enter countless other neighboring countries to seek a better deal or simply to achieve greater economies of scale. There is no such dependence on the major players in one's own country.
Orchestration of innovation networks in collaborative settings	[ "Innovation", "Destination management organization", "Tourism destination", "Abductive analysis", "Network orchestration" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Few research papers address innovative activities among tourism actors. This is the case for two reasons. First, the notion of innovation in tourism is fuzzy, a condition which may be attributed to the wider problem of identifying, measuring and managing innovation in services. This problem partly stems from the genesis and evolution of innovation studies primarily within technology and manufacturing. It is only recently that attention has been brought to bear on innovation in services (Atrostic, 2008). The second reason for the shortage of conceptual frameworks to explain collaborative innovation activities among tourism actors relates to the diverse and heterogeneous nature of the supply-side tourism "system." This system is a network of private, public and third sector actors such as accommodations, dining, attractions, transport, retail and destination management organizations (DMOs) who collaborate to deliver seamless tourism experiences to visitors. The difficulty inherent in capturing what exactly constitutes the tourism production system (TPS), and further, the role played by DMOs, uniquely challenges research to understand collaborative innovation activities in these settings. To address this gap, the study uses an abductive approach to analyzing perspectives from select tourism actors who are members of a loosely coupled system of collaborators engaged in innovation activities within a tourism destination. 2. Literature review: 2.1 Destination management organizations and the tourism destination 3. Methodology: 3.1 Abductive analysis and the qualitative approach 4. Findings and implications: 4.1 Contextual findings 5. Discussion and conclusions: 5.1 Network orchestration and collaborative innovation: a model for tourism
Purchase of global shampoo brands and the impact of country of origin on Lebanese consumers	[ "Country of origin", "Lebanon", "Cosmetics", "Consumer behaviour" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article. Introduction: Globally, the cosmetics industry represents an attractive business opportunity with sales estimated at US$230 billion in 2003 and projected growth of 4 percent per year through 2009 (Briney, 2005). Though the global growth trend is positive North American and Western Europe markets will face discounting and price wars while growth opportunities will exist in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin American, and the Middle East (Briney, 2005). The shift in personal care and cosmetics markets from developed to emerging markets has created the challenge of gaining entry into new markets and meeting the demands of new customer bases (Ortega, 1998).The largest sub-segment in this industry is hair care with a 22 per cent share of total consumer expenditure followed by skin care (16 percent) and make up (13 percent), oral hygiene (12 percent), fragrances (12 percent) and other (25 percent) (Weber and Capitant de Villebonne, 2002). This paper investigates country of origin (COO) effects among Lebanese consumers in respect to shampoo. It will test the correlations between country of manufacture and consumer behavior, purchase intent; and product quality evaluations of various shampoo brands sources from different countries.The Lebanese shampoo market Literature review of country of origin relevant to the global cosmetics industry: Country of origin research dates back to 1965 and Schooler's research in Guatemala (Schooler, 1965). Darling and Kraft's (1977) research on Finnish consumers supported the hypothesis that the country of origin of a product affects the attitudes of consumers towards the product. Papadopoulos et al. (1987) found that country of origin perceptions affect the purchasing choice of buyers and shoppers. Darling's (1987) work confirmed the existence of country perception differences even within a certain country. In the same year, a study on Saudi consumers and retailers found that both groups prioritize price and quality over country of origin perceptions (Al-Hammad, 1988). Hong and Wyer investigated the mental exercises associated with the processing of on pack information such as country of origin in the minds of consumers, and found that country of origin is sufficient to impress the evaluation of a consumer, whether this information comes alone or in conjunction with other product eleventh information (Hong and Wyer, 1989). Han (1990) shed light on the dynamics of the "halo effect" hypothesis, finding that the halo construct of a country is based on the relative status of economic, political, and cultural characteristics of the exporting country versus that of the importing market as viewed by consumers in the latter.The next study of Arab consumers came from Ghadir in 1990, when he studied price, quality and risk perceptions of Jordanians towards domestic and foreign products. Ghadir suggested that marketers must adopt separate strategies for products sourced from developed countries on one hand and those manufactured in more developed ones on the other. In 1992, Roth and Romeo studied the effectiveness of certain cues in shaping consumer product evaluation. They found that the importance of cues varies from one product category to another. A year later, Liefeld et al. (1993) studied the effects of various extrinsic and intrinsic information cues involved in the product choice decision; and reached similar conclusions as Roth and Romeo (1992); that the extent to which a specific cue affects the final decision is very much a function of the product category. Consumer ethnocentrism drives their willingness to pay more for their home country products, and significantly superior product quality as compared to domestic products will convince consumers to switch their purchase decision in favor of the imported products (Knight, 1999). Kim and Pysarchik (2000) re-assessed the topic and concluded that the relationship between the above attributes and the purchase decision was product specific. Hui and Zhou's (2003) paper concluded that in the case of known brands, the country of origin of a product has no significant effect on consumer evaluation if the country of manufacture is congruent with the brand name. However, whenever the country of origin of a product is less reputable, consumers will evaluate the product to be of lesser quality. In that same year, Bhaskaran and Sukumaran (2007) reviewed 96 published COO studies and concluded that the mixed results could be attributed to differences in research methodology; the authors suggested that future research should conducted from the target consumer point of view and incorporate other potential influences. Ahmed and d'Astous (2008) studied consumers in Canada, Morocco and Taiwan, the authors found that familiarity with products made in a country was the strongest predictor of country perceptions. The major limitation of this study was the all male sample. Research hypothesis and model: A series of four hypotheses were developed based on the literature (see Figure 1). The first hypothesis concerned the quality perceptions of shampoo brands sourced from different countries varies based on demographic variables (Dornoff et al., 1974; Heslop and Wall, 1985). The second hypothesis stated that purchase intention of shampoos sourced from different countries id different (Darling and Kraft, 1977; Yaprak, 1978; Darling, 1987) while the third research hypothesis stated that evaluation of specific attributes differs based on difference in the country of origin of a specific shampoo brand (Roth and Romeo, 1992), Liefeld et al., 1993; Kim and Pysarchik, 2000). The fourth hypothesis stated the evaluation of the overall quality of shampoo products differed based on difference in the country of origin of the brand (Papadopoulos et al., 1987, Han and Terpstra, 1988; Hong and Wyer, 1989, Han, 1990, Hui and Zhou, 2003, Thakor and Lavack, 2003, Chattalas, 2007). Methodology: The research was conducted in three phases; first a questionnaire was prepared by identifying the key attributes which are involved in shampoo purchase decisions, second, a data collection phase was launched, and finally, the data were prepared for analysis and hypothesis testing. A convenience sample consisting of 18 Lebanese consumers was used to obtain interviews to gather in-depth information on shopper behavior during shampoo selection. The subjects comprised 12 females and six males with ages ranging from 18 to 55 (seven were 18-25, four were 25-30, two were 31-35, two were 36-40, and three were 41-55). The subjects were initially asked "If you are buying shampoo, what do you look at when making the purchase decision?" Later, each element was probed to understand the reasons why a certain attribute was listed, and which key factors they take into account when choosing a certain brand or shampoo product.The less frequently mentioned attributes were: specific benefits such as anti-dandruff; country of origin; mother company name; and advertisements. Although members of both genders agreed on the list of the key attributes, a significant difference between the genders was the prioritization of price among males (67 percent of males giving high priority to price versus 33 percent among females). On the other hand, females gave higher importance to the visual, touch and olfactory pleasures of the shampoo (83 percent of females mentioned at least two experiential elements versus only 50 percent of the males did so). Furthermore, a significant difference between consumers less than 30 years of age and those who are older than 30 years of age was evident as members of the "younger" group were more experience driven than the older (82 percent and 43 percent respectively). The results of these interviews were used develop the final version of the questionnaire.The next step was the formulation of a detailed questionnaire (see Appendix). This aimed to expose the effect of country of origin in relation to the purchase of hair care products among the Lebanese. The questionnaire was divided into four key sections demographics, awareness and perceptions, brand specific, and comparison and habits.On the completion of the draft questionnaire, a pilot test was run. The survey was administered to 20 individuals. Based on the results of the pilot, and in order to optimize the actual data collection phase, two key changes were made: the survey language and format was further simplified to allow self-administration and the questionnaire was translated to Arabic. Its availability in both English and Arabic languages facilitated the data collection process and increased the number of individuals who could accurately participate in the survey.A sample of 332 subjects was given surveys; all surveys were hardcopy and self-administered. The majority of participants were intercepted in the shampoo category of major supermarket outlets. Out of the 332 surveys distributed, 92.46 percent (307) were completely filed out and returned resulting a response rate was 86.2 percent. The collected and accepted questionnaire data were entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The four sections of the questionnaire were analyzed based on the type of variable. First a demographic profile was developed, next the open ended questions related to the shampoo brands were analyzed based using frequencies as well the results of a respondents curiosity about country of origin, perceptions of quality of shampoo products from various countries and various brands, and a importance of attributes in selection of shampoos, next brand specific attributes under different scenarios were analyzed, finally purchase intentions and comparison of shampoo products from differing countries were analyzed. Profile of respondents: Demographic profile Research hypotheses/results: Research hypotheses Discussion, conclusions and global marketing implications: In a low consumer involvement category such as shampoo country of origin is not one of the key attributes affecting the choice of Lebanese consumers. Purchase is either driven by practical objectives such as benefits, or by experiential pleasures. These results in respect to country of origin perceptions are in line previous research. As such, as a low involvement product, shampoo has low loyalty rates; 90 percent of Lebanese consumers buy shampoo at least once every month, and shift from one brand to another. Thus, marketers should strive to develop a leadership position in consumer minds. Marketer's should attempt to leverage or build brand awareness.Top of mind brand awareness, usage in the past six months, and currently used shampoo reveal a split among the key brands. For example, Pantene enjoys leadership share of consumer awareness and the highest percentage of consumer usage. As such, it can be hypothesized that as brands improve their position in the consumers' mental shampoo list, they increase their chances of being chosen during the spontaneous product choices. Amidst this mental activity, the source of the product seems to be of secondary importance. This is also seen in the case of Pantene, where its actual source (KSA) is evaluated to be a source of lower quality shampoo, products, but brand still performs ahead of many of its competitors.Lebanese consumers are more prone to use quality; ingredient, and scent cues; therefore these product attributes should be used as points of differention versus the competition. Thus marketers should focus on packaging and product attributes in this market.The research found some significant differences between the various demographic variables and the evaluation of consumers of the overall quality of shampoo brands sourced from different countries, and product evaluation. The data also confirmed that there are no differences in either the overall quality perceptions of the product or the attribute evaluation of shampoos sourced from different countries; but the purchase intent of consumers for certain brands is affected by changes in the country of origin of the shampoo from one country to another.This research was able to compensate some of the deficiencies in the literature in respect to consumers in the vitally important Middle East market for the cosmetics industry.However, the reader should be cautioned that more research should be done to develop a detailed understanding of the mental constructs and the psychological influences that affect the purchasing behavior of this Middle Eastern country. Further research may want to use brands not currently in the market (Phau and Suntornnond, 2006).
Negotiating time, meaning and identity in boundaryless work	[ "Work identity", "Time study", "Working patterns", "Workplace learning" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The transformations of work that we have witnessed in recent decades have fundamentally changed the dimension of time. In the industrial era, time measured as the length of the working day was pivotal in the exchange between worker and employer. With the flexibilisation of work, however, task orientation is becoming a key word, and keeping to deadlines is more important than the time spent at work. Furthermore, new production and management concepts suggest that the individual employee has considerable autonomy in terms of how, when and where a given task is solved. This means that the rhythms of work are becoming more individual, and that time and space in relation to work is becoming increasingly boundaryless. The self-management of time is becoming a major task (Allvin, 2001, Lund and Hvid, 2007; Kamp and Lund, 2008). Time is playing a new role in working life, and recent studies suggest that a focus on the qualities and rhythms of time are important if we are to understand the qualities, strains/stresses and learning opportunities that we encounter in modern working life (e.g. Hvid, 2006). However, we need concepts that can enable us to understand and study the different rhythms of the modern, boundaryless work.In this article we focus on the dynamics of the self-management of time. We argue that this is a process in which the relations between time and task are negotiated. As Westenholz (2006) underlines, the game over time in task-oriented work is to perform core tasks in meaningful ways and to reduce the meaningless tasks to the absolute minimum. So, an important part of this process is to negotiate: What are the meaningful tasks? And which qualities of time does it take to perform this task in a proper way?So, the self-management of time could be viewed as a learning process in Wenger's (1998) sense: a process that involves the negotiation of meaning and identity in communities of practise, but also a process that produces a certain structuring of time. Learning opportunities are dependent on the rhythms of work (Wenger et al., 2002 p. 62ff). This observation raises two questions:1. Do the rhythms of work present opportunities for dialogue among the employees?2. What kind(s) of dialogue(s) is (are) possible?We employ two major theoretical approaches in an attempt to answer these questions. Firstly, we unfold the concept of boundaryless work and explore the implications of boundarylessness for the temporal dimension of work. Secondly, we introduce the concepts of time regimes and (competing) temporal orders based on insights from time sociology, and discuss their application in working life studies. These concepts are tested in a case study concerning a primary school, which is a frontrunner in relation to the current organizational and educational developments. Boundarylessness - modern work and the qualities of time: "Boundarylessness" is a term used to grasp certain characteristic changes that are taking place in modern work. This development has - as we will discuss in greater depth below - implications for the self-management of time and for the qualities of time. The trend towards boundarylessness is described in terms of five analytical dimensions - temporal/spatial, organizational, subjective, cultural and political - that we now outline (Hirchhorn and Gilmore, 1992, Lund and Hvid, 2007).Temporal and spatial boundarylessness involves a break with standards found in traditional industrial work concerning where and when to work. Management control is moved from working hours to output (Perlow, 1999), and we see more jobs without an upper time limit in terms of the number of hours worked. Working hours can be self-chosen or dictated by deadlines, and work can be performed at home in the form of tele-work. ICT supports this development (Felstead and Jewson, 1999, 2000; Allvin et al., 1999). The standards of working time are dissolved, and paid and unpaid extra hours are common (Jeppesen, 2003). This development implies a change in work location and length; however, the qualities of time may change too. Unpredictability (as to where and when to work) may increase and the intensity of work may increase, because working time is placed, when there is much to do (Buser, 2008).Organisational boundarylessness implies that traditional bureaucracy has been replaced by a flexible work organisation. Work has become more situational and task-specific and there is an increased emphasis on self-management and self-accountability (Furaker et al., 2007, Lund et al., 2008). This implies an erosion of the rhythms and routines of work, including the routines of joint breaks. We see thus greater unpredictability, due to the quest for "just in time orientation", and self-management of time is becoming more important. At the same time, the complexity of tasks has increased and ICT allows people to pack more and more different activities together that are then worked on simultaneously. This makes multi-tasking a distinctive feature.Subjective boundarylessness refers to an increased individualisation and modification of the work ethic: a break with the traditional collective-oriented wage-earner as an ideal type, and an orientation towards individual reflexivity, self-fulfilment and career across organisations (Sennett, 2000; Willig, 2005). Work is conducted as a series of projects, not necessarily in the same workplace or with the same colleagues (Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005). This form of boundarylessness contributes to a violation of longer time horizons, and people become oriented toward opportunities in the present. While rhythms of work are becoming more individual, the demands for coordination with other colleagues inside and outside the organization are increasing. Thus the rhythms of work become a-synchronic.Cultural boundarylessness tends to alter workplace values and norms, by attempting to create a strong business community with a high degree of cohesion. With the introduction of value-based forms of management, team spirit, passion and creativity are emphasised at the expense of discipline and solidarity (Casey, 1999; Garsten and Jacobsson, 2004). In the extent to which this happens, the boundaries between work and private life become increasingly blurred and working time becomes more intense and unpredictable.Finally, political boundarylessness serves to discredit the rise of collective forms of regulation, for example those based on agreements between employees and management (Kristensen, 2003; Hyman, 2001; Due and Madsen, 2004; Andersen and Mailand, 2005). This development complicates attempts to establish collective norms to tackle problems of life in modern work, and thus exacerbated the pressure for the self-management of time.Looking through the lens of critical working life studies, we observe a move towards the self-management of time. However, we also see that the qualities of time are changing. Unpredictability, asynchronous rhythms, acceleration, present-time orientation, and multitasking become common features of work. Consequently, it is essential to develop new concepts that are able to grasp the qualitative aspects time. Those concepts should encompass employees' subjective experience of time and work, and thus enable us to understand the self-management of time. Insights gained from contemporary sociology can here be fruitful. A new temporal regime in sight?: Time, as Durkheim underlines, must be seen as a social institution or regime, establishing a set of common standards and rules that allow the coordination of human activities. Durkheim (1968) studied the temporal regime that industrialisation created, and observed how time became something which existed outside ourselves - an independent scale. In a Durkheimian optic, the regulation of time becomes crucial for social cohesion and reproduction. One example of this is how the standardisation of time as clock time enabled the synchronisation, which was necessary for development of the railroad - an infrastructure of immense importance for the development of early capitalism in Europe and USA. This linear time regime has won hegemonic status in the industrial era - not least in working life. Time turns out to be a resource that should be used as optimally as possible, and activities are separate and streamlined independently in order to achieve maximum efficiency. The Taylorist and Fordist production systems are symbols of the linear time regime (Kamp, 2008).Globalisation, individualisation and the increased use of ICT have created new time regimes. Several researchers such as Manual Castells (1996), John Urry (2000), Helga Nowotny (1994) and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2007) have emphasised the dramatic change of time seen as a social institution. They make different contributions to describing the temporal regime of the late modern (or postmodern) society. However, all of them identify a new temporal regime characterised by compressed and accelerated time.Urry (2000) has developed the concept of instantaneous time to capture the new time regime. Instantaneous hours are a temporal regime in which space and time is effectively disconnected. Space will be virtualised. Increased speed means that time horizons are becoming shorter, and sometimes fragmented. Finally, human activities - work, leisure, meals, etc. - increasingly follow individual patterns. People pursue different time patterns and are infrequently simultaneously present in the same room. There is a de-synchronisation of time-space-activity relationships.Another pioneering researcher in this field, Nowotny, develops the concept of the "extended present" (Nowotny, 1994) through which she wants to capture the fact that people live in a constant state of haste and do not have time to make plans for the future. We live from project to project, while the daily routines of daily life come in the background. We are always ready to respond to new stimuli and information. Unpredictability has become an unavoidable condition.Eriksen (2007) builds on Urry and Nowotny and deals with the consequences for everyday life. He observes that time in modern society is increasingly made up of short and intense moments - quick time - and this rapid time strangles slow time: the time for immersion, time for building relations, and time for the long-term horizons. He also points out that the breaks that previously were "natural" now are filled out with quick time. For example, waiting for a bus or train is now filled out with text messages, checking e-mails, etc. Eriksen believes such breaks play an important role in human life as space for reflection, and creative distraction. He thinks that the linear sense of time has the quality that it makes us see our actions in a longer time horizon, and thus is progressive and cumulative, and Eriksen finds that "The problem is that time perception is not linear enough" (Eriksen, 2007, p. 70). Conflicting temporal orders in working life: Urry, Nowotny and other sociologists of time are concerned with identifying megatrends in contemporary society. These trends are, however, rarely found in pure forms. Although the industrial era is characterised by linear time and the post-industrial period by instantaneous time, it is not the case that one temporal regime is simply replacing the next. As several researchers point out, no temporal regime has absolute hegemony; different regimes coexist (Jensen and Westenholz, 2004). This is confirmed by recent studies of time and work which suggest that different tasks in working life are associated with different temporal orders which express certain locally established norms for duration, tempo, requirements for synchronisation and sequencing. An established temporal order will often combine the different time regimes in a specific way. Empirical studies indicate that conflicts between different temporal orders may be the crux of the self-management of time. These studies do all understand temporal orders as institutions that are reproduced and transformed by the actorsOne example is Ylijoki and Matyla's (2003) study of the temporal orders of academic work. Their aim is to understand the experience of lack of time and the pace that characterise work. They focus on the temporal orders that are used when academics explain their work. Ylijoki and Matyla (2003) identify, based on their interviews, several temporal orders in academic work, which are in conflict with each other. In particular, scheduled time (time for tasks such as teaching and communication with tight deadlines and many deadlines) and timeless hours (time for reflection, reading and intellectual discussion) are in conflict with each other. Uncertainty and unpredictability in themselves create a sense of risk taking, and a dynamic which helps to increase the intensity and pace. In line with Hylland Eriksen's observations, fast time is winning: contract period - characterised by short time horizons, intensity and resolution of multiple tasks simultaneously - dominates, and the possibility of timeless hours is seen as utopian, just as there seems to be no time for cultivating the work community (the community of practice).Also, Waterworth (2003) and Knights and Odih (2002) focus on conflicts between different temporal orders. Waterworth (2003), who examines nurses' relationships to time and work, points out how "needing time" (time to spend time with patients and listen to the patient's needs and experiences) is perceived as tasks requiring a certain duration and uninterrupted attention. Other tasks such as answering calls are tasks that must be handled here and now, but they are viewed as disruptive and destroy "needing time". Waterworth observes that nurses often (physically) run to reduce disruption. Knights and Odih (2002), who examined work in call centres, also identify conflicts between different temporal orders as central to working conditions. On the one hand, work is characterised by a traditional clock hour regime with an extreme focus on the duration of each conversation with the customer. On the other hand, work is also a focus on the emotional quality of the conversation - the customer must experience an authentic human intercourse - and this aspect of the task requires that the internal timer (for a while) is suspended.Other studies specifically deal with aspects of the new time regime. A good example is Perlow's (1999) study of a group of IT engineers producing programs. She points out how the fragmentation of time and conflicts between the individualization of time and the need for synchronisation may explain their long hour culture. The main temporal conflict at work is the conflict between time to perform what is perceived as the "core task", and time occupied by what is perceived as "interruptions". IT engineers consider "real engineer work" is what they perform individually at the computer, work built on scientific principles and creativity, while their communication with colleagues is interruptions. Those interruptions imply that the individual time is fragmented, and introduce aspects of unpredictability and lack of job control. In order to manage this conflict many engineers choose to meet early or stay late to get more time for "the real work". The problem is, as the author underlines, that communication and collaboration are neither recognised as real work in the professional self-understanding or by management, and thus become interruptions.These studies all illustrate how temporal orders are closely connected to the tasks. Professional norms - as they are interpreted in the specific context - play an important role in defining the temporal orders; norms on how tasks should be solved and what quality of time in terms of duration, tempo and sequence is needed in order to be, for example, a good nurse, engineer or teacher. The individual strategies for self-management of time, where people attempt to solve the time puzzle, reflect their perception of "the core of work", and their attempts to give this priority. However, as the work of Perlow (1999) shows, managerial norms also play an important role in this process. And, as is shown in the case study below, societal norms regarding work in general and in the particular field do of course influence the perception of "the core work". Time and boundaryless work in an elementary school: Presentation of case analysis Conclusions and discussion: In this article we argue that in order to understand how time affects the strains of boundaryless work, we should focus on the qualities and rhythms of time. The article explores the process of self-management of time, where the temporal conflicts in work are negotiated; conflicts that concern the qualities and rhythms of time.Boundaryless work does not only imply the blurring of the boundaries of time and space, providing the basis for self-management of time. Through a description of boundaryless work through five analytical dimensions, we point out how boundaryless work also implies changes in the work ethics and the subjective orientation towards work and thereby influences the way self-management of time is perceived and carried out.The article brings together different contributions from time sociology in order to illustrate how qualities of time are changing with the move towards post-industrial work. They point out how a new temporal regime is evolving, characterised by acceleration, compression, uncertainty, and asynchrony. This mega-trend might to some extent be retrieved in modern work. But, we contend that in contemporary working life, different contradictory regimes coexist in specific forms depending on the context. These contradictions and the way they are negotiated or managed in the specific context are pivotal in order to understand the process, where qualities of time are shaped and changed, and new temporal regimes generated.With inspiration from sociology of work and time we develop a conceptual framework that allows us to describe the dynamics of self-management of time. We propose a focus on temporal orders to grasp the way perceptions of task and quality of time are tied together. Here we draw on recent studies that point out how locally developed norms on the quality of time - the duration, sequence, tempo, demand for synchronisation, etc., needed for certain tasks - constitute the temporal orders. Conflicts between temporal orders and the way they are managed then become the focus of the study. And the self-management of time should be conceived as a dynamic process reflecting the enactment of the temporal orders.This is illustrated in the case study of boundaryless work in Waterfront School. First, we provide an analysis of the boundaryless traits of work in the school. Thus, specific ways of organising work and specific norms on work are highlighted, and are used to make sense of the strategies that the teachers use in their self-management of time. For example norms on being creative and innovative, ready for change and available for social contact have an important impact on the way conflicts of time are dealt with. Then we identify five temporal orders in the daily work, which institutionalise understandings on relation between quality of time and five types of task:1. scheduled time;2. learning time;3. relational time;4. quick time; and5. slow time.The case analysis points out how contradictions between these temporal orders induce temporal conflicts. For example, quick time tasks present themselves as pressing for immediate action, and thereby create fragmentation of time. However, this is in conflict with professional norms on core tasks requiring slow time, which hardly can be found at the school. The most common strategy for managing this problem implies that work moves into the private sphere. The norms concerning continuous change and renewal also push in the direction of present-time orientation, to the disfavour of a long-term time horizons. So, the case study illustrates how self-management of time contributes to the structuring time, and show how this may cause conflicts between work and life.The case study confirms the evolvement of a new temporal order as described by Urry and others in modern work. Work is marked by great complexity, which demands a lot of coordination. The number of inter-personal relations is overwhelming, rapid communication is in increasing demand, and the negotiations of time and tasks lead to acceleration, fragmentation, compression and lack of spaces for restitution. However, the case study also shows that this new time regime does not exist without contradictions. There is an ongoing conflict between slow and quick time, and slow time is not just obliterated; pockets of slow time are re-created.Our study is inspired by studies within the field of time sociology, and does in this way add to their insights. However, in relation to existing studies, the strength of this study is that it brings in concepts from work sociology that enables us to situate the case study in the wider societal context, and connects the temporal aspects of work with other changes, which characterises modern working life.At a practical level, this kind of study may contribute to the improvement of working conditions by taking the attention to the conflicting temporal orders. As the case study illustrates, there are indeed general trends in the way temporal conflicts are negotiated, leaving many dilemmas and conflicts to individual solution. In the self-management of time, there is a demand for the individuals to learn to cope with conflicting orders of time. It is, however, quite difficult for the individuals to resolve the conflicts between different orders of time. Managing these conflicts should be a collective obligation, but introducing more collective rhythms - without falling back into bureaucratic principles - might constitute a great challenge. Highlighting temporal conflicts might also open up for another taboo in working life: the large and growing quantitative demands that are put on employees in many sectors presently.
Market structure and pricing objectives in the services sector	[ "Marketing strategy", "Quantitative research", "Field study" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Momparler et al. (2015) and Weisstein et al. (2016) argued that pricing is a critical element for the success of any company operating in a service industry. Similarly, authors such as Hoffman et al. (2002) have stated that pricing is the only element of the marketing strategy that generates revenues and profits for any service firm, while all the other elements of this strategy are associated with costs. Literature review: Pricing objectives Conceptual framework and research hypotheses: In line with the aforementioned difficulty in developing a universal way to measure market structure, a review of the existing literature reveals a lack of empirical studies regarding the impact of market structure on pricing decisions in general and pricing objectives specifically. Nevertheless, it is expected that different market characteristics may lead to differences in pricing objective formulation, suggesting that it might be useful to study how pricing objectives may differ across different market conditions and situations. The present study tries to contribute to this underresearched area. Figure1 presents the conceptual framework of the research, in which the impact of market structure and sector of operation on the formation of pricing objectives is examined. Research methodology: Selection of industry sectors and population of the study Data analysis and research results: Pricing objectives Discussion and implications: Theoretical implications Limitations and future research directions: Although the current study represents an empirical attempt to examine the impact of market structure on pricing objectives pursued, its findings and implications should be viewed in light of a number of limitations. More specifically, the context of the study (Greece) is an obvious limitation, since it limits the ability to generalize the results to other countries. Thus, future research that replicates the current study in other national contexts could further improve the understanding of the major concepts that were presented in the current study.
Understanding computer-mediated interorganizational collaboration: a model and framework	[ "Knowledge management", "Organizations" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Interorganizational systems (IOS) have captured increasing interest of researchers and practitioners since Kaufman's (1966) visionary arguments about extra-corporate systems and computer time sharing. By providing the electronic infrastructure for sharing task performance between firms, these systems have opened avenues to collaborative knowledge work in several directions. They have fostered a new set of organizational design variables, such as shared repositories of knowledge, real-time integration of interrelated business processes, electronic communities that foster learning and allow multiple relationships to occur simultaneously, and virtual organizations that enable dynamic assembly of complimentary resources and skills among the collaborating firms (Strader et al., 1998).Early examples of successful IOS users provided strong evidence that aggressive pursuit of new possibilities for joint performance improvement through IOS can be an important source of sustainable competitiveness (Johnston and Vitale, 1988). IOS can reduce the cost of communication while expanding its reach (time and distance), increase the number and quality of alternatives while decreasing the cost of transactions, enable tight integration between firms while reducing the cost of coordination (Malone et al., 1987). They can also facilitate knowledge sharing and trust building (Holland, 1995; Li and Williams, 1999; Gallivan and Depledge, 2003), speed up expertise exploitation and knowledge application (Migliarese and Paolucci, 1995; Christiaanse and Venkatraman, 2002), and enhance innovation and knowledge generation (Thomke and von Hippel, 2002). Thus, by increasing competitive bases in achieving efficiency, flexibility, innovation, quality, and speed, IOS comprise an important class of knowledge management technology that offers significant opportunities for improving economic performance and competitiveness of many companies.To more fully realize the potential of integrating this interorganizational knowledge management technology with business processes and competitive strategies, a systematic study is needed to help identify innovative inter-firm applications based on IOS and identify key factors in facilitating effective collaboration via IOS. Most existing studies on IOS are based on anecdotes, personal opinions, and experiences rather than on systematic research studies (Venkatraman and Zaheer, 1994). They are fragmented regarding the uses and impacts of IOS, and largely focus on the roles of IOS as competitive weapons for achieving power and efficiency. Furthermore, underlying many studies is the assumption that humans produce errors while automation produces reliability. These studies view IOS as technologies designed and implemented to automate the relationships between firms. They largely fail to acknowledge the part human ingenuity plays in the work practice and the importance of learning (Sachs, 1995). Therefore, these studies provide limited understanding of the relationship between IOS and the knowledge-intensive phenomenon of interorganizational collaboration. Many innovative opportunities of exploiting IOS potential for learning and mining the funds of knowledge across organizations for greater competitiveness are likely to be overlooked.As such, this paper introduces a model and framework that more fully address the following questions faced by leaders of knowledge management initiatives and by researchers of knowledge management phenomena:* What are the key elements underlying effective interorganizational collaboration among IOS participants?* How can IOS be classified to facilitate an understanding of collaboration? What are characteristics and candidate implementation technologies for each type of IOS?* What are key issues that a knowledge manager needs to address in IOS-based collaboration? How can these issues be addressed to enhance the processes and outcomes of this collaboration?As a step toward answering these questions, this paper synthesizes relevant concepts and findings in the IOS, economics, and management literature to develop a process model of IOS collaboration and systematic framework for understanding and classifying IOS technologies for interorganizational collaboration.The rest of this paper is organized as follows: section 2 defines IOS as a class of knowledge management technology for fostering interorganizational collaboration; section 3 introduces a model of IOS collaboration and identifies key elements underlying effective interorganizational collaboration processes; section 4 uses these elements to extend a framework by Kumar and van Dissel (1996) for classifying IOS, resulting in a more fully developed collaboration-oriented framework; and sections 5 briefly discusses contributions and implications of this research for researchers, practitioners, and educators. 2. Defining IOS: In 1966, Kaufman implored general managers to think beyond their own organizational boundaries and to explore the possibilities of extra-corporate systems for linking buyers and sellers or companies performing similar functions. Kaufman convincingly argued that these extra-corporate systems could greatly increase the efficiency of business operations and enhance cooperation between firms through time sharing. In 1982, Barret and Konsynski (1982) used the term "interorganizational information sharing systems" to describe such systems. In 1985, Cash and Konsynski (1985) clearly defined the concept of "interorganizational systems" (IOS) as "automated information systems shared by two or more companies." Some well-known examples of IOS are American Airlines' SABRE reservation system, American Hospital Supply's ASAP system, the CFAR system between Wal-Mart and Warner-Lambert, and Cisco's eHub.In the broadest sense, an IOS consists of computer and communications infrastructure for managing interdependencies between firms. From a knowledge management perspective, this infrastructure enables and facilitates knowledge flows among organizations (and their participating representatives) such that the needed knowledge gets to the relevant participants on a timely basis in a suitable presentation(s) in an affordable way for accomplishing their collaborative work. An IOS may involve one or more technologies, ranging from an electronic funds transfer system for data transmission to a collaborative CAD/CAM tool to a groupware system for joint product design. In recent years, rapid advancements in computer and communications technologies have made feasible many new applications of IOS that are greatly increasing the potential of effective inter-firm collaboration.For instance, groupware encompasses previously considered independent technologies (e.g. messaging, conferencing, collaborative authoring, workflows and coordination, and group decision support) and has arisen to support dynamic business processes involving communication, coordination, and cooperative work (Freed, 1999).The internet integrates technologies of the world wide web (hypertext transportation protocol (HTTP)), telnet, file transfer protocol (FTP), network news (network news transfer protocol (NTTP)), internet relay chat (IRC), and e-mail (simple mail transport protocol (SMTP); internet message access protocol (IMAP)). It provides high flexibility for quick electronic access to external data and linkages to potential customers and partners around the world (Strader et al., 1998).An extranet combines the advantages of the internet (global access) with those of local area networks (security, easy management of resources, and client/server functionality). Based on internet technology and protocols, an extranet provides information in a way that is immediate, cost-effective, easy to use, rich in format, versatile, and secure over a private network (Strader et al., 1998).Peer-to-peer (P2P) communication, by allowing users to bypass central exchanges and exchange information directly with one other, provides a promising alternative to the conventional client/server model. Compared to the client/server model, P2P may significantly reduce the complexity and expense of networking (McAfee, 2000). In addition, P2P networks have no bounds, while membership in the client/server model is limited. Thus, P2P may provide solutions to the potential communication overflows that restrict the communication capabilities of most current network communities (Yoshida et al., 2003).Wireless communication uses wireless devices, sensors, positioning locators, and networks to allow real-time communication with anyone at any time, anywhere. Radio frequency identification (RFID), global positioning systems (GPS), voice e-mail, enhanced specialized mobile radio (ESMR), and MicroBurst wireless are some of the available wireless technologies that may have important implications for the collaborative area of supply chain management (Shankar and O'Driscoll, 2002).Extensible markup language (XML) has quickly arisen as a standard data representation format. Being fully Unicode compliant, XML will greatly enhance EDI's ability with its extensibility, platform-independence, and support for a universal data access. Simple object access protocol (SOAP) uses XML technologies to define an extensible message framework that allows structured information to be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols and programming models in a decentralized, distributed environment. Web services description language (WSDL) defines an XML-based grammar for describing network services as a set of endpoints that accept messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented knowledge. WSDL is extensible to allow the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of what message formats or network protocols are being used to communicate. Universal description, discovery, and integration (UDDI) defines a SOAP-based web service for locating WSDL-formatted protocol descriptions of web services (MSDN Library - msdn.microsoft.com/library). XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI will provide a foundation for companies to have real-time access to structured and semi-structured knowledge resources around the globe. 3. A model of IOS collaboration: Through an examination of the IOS literature, we identify eight distinct and critical motives[1] underlying an organization's use of IOS: necessity, asymmetry, reciprocity, efficiency, agility, innovation, stability, and legitimacy. We contend that the leader of an knowledge management initiative contemplating or implementing IOS technology needs to carefully consider which of these motives are applicable to his/her situation, how they relate to relational bonding and behavioral processes, and what are their impacts on collaborative advantage:* The necessity motive: an organization adopts the use of an IOS in order to meet necessary legal, regulatory, or deregulatory requirements from higher authorities (e.g. government agencies, legislation, industry, or professional regulatory bodies) that otherwise might not have been used voluntarily (as in the case of US Department of Transportation regulation in 1987 exemplified by Christiaanse and Venkatraman, 2002, and the case of London Stock Exchange's Big Bang in 1986 studied by Clemons and Weber, 1990).* The asymmetry motive: an organization is prompted to use an IOS for purposes of exerting power or control over other organizations (Kling, 1980; Webster, 1995; Iacovou et al., 1995; Reekers and Smithson, 1995; Hart and Saunders, 1997).* The reciprocity motive: an organization uses an IOS in order to pursue common or mutually beneficial goals or interests and to facilitate collaboration, trust building, and coordination (Holland, 1995; Ferrat et al., 1996; Kumar et al., 1998; Pouloudi, 1999).* The efficiency motive: an organization is motivated to use an IOS in an attempt to improve both its internal efficiency and its interorganizational efficiency (Malone et al., 1987; Johnston and Vitale, 1988; Konsynski and McFarlan, 1990; Clemons and Row, 1991).* The agility motive: an organization is prompted to use an IOS to increase agility and responsiveness to environmental changes (Rockart and Short, 1991; Zaheer and Zaheer, 1997).* The innovation motive: an organization is induced to use an IOS for purposes of innovation and value creation (Strader et al., 1998; Bowker and Star, 2001; May and Carter, 2001; Thomke and von Hippel, 2002).* The stability motive: an organization is prompted to use an IOS in order to reduce environmental uncertainty and to achieve stability, predictability, and dependability in its relations with others (Li and Williams, 1999).* The legitimacy motive: an organization is motivated to use an IOS to increase its legitimacy and reputation in order to appear in agreement with prevailing norms, beliefs, expectations of external constituents, or prevalence of a practice in the industry (Teo et al., 2003).Although each of the eight motives may be a separate and sufficient cause for an organization's IOS adoption, the decision to use IOS is commonly based on multiple motives. Furthermore, these eight motives are likely to interact with each other. Certain motives will become dominant under favorable conditions and be suppressed under unfavorable conditions. For example, the underlying process of IOS use prompted by the asymmetry motive can be characterized by inequality, knowledge asymmetry, manipulation, coercion, or conflict. Under transparent knowledge sharing, participative decision making and effective governance for conflict resolution, the asymmetry motive is likely to be suppressed, while the reciprocity motive tends to become dominant. Concurrently, the reciprocity motive may interact with certain other motives. For example, when cooperative use of an IOS is also expected to lead to the fulfillment of other organizational requirements and expectations (e.g. higher levels of efficiency or productivity, greater agility, greater innovation, greater stability, or greater legitimacy or reputation), cooperative behaviors and collaboration will be more likely.Based on the interaction among the eight motives, we introduce the model of IOS collaboration depicted in Figure 1. An organization may be prompted to use an IOS under certain motives (e.g. stability). When such behavioral processes as transparent knowledge sharing, shared decision making, and effective governance for conflict resolution are promoted among IOS participants, cooperative behaviors are likely to be induced and prevail. These cooperative behaviors tend to interact with an organization's effort to develop stable and reliable relations. Power plays are likely to be suppressed in the hopes that equity, reciprocity, and harmony will facilitate stability. As a result, trust and commitment will increase among the partners. Increased trust and commitment in turn will facilitate the processes of knowledge sharing, participative decision making and conflict resolution, which further enhances trust and commitment of the participants and ultimately yields better joint performance. Performance outcomes for knowledge-intensive work can be gauged in several ways: productivity, agility, innovation, and reputation (Holsapple and Singh, 2001). Collectively, improvements on these four dimensions are avenues for collaborative advantage.Therefore, the model asserts that knowledge sharing, shared decision making, and conflict governance are three key elements underlying effective interorganizational collaboration. By fostering trust and suppressing power plays, they not only can buttress the motivations of organizations to collaborate via IOS, but also make for sustainable collaborative advantage. We next use these three elements in developing a collaboration-oriented IOS framework. 4. IOS frameworks: The forgoing model identifies several variables (and their relationships) that will need to be managed or addressed to improve the chance of success for an IOS-based knowledge management effort aimed at interorganizational collaboration. It is also important for the leader of such an effort to have a framework for appreciating the nature and possibilities of IOS options in accomplishing this knowledge work.4.1 Limitations of Some IOS Frameworks 5. Conclusion: IOS are assuming an increasing role in facilitating and enabling interorganizational collaboration. Yet, the existing literature on IOS is fragmented and provides limited understanding of the relationship between IOS technologies and the knowledge-intensive phenomenon of interorganizational collaboration. In this paper, we introduce an integrative model of IOS collaboration and identify knowledge sharing, participative decision making, and conflict governance as three behavioral process elements underlying effective interorganizational collaboration. Extending Kumar and van Dissel's framework to directly recognize these elements, we develop a more complete collaboration-oriented IOS framework for characterizing key elements of interorganizational collaboration and classifying IOS technologies.For researchers, this paper contributes to a deeper, fuller understanding of issues involved in achieving collaborative advantage with IOS technologies. Both the IOS collaboration model and the collaboration-oriented IOS framework provide a basis for further exploration of the uses and impacts of IOS technologies in interorganizational collaboration. They identify factors and relationships that researchers should consider in designing empirical studies, posing hypotheses about collaboration via IOS, and analyzing results.For educators, this paper brings together diverse ideas into a systematic view of collaboration via interorganizational systems. It outlines IOS characteristics, classifies them, and highlights issues related to their deployment. As such, the model and framework can be used to identify and structure course content concerned with collaboration and IOS.For practitioners, this paper provides useful guidance for IOS users by highlighting key elements of collaboration, presenting empirical examples and addressing key issues, practices, and solutions involved in the IOS collaboration. The model and framework serve as a checklist of considerations that need to be dealt with by leaders of collaboration-oriented IOS initiatives. The IOS framework and technology classification may also suggest ways in which IT vendors might provide better technological solutions, services, and software for interorganizational collaboration.As more and more interorganizational system links are established between firms, the question of how to develop collaborative IT relationships and optimize the use of IOS grows in importance. The answer involves methods to promote such process behaviors as knowledge sharing and participative decision making among IOS users, while simultaneously aligning with effective governance mechanisms to facilitate these behaviors, inhibit opportunistic behaviors and power plays, and ultimately yield collaborative advantages in the directions of greater productivity, agility, innovation, and/or reputation.
Phenomenology of embodied implicit and narrative knowing	[ "Narratives", "Phenomenology" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: There is widespread agreement in the discourses on and practices of knowledge management that implicit and narrative knowledge are important phenomena. Implicit knowledge is seen as fundamental to all human knowing (Polanyi, 1958) and for knowledge management in particular (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Baumard, 1999). It has been argued that a large portion of the knowledge required for executing organizational activities and processes is implicit (Lubit, 2001; Spender, 1996). Correspondingly also narratives and storytelling have been considered as an essential part of organizational life and its everyday communication (Boje, 1995; Gabriel, 1995; Czarniawska, 1998). Accordingly the narrative side of organizations has emerged as a prominent topic in the knowledge discourse and more practically in knowledge management (Patriotta, 2003, 2004; Snowden, 2000). In particular stories have been investigated in the knowledge management literature as one of the ways in which knowledge might be transferred, shared and processed in organizational settings (Wensley, 1998; Denning, 2000; Ball and Ragsdell, 2003).However the understanding and interpretation of both processes vary, in terms of how they are constituted, levels at which they manifest, as well as status of explication and possibilities of usage. Moreover, the relation between both forms of knowledge is disputed and somewhat under-researched. Conventionally tacit and narrative knowing seem incompatible and categorically different. This is due to paradigmatic and praxeological reasons of understanding, approaching and operationalizing knowledge. Accordingly, the discourse on and practice application of knowledge management uses a specific set of meanings and interpretation of knowledge. In most studies on knowledge management; knowledge is seen as being a stable and somewhat fixed entity "contained" within individuals or an organizational knowledge base. This understanding is based on ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions that are highly problematic but rarely explicitly addressed in the knowledge management discourse. Resource-based views and functionalist, representativistic and reifying approaches are missing or distorting the process of tacit, implicit and narrative knowing itself. By applying ill-conceived categories, insufficient entitative modelling one-sided codifying and resource or universalizing orientation the influence of life-worldly practices and contexts are underestimated. What is needed instead of such reductionistic approaches and molecular forms and linear succession of data or information is a processual, non-reductionist and relational understanding of knowledge (Styhre, 2003, 2004) or better knowing (Choo, 1998), which make the knowledge management theory and practice better equipped when examining and managing organizations.The following is an attempt at discussing the possibilities of extending such an understanding of knowing and a corresponding knowledge management by offering a phenomenologically based processual perspective on implicit and narrative knowing. Phenomenology, in particular the advanced phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty offers a framework for clarifying the relational status of tacit, implicit and narrative knowing and their embodiment. Phenomenologically, all knowing is realized through embodied acting and experiential processes of enactment. Even more, being embodied is already a way of knowing tacitly and the very base for narrative knowing. However, the body and embodiment has been marginalized as media for organizational practices (Hassard et al., 2000; Casey, 2000, p. 55) and knowledge management. Considering the "absent presence" of the body (Shilling, 1993, p. 19; Leder, 1990), there is a need for a "re-membering" between body, embodiment and knowing in organizations. The very incarnate status of knowing opens the way to a phenomenological investigation and integration of embodied and narrative knowing.The structure of the paper will be as follows. First a phenomenological approach will be introduced and used for considering the embodied dimensions of implicit knowing as an interrelational event. Next the relevance and role of narrative knowing in organizations will be discussed briefly and phenomenologically interpreted. Afterwards, an integrative exploration of both forms of knowing will be offered. For this a hermeneutic interpretation of what will be called "Con-+-Text" tries to understand how members of organizations are entangled in implicit and narrative knowing. Finally the article outlines critically some limitations as well as practical and methodological implications. By concluding some perspectives of further phenomenological research on embodied implicit and narrative knowing in organizations are presented. Phenomenology of embodied implicit knowing in organizations: From a phenomenological perspective, all those involved in their "life-world" (Husserl, 1970; Schutz and Luckmann, 1989) are first and foremost embodied beings (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Being embodied is already a way of knowing through "lived situations" and its encounters. Within this situatedness, the "living body" mediates between "internal" and "external" or "subjective" and "objective" experience and meaning (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. xii). As embodied beings, we are both a part of the world and coextensive with it, constituting but also constituted (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 453). This implies that we can never experience and know about things or encounters independent of our lived experiences as bodily-engaged beings. We find the life-world meaningful primarily with respect to the ways in which we act within it and which acts upon us. Thus, "embodiment" does not simply mean "physical manifestation." Rather, it means being grounded in everyday, mundane experience and being inherently connected to our environment in an ongoing interrelation. Through their perceptual selves the "subjects" of the organizing processes are situated in their environment in a tactile, visual, olfactory or auditory way. Whatever they think, feel or do, they are exposed to a synchronised field of inter-related senses (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 207), in the midst of a world of touch, sight, smell, and sound. It is through the body that the agents of the organizational process directly reach their perceived and handled "objects" and relations at work. Moreover, members of organizations "know" while being situated spontaneously and pre-reflectively, in accordance with their bodies. Therefore the very embodiment is the relational base for any knowing and meaning processes. Without the bodily perceived sense of the situation we would not know where we are or what we are learning nor to communicate about it. In this way, our bodies "are" our situation, they "do" our living (Gendlin, 1992) and organize our knowing. A phenomenological understanding takes these body- and sense-related contacts and embodied correlations into consideration as the constitutive base for knowing and also narrative processes as medium of expressing and sharing tacit knowing.In order to approach knowing processes, they can be understood as "embodied intentions" and responsive practices. Both intentionality and responsiveness are important "living forms" of practice as an inter-play of cognitive, emotional and volitional processes. All those involved in the organization process always encounter perceived realities through some intentional perspective. With an intentionality of the bodily consciousness the agent within the sphere of knowing does not feels only "I think", but also "I can"or "I relate to" (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 84; MacMurray, 1957). In other words the atmosphere within knowing takes places is not only what people think about it, but primarily what they "live through" with their "operative intentionality" (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. xviii). The operative or primordial intentionality refers to a pre-predicative experience as basis for all human behavior. It represents a "spontaneous organization" of experience that precedes the subject's active synthesis. This implies that the "I can" precedes and conditions the possibility of the "I know" (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 137). With this understanding of embodied practical action, there is a close link between what is aimed and what is given, between intention and knowing situations. As living bodies of knowing these respond to meaningful questions, problems or claims posed to someone through embodied and situational conditions and contexts, in which s/he as embodied being itself takes part. Therefore, multiple knowing processes and it contents are always realized in embodied every-day practices, with its different local patterns of possibilities and habitus (Bourdieu, 1990) in ongoing relations and situated demands, which may cross all levels, e.g. individual, collective, organizational. The practical intentionality of our embodied actions and the perceptions involved, are largely habitual; learnt through enculturation, imitation, and responsiveness within a specific environment and to a community. This implies that to participate in a practice is to learn the "logic" of that practice, kept within a habitus, which produces historical anchors and ensures the correctness of practices and their constancy over time more reliably than formal and explicit rules ever can. The embodied habitual act of knowing is a practice consisting of skill acquisition and skilful performance (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1980) that makes up much of our everyday activities (Dreyfus, 1996). Embodied habitual knowledge and learning are like a non-conceptual, pre-linguistic "silent practice" that is implicit in actions. However, this habituality is far from being merely a mechanistic or behavioristic propensity to pursue a certain line of action. Habitual modes of being are constantly being altered. They are far more akin to a competence or a "flexible skill, a power of action and reaction (Crossley, 1994, p. 12), which can be mobilized under different conditions to achieve different effects (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 143). With the possibility to modify modes of the embodied knowing practice it allows that the hardened understandings of the practical field become free for revision. With this opening for a re-evaluation, possibly new "strategies" of engagement can be realized. Such kind of re-created practice relates to an enfolding life-world constituted and shared within "inter-relations" with the co-present others. In this way practice is a social creation and negotiation of meaning in which knowing is an emergent, responsive and emotion-related process (Cataldi, 1993; Mazis, 1993). Knowing as an inter-relational process: The outlined phenomenological framework of embodiment can be used for a deeper understanding of knowing in organizations to capture a sense of "phenomenological presence". That is, the way that implicit knowing arise from a direct and engaged participation in the embodied perceived world. Understanding embodiment as constitutive and experiential medium for any form of tacit and implicit knowing explains its characteristics much discussed in knowledge management studies. Tacit and implicit knowledge has been characterised as highly personal (Polanyi, 1969; Stenmark, 2001; Meso and Smith, 2000; Vincenti, 1990; Raghuram, 1996; Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Gore and Gore, 1999; Wagner and Sternberg, 1985; Nonaka and Konno, 1998) and obtained by experience (Polanyi, 1958; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Augier and Vendelo, 1999; Wagner and Sternberg, 1985). Tacit and implicit knowledge indicates a personal skill or capability, something individuals can rely on in everyday life without being aware of it, let alone understanding it. As tacit knowledge is a bodily competence; already Polanyi calls it "embodied knowledge" (Polanyi, 1966, 1969). But not only do we "know more than we can tell" (Polanyi, 1966, p. 4) with respect to our pre-comprehension of phenomena, but also we are immersed in an embodied world of experience in which the lived is always greater than the known (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). That is, life both precedes and exceeds our very effort to grasp it. Accordingly, all pre-positional and tacit knowledge of reality is based on daily dealings e. g. within a "in-corporate" environment of organizing. Therefore tacit knowledge and implicit knowing is not a "resource" but always a process of knowing and acting. It is an embodied knowledge-in-use, a capacity to act, as an ongoing social accomplishment, constituted and reconstituted in everyday practice (Orlikowski, 2002, p. 252).Thus, the tacit and implicit knowing view concerns knowing, not in the sense of storage places and their contents, but as performing processes (e.g. perception, judgment, action, thought, discernment, contrivance) underlying all human dispositions and also all explicit knowledge. Deprived of their tacit coefficients, all spoken or written words would be meaningless. That is explicit knowledge must rely on being tacitly understood and applied to be knowledge at all. Such "act"-notion of implicit knowing lays focus on the capacity to mobilize our beliefs and values in action, cognitively, emotionally and practically. With this, a phenomenology of implicit knowledge offers a base for a post-dualistic, inter-relational understanding of knowing; that is as a relational event, breaking with logo-centric interpretation of knowledge and its management. A relational paradigm finds its theoretical underpinnings in social constructionism (Schutz, 1972; Berger and Luckman, 1966; Gergen, 1994; Harre, 1986; Shotter, 1993) and advanced phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, 1964, 1969). This combination allows, to consider not only that any understanding of reality is always mediated by historically and culturally situated, social inter-actions respectively interpretations (Gergen, 1994, p. 49), but to think about them also as embodied practices, which occur in immediate, spontaneous ways of experiential dimensions and mutual responding. Accordingly relational selves and processes are not only as discursively constructed de-differentiated and signifying "beings" or abstract "object" of power and semiotics. But they need to be integrated their "material" and sensory, fleshly bodiliness and existential immediacy. "Relating" itself is a "reality-constituting practice" (Edwards and Potter, 1992, p. 27) in which shared understandings are developed, negotiated, thus "socially constructed" but always between participants with their embodied experiences. This relational reality is characterized by ongoing, local processes (Parker, 1992) that include non-linguistic (e.g. gestures, "objects", documents etc.), linguistic and narrative processes (e.g. conversations, stories, rumours etc) as well as contextual dimensions. A relational approach criticizes an entitative discourses with its subject-object relations, its reliance and emphasis on language as representation, and its centring of a singular, and in some degree knowable, real world (Hosking and Morley, 1991; Hosking et al., 1995). It is critical concerning a retained Cartesian duality of a separate inner and external nature, mind and world and tries to overcome a "possessive individualism" (Sampson, 1993), by which knowledge is seen as an identifiable entity sui generis based on the individual and made objectively measurable. Alternatively, with a relational intelligibility in place we can shift our attention from what is "contained" within individuals or an "organizational knowledge base" to what transpires between people (Sampson, 1993). With this, knowing becomes factually based on embodied social-relational processes that is joint or dialogically structured activities; as a kind of responsive action (Shotter, 1984, 1995; Stacey, 2000b; 2001). As an ongoing event of relating, knowing develops out of a complex set of inter-actions and "inter-passion" by which feelings, cognitions and meanings are continually created, re-created, put in question and re-negotiated through a weaved network of individual and social inter-relations. From such a relational perspective, organizations are dynamic constellations of relationships among forces (Hosking et al., 1995; Gergen, 1994). Accordingly, organizational structures and knowing processes are not substantively fixed, but rather a shifting cluster of variable elements throughout a decentred, configured mesh (Meyer et al., 1993) within a space between (Bradbury and Lichtenstein, 2000).Relationality provides a decentred perspective on knowledge. The constituencies of knowing are dispersed with dynamic sets of relations. Therefore knowledge is created and re-produced within powerful historical, embodied, emotional and social relations. For a relational understanding the "knower" participates (with-)in the known. She/he relates and resonates experientially to what and how s/he knows in embodied, co-presentational and practical ways in the concretized social world of every-day life (Reason, 1994). A relational approach, allows overcoming the inherent problems and limits of a mechanistic and essentialistic perspective of knowledge and its management (Stacey, 2000a, b, 2001; Stacey et al., 2001). What the relationality paradigm encourages us to do instead is to describe inter-connections and processes through which the world of organizing and knowing are experienced in a continual state of becoming (Ranson et al., 1980; Chia, 1996). Even more it is only becoming useful in a social, cont-textual and holistic setting. Thus, knowing is embedded and entangled in social practices, interactions, and is therefore distributed and disperse. This responds to various critiques that have been mounted of knowledge management approaches on the grounds that they ignore the social architecture of knowledge exchange within organizations (Hansen et al., 1999). Being lucid and emergent, knowledge originates and develops out of an in-between of embodied practices and systems of signification. The methodological advantages of such a relational constructionist perspective are that it avoids the problem of how to bridge individual, collective, and organizational levels of knowing and that it bridges theoretical constructs and practical undertakings. With recognizing the primacy of relational processes these become media, in which knowing, learning and identities are continuously created and changed in the course of being practised.As the relational reality of knowing is characterized by ongoing, local processes (Parker, 1992) that include non-linguistic (e.g. gestures, "objects", documents etc.) and linguistic processes, also narrative knowing has to be taken into account as well as contextual dimensions. Before showing phenomenologically how embodied implicit and narrative knowing is interrelated, first some basic ideas about the narrative sides in organizations will be outlined briefly. Narrative knowing in organizations: Despite that narratives are ubiquitous symbol-systems that are prevalent and in use in all organizations (Martin, 1982), the significance of narrative knowing has long been a neglected aspect in organizational studies (Orr, 1987, 1990; Polkinghorne, 1988, 1991, 1996; Phillips, 1995; Boyce, 1996). More recently, the narrative side of organizations has emerged as a prominent topic in the in organization studies (Gabriel, 1995, 2000;, 2004; Czarniawska, 1998; Wilkins, 1984) and knowledge discourse as well in knowledge management (Patriotta, 2003; Snowden, 2000). They have been investigated as the basic organizing principle of how perspective making and perspective taking occurs within a community of knowing (Boland and Tenkasi, 1995). Narration is seen as a central feature of the modus operandi of informal communities-of-practice, reflecting the complex social web within which work takes place (Wenger and Snyder, 2000).Various influences, functions and the relevance of narrations in developing, distributing and enhancing organizational knowledge and knowing have been investigated. Narrative knowing influence for example the behaviors, thoughts and emotions and communication of embodied members of organizations by creating mental or imagined pictures and identities that shapes the orientation of everyday-life. As "social maps" (Wilkins, 1978, 1984), they chart the way and give direction and meaning to what goes on, mediating a sense of history and future but also current identities. In this way, narratives that members create are one symbolic means through which they negotiate, share and contest their perceptions of their own and the organization's identity. Through narratives, members convey what an organization was, is and wants to become as well as how it conducts its activities. The ways in which members engage and enact narratives on the job influences both the enabling and constraining of innovation, solving problems and taking coordinated action (Bartel and Garud, 2003). As cultural storehouses for organizational intelligence (Kreps, 1989), narratives contract complexity by providing organization members with pertinent information and common explanations and interpretations for individual and collective sense making (Weick, 1995). Furthermore, narratives functions besides to "embody" new members (Brown and Duguid, 1991) and facilitating member bonding also to solve problems (Mitroff and Kilmann, 1976) by giving common symbolic frames of reference. By generating a revived belief they can support change processes and encourage behavioral and attitudinal mind shifts (Brown, 1995). Living Narratives (Ochs and Capps, 2001) focus on ordinary social exchanges - like face-to-face, everyday, conversations - in which interlocutors build accounts of life events, rather than on polished narrative performances. In addition to being a communicative practice, a narrative is a medium that one lives in, through, or by means of. Therefore it is a constant and ineliminable factor in the process by which humans establish and maintain their individual and social life manifested in an organizational culture (Martin et al., 1983), providing informal networking and connection among organization members.Narrative knowing is enacted in the moment of being told, its existence is virtual its status provisional (Orlikoswki, 2002, pp. 252-3). Therefore, narratives are dynamic in character, and are unconsciously and consciously reshaped in the telling process. Stories are imprinted by the background of the storytellers, their cognitions, values, and emotions (Dyer, 1983; Van Buskirk and McGrath, 1992) and evoke those to listeners. Accordingly stories are basically interactive; they are actualized and adapted in the context of telling and listening. During "sharing" of narrative a story might invite the listener to re-tell it, and listening to a story might prompt the listener to tell a story of his/her own, either as an embellishment of the original story, or as a result of being prompted by an aspect of the original story acting as a trigger to the new story; in this way, "new" knowledge might be created, as well as being transferred. Linking embodied implicit and narrative knowing: For preparing the bridge between implicit and narrative knowing, the inherent relationship between these two modes needs to be clarified. On the one hand, the embodied self finds herself always already situated in a world of signs, symbols, and communication. That is bodily knowing is always already participating in a linguistic world and a cultural world (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 197). Embodied practices of knowing are enmeshed through the mediation of artefacts - objects and symbols, including language - through which knowers extend themselves in the world and which, in turn, re-form their bodily movements and perceptions. On the other hand, phenomenologically, language is already fundamentally an embodied medium and event of expression, a signified social enactment. As speaking, expressing and communicating are realized in the living present, the use of language is a kind of "embodied language" (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 184,; 1964, p. 91). As the spoken word is a performance of thought and a gesture, language can be interpreted as an elaboration of an embodied sign system. This implies that the gesture is the most basic form of communication, from which linguistic communication is a development. Embodied, creative linguistic gesticulations expressed in narratives are living from what has already been experienced and said, what is, as yet unarticulated and what will be possibly expressed as meaning, proceeding continually in transformation and metamorphosis (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 78). The ways in which the "thinking bodies" (Burkitt, 1999) interact with their environment defines the parameters by which thought and language can function: Speaking inherently presupposes certain embodied and shared perceptual and cognitive facilities.Based on the outlined phenomenological and relational understanding, it is possible to link up implicit and narrative knowing. Taking speech and narratives as embodied symbolic modes, narrative knowing can be interpreted as expressive media for transferring implicit knowledge, indirectly. Conventionally tacit and narrative knowing seem incompatible and categorically different. Due to substantial methodological differences they can not be equated. Tacit and implicit knowing refers to all those aspects of individual proficiency which are non-verbal in nature and therefore not explicable or expressible. Due to its "unformalisable" character the limitations of explication of this kind of knowledge have been discussed widely. As it cannot be expressed in written or verbal form it is by definition non-verbal, inarticulable, unconscious, or ineffable (Patel et al., 1999, p. 76; Collins, 2001a, p. 72, 2001b, p. 108; Ambrosini and Bowman, 2001, pp. 812-3; Herbig and Bussing, 2003, p. 167; Tsoukas, 2003). Thus it is difficult or even impossible to be expressed (Polanyi, 1958, 1966; Boisot, 1995; Lubit, 2001; Nonaka and Konno, 1998; Wagner, 1987; Cowan et al., 2000) or to diffuse and share (Polanyi, 1966; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka and Konno, 1998; Bennett and Gabriel, 1999; Leonard and Sensiper, 1998; Zack, 1999; Holtshouse, 1998). It can only be actualized within actions and can never be removed in any way from an actor's context (Cook and Brown, 1999, p. 387), which is way it is always related to practicality (Wagner and Sternberg, 1986; Cruise O'Brien, 1995; Noteboom et al., 1992).Although tacit and implicit knowing cannot be explicated fully, phenomenologically it can be shared indirectly through expressed ways of narratives. This connection is based on a correspondence between implicit knowing as non-verbal signing process within a pre-linguistic mode and narrative knowing as an expressed verbal activity. Accordingly, from phenomenological perspective, narratives can become media for expressing, processing and sharing contents, structures and experience of implicit "knowing-acting". Like implicit knowing also narrative knowing evolves and develops from events, extraordinary situations, successes and failures, and further experiences. With this, tacit knowledge and implicit knowing are indirectly shared through highly interactive conversation, storytelling and shared experiences (Zack, 1999, p. 46). In this way narrations contribute to distributing effectively un-codified knowledge and non-analytic problem-solving competences (Swap, 2001; Pfeffer and Sutton, 1999). Narratives offer "thick descriptions" of contexts thereby providing actors a much more adequate understanding of the complex nature of practical situations (Geertz, 1993; Orr, 1990, 1996). With this, it can build the basis for actionable knowing particularly for complex thinking and complex practice (Tsoukas and Hatch, 2001).Based on embodied knowing, narratives not only have an inherent capability to capture rich implicit knowledge, they are carriers and transmitters of implicit knowing. Using narrative patterns and narrative knowing offers a powerful approach for disclosing, "storing" and transferring explicit and implicit knowing across time and space (Snowden, 2002). In particularly story-telling is a medium for transferring of implicit knowledge. Stories access and leverage the knowledge already accumulated and implicitly available in the telling or listening agent rather than trying to construct complex cognitive structures piecemeal from the "bottom up". Stories allow to access, stimulate and re-arrange pre-existing implicit knowledge. Thus stories, serve to give voice to the experience of embodied beings. When experts share stories with novices they realise inadvertent self-disclosures. That is they are not only narrating events that may prepare novices to cope with future similar events. Perhaps just as importantly, they are communicating tacit knowledge about their perceptions, feelings, interpretations, values, strategies etc. in rich and meaningful ways. Each story conveys knowledge, not only about one or more "subject matters" but also knowledge about the teller, her background and the common situation. In this way stories communicate always something of and about the embodied context in which the narration is taking place. Therefore stories convey a lot of non-explicit information, emotional knowledge and "meta-knowledge". As the listeners of stories are not passive recipients of stimuli; they are creating a multidimensional experience. All told what is explicitly presented in a story represents a very small fraction of the total number of related statements that are being activated and manipulated in the receiver and interpreter of stories. A story can communicate complex multi-dimensioned ideas, not simply by transmitting information as a message, but by actively involving the listeners in co-creating that idea. Therefore, what is inferred via narratives is far greater than what is stated explicitly. The amount and quality of knowledge that is activated in the embodied mind of the listener or reader is far greater than the relatively small amount and quality of information that is explicitly stated in the story. Thus, from a few narrated statements, many inferences can be made. Although implicit knowing and learning of background information - that is not explicitly presented - occurs at a significantly slower rate than explicitly presented information, the total volume and learning of implicit material is much greater than the explicit material (Landauer and Dumais, 1997). Furthermore, as a story is told and retold, it changes, and so the knowledge embodied in it is constantly being developed and built on. In this transfer of implicit knowledge redundancy, ambiguity and vagueness can be of an advantage. They can be used as resources to help communicate implicit knowledge appropriately. That is because it allows listeners to take redundant, ambiguous and vague statements and fill in their own implicit understanding and map into what feels right for their own embodied interpretation and context. The narrative transfer of implicit knowing and interplay between both needs to be examined closely in terms of how it is incorporated into con-+-textual emplotted practices in organizations. Con-+-Texts of implicit and narrative knowing in organizations: Even as lived experiences and living knowing are highly elusive, always more immediate, more enigmatic, more complex, more ambiguous than any approach can do justice, what phenomenological research can do is to evoke integrative understandings by investigating the con-+-Texts in which implicit and narrative knowing takes place. Although conceptually different, ontologically embodied implicit and narrative knowing are both processed within a con-+-textual practice. On the base of the obtained inter-relational, embodied understanding of knowing the following focuses on how organizational member are entangled in con-texts as specific emplotments. Implicit and narrative knowing in organizations refers to pragmatic activities that are always embodied in a historical and social "con-+Text" that gives structure and meaning to what is being known and done or not.For a con-+-Text there is no separation between language and the world, as it is like an intermediating "milieu". Moreover, the somatic and semantic con-+-textual realms allow integrating the very difference of language and world itself and other very differences as well. "Con-+-Texts" comprise of embodied, emotional and socio-cultural inter-relations ("con-textere"=joining together) in all their layered complexity and dynamics. Accordingly, con-+-Textual knowing is specific to time, place, sequence and timing, positions and relationships within personal relationships and communities of trust and confidence. "Con-+-Textuality" emphasises that it is the relationship between "texts" in a broader sense that is important for implicit and narrative knowing. Such an extended understanding of "text" implies any instance of embodied, affective or communicative acts, gestured, spoken, or written. All of them carry relevance for implicit and narrative knowing and its actors and their "life-forms" (Wittgenstein) of action. With this, a "con-+-textual" understanding of practice includes both the explicit and the implicit knowing, that is what is said and what is left unsaid or is ineffable; what is represented and expressed in narratives and what is not-represent(able): the manifest, expressed and the symbolic as well as the implicit. Accordingly, it comprises also non-linguistic marks, perceived traces and indirect or non-discursive forms of meaningful expressions. Therefore a "con-+-textual" approach also suggests that meaning is partially a pre-reflexive implicit "characteristic" of "con-+-Texts". This kind of implicit meaning comes already before conscious intentions and interpretations of any actor, speaker or interpreter and accompanies them continually. Consequently, inter-preting "con-+-Texts" is not only a process which merely deciphers textual signs or messages. The interpretative relationship is already implicit in the "con-+-Text" itself, which is been "written" and "read". This again leaves traces, influencing further "writing" and interpretative "reading". Basically, we can never accede to a lived organizational reality without some connection to its con-+-Textuality from its opening and related to is syntagmatic frames of references. With all this, con-+-Texts constitute options of meaning for experiences and are creating communication between individuals and patterns of social relationships. Thus, con-+-Texts of organizations are an all pervading differential networks of "texts" and "inter-texts" embodying the emotions, norms and values according to specific local ontologies. Like a "textile" of traces, the threats of the con-+-Text refer endlessly to something other than itself, to other differential traces (Derrida, 1979, p. 84). Similar to the deconstructionist's much misunderstood assertion, one can say: "there is no-outside-con-+-Text". This does not mean to fall into an idealistic or semiotic pan-Textuality, as con-+-Texts always relate to embodied, sensual and emotional experiential materiality and mundane time.Although members of organizations usually remain unaware of being always situated within a "con-+-textual" orb, it is always from within such a complexly intertwined sphere that they responsively know and act, in "answer" to the "calls" the embodied situation exerts on them. Hermeneutic phenomenology allows studying and interpreting these organizational "con-+-Texts" and corresponding responsiveness, which can give rise to radically different ways of seeing and "inter-standing" (Taylor and Saarinen, 1994, pp. 1, 8). "Inter-standing" organizations as "quasi-text" or a "text analogue" the embodied implicit and narrative knowing can be made approached by means of hermeneutic interpretation. By opening the circle of "inter-standing" into an evolving spiral, the hermeneutical process itself is a creative operation unleashing meaning latent in the polysemic storehouse of "con-+-textual" implicit and narrative patterns. In this "con-+-Text" of implicit and narrative knowing, each figuration is open for deconfiguration ("decon-+-Textualization") and reconfiguration ("recon-+-Textualization"), reflecting the embodied narrative knowers' and intepretators' life-situation at a variety of levels. With this, a creation of a new semantic pertinence by means of an impertinent attribution becomes possible. By re-structuring and re-ordering soma tic and semantic fields, emergent meanings are evoked not previously related and employed in particular "con-+-Texts". That is, each "con-+-Text" permits a certain actualization of knowing and meaning expressed in the embodied, polysemic treasure chest of the "mantic" and "semantic playground", sedimented in the emplotted con-+Text. Therefore, pre-forming con-+-Texts are like open "textures" filled up with sedimentation, memories but also expectations and hopes. Similar as relational "fabrics", they are interwoven by knitting processes of negotiation of meaning twisted by the mentioned embodied and emotional "threads" and aesthetic patterns (Boje, 1991; Kupers, 2002; O'Connor, 2000). Limitations and ambivalence: Embodied implicit and narratives knowing and knowledge constitute filtering frames of reference for enacting and interpreting experiences of organizational practice. The power of embodied and storied knowing lies in its capacity to encompass and encircle thinking and feeling about issues and to compel and convince others. In this way implicit and narrative knowing can also be instrumentalized as a tool for the legitimization of dominant power relationships in organizations, used as ideological forces that privilege some interest over others (Mumby, 1988). Organizations exercise a constraining control over displays of embodied feelings and knowing, e.g. by specifying norms and rules or "emotion management" through neutralizing, buffering, prescribing and normalizing the felt experience and its expression (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993, p. 109, 1995). Organizational control of embodied emotional knowing can cause various negative effects, like dissonance, demotivation and alienation (Higgins et al., 1997; Hochschild, 1983; Rafaeli and Sutton, 1987; Kemper, 1990; Flam, 1990; Conrad and Witte, 1994). With this, emotional knowing can also become a micro-political instrument by energising or de-energising one-self and others (Clark, 1997; Lazega, 1992). Narrative knowing serves at the same time as premises of arguments and persuasive appeals (Weick and Browning, 1986) and as an implicit mechanism of cultural control (Clegg, 1993). While organizational stories and legends are generating commitment and make sense of the organization and shared values, they can be an expression of managerial or stake-holder influence and exert political power and social control (Salaman, 1979; Wilkins, 1978, p. 21, 1983, 1984; Boje et al., 1995). As Witten (1993, p. 100) asserts "narrative is a singularly potent discursive form through which control can be dramatized, because it compels belief while at the same time it shields truth claims from testing and debate". With this narratives can set forth powerful and persuasive truth claims about unquestionable appropriate behavior and values and thus can become means for manipulation for gaining and retaining power (Agre, 1995; Barker, 1993). This possible misuse of narratives can also be exemplified by the political nature of organizational change and business re-engineering as techniques of social power and persuasion (Fincham, 2000, p. 175). These can be used within a "functional humanism" as staging rituals of transition by discarding old identities, going through the pains of transition, being reborn in a new "pre-formed" identity (Knights and Willmott, 2000). Therefore, attention needs to be given to the dynamics of power by dominant groups and by which lesser heard or dissonant voices and performances made peripheral "insiders" or "outsiders". Often managers' voices and staged performances within the organizational con-+-Text are louder, more articulate and more powerful than others (Hazen, 1993). The challenging task for researchers will be to try to re-construct or tell the stories and voices and latent performances of those that management and organization text and con-+-Texts, kept or ruled out, ostracized, marginalized or exploited. The concern need to focus on whose culture and meaning are expressed or not in organizational stories. Furthermore, there is a need to inquire which stories in what ways are regressive following a nostalgic path of supposed good and better old days.With all this, performed narration and storytelling entails a pervading ambivalence: On the one hand storytelling can be oppressive by subordinating employees and adapt all to one "grand narrative" or "grand story". On the other side narrative practices in organization can be creatively liberating, by showing members that there is always a multiplicity of stories, storytellers, and story performance events (Boje, 1995).Another limitation concerns the scope and application of implicit and narrative knowing. Both forms of knowing are not always fulfilling needs for specific relevant knowledge efficiently. They are much less predictable media, in their content and process, than other organizational knowledge sources. Often they are not intended to give a definitive, nor sometimes even accurate, account of "what happened", nor "why it happened". They do not allow engineering knowledge exchange of a particular sort. With this also the scope for generalizations will be limited. Furthermore not all attempts to transfer (implicit) knowledge in the form of stories are reasonable. Additionally, well-constructed stories take considerable time and talent to create and a fair amount of time to listen and to interpret. Narratives can be an excellent way for communicating tacit knowledge and implicit knowing within a community of practice or a small trusted group of colleagues (Snowden, 2002, p. 20). But, trying to leverage the power of narrative knowing in large-scale organizations can be considerably trickier as issues of trust, decontextualization and unwanted perseverance come to the fore. Moreover, an effective usage depends on appropriate situation and time. There may be opportune or unfitting times when the organization is particularly receptive or deterred to implicit and narrative knowing practices. Practical implications: As implicit and narrative knowing both are complex inter-relational process they cannot be simply "organized" or "managed". This implies that they cannot be designed directly; rather it can only be designed for, that is facilitated or frustrated. Therefore, antecedent conditions need to be considered, which are likely to support a culture in which implicit and narrative knowing can be applied and flourish. The challenge will be to create circumstances and support relationships that maintain and generate practices of integrative knowing. What is required is shaping possibilities for developing or upgrading more fulfilling embodied and narrative experiences and relationships in the every-day life-work. As embodied experiential forms of implicit and narrative knowing require self-organizing leeway and need to be intrinsically self-sustaining, it can be problematic to use reward systems as a way to manipulate behavior. Any form of institutional reward and recognition requires to be adapted target-specific and situationally to support relevant conditions and activities of embodied and narrative knowing.With the relational and phenomenological perspective in mind we can distinguish between different levels of personal, interpersonal and structural-systemic levels. An integrative approach requires that interventions and measurements for supporting knowing practices consider theses spheres and their interrelation. Basically, a knowledge management for dealing with implicit and narrative knowing requires creating adequate con-+-texts, which facilitate the constitution, development and practice of knowing. In order to manage implicit and narrative knowledge, we need to reflect on ways in which organizations can influence, encourage (or perhaps inhibit) a culture facilitating implicit knowing and storytelling practices. This concerns both formal and informal conditions. For an informal practice and flow of implicit and narrative knowing, communities of practice offer various advantages (Wenger and Snyder, 2000; Brown and Duguid, 2001a; Shaw et al., 1998; Orr, 1990), particularly if coordinated across communities at the wider organizational level (Brown and Duguid, 2001a). An integrative "con-text management" accepts and supports those kinds of practices and helps translating and transferring connections between different communities of implicit and narrative practices. For this knowledge managers need to take organizational roles of "translators" or "boundary-spanners" for inter-mediating between communities and supporting a common understanding (Carlile, 2002) and "structuring spontaneity" (Brown and Duguid, 2001b). For creating a work place environment, which enables or is conductive to implicit and narrative knowing practice, experience-oriented apprenticeship models and dialogical oriented conversation management (von Krogh, 1996; von Krogh et al., 2000) might be helpful. By integration of narrative techniques, e.g. oral history databases in advanced decision support systems, these can be used for innovative strategy formation and implementation, branding and change management within an ecology of knowledge (Snowden, 1999).All in all, what an appropriate practice requires is allowing the patterns of individual behavior, social relations and organizational culture, of implicit and narrative knowing to emerge. That is creating an overall ecology in which both the patterning processes are facilitated and managed "in the way a gardener manages a garden, not the way an engineer designs a machine" (Snowden, 2001). This refers to offering infrastructures and con-+-texts in which the informal organization and its members can self-organize and self-manage their knowing in innovative networking and communication (Swan et al., 1999). As knowing can be interpreted as a local-historical creation, responsive evaluations (Abma, 1996) require considering the socio-historical con-+-Text, focusing on what the locals think to be issues. For this storytelling can be regarded as an important way to conduct evaluation processes. In consequence, the evaluation report should include expression of emotions, dialogues, thick descriptions (van der Haar and Hosking, 2004). Conclusion: This paper has tried to show the significance of phenomenology for approaching the experiential dimensions of implicit and narrative knowing and their interrelations in organizations. Both forms of knowing in organizations and its implications have been described as situated and integrated in Con-+-Texts. The somatic and semantic con-+-texts of knowing offers a relational and integrative perspective for "inter-standing" knowing as a form of practice embodying individual, emotional, social processes of implicit and narrative knowing and their dynamics. The embedment within Con-+-Texts shows how knowing is only becoming useful in an inter-relational setting. Thus, knowing is embedded and entangled in complex practices, and is therefore distributed and disperse. This responds to various critiques that have been mounted of knowledge management approaches on the grounds that they ignore the social architecture of knowledge exchange within organizations (Hansen et al., 1999).Furthermore, some limitations and implications have been discussed. What became evident is that knowing is inherent in and enables con-textual living action. Even more, understanding knowing phenomenologically includes not only "bodies of knowledge" but also knowledgeable bodies; not only enacted "knowledge" but also a knowing that is already action, not only situated and con-+-textual narrative "knowledge" but also a knowing that inheres in situations, relations and narratives in such a way that it may not be recognized as "knowledge". That is members of organization do not only experience their practice as "knowledge", but even more experience practice as knowing.The use of phenomenology could be helpful for further research on research of embodied implicit and narrative knowing. By fostering an investigative attitude of questing for relational and phenomenal ways of knowing in its con-+-Textuality, phenomenology offer innovative possibilities for interpreting and improving knowing processes in organizations. Particuarly Merleau-Ponty's advanced phenomenology, with its rejection of modernist version of referentialist-representalism and critique of empiricist realism and intellectualist idealism (Madison, 1993, p. 113) as well his anti-foundationalism, anti-essentialism and concept of reversibilities and (good) ambiguities (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, p. 169) might be useful. With its focus on embodiment and language as living medium, it helps overcoming the cognitive bias and metaphysical logocentrism, prevailing in much knowledge-management research and practice. Such phenomenological approach valorizes experiences "unconstrained everyday talk" (Potter and Edwards, 1993, p. 398) and acting, keeping an openness for the fluidity to meaning that is all too readily reified by the categorical zeal of conventional analysis. With this phenomenology allows to let knowing as lived experiences or expressions be approached from itself in the very way in which these dimension appear. With this, researchers can develop an a-causal, non-reductionistic and non-reifying approach for "inter-standing" implicit and narrative knowing in organizations by creating descriptions of actual experience involved.Being lucid and emergent, knowing originates and develops out of an in-between of embodied and narrative practices on various levels. The methodological advantages of such a relational perspective are that it avoids the problem of how to bridge individual, collective, and organizational levels of knowing and that it bridges theoretical constructs and practical undertakings. Individual, collective and institutional knowing is mutually constituted in the course of being practiced. By recognizing the primacy of relational processes these become media, in which knowing, and also learning and identities are mutually constituted, continuously created and changed in the course of being practiced.Offering an alternative approach for understanding these neglected, but relevant processes, the outlined phenomenological framework provides a "bedrock" for more rigorous theory building, further analysis and empirical testing. Further research issues may refer to aspects such as the ways in which competing forms of knowing can be synergetically reconciled and what role a "narrativisation of experience" (Mishler, 1995, p. 108), plays in the context of change. Additionally, the role of implicit and narrative knowing for learning (Reilly et al., 1998) and implicit learning in particular (Berry, 1997; Berry and Dienes, 1993; Reber, 1993) may be explored. Another field, to which the outlined approach could be linked, is improvisation (Hatch, 1999; Crossan, 1998; Crossan et al., 1996; Crossan and Sorrenti, 1997; Mirvis, 1998; Weick, 1998; Moorman and Miner, 1998) as embodied action and proactive, creative way for organizations and its members to use implicit and narrative knowing in spontaneous and playful ways. With this aesthetic ways of knowing (Kupers, 2002) present an open research agenda.All in all the approach as outlined can be used to illustrate, highlight, interpret, deconstruct or re-conceive the experiential, embodied "base" of implicit and narrative knowing processes. Leaving behind the dualistic and reductionistic "flatland ontologies" (Wilber, 2000) and researching the lived experience of knowing is a challenging endeavour. But it can contribute for a more integral "inter-standing" of knowledge management that acknowledges that in practice, the implicit and narrative dimensions to knowledge are inexorably and inextricably interwoven. It is hoped that the paper put in some ideas for such a more comprehensive appreciation of these inter-relational, dimensions of the implicit and narrative knowing process within organizational con-+-texts.
Does excellence have a gender? A national research study on recruitment and selection procedures for professorial appointments in The Netherlands	[ "Universities", "Recruitment", "Selection", "Gender", "Discipline", "Academic staff", "The Netherlands" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: In recent years the measurement of academic excellence and the use of particular performance indicators have been subjects of heated debate in the international academic community (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW, 2005)). Academic excellence is fundamentally difficult to define. There is a general consensus that excellence is not a "universal fact" or "natural given" and that it would be misleading to treat it as a simple, easily measurable attribute, such as height or speed (Brouns and Addis, 2004). As a result, it is susceptible to many kinds of bias. Different aspects of the measurement of academic excellence have been criticized by many scholars - for example, the criteria (Rees, 2004), the peer review system (Horrobin, 1990; Jefferson, 2002; Lawrence, 2003; Wenneras and Wold, 1997) and recruitment and selection procedures (Benschop and Brouns, 2003; Cole et al., 2004; Husu, 2000).In this paper we examine the academic recruitment and selection practices for full professors, the most influential people in academia. The way in which new professors are recruited has far-reaching consequences in terms of the research carried out, what is valued, what paid little attention, and what is left to the "maverick". There are indications that academic recruitment and selection processes are gendered, from the drafting of the profile (often with a male candidate in mind) and the assessment of (gendered) academic qualifications of applicants, to the interviewing of applicants by selection committees usually made up of male peers with co-optation rights, with sex stereotypes and similar-to-me effects implicitly governing conversations (Benschop and Brouns, 2003; Fogelberg et al., 1999).This paper explores the recruitment of university professors as a gendered process and is based on an analysis of committee reports at six large Dutch universities (n=936). In its report to the dean, the selection committee in most cases provides details of the procedure followed and the reasons for its recommendations. The research took place between November 2004 and June 2005, and our aim was to look at differences in successful applications by male and female candidates for professorial positions. Our principal question was: Is there a difference between successful applications by male and female candidates for professorial appointments at a general and/or disciplinary level? On the basis of literature research, we have formulated two premises to explain gender differences in the number of recently appointed full professors (see below for an extensive description). Firstly, the nature of the procedures might influence women's chances in appointment procedures. We expect women to be more successful in open competitions for professorships than in more closed and restricted procedures. Secondly, the composition of the selection committee might influence women's chances in appointment procedures. However, we do not know in what way it influences women's chances; the existing literature is not univocal about the advantage for women.The paper opens with a description of the current state of affairs; we will see that no extensive literature is available on recruitment practices in academia. In the second section, we expand our premises and in the third we discuss the research methodology. We continue by presenting the results of our empirical analyses, revealing the success rates of male and female applicants and testing our hypotheses. We discuss our findings in the final section. Recruitment and evaluation in academia: Recruitment has been analysed as a key process for understanding the reproduction of gender segregation and discrimination in the labour market and within organizations (e.g. Curran, 1988; Collinson et al., 1990; Harris, 2002; Reskin and Roos, 1990; Teigen, 2002). Recruitment and evaluation procedures for academic positions and grants have also been the object of study (Steinpreis et. al., 1999; Wenneras and Wold, 1997; Lindberg et al., 2003). However, few have focused on the actual process of recruiting new staff in order to understand the reproduction of the gender order in academia. Well-known studies, such as that by Wenneras and Wold (1997), have emphasized the outcome of the peer review process, not the process itself. While there have been some studies on selection procedures in academia in The Netherlands, they have focused primarily on the selection interview (Van Vianen, 1987).Wenneras and Wold's renowned investigation of gender bias in the selection of research proposals and applicants was a starting point for many other studies on academic research evaluation. However, the results of their study have not been confirmed by other research (Welcome Trust, 1997; Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, 1999). In most cases, success rates are quite similar for men and women. In the research we conducted earlier, we found that even if success rates are comparable at a general level, gender differences may operate at the disciplinary level (Brouns and Scholten, 1999). A study of the assessment system of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), published in 2000, showed that the similarities between the success rates of male and female applicants in fact veiled a surprising differentiation across the disciplines. In some disciplines (the exact sciences), women received remarkably positive evaluations and high success rates. The study showed that not only were these women very well qualified, they also appeared to receive a bonus that was not related to the quality of their work. In a few disciplines (biology and earth sciences), on the other hand, there was evidence of a negative gender bias because we could not find substantial differences in the track records of unsuccessful women and successful men. The study also showed that, while men were assessed according to merit, these findings and correlations could not be confirmed for female applicants. On the basis of this research, we concluded that gender played a role in the evaluation of women and men, although this process operated differently in the different academic disciplines.Other European research has focused on how the qualifications of male and female applicants were assessed when they competed for positions at Swedish universities (Lindberg et al., 2003). The source material was the written expert assessments of applicants' qualifications and the official records of selection committees. It showed that there were no systematic differences in the use of non-neutral adjectives by the referees. The same measuring rod was used for male and female applicants. However, of the group under study, women made up 22 per cent of the applicants but 31 per cent of the appointed scholars. The conclusion was that the evaluation of applicants in the academic recruitment system was not the critical issue for gender equality in Swedish education. These findings contradict Icelandic research on selection report for full professorships (Thorvaldsdottir, 2004). It showed that female candidates received little attention compared to male candidates, and women's qualifications were named differently than the same qualifications related to men. A clear example could be seen in one of the evaluation reports where the male candidate was said to have been "wrestling with a difficult task" while it was said about the women applicant, that she "had something knitting".To date, no comprehensive studies have been undertaken of actual recruitment and selection procedures that take into account differences between disciplines or factors such as the number of applicants for each professorship and recruitment potential by gender (Husu, 2000). With this study, we seek to contribute to the knowledge about the measurement of academic excellence, particularly with regard to the recruitment and selection of new full professors, taking as our starting point disciplinary differences in procedures and female potential. Nature of recruitment procedures and women on committees: There are many factors that can influence women's chances in appointment procedures. We have constructed two premises on the basis of the currently available research.Nature of the procedures Methodology: The main focus of our research is to examine the differences in success rates of male and female applicants in academic recruitment procedures for professorships. The lack of any empirical studies in The Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe on actual recruitment procedures in academia called for an approach with two subsequent studies. For Study A we collected general information on newly appointed professors from Dutch universities in the period 1999 to 2003. A total of 13 of the 15 Dutch universities provided us with the information requested, including for all new appointments the type of chair (full time or part time, structural or temporary) and the gender of the appointees. We compared these figures with the proportion of female doctorates twelve years ago (National Statistics, CBS). In this way, we were able to examine whether the sex ratio of those well qualified to enter academic positions is in line with the sex ratio of female professors.Study B consisted of a detailed analysis of the files from selection committees. To test our assumptions, we invited all universities to participate, but due to privacy issues and time scarcity of auxiliary personnel, only six universities co-operated. These six universities represent a mixture of all Dutch universities and include some of the largest (University of Amsterdam), the most prestigious (University of Leiden), and also a university of technology (University of Eindhoven). In total we received access to 936 committee reports covering almost all appointments of full professors at these universities in the period 1999 to 2003.The data were collected from November 2004 to June 2005. We did not include so-called extraordinary professorships as these are funded in full or in part by external sources and the appointment procedures follow a different course. After data collection, we filtered out the reappointment reports (n=109) as these are information-poor (a single candidate, no committee, no competition). Unfortunately, in some cases (n=145) only the gender of the appointee was stated, with no information on the gender of other applicants. These cases were excluded from the analysis reported in this paper[1]. All analyses refer to 682 cases with sufficient information. Various written documents were used as data sources: the basic profile, the vacancy announcement, the list of applicants, recommendations from related faculties, the composition of the committee and the final recommendations of one or two nominees to the dean. The reports varied enormously in scope and style: some gave detailed consideration to all applicants for the position and the criteria by which they were measured, while others gave only the name of the person who "was obviously the most suitable candidate". The reason for the variation in scope and style lay in the requirements which the dean of the faculty or the board of the university places on the committee reports. Some universities and faculties are more strict and accountable than others. Especially in Engineering and Medicine the reports contained minimum information.To organize the data collected from the documents, we designed an analytic framework which included the following variables: gender of appointee, total number of applicants, gender of applicants, number of applicants interviewed, gender of applicants interviewed, discipline, nature of the recruitment procedure and the number of women on the committee. The analyses were conducted along two strands. First, we determined the success rates of male and female applicants for each discipline. Secondly, we tested our predictions concerning the type of recruitment (open/closed) and the gender composition of the committee. These latter analyses were conducted on an aggregate level; no distinctions were made here between disciplines.Because most of the files do not contain any information on the actual track records of the candidates, we were unable to reconstruct individual qualifications or make systematic comparisons of the track records of men and women. "Quality" remains unquantifiable in this study. Nevertheless, we were able to analyse the influence of procedural characteristics (open/closed, composition) and the effect this had on success rates for men and women. We assumed an even distribution of qualified men and women, irrespective of procedural characteristics. This allowed us to compare success scores (m/f) in open and closed procedures, and selection committees that are balanced or imbalanced in terms of gender composition. Using this analysis, we can answer the two premises that underpin our research.We will start the description of findings with the results of Study A. Professorial appointments in The Netherlands: In 2005 only nine per cent of full professors in The Netherlands were female, a figure which is increasing only very slowly (WOPI, 2004). Two reasons are commonly cited to account for the low number of female professors. First, it is commonly claimed that large numbers of ageing full professors are blocking the upward mobility of young men and women or recent graduates. According to this claim, often cited by top administrators, the current professorial staff reflects the graduation numbers of several decades ago, and the situation will improve over time. According to our data, 1850 new full and extraordinary - financed by an external party - professors were appointed at Dutch universities between 1999 and 2003[2]. These numbers indicate substantial mobility in the upper echelons and that new positions are available for talented men and women. Our data further shows that only 11 per cent of these new appointments were taken up by women. We may therefore conclude that lack of opportunity is not a sufficient explanation for the slow mobility of women.A second reason often stated to account for the underrepresentation of women in the higher ranks of academia points to the lack of female potential. In other words, academia is short of women with the required education and experience. Women with a doctorate may be defined as the female potential for a professorship, they comprise the "feeder pool" from which future academics are likely to spring (Zuckerman et al., 1991). We considered women who obtained a doctorate 12 years ago as the potential for new professorial appointments. In contrast to what is commonly claimed, substantial female potential is present in the humanities (28 per cent), social sciences (27 per cent), law (26 per cent) and medicine (21 per cent). Table I gives an overview of the female potential for each discipline. The national figures concerning the female potential were obtained by Statistics Netherlands (CBS, 2004).We can conclude from the combination of the national data and our own data from Study A that the female potential has been realized, or almost realized, in some disciplines (the social sciences and notably the natural sciences and engineering), whereas in others there is a substantial gap between potential and the proportion of women among newly appointed professors. This is especially true of the medical sciences, law, the humanities and economic sciences. This means that the gender issue in the former disciplines is very different from the latter. Failing to realize the potential could imply a gender bias, perhaps unintentional, in the career paths of academics. In the next section, we present the chief findings of Study B, based on the detailed analysis of files from six universities. Results: success rates of men and women: Success rates in general Implications for women's careers: In this research study, we formulated two premises. First, the nature of the recruitment could influence women's chances in selection procedures. We found no confirmation of the predicted relationship; women were appointed slightly more often in open procedures, but these differences are by no means significant. The inner circles of the old boy network can be as advantageous for women as for men under two conditions. Nevertheless, it seems important for women to make themselves visible, and for scouts to reflect on their assumptions about the "excellent scientist" and the implicit effects of this on the perceptions of men's and women's behaviour and track records. Recruiters should pay explicit attention to the female potential.Our second premise concerning the relationship between the number of women and the chances of women to be appointed was confirmed. This finding is consistent with other research, which indicates that a predominant male committee can have negative consequences for women due to the "similar-to-me" effect (Bates, 2002; Lin et al., 1992; Latham and Wexley, 1981). However, it is not evident that this correlation is caused by an intermediate variable. This needs further exploration.The research findings clearly show gender differences in selection procedure outcomes. Although not in all disciplines, we see a disparity in the proportion of male and female applicants who are appointed to professorships and the realization of female potential. How can these findings be explained? Partly by disciplinary differences. One of the largest disciplines - medical sciences, where women make up 21 per cent of doctorates - completely fails to realize female potential. In none of the disciplines does the proportion of female appointments exceed the proportion of female potential, so that relative success in one discipline cannot compensate for poor performance in another discipline. We can conclude that the gender issue in the social sciences is different from that in medicine. Perhaps the epistemic (Knorr Cetina, 1999) or organizational culture is different in medicine than in the social sciences, as managerial skills are more important in the former. This could be a negative element in women's decisions to opt for an academic career in the "hard" culture of medicine. We might also expect perceptions to vary among disciplines as to whether women are "true academics" or "academic leaders". Another explanation could be that men are simply more qualified and talented. These aspects require careful attention in future research.What implications do these findings have for women's academic careers? Academic policymakers and female academics need to realize that academic disciplines are gendered in a different way and that tackling the underrepresentation of women requires a variety of measures, both at institutional and individual levels. In medicine, for instance, women have to become more visible in the academic community. At the organizational level, recruiters need to be aware that women academics often have a different way of promoting themselves (more modest, greater participation in female networks). Male networks are strong and powerful, and the similar-to-me effect could be a disadvantage for women (Bagilhole and Goode, 2001). Although women are being appointed in closed procedures as well as men, accountability is critical. Public responsibility could help to reduce the influence of informal networks and accountability leads to reflection on the presence of women in informal and formal networks. Mentoring systems in which more experienced scholars support women could be very helpful in preparing a next career step.The fields of law, the humanities, social sciences, economic sciences and natural sciences show a discrepancy between the pool of female potential and the proportion of female applicants and, in some disciplines, the proportion of women appointed. On the basis of our data and analyses, we cannot unequivocally explain why these "pipelines leak". What can be said, though, is that explicit standards applied to a large set of applicants tends to favour objectivity. On the other hand, a caveat is needed against the practice of tailoring the standards for a position to favour a particular applicant. Women applicants should be aware of the criteria used, and explicitly ask for information about them.In engineering, finally, the main problem lies in the low female potential. This means that women need to be encouraged to pursue academic training in this field.Based on our data, we would expect that the implementation of very general policy measures targeted at academia as a whole is not the best way to obtain a gender-balanced workforce in the upper echelons in universities. Measures that take into account disciplinary differences seem more promising in the long run.
Mobile banking rollout in emerging markets: evidence from Brazil	[ "Mobile communication systems", "Banking", "Consumer behaviour", "Internet", "Marketing strategy", "Brazil" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Over the past decade, consumers have embraced new digital mobile devices at a remarkable pace. With an internet connection, it is now possible to gain ubiquitous access to personal and business information, stay in touch with social networks and make life more efficient. The latest mobile devices (cell phones, PDAs, smartphones ...) not only provide for voice or text messaging, but also allow watching television, accessing the internet, conducting mobile banking and retail transactions, playing multimedia files and using browsing services. The mobile channel is now a multi-faceted interactive network based on various mobile delivery technologies, such as SMS (text messaging), MMS (multimedia messaging), wireless broadband access to the internet (e.g., Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA and WiMax), Bluetooth or Near Field Communication (NFC).Mobile devices, also called handheld devices, take the form of cell phones, smartphones (including Blackberries and iPhones), PDAs, Pocket PCs, tablet PCs or multimedia readers with wireless (or any other way of connecting to online banking services). Although e-books were not included in the study, they could be classified as a mobile device within the context of studies on mobile services. The classification criterion is based on the devices' readiness and portability (Kaasinen et al., 2009).Cell phones are rapidly becoming a reasonable alternative to PCs, and the challenge now is to deliver services according to consumers' perception of value and trust (KPMG International, 2009). This growing convergence has given the consumer a demand power that has applied pressure to the mobile channel for telecommunications and media companies, carriers, content providers, handset manufacturers, as well as to financial service companies. M-services, or mobile services, are the range of services provided and accessed by a mobile device (Shin, 2009).Mobile banking is the evolutionary step to follow internet banking. Mobile banking services, like SMS banking, thin-client applications (downloaded applications) or direct access to online banking (with fewer choices and restricted graphics), provide a full range of banking operations, with the value of immediate accessibility with reduced customer reliance on internet access (wireless or internet providers). Recently, banks have also started offering applications that are accessed through the iPhone App Store, for example, providing a framework for offline use of banking web sites (Banks, 2009).Mobile banking caters for financial transactions using a mobile device (cell phones, PDAs, smartphones ...), such as viewing account balances, making transfers between accounts, or paying bills. Generally speaking, mobile banking operations can be categorized as mobile accounting, mobile brokerage and mobile financial information services. Most services in the categories designated as accounting and brokerage are transaction-based, such as domestic and international fund transfers, commercial and bill payment processing, cell phone recharging, micro-payment handling or asset management. Mobile financial information services are basically non-transaction-based services of an informational nature. However, these services may be essential for conducting transactions - for instance, a balance check might be in order before ordering a money transfer. Some examples of current non-transaction-based mobile services are as follows: monitoring of recent transactions, alerts on account activity or the passing of set thresholds, access to loan and card statements and the status of checks, among others.If a bank is not directly involved in the instrumental gratification of a service offered, it is usually called a "mobile payment". Nysveen et al. (2005a) present examples of such services, such as payments through overhead priced SMS (for ring tones, logos, etc.), prepaid account loading (used for cinema tickets, transportation, parking ...) or a charge made to the subscriber's account (credit card or invoice-based payment mechanism).Despite the rapid rollout of mobile services over the past decade, mobile transactions, including mobile banking and payments, have not been used as much as expected (Kleijnen et al., 2007). It is clear that mobile use for banking purposes has not reached a level of maturity. KPMG International (2009) conducted a survey on 4,190 consumers with mobile devices (PDAs, cell phones or Blackberries) in 19 countries throughout the world. A slight majority (51 percent) of respondents reported that they were aware of their bank's services via mobile devices. However, only a minority (19 percent) of consumers worldwide use their mobile device for banking purposes or payments (KPMG International, 2009). This figure is especially low for European countries (5 percent) and Latin America (7 percent).Why is such a simple and popular device still underused for accessing banking services? What are the obstacles that customers face when using such services? What are the bank strategies that can be developed to overcome this reluctance? This study seeks to answer some of the questions posed, specifically in terms of the Brazilian scenario.The rollout of mobile services in less developed markets Hypotheses: The impact of demographics on adoption behavior has been a subject of interest within the context of electronic services (Harrison and Rainer, 1992; Karjaluoto et al., 2002b; Cruz et al., 2009; Nysveen et al., 2005a, b; Meuter et al., 2005; Cruz et al., 2010; Laukkanen et al., 2007; Laukkanen and Pasanen, 2008). Several studies indicate that the people who adopt new technologies generally tend to be male, younger, more educated and have a higher income than those who do not (Darian, 1987; Dickerson and Gentry, 1983; Labay and Kinnear, 1981; Sim and Koi, 2002; Venkatraman, 1991). Concerning age, the findings state that older consumers have problems when adopting new technology (Harrison and Rainer, 1992), as they belong to the late majority or laggards in terms of adoption rates of new technology-based services (Gilly and Zeithaml, 1985; Oumlil and Williams, 2000). According to Mattila et al. (2003) mature internet banking customers present a significantly higher perceived difficulty in using computers and a higher level of perceived insecurity when compared with general bank customers. The same pattern was found by Laukkanen et al. (2007): mature internet banking customers revealed significantly higher concerns than younger ones regarding mobile banking attributes, namely, perceived risk, complexity in mobile handling and sundry device issues (battery life or PIN codes). According to Howcroft et al. (2002), elderly and wealthy people seem to avoid electronic channels in their service requirements, thereby supporting the idea that older and high income people will find a lack in relative advantage in electronic services such as m-banking.Gender was also stated as a relevant variable to describe motivations, behavior and market segmentation (Putrevu, 2001). Research has revealed that instrumental characteristics, as specified in extrinsic or goal-directed behavior, describe men better than women (Davis et al., 1989; Cruz et al., 2010). Men appear more task-oriented than women (Gentile et al., 2007) and, to a larger extent, possess more extrinsic and instrumental motives then women (Cruz et al., 2010; Davis et al. 1989; Nysveen et al., 2005b). Electronic banking services are typically motivated by goal achievement or rewards (Venkatesh, 1999; Cruz et al., 2010). Thus, it seems plausible to argue for a stronger proportion of perceived usefulness of mobile services among men than among women (Nysveen et al., 2005b). As stated before, lack of relative advantage is assumed to be related to some extent to the opposite of perceived usefulness. Following this reasoning, lack of relative advantage will be greater, proportionally, among the female population.Garbarino and Strahilevitz (2004) argue that women perceive more risk in online purchases when compared to men. Venkatesh and Morris (2000) found support for their arguments that women registered lower levels of self-efficacy and higher anxiety than men when dealing with electronic innovations. Accordingly, risk perceptions and complexity are expected to occur with a significantly higher proportion among females (see Table IV for a summary of hypotheses).Recent papers focusing on technology usage in the workplace (Venkatesh and Morris, 2000; Venkatesh et al., 2000, 2004) found social norms had a higher impact on behavioral intention for women than for men. Female users are believed to be particularly influenced by peer opinion when it comes to mobile services (Towsend, 2000; Skog, 2002; Nysveen et al., 2005b). Putrevu (2001) made a thorough description of gender differences in the information process and judgment. Cruz et al. (2010), studying user behavior in an internet banking context, found that women search for more information while men contract more. This leads us to hypothesize that women will evaluate available information more intensively and thus have a proportionally higher lack of information barrier when compared to men (see Table IV).Household income and education were found to have a significant effect on the adoption of the internet as a banking channel (Karjaluoto et al., 2002b; Mattila et al., 2003). Higher education may lead to a greater understanding and ability regarding self-service technologies (Meuter et al., 2005) and thus to lower complexity perceptions. Higher income could also increase the opportunities for accessing updated devices (mobile devices in our case) and provide time-saving motivations, among others, to use electronic services (Meuter et al., 2005). In line with previous findings, education levels and household income are expected to influence the proportion (percentage) of selected barriers, namely, perceived complexity, perceived relative advantage unsuitable device and cost. This last one has an implicit and logical argument that, assuming the same internet and service fees for all users, the perceived cost will be lower for those with higher levels of income.In line with previous research, the following hypotheses are formulated and systematized in Table IV. The hypotheses should be interpreted on an independent test approach (kh2 tests) as we are dealing with proportions (due to the dichotomized approach of measures). Research methodology and sample description: The research is based on several theoretical perspectives, namely TAM, theory of resistance to innovation and literature on banking technologies, particularly mobile banking. The questionnaire was posted on the web site of a large Brazilian bank, between September and October 2008. Respondents using less than 300 seconds to complete the survey were discarded from the data set. No problems related to internet-based surveys were applicable to the sample procedure. First, no repeat questionnaires were allowed, given that a unique code was assigned to each respondent and multiple answers were not accepted. The survey was made available to internet banking customers at the moment of logout, thereby avoiding the problems of random "walk-ins" (respondents outside the population of interest). The questionnaire included exclusively private customers and the questions presented in the study were addressed only to non-users of m-banking. However, in this research we will focus solely on non-users of m-banking services, exploring the reasons for the rejection of these services.From the set of participants, 3,585 respondents replied that they did not use any kind of mobile banking service. The sample (non-users) is largely male dominated (70.6 percent) and relatively young (55.2 percent of the respondents are within the 26-45 age range).Several studies (Howcroft et al., 2002; Karjaluoto et al., 2002b; Polatoglu and Ekin, 2001; Cruz et al., 2010; Laukkanen and Pasanen, 2008) have confirmed that a typical internet banking user is a relatively young male with a high level of education. Laukkanen and Pasanen (2008) argue that Finnish mobile banking users are more likely to be middle-aged (30-49 years old). The same pattern was found for Japan (Flinders, 2008), China (Laforet and Xyaoyan, 2005) and Portugal (Cruz et al., 2009). Accordingly, we can say that the distribution of gender and age is consistent with the relevant sampling frame for the survey.Participants in our study reveal a high level of education, with the majority holding a university degree (47.2 percent). Alongside, the majority of respondents (46.7 percent) have a household monthly income above R$2,000 (see Table V). This value is considerably higher than the national Brazilian average (R$1,162 in 2008 (Painel de Tenencias, 2009)). We verify that an internet consumer is younger, predominantly male, with a higher education and income level than the general population (Laukkanen and Pasanen, 2008; Karjaluoto et al., 2002b; Meuter et al., 2000).As mentioned before, we therefore explored the main reasons for service rejection among non-users of mobile banking services. Given that the variables explored are dichotomous, we accounted for a possible similarity (or dissimilarity) through a (MDS non-metric analysis (PROXSCAL method with PASW software). By default, MDS calculates the Euclidian distance between variables. Given that we are working with non-metric binary variables, the Russell and Rao similarity algorithm was used (Lesot et al., 2008).Finally, to assess which factors are related to socio-demographic variables, we used the chi-square test, a common procedure considering the nature of variables (in line with the Meuter et al. (2000) study). Results: The main reasons for mobile banking service rejection were explored through dichotomous questions (Table VI). We grouped the non-user factors according to the innovation attributes listed in Table III, and the response frequencies for each one are also reported (Table VI). The correlations between variables within each attribute (factor) were obtained through the phi (ph) coefficient, commonly used when both variables are dichotomous (Glenberg, 1996; Cohen et al., 2003), as shown in Table VI:* The cost barrier accounted for the highest accumulated percentage. Around 83 percent of rejection motives were related to service costs (at least one): "expensive internet access" (56.1 percent) and "bank service fees" (27.2 percent). These two items registered a high and significant correlation (ph=0.48).* The perceived risk attribute accounted for the highest correlation between variables (ph=0.71), and about 40 percent of responses concern "functionality confidence" (13.2 percent) or "service security" (26.5 percent). These are among the main reasons for rejecting m-banking services.* Lack of relative advantages aggregates the items "no significant benefit compared to my operations" (22.4 percent) and "prefer other ways of access" (33.1 percent), with more than half (55.5 percent) of rejection motives pointing to these attributes as barriers to the service adoption. The correlation between the items was positive and significant (ph=0.34).* The "unsuitable device" attribute is related to the questions "inappropriate" (17.3 percent) and "cost of a suitable device" (16 percent) with ph=0.37 correlation. Around one-third (33.3 percent) of replies singled out at least one of these motives as a possible obstacle to service adoption, in line with previous statements by Laukkanen and Lauronen (2005).* Lack of information accounted for a low but significant correlation (ph=0.18) between the variables "didn't know of its existence" (10.8 percent) and "lack of information" (16 percent).* Complexity barrier registered an accumulated frequency of responses relatively low (17.4 percent) for the two variables: "its use is complicated" (11 percent) and "requires knowledge and learning" (6.4 percent). The correlation between items is positive and significant (ph=0.33).* The lack of observability attribute was identified as "peer experience" and accounted for a marginal frequency (2.6 percent). Non-significant results were obtained across socio-demographic variables (Table VI).MDS technique helps to identify meaningful underlying dimensions by grouping them, even with dichotomous variables (Hair et al., 1998). The results are shown in Figure 1.Figure 1 presents a two-dimensional map of variable affinity, from where we obtain the following "spatial aggregation": Attr1 (cost), Attr2 (risk and LRA), Attr3 (unsuitable device), Attr4 (complexity) and Attr5 (lack of information). The two variables in complexity (Attr4) were very close to each other but far away from the other attributes. However, the highest distance between variables was found in Attr5 (lack of information), where its two variables are not only the most remote variables, but also the less correlated.Table VII presents the raw stress and s-stress values. As suggested by Uriel and Aldas (2005), the best resulting solution for these measures is obtained when both are near to zero. In this context, a 0.025 raw stress value is considered an excellent fit. In our case, we found a 0.015 raw stress value, indicating that our representation was well fitted to the answers given (see Table VII).Therefore, taking into consideration the results of the MDS and correlations, we can consider cost, unsuitable device and complexity as reliable and relevant factors. The lack of information factor had a weaker correlation between variables and a greater distance with other factors' variables, also presenting low-frequency responses. The variables in the factors (attributes) LRA and risk were well-correlated; we decided to group them in Attr2 (see Figure 1). On the other hand, the lack of observability factor should be considered an isolated variable, accounting for the lowest frequency, and due to the fact that, spatially, it is located as the most distant factor (more severe dissimilarity with other factors).In order to explore for a possible relation between m-banking service usage and socio-demographic variables, we used the chi-square test for each variable, crossing the rows (factors or attributes) with columns (socio-demographic variables). The results are summarized in Table VI.The following steps will be made focusing on the significant relations obtained from Table VI. Only relevant variables are analyzed in detail in order to explore the reasons for significant differences between category proportions. Table VIII presents the significant results (from chi-square test) from the cross-tabulation between gender (male/female) and resistance factors. As noted before (Table V), the majority of respondents are male (70.6 percent).Cost, related to the "perception of the cost of internet access and service fees", has a significantly higher male proportion, meaning that men are more concerned about this attribute than women. This result is exploratory-oriented, as no hypothesis was drawn. The perceived risk perception is relatively higher for women, corroborating H1e. Women find m-banking services not attractive when compared to alternative channels (taking Q5c and Q5 l accumulated responses), accordingly to H1d. Gender seems to follow an independent distribution regarding other rejection motives (lack of information, lack of observability and complexity), which led us to reject H1a, H1b and H1c.Table IX contains the significant variables (chi-square test) of cost, LRA, risk and complexity across age categories. As the category "under 18" has only 21 respondents, we concluded that there was no statistical validity to be included. Moreover, 73 percent of the respondents are aged under 45 and 90 percent are under 55.The perception of "high costs" involved in m-banking services carried the heaviest weight among the youngest respondents. This "barrier" decreases significantly as age increases (see also Figure 2). This relation was not supported previously by theory, thus being an exploratory result. The perceived lack of relative advantage obstacle (Q5c and Q5l) remains stable until the age of 35 and then increases significantly, in line with H2b (see Figure 3). The responses related to the lack of safety (Q5j) are especially high among respondents older than 45 (except for the group of users over 65 years), thus corroborating H2c.The perception that the use of m-banking is complicated and requires a specific learning process increases up to the age of 55 and then tends to stabilize. We conclude that, in general, older people perceived m-banking as more difficult to use, as predicted by H2a. On the other hand, the youngest perceived it as less complicated to use (see also Figure 4).In Table X we can appreciate significant differences between perception and income level frequencies. The perception that the service is expensive (Q5e and Q5d) drops significantly as income increases (in line with H3c), while both perceived LRA and lack of safety (Q5c and Q5j) increase with household monthly income level. LRA relation with income, although significant, is in opposition to what was predicted by H3b.The barrier due to unsuitable device (Q5g and Q5h) decreases significantly when household monthly income increases. This result confirms H3d. The opposite relation (positive) between income and the perception that "the use is complicated" (Q5b) is registered, which does not support H3a.Table XI presents the significant variables for the attributes cost and complexity perception crossed by educational level. More than 75 percent of the respondents have, at least, a university degree (Table V) and the cost barrier due to high fees (internet access and bank fees) registers a higher frequency percentage as the respondents' level of education increases (not supporting H4c).On the other hand, the perceived complexity is significantly higher for respondents with only primary schooling (Figure 5), in line with H4a. Relations between the education level and LRA or cost were not significant (at 0.05 level). Discussion: Results and managerial recommendations Limitations and future research: Although the data collection has revealed the effectiveness, heterogeneity and randomness of our responses, it was focused exclusively on current internet banking users. Therefore, a response bias could be considered, given that these kinds of customers could have a personal propensity to use new technologies. Future research will seek to address those questions that remain unanswered, namely, the reasons for mobile banking resistance among customers that do not use the internet banking channel. Our future work will explore the barriers to the adoption of mobile banking services taking into account cultural differences through cross-cultural studies.
Do works councils improve the quality of apprenticeship training? Evidence from German workplace data	[ "Apprenticeship training", "Training quality", "Works council" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: The dual apprenticeship system is an important education track in Germany and an essential component of the successful integration of young adults into the labor market. Every year, close to 60 percent of the school cohort starts an apprenticeship (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), 2015). This number indicates that the popularity of apprenticeships remains high among young adults in Germany. One reason is the high quality of apprenticeship training, which is acknowledged worldwide (The Economist, 2014; Lazear and Janssen, 2016). However, direct empirical evidence about the quality of apprenticeship training in Germany beyond the often-praised low youth unemployment rates is scarce. Soskice (1994) argues that the cooperation between the chambers on the one hand and works councils and unions on the other hand is a necessary determinant for a high quality of training in Germany. Although many researchers have found a positive association between a firm's participation in apprenticeship training, unions and works councils (e.g. Beckmann, 2002; Bellmann et al., 2011; Dustmann and Schonberg, 2010; Stegmaier, 2012), no studies directly investigated whether such institutions are also associated with different dimensions of training quality. 2. Theoretical considerations and literature: 2.1 Theoretical considerations 3. The quality model: With regard to the operationalization of the quality model of vocational training at the workplace, we draw on the work of the Expert Committee on Costs and Financing of Vocational Training (1974), the so-called "Edding Commission." In their study on the quality of training in firms, the Edding Commission distinguished between the input, process and output quality of training. Indicators for measuring input quality included the organization of training, the training technology and the qualifications of the training staff. Process quality referred to the training methodology and the intensity of training. Output quality was measured using four factors: formal aptitude, job-related aptitude, work-related aptitude and societal aptitude. Munch et al. (1981) examined the extent to which job-specific interdependencies of learning location structures and output quality can be determined. The authors viewed the learning location structure as the central factor of input quality, while they expanded output quality using post-training employment outcomes (i.e. the retention rate of apprentices). 4. Data and empirical strategy: 4.1 Data 5. Results: The results of our matching procedures reveal that there were no statistically significant differences between workplaces with and without works councils in 2007, except with regard to their retention rates. Workplaces with a works council retain a higher proportion of former apprentices three and five years after training (between 9 and 13 percentage points) compared to workplaces without works councils (Table II). Although the ATT point estimates are lower compared to the ATE estimates, their point estimate still falls well within the 95% confidence interval of the ATE estimate. 6. Conclusions: The high quality of the German apprenticeship system is a necessary condition for it to remain an attractive educational pathway for the non-college-bound youth and to ensure a sufficiently large supply of qualified skilled workers to the labor market. We investigate whether works councils are associated with the quality of apprenticeship training in the workplace, a question that was not previously addressed in the empirical literature. Our results suggest that works councils are associated with better output training quality, as measured by a higher retention rate of graduated apprentices and fewer illness-related absences in the 2012/2013 survey. Thus, our results suggest that works councils provide some assurance that apprentices are offered permanent work after their training contracts, particularly in times when unemployment is high and external opportunities for graduated apprentices are limited. However, we find no robust evidence for an association between works councils on the one hand and input- and process-quality indicators or the dropout rate of apprentices on the other hand.
Restructuration of architectural practice in integrated project delivery (IPD): two case studies	[ "IPD", "Architecture", "Integration", "Design management", "Case study", "Integrated project delivery", "Integrated practice", "Architectural practice", "Restructuration" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Project delivery methods and contracting configurations in the construction industry have been changing to increase the project value for owners and transfer project risks to competent designers and builders (Miller et al., 2000). Nevertheless, conventional project delivery still suffers from communication inefficiencies and poor performance due to adversarial relationships (Kent and Becerik-Gerber, 2010). Improving this situation was the motivation for integrated project delivery (IPD), a paradigm shift in project procurement that changes the conventional relationships of contracting parties through integration and collaboration (Cleves and Dal Gallo, 2012; Duke et al., 2010). IPD is still relatively new since its standards of practice (dependable norms or routines) are not yet fully formed or fixed. While IPD is a specific contractual form in the USA, the construction industry, globally, is trending toward integrated practices where the routines of architects, engineers and builders are redefined to improve performance (Jamieson et al., 2011). In this paper, the authors will refer to "integrated practice" to reflect on this trend toward collaborative delivery methods and routines that project participants need to develop and enact. Literature review: IPD: definition and characteristics Findings: This section presents the case studies through three themes: team formation, design leadership and collaboration, and architectural services. In both cases, the hospital owners established expectations for collaborative practices early on through the procurement of the project team (team formation). These practices varied between the two cases as the Quality Hospital had a sequential procurement process, while High Tech requested that architect-contractor teams create process-based proposals together. In both cases, the owners challenged the designers' early design processes with user group workshops and user-led design ideation (design leadership and collaboration). In this new context, architects synthesized, explored and analyzed ideas from the users such that new design practices emerged where architects facilitated, translated and guided owner decisions that shaped and honed the design. These new practices were characterized with more frequent and informal iterations of the design with engineers and builders. While both cases saw early involvement of engineers and builders in design, the negotiated practices around the development of project documentation diverged (architecture services). While on Quality Hospital the architect reduced the amount of drawings they produced (having the subcontractors take on the architectural scope of detailed drawing production), in the High-Tech Hospital, the architects expanded their scope by creating models to support construction methods and prefabrication. Discussions and implications: The findings illustrated that IPD settings enable project parties to negotiate and restructure some important dimensions of architectural practice. These include: team formation, design leadership and collaboration, and architectural services. Although previous research on IPD discussed that the interplay between formal and informal contracting provisions in IPD can lead to differences in team dynamics, communication behavior and collaboration in IPD projects (Bygballe et al., 2015; Dossick et al., 2013; Zhang et al., 2013), this research contributes to the body of knowledge by evidencing that IPD settings can be momenta for even more drastic restructuration, which can change the conventional roles, responsibilities and services of project participants, especially architects. Summary and conclusion: The main contribution of this study is highlighting that, despite emerging as a new delivery method, IPD does not necessarily predetermine changes in architectural practice, but it can be a context for restructuring architectural practices that are negotiated through new actions with other project participants. These dimensions in this study included team formation, design leadership and collaboration, and architectural services. Accordingly, this paper offers two main theoretical propositions. First, the changes that occur in architectural practices in response to IPD provisions (e.g. collaboration and liability waivers) are not fixed, limited or predetermined, but may lead to unprecedented strategies for restructuring project roles and responsibilities. Second, by restructuring the boundary of practices in IPD, project participants may locally create and redefine conventional project activities (e.g. design briefing and proposal preparation), and documentation (e.g. design intent drawings vs fabrication-ready models).
Capability/maturity based model for logistics processes assessment: Application to distribution processes	[ "Logistics", "Distribution", "Assessment", "Capability/maturity", "CMMI", "FD X50-604" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Logistics processes evaluation is a major priority for business, a task that is difficult for a company given the complexity of these systems due to the large scope of involved processes and actors. It is assumed that such assessment should be guided by a clear and coherent vision and needs to have structured and appropriate methodological tools. The literature review we conducted allowed us to divide the research models dealing with logistics processes evaluation into two categories: performance measurement driven models, maturity measurement driven models. 2. Methodology: To test the hypothesis stated in the introduction and thus respond to the main research question, we have adopted a two-step approach. The first step aims to support the validity of the proposal at the theoretical level. Thus we studied the conceptual coherence of CMMI and X50 to measure ILP maturity. To achieve this goal, we first tried to understand and synthesize the concepts of CMMI (Table I) and their relationships (Figure 1). We focused mainly on the concept of capability level, generic goals, generic practices and typical indicators of achievement (Table II). The result of this study is presented in Section 3. Then we tried to understand and synthesize the concept of "ILP" as it is presented in X50 standard. We have focused on the six stages of this process (Figure 2) as well as the concepts used by the standard (Section 4.1) to describe these steps and their relationships (Figure 3). The result of this study is presented in Section 4. Finally, we conducted a comparison of the two formalisms to highlight the differences and similarities. To achieve this goal, we examined whether the generic practices of CMMI already classified by capability level are covered by the practices of each stage of X50. The result of this comparison is presented in Section 5 (Table III). 3. CMMI model presentation: 3.1. Key concepts 4. The X50-604 (X50) standard presentation: 4.1. Key concepts 5. Coherence between the X50 standard and the CMMI model: The proposed approach is based on the coupling of a capability/maturity assessment model (CMMI) and a benchmark for logistics processes best practices (X50). This paper is the first to analyze the differences and similarities between these two models. Table III shows the correspondence, between the CMMI generic practices and the X50 standard practices, on the basis of their identified common practices: planning, programming, execution, control and correction proposition, standardization, capitalization, setting goals, monitoring performance and improvement. Five cases are possible, as explained in the legend of Table III: 6. Case study: 6.1. Distribution logistics practices analysis 7. Discussion: Results show a partial coherence between the CMMI and the X50 standard for assessing the maturity of the ILP. In fact, the analysis of Table III shows that: 8. Conclusion: To conclude, the present research work provides, in general, a proof that a logistics processes capability/maturity assessment approach based on the coupling of CMMI, as a maturity model, and the X50 standard, as a source of logistics best practices is pertinent at level 2. As an illustration, it presents a particular application of this approach to distribution logistics activities and a case study in a furniture factory. We estimate that this work has several implications. In the practical scope, it provides a new logistics evaluation approach that is a practical, verifiable, repeatable and extensible to other logistics process areas. In the research scope, it provides a comparative analysis between the formalism of the CMMI model and the X50 standard practices; and highlights the X50 standard limits against the CMMI model requirements.
Initiating service encounter-based innovation by word-of-business	[ "Case studies", "Innovation", "Cognition", "Empirical study", "Business-to-business marketing" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Service innovation in the business-to-business (B2B) context has recently become an important topic in business marketing. State-of-the-art reviews have explored the areas and topics of service innovation pertinent to B2B, both with regard to networks (Mustak, 2014), and to adoption and diffusion processes (Makkonen and Johnston, 2014). The service innovation area is considered emergent and fragmented between many perspectives and disciplines. Nevertheless, innovation researchers in business marketing agree that service innovation is a topic of vital importance to marketing thinking, as the locus of study has shifted from innovation as being embedded within the firm to the external relationships between the firm and its partners and stakeholders. This emergent area of research has been termed service innovation in networks (SIIN). It comprises the processes of combining ideas, knowledge, capabilities and technologies of more than two connected actors (Syson and Perks, 2004). Service innovation is of particular relevance for industrial firms where new product development (NPD) must be combined simultaneously with new services development (NSD). The underlying innovation processes may comprise different, so-called modes of innovation (Gallouj and Weinstein, 1997) defined as how the characteristics of a product or a service are "changed" over time. As industrial innovation follows a trajectory of different modes before being a success on the market (Gremyr et al., 2014), it becomes crucial to achieve a fit between the particular mode of innovation and the processes used to bring it about (Gremyr et al., 2014). Hence, to better understand the dynamics of co-innovation in B2B relationships, it seems important to study the interactions in innovation processes at the micro level (Mustak, 2014). Method: a natural experiment as action research: Background: data collection Results: inducing a framework of cognitive distance: All transcriptions from recordings of follow-up sessions and written memos from the consultants and sales managers found in reporting formats during the period 16 November 2010 until the final meeting on 30 August 2011 were read by this author with the aim of pinpointing all concrete business leads. General comments without much specification about "new information" or the like were not recorded. The list of all business leads, which had been corroborated by the informants (consultants), was first partitioned into two sub-groups, namely, being part of the job or being beyond its scope. The business leads in the latter sub-group were then analyzed one by one. By comparing the concrete business leads individually, the idea of "cognitive distance" as a discriminating dimension arose. The concept was first defined in geography and psychology as a distance estimate made by individuals on the basis of their beliefs about a certain distance stored in memory (Ankomah and Crompton, 1992). In this way, it is a mental representation of actual distances. Measurement models of such distances have differentiated between perceptual (space visible) and cognitive (space not visible) distance (Montello, 1991). More recently, cognitive distance has been defined as the distance between the specialized knowledge bases of the actors involved in collaboration (Nesta and Saviotti, 2005). Important effects of cognitive distance on learning and innovation between industrial partnerships (Wuyts et al., 2005) and their propensity to outsource R Conclusions: initiating service encounter based innovation by WoB: In line with recommendations by von Koskull and Strandvik (2014), the longitudinal action research project reported here was set up as a natural experiment of information gathering. The "intervention" took the form of a new reporting format and procedure for managing business leads under three metaphorical headings: map, smoke and mirror. The final reporting format (guide) resulted in a remarkable improvement in information quality. The three-part thematic structure was easy to use. Texts generated by consultants became more integrated over time, more holistic, and richer. This can be interpreted as a learning outcome, which was highlighted by the managing director in a follow-up interview 21 March 2011. He saw "[...] that two goals had been met: the guide and a new way to train consultants". Through our theoretical approach to service encounter-based innovation (Sorensen et al., 2013), we were able to set up practiced-based innovation, improved the front office innovation climate and spurred creativity among the informants by training them. Hence, the organizational conditions as regards innovation according to the model were met. Managerial implications: In this final section, we will discuss how our framework of cognitive distance may be used in a strategic way to strengthen the client relationship and initiate co-innovation. We will hypothetically suggest a simple categorization of strategic intervention consisting of three different modes of action, proactivity, adaptability and reactivity. Proactivity in our understanding translates into unilaterally making a plan of immediate action. Adaptability, on the other hand, would be to wait for an opportunity to interact and then to be prepared to find a common course of action. Last, reactivity, would be to "wait and see" and possibly develop contingency plans for negative commercial developments.
Entrepreneurs and trade names: evidence from the United Arab Emirates	[ "Trade names", "Entrepreneurs", "United Arab Emirates" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Businesses dedicate substantial resources to develop trade names that are attractive, convey the business benefits, and meet the demands of a greatly diversified global market (Wanke et al., 2007). Since names elicit meanings, associations, and images choosing a name becomes an important factor in building equity (Lerman and Garbarino, 2002). Surnames, for instance, have been shown to suggest specific personality assumptions (Mehrabian and Piercy, 1993) while the names' phonetic variations seem to create different brand perceptions (Yorkston and Menon, 2004). Beyond phonetics, entrepreneurs often attempt to make use of semantics through developing names with inherent meanings that enable the development of favourable and unique associations.The many possibilities that exist for choosing business names create considerable debate, at both academic and business levels, over what makes a good name. On the one hand, some believe that the best names are the abstract ones, upon which an image can be crafted. Others think that names must be informative to allow consumers to easily comprehend what the business is about. Coined names, on the other hand, are perceived by some to be more memorable than names that use actual words. Others believe these names are less memorable.Generally, entrepreneurs choose business names through one or more of three general naming alternatives: novelty (choose a name after careful deliberation and consideration of the various business prospects), translation (translate from/into other languages), and convenience (copy and modify existing trade names, i.e. copy/paste names). Since the later option is straight forward and inexpensive, it is commonly adopted by many entrepreneurs.Although entrepreneurs seem to know the major considerations in naming a business, they appear to lack the ability to put that knowledge to use when naming their businesses. Thus, this study aims at helping them to overcome the naming difficulties through developing a name-creation model that is easily understood and applicable in a wide variety of naming situations. This model can be used to select names that communicate the expertise, value and distinctiveness of the product or service provided. Literature review: The literature review section is devoted to discussing the value of trade names, the scenery of trade names in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), trade names in international literature, and trade name translation.Trade name value Research design: The research design section is devoted to explain the various steps that have been undertaken in order to acquire the needed data. In this section, the research objectives are stated and the development and administration of the questionnaire is described.Research objectives Results and discussions: The data analysis and discussion section is composed of three parts. The first part is devoted to discuss the naming problems that Arab entrepreneurs face. The data used in this part were the actual trade names of participating entrepreneurs and they were analyzed qualitatively. The second part was devoted to the development of the four stages of optimal naming model as stated in the research objectives. The third part is dedicated to explaining the implications of the research results to both entrepreneurs and academicians.Classification of naming problems Conclusion: Traditionally, a corporate name was simply a trade name that described an industry, a service or a product and, most often, the corporate name was that of the founder's, i.e. Ford and Mercedes-Benz. As companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of corporate reputation, their newly created names are now designed to evoke associations with a set of core corporate values that typically focus on themes such as life, competence, unity, vision, and performance.While there is no dearth of studies on branding and trade names, this is the first study in the field that aims to construct a model for choosing a trade name. Researchers have focused mainly on equity and value; very few studied the naming process as a mechanism for value-creation.The results of this study show that the majority of entrepreneurs in the UAE understand the importance of a good name in jump-starting a business. Unfortunately, that understanding is not put into use. The flood of the not-so-carefully chosen trade names continues to overflow the Arabian markets, alienating both local and international prospects, as well as, wiping out any real possibility of internationalizing Arabic names.The optimal name development model discussed in this study was based on the feedback received from entrepreneurs who demonstrated in their answers that they knew what a good trade name should look like. Yet, a quick analysis of the names they have chosen for their businesses will shock even the most novice observer; poorly translated names, names deeply buried in long-forgotten local traditions, names chosen solely for legal documentations, offsprings' names, spouses' names, tribal names that are dreaded by the other competing tribes, etc. Most of these names are doomed to obscurity. They are difficult to promote, hard to read and pronounce, and building the necessary associations and image around them could prove to be very costly.Why do those entrepreneurs acknowledge the importance of names, while not putting this precious knowledge into practice when naming their businesses is a question that is outside the scope of this study. However, what this study has sought to achieve is classifying the major naming problems in the UAE and providing a procedure, a process, or a way of naming that enables both entrepreneurs and practitioners to overcome these problems and develop names that improve businesses' chances of success.
Changing the behaviour of traditional bakers in a Chinese multi-family owned food company through workplace action learning in Hong Kong	[ "Hong Kong", "Family firms", "Action learning", "Workplace learning", "Change management" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Moon cakes are a traditional food eaten to celebrate Chinese festivals. For ages, they have been produced by master bakers using their own secret recipes. Knowledge was rarely shared and the junior bakers learned through long years of association and learning-by-doing, until it was their turn to assume the chief position. The production process was hand-crafted and labour intensive and modern machine technology was shunned.In this simple scenario lies the problem focus of the paper; which touches on issues of company leadership, the power of cultural traditions over commercial sense and the imperative to change workplace learning and management practices in order to survive an increasingly competitive business environment.Thematically the paper tells the story of the struggle between tradition and change in a Chinese, multi-family owned enterprise, located in Hong Kong. On one side are the Chinese "elder statesmen" owners and senior managers, along with the bakers, most of them with over 50 years of business and workplace experience and a definite "mindset", mostly tradition-bound and conservative. On the other side are the younger generation of managers, some Western educated, with a determined agenda predicting a less secure and profitable business future unless a transformative change management strategy is pursued. At the heart of the story of practical, research-based change management is workplace action learning. Unless the bakers could be persuaded to change the work habits of a lifetime through workplace learning there could be no progress. The driver for change was workplace action learning and the lubricant action research. The focus for this drama is the humble moon cake and its transformation from a single product to a growing number of varieties.Expressed in more formal terms the research had the following focal points, expressed as core questions:Q1. To what extent would a workplace learning program designed for workers in the traditional bakery department result in improved outcomes for the business enterprise?Q2. Specifically, would the workplace learning program result in changed work behaviour, notably in the competent use of new technology, leading to improved productivity and product innovation?Both the first broad question and the multi-factor second provided the focus for the action learning strategy and action research method and a means of determining what was intended to happen in the workplace learning program in relation to the actual outcomes. Both questions were intended to demonstrate the relationship between the change management and workplace learning agenda on the input side and tangible business results on the outcomes side.First, it is necessary to set the scene a little more by referring to the contextual and conceptual background of the company and the bakery in particular. Contextual background: the characteristics of the Chinese multi-family owned food company in Hong Kong: The case study company grew from a small group of business-minded Chinese moving to Hong Kong from the Mainland in the late 1940s, principally to escape the oppression of communism. The company grew and moon cakes and other products were exported to the international market in the early 1980s, while continuing to serve a vibrant local Chinese market through a chain of retail outlets and restaurants. Throughout the years of expansion and consolidation the leadership remained deeply entrenched in a traditional Chinese business and management mindset with the company comfortably positioned to largely ignore "the winds of change" in an increasingly technology driven and a more competitive market environment.During this time the moon cake also remained the same kind of simple and single "flagship" product, symbolic of the state of the company. What was a symbol of success for the "elder statesmen" was considered a problem for the younger generation, who were altogether more keenly aware of the need for modernisation. It was decided that the best way to demonstrate the argument for change in strategic thinking was to prove the case that a transformation in the workplace behaviour of the tradition-bound bakers (embracing attitudes and values, new product knowledge and multi-skilled competencies in the tools of technology, different relations with management and so forth) would result in good business outcomes. Permission was eventually given by the "elder statesmen" for a change management process to begin, specifically concentrated on the bakery department but also including related functions (such as product marketing and advertising).The rest of the paper describes the change management process and analyses the outcomes, with special attention given to workplace action learning and underpinning theory. The conceptual background: workplace learning and the traditional Chinese business enterprise: Although the prime mover for the change management process was a pragmatic business interest there was an appreciation that several useful conceptual ideas existed that would provide the research with a "big picture" framework.After an extensive review a few theories and models were deliberately selected to provide an overview and framework, as well as ideas that were practically concerned with the process of organisational and workplace change, within which workplace learning was regarded as a primary driver. If there is a consensus within organisational change theory it is that the process has to involve people and that workplace learning plays a central role in the transfer of ideas from vision through to tangible outcomes. This thinking accorded with the overall spirit and form of the change management strategy from the outset.Specifically, the seminal ideas of Kurt Lewin, the "father" of organisational change theory were matched with more current interpretations, notably those studies explaining the imperative for transformation in production processes, product design and quality, service delivery and other aspects of business enterprise that impact upon structures, strategies, policies, budgets, reward systems, learning and competence, the attitudes and behaviour of the work force and so forth (Lewin, 1951; Kanter, 1983, 1997; Thompson, 1990; Dunphy and Stace, 1990; Senge, 1990, Senge et al., 1994; Wilson, 1992; and a summary overview by Elsey, 1997), to name just a few writers on this vast subject that were selectively used in the action research).For example, the simple model of the "New Workplace Culture" (NWC), a term used by Australian commentators, proved useful as a conceptual framework as it was clear that the process of change envisaged for the bakery would ultimately transform the management style of the company, and more immediately the production methods and quality procedures. This would involve the introduction of new tools of technology requiring the upgrading of the bakers' skills and competency levels through workplace learning and training (Elsey, 1997). In addition the ideas of Dunphy and Stace (1990) introduced the concepts of the speed and scale of organisational change as well as the direction (from top-down to bottom up or a combination of both strategies). The writings of others provided more critical insight into the conceptual terrain of organizational change strategies (Wilson, 1992).With regard to the research approach, it was intuitively decided that the change strategy would rely upon a collaborative style and what various authors have termed a "participative evolution" scale of change management. It was considered essential to the integrity of the action learning and research approach that the management leadership would get as close as possible to the bakery workers and pave the way forward through a participative learning strategy; first on trust building and second to a more performance-based approach designed to prepare the team members for a different kind of workplace culture with a sharper competitive mentality. Third, it was always the intention to demonstrate that the workplace learning and overall change management agenda actually produced tangible "bottom line" outcomes as measured by company profits, through the marketing and sales of the "new model" moon cake, using the new international airport retail outlet as the measure of performance.The contribution of Lewin's theory lay in its emphasis on the dynamics of organisational change. His Force Field Model of Change suited the overall thinking very closely as it deals with two forces impacting upon each other:1. the driving force expressed through the overall vision for the future, leading to an argument for adopting a far-reaching change management agenda and methodology; and2. meeting resistance from tradition-bound workplace practices from the bakers and, for sometime, the "elder statesmen" in the company.The equilibrium first had to be disturbed by enlisting, at least through passive support, the senior management by getting their permission for the change agenda to be implemented in the bakery department. The next big step was to persuade the bakers that, in spite of considerable success with moon cake production and sales, there was definite "room for improvement" by adopting the thinking and practices of the "New Workplace Culture" (NWC).Lewin's model came more closely into play in implementing this three-stage process: "unfreezing", changing and "refreezing". The unfreezing to changing process was translated into the need to build a climate of trust between management and the bakery workers that would naturally lead into a readiness to acquire different workplace behaviour and eventually to applying the new thinking and learning in changed workplace situations. Refreezing was ready to proceed when it was evident that the bakers had adopted what amounts to innovative ways of doing the work of the bakery with head and heart as well as their hands.Altogether the selective use of these various theories and models was intended more for providing a conceptual overview and a useful applied practice framework, to illuminate the connectedness of the "big picture", rather than attempt to challenge existing knowledge. It was obvious that the concerns of middle management in the food company about the long-term competitive performance and organisational effectiveness connected to ideas already in circulation about the nature of the change management process. In sum, the background of ideas served the practical purpose similar to that of a compass, that is to say, as a tool for finding direction and staying focused on the objectives and desired outcomes of the action learning process at the bakery workplace.To implement a vision for a new workplace culture through a workplace learning-centred change management strategy under the broad guidance of the extant literature is one thing, to achieve it in a Chinese-owned and managed enterprise is another. It was essential to obtain an intellectual appreciation of the latter from the literature, to accompany the experiential learning through everyday management. There is a growing body of knowledge on the characteristics of the Chinese business enterprise, notably its style of management and what might be achieved to bring about organisational change through workplace learning (Elsey and Leung, 2004).As the central focus was about workplace learning it is relevant to identify and highlight literature that relates most closely in a Chinese business. As one study argues (Boisot and Fiol, 1987), traditionally the Chinese are happy to receive foreign knowledge and technology without recreating what they perceive as an alien culture. However, to use the metaphor of organ transplants, it is necessary for the host culture to make a great deal more adjustments to avoid rejection. In the case of the bakery, the workers had to undertake a major mindset change in order to understand the dynamics of the new workplace culture that was necessary to manage competitive forces from rivals. This change in work behaviour had to go further than simply learning how to operate new technology and become more multi-skilled.To this end the three dimensional "Learning Cube Model" proposed by Boisot and Fiol proved a useful conceptual approach to the change agenda using action learning. The three dimensions closely reflected the key characteristics of action learning: addressing concrete, real-world problems; giving autonomy to the learner; and promoting learning through peer group interaction. The model also served a useful practical purpose in monitoring the evolution of the action learning sets as they moved towards thinking and deciding as a team, rather than being led by the manager or trying to impress by behaving in an individual manner (consistent with the custom and practice of traditional bakery craftsmanship).Not only that, it was imperative that the team members used workplace learning to stimulate motivation and increase work satisfaction while coming to terms with using new technology and inventing ways and means of improving product innovation and increased productivity. The entire workplace learning agenda grew in its scope and scale as the action research cycles became more task-centred, once the trust building process had been consolidated. Stated in a complementary way, the objectives of the change agenda had to ensure that workplace learning progressed from:* doing work in a custom-honoured way;* to doing things more effectively;* to engaging workers in a process of new learning; through to* being able to reflect on the relationship of knowledge and skills to the changing production and business environment (Galagan, 1993).In summary, a number of theories of organizational change and workplace learning underpinned the research and overall conceptualisation. It should be noted that the ones chosen leaned towards a practical change management agenda, as might be expected in such a grounded piece of research. Moreover, as the company was located firmly in a Chinese management mindset, that is to say, driven by business-related outcomes there was no scope for entertaining ideas that could not be related to practical considerations. Therefore it is useful to pay passing attention to the Chinese nature of the company and its approach to business enterprise.Current literature of the Chinese family-owned business (CFOB) highlights the point that management has to increasingly deal with the new challenges posed by global competition and the immense power of multinational corporations (Lee, 1996). The author portrays a view of "old style" management practices as "illogical, unscientific, and paternalistic" (Lee, 1996, p. 66) and that anyone challenging this deep culture has to face resistance and conflict from the conservatives. It is to the credit of the company middle management that through rational argument they succeeded in getting the "elder statesmen" to "suspend disbelief" as the drama of a transformative change management and workplace learning agenda for the bakery department was given their blessing, well ahead of any actual proof of profitable business outcome.Expressed more elaborately, the senior managers had to be persuaded to relax the habits of thought and action that favoured centralised over decentralised decision making, in order to foster a "bottom up" workplace learning culture. They had to embrace analytical over intuitive thinking, by incorporating the complexities of new technology and production methods. It was also necessary to accept more formal reporting and information sharing with the action learning sets, especially with innovations in product development of the moon cake. Eventually they had to place the company more deliberately on public view, in allowing the bakery department to submit their improved workplace practices to external assessment (the "Q" mark quality assurance project, explained shortly). In effect the company had to allow itself to conform more to the nature of Western business organisation, while still retaining the "face" and heart of a Chinese family-owned enterprise (Weidenbaum, 1996).To make explicit an important point, it is rare to get behind the dynamics of the micro-level operations of a Chinese enterprise, even more so a multi-family owned business (Ng and Ng, 1994). Therefore the research offers a privileged opportunity to observe the attitudes and behaviours of the managers and workers of a Chinese organisation managing the agenda and process of far-reaching change with its emphasis on workplace learning as the key driver. The research design and method: There is an expansive literature on action learning and action research and it is only intended to make passing note to these sources as a general background to the overall design and methodology. It is useful, however, to provide an overview of the research and to note that it was based on a single case study.The research conformed to the applied paradigm, that is to say, deliberately designed to lead to the identification and solution of special problems (Gill and Johnson, 1991). It was also action oriented, to the extent of using the research process as the deliberate vehicle for change, notably by involving members of the action learning set in managing the process of ideas development and application, following Kurt Lewin in his seminal writings (Lewin, 1946). The simple premise is that if you want to understand something well it is necessary to try changing it, within the discipline imposed by systematic research. This viewpoint exactly suited the ambitions of the younger generation of company managers.The action research used in the project conformed, as far as practically possible, to received definitions, conceptualisations and methods of implementation (Rapoport, 1970; Cunningham, 1976; Hult and Lennung, 1980; Kemmis and McTaggart, 1992; Dick, 1993). The distinction between action research and action learning also followed the thoughts of other well-known writers (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991; Zuber-Skerrit, 1990, 1996) as well as the seminal thinking of the originator of action learning (Revans, 1977, 1982, 1985). As the entire action research process relied heavily on adult learning the conceptual thinking that comprised the underpinning drew on principles that had been published in scholarly publications (Kolb, 1984; Marsick, 1987; McGill and Beaty, 1992; Marquardt, 1996). Finally, the nature and limitations of case study research were understood and recognised as a limitation on wider generalisation and theory building (Yin, 1989; Abraham, 1997).As an overview of the entire research process, Figure 1 provides a clear conceptual framework. More specifically with regard to desired outcomes, see Figure 2. The action learning set members: Membership of the action learning team is shown in Table I. The team was complemented as required by others with particular kinds of expertise in parallel groups, such as "Packaging Design Development", "Production Planning Development", "Advertising and Marketing Resources" and the "Airport Consulting" group. Altogether seven groups provided knowledge and experience support to the central action learning team to assist with their thinking and learning. In effect the action learning process transcended a single team to include others in the company, especially what might be described as the technical knowledge level of workplace competency. Meticulous notes were taken of each and every action learning team meetings, as well as parallel groups, in Chinese and translated into English afterwards.The action research cycles: (1) trust and team building Conclusion: It is well to recall that the whole project, including the use of concepts such as action workplace learning, action research and organisational change management, was driven by a business "bottom line" emphasis. There was an unequivocal concern to achieve tangible outcomes; measured in increased productivity, improved quality assurance, product innovation, marketing initiatives and, above all else, profit margins. The human resource aspect, such as better motivation, knowledge sharing and multi-skilling and other improvements in workplace learning and behaviour were always considered secondary outcomes. The deep culture of a Chinese organisation had not changed that much. Nonetheless, remarkable changes had been effected and these milestones conclude this paper.One significant milestone was the deliberate use of theory, that is to say, abstract and conceptual thought as an explanatory device, to guide the members of the action learning team on the course of a major change management transformation. They learned about the ideas of Kurt Lewin and the nature of action workplace learning, participative research and many other "big picture" ideas by linking theory to applied practice in an immediate and relevant way. Although theory often had to take a backstage place, compared with pragmatic management and business objectives, at least they were united by the same common cause.Theory certainly played a leading role in both understanding the nature of workplace learning and reflecting on the outcomes of many changes that had stemmed from converting the basic mindset of the bakery workers. Learning was centrally involved in the process of creating a new workplace culture, as the foundation for product innovation and productivity improvements. These changes would probably not have been managed so successfully if the workers had simply been ordered to learn new knowledge and skills. The impetus for change through voluntary motivation had to come from within the hearts and minds of the workers; that is, their understanding and reasoning why new variations of the traditional moon cake product was necessary for survival in a competitive marketplace. It is well to note that the level of education within the action learning set was only average, with only the team leader having had the benefit of higher learning.The process of workplace learning embraced both structural and cultural change, for it was clearly not sufficient to have one without the other. What was required was transformative change to create new conditions for product innovation and improved productivity, with workers having to learn different ways of approaching their craft cognitively as much as manually. Mere "muscle memory" was never going to be enough to sustain the change process from building trust through to achieving new business outcomes. It had to include the higher-level competency of innovative thinking and complex problem solving.The final milestone was the achievement of what amounts to a holistic approach to change management using action workplace learning to include many other company members in a complex process of transformation. It is evident that higher levels of competency were reached to facilitate a cross-company operation to prepare for the airport retail project and sustain its initial development. More than that, it satisfied the business imperatives of the "elder statesmen" and built the core of a renewed confidence in the company to venture forward with new product ideas and other enterprise projects.It would be foolish to argue that workplace learning alone was the heroic catalyst that changed the mindset and behaviour of the bakery staff. The change management movement was too complex for that, but it is clear that workplace learning was at the very core of the far-reaching transformation. There seems to be no particular theoretical explanation of workplace learning to pinpoint how the bakers modified their minds and agreed to embark on substantial behaviour change. It started with what they already knew as the beginning of a long learning journey to include new skills in the application of complicated production technology, knowledge sharing and team-based problem solving to create a whole new range of upmarket moon cake products. The learning was, on the one hand, very practical and applied, but on the other hand involved a great deal of cognitive, "big picture" reflective thinking and inter-personal communication that was different from anything experienced in the workplace before.At the end of the learning journey these bakery craftsmen (it is a male dominated occupation in Hong Kong) could see the transformation that had taken place under their direction and control and justly take pride in how a simple product like the moon cake could be reworked into an impressive array of variations for international travellers at the airport shop.There are two key ideas that can be learned from the relative novelty of a Chinese workplace learning and change management case study that would benefit an international audience.First, in most respects the whole approach, with its blend of good strategic thinking, competent planning and implementation of the change process, together with vision and persuasion, passionate commitment, sheer determination and other personal qualities of leadership, is the stuff of the textbook. What is special is the deliberate use of theory to ground the action learning research within a conceptual field, rather than be driven by ad hoc pragmatism. It takes a kind of courage to call upon theory to explain the whole change management process to ordinary workers and engage them in a long march through a complex action learning agenda to produce tangible business outcomes.The second point refers to the use of the MBA to develop future managers. It is interesting to note that quite recent research in Australia has detailed the demise of action learning from the MBA curriculum (Riley, 2005). The research explains the consensus in the literature concerning the widespread business and organisational development benefits of action learning as a relevant methodology. As the case study has demonstrated, action learning proved to be a successful method in bringing about quite significant transformative change in a tradition-bound bakery and the food company generally. Clearly, action learning is a real and relevant strategy with good business outcomes. However, current knowledge about action learning is rapidly fading from the very highest education programs that provide the foundation for managers to acquire the competence and confidence to employ it as a change strategy.
Norms, cognitive dissonance, and cooperative behaviour in laboratory experiments	[ "Cognitive dissonance", "Laboratory experiments", "Social norms", "Experimentation", "Individual behaviour" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1 Introduction: It is a common finding in laboratory experiments that cooperative behaviour, i.e. behaviour to the benefit of others, occurs more frequently than an analysis of the underlying monetary incentives would suggest (see, for example, Camerer, 2003, for a summary of large parts of the evidence). As laboratory experiments in economics mostly try to reduce all allusions to the subjects' social context to a minimum in order to facilitate the attribution of observed behaviour to the remaining strategic incentives, the motivation for such behaviour is usually sought in the agents' general fairness concerns or inequity aversion (Fehr and Schmidt, 1999; Bolton and Ockenfels, 2000). However, while such arguments undoubtedly capture many aggregate effects quite well, they are often less explicit about specific behavioural patterns and usually provide only a rather rough intuition for why people should care for the utility of others.In the present paper, I take up the discussion about the individual driving forces behind cooperative and other-regarding behaviour in the lab and emphasise a potential psychological source of (selfish) incentives to act to the economic benefit of others. In particular, taking as given the general importance of social institutions[1] and in particular social norms for economic development (North, 1990, 1993; Putnam, 1993), I will argue that subjects should exhibit a general inclination to cooperate also in the rather anonymous setting of the lab - at least to begin with - in order to avoid negative feelings connected with norm-disobedient behaviour (often summarised as a "guilty conscience"). More specifically, I will invoke common arguments in terms of identity consistent behaviour (Akerlof and Kranton, 2000, 2005; Wichardt, 2008, 2011) and cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957; Nail et al., 2004; Harmon-Jones and Mills, 1999) to argue:that people who identify with common cooperative social norms will have a kind of internal enforce device for norm-obedient behaviour; andthat the conditions necessary to trigger this device are usually satisfied in the lab.Moreover, as I hope will become clear for the subsequent discussion, the argument provides not only a possible rationale for the appearance of other-regarding behaviour - anchoring such behaviour in the subjects' individual (and selfish) desire to comply with the internalised social norms. As the behavioural effects around cognitive dissonance have received considerable attention in the psychology literature over the years (Harmon-Jones and Mills, 1999; Nail et al., 2004), it also allows for some more differentiated predictions regarding the occurrence of cooperation and the specific behavioural patterns in connection with deviations from the norm; and, as I will argue below, these predictions indeed appear to be consistent with a variety of empirical evidence. In fact, emphasising the importance of the social aspects of a decision, the argument also indicates a potential rationale for why certain behavioural patterns appear to depend strongly on whether subjects play with other subjects or a computer (see, for example, Bohnet and Zeckhauser, 2004; see Fehr, 2009, for a more general discussion focusing on the determinants of trust), namely because only the social interactions (but not interactions with a technical random device) will trigger associations with the internalised social norms, the associated feelings and psychological enforcement mechanisms and, eventually, the respective tendency towards other-regarding behavioural patterns.Finally, I want to emphasise that although cognitive dissonance as discussed below may, in various respects, be interpreted as similar to feelings of guilt, the present discussion differs in at least one major respect from common arguments in terms of guilt aversion and psychological games (Geanakoplos et al., 1989; Charness and Dufwenberg, 2006; Battigalli and Dufwenberg, 2007). In particular, while the avoidance of negative feelings - cognitive dissonance/feelings of guilt - is central to both types of argument, the main focus of the present one is on why and when such feeling are likely to arise, in particular in the lab, and how they will influence behaviour during the course of an experiment. Questions about the behavioural responses against beliefs about the intentions of others, by contrast, are at most considered indirectly. Nevertheless, I hope that the subsequent discussion about the influence of social norms in the lab and the importance of their perceived relevance, which may serve as an anchor for the subjects' beliefs about the intentions of others, will also provide some interesting insights for the ongoing research on psychological games and guilt aversion.The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, I briefly review some of the common behavioural effects in connection with cognitive dissonance and identity and argue how they will interact with cooperative social norms; based on this discussion, I then outline some implications for behaviour in cooperative lab experiments. In Section 3, I demonstrate how these implications square with the empirical evidence. Section 4 concludes. 2 How social norms matter in the lab: This section is devoted to a discussion of the interplay between social norms and cognitive dissonance and the corresponding behavioural effects as far as relevant for the interpretation of behaviour in cooperative lab experiments. The main implications of the argument are summarised at the end of the section.2.1 Norms and cognitive dissonance 3 Empirical evidence: In the sequel, I illustrate the implications of the above argument by means of some common empirical findings. The first part of the discussion (Section 3.1) is devoted to more the general aspects of behaviour as considered in Implication 1. More specific aspects concerning the individual behaviour in response to non-cooperative behaviour, considered in Implication 2, are taken up in the second part (Section 3.2).3.1 The general impact of norms 4 Concluding remarks: In this paper, I have argued that and how social norms can induce cooperative behaviour in the lab even against the agents' own monetary incentives, namely via cognitive dissonance (the threat of a "guilty conscience"). In particular, drawing on common findings in social psychology, I have discussed under which conditions such cognitive dissonance effects are most likely to occur and how they may change during repeated interactions, especially if the setting is such that social norms cannot be enforced effectively (e.g. because neither institutional nor individual punishment of deviators is possible). Furthermore, in order to support and illustrate the argument, I have considered a variety of empirical findings and shown how they square with hypothesised aggregate and individual effects.Of course, the basic idea, namely that social considerations are important for individual decision making is not new. And, naturally, large parts of the evidence taken by themselves are also consistent with the various models of fairness and reciprocity (Rabin, 1993; Fehr and Schmidt, 1999; Charness and Rabin, 2002; Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger, 2004; Falk and Fischbacher, 2006) or guilt aversion (Charness and Dufwenberg, 2006)[23]. Different from many of these approaches, however, the primary goal of the present paper was not too argue that social preferences matter and what type of aggregate effects this may induce. Rather I wanted to emphasise and illustrate the individual enforcement mechanisms at work and the conditions necessary for them to be effective. Put differently, taking effects such as inequity or guilt aversion as given, the present discussion can be seen as an enquiry into the driving forces behind such phenomena asking why and when they will be most effective and why and when they will not.Summing up, on a general level, the present argument suggests that social connotations have a tangible influence on behaviour even in situation where they are reduced to a minimum such as the rather anonymous atmosphere of most lab experiments. In that sense, it emphasises the importance of context-effects for behaviour suggesting that a stronger social framing inducing more cooperative behaviour (as it increases the salience of common social norms). Accordingly, one conclusion that can be drawn from the present discussion is that any model of utility that eventually aims to capture what is commonly referred to as social preferences (such as fairness considerations) should be context dependent - at least to some degree - and predict other-regarding behaviour to be more visible in instances for which social aspects of the interaction are more pronounced and where the necessary conditions for cognitive dissonance to occur are satisfied (Section 2).Moreover, the reliance of the present argument on general social norms strongly suggests that, in order to understand the driving forces behind other-regarding individual behaviour in the lab, analysing the data alone is not enough. Instead it seems that these data have to be appropriately combined with what is known about the subjects' frame of reference, in particular the social norms they are used to. In that sense, I am for example sceptical regarding claims such as the one made by Fehr and Fischbacher (2003, p. 785) about the determinants of altruism (defined as the costly act to confer economic benefits to others), namely that sound knowledge about the specific motives behind altruistic acts predominantly stems from laboratory experiments. In fact, with the present discussion in mind, I would rather be inclined to argue that it is only the combination of the empirical evidence (from the lab) with the intuitive knowledge all of us possess about common social interaction, i.e. the social institutions and social norms involved, that shapes our understanding of the specific motives behind altruistic/cooperative acts[24].Finally, a more specific conclusion that is suggested by the preceding argument is that observing convergence to Nash in lab experiments, i.e. a more pronounced focus on economics outcomes, does not contradict or conflict with the existence of social preferences. In fact, as argued before, once the subjects recognise the inapplicability of common social norms in the lab through non-cooperative experience, this will increases their perceived external justification for own deviations from the norm (and thereby weaken the deterrent effects of cognitive dissonance). Thus, if economic incentives remain constant in absolute terms, their relative importance will increase. In other words, while social preferences often have a strong impact on behaviour in early rounds, monetary incentives eventually will take over as non-cooperative experience in the respective context adds up. In that sense, the present discussion also indicates bridge between common arguments in terms of social preferences and the equally common claim that people eventually will learn to "play Nash", i.e. to rationally respond to economic incentives.
Senior citizens' requirements of services provided by community-based care facilities: a China study	[ "China", "Service", "Briefing", "Community-based facility", "Senior citizen", "Embedded retirement facility", "ERF" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Population ageing, with urbanisation, has become one of the greatest challenges throughout the world in the twenty-first century. The effects of China's 37 years of the one-child policy, combined with significant improvements in health-care services, have made the country's population grow more rapidly than those of nearly all other countries. Although the government has been facilitating social reform of the industry and service for the aged since 2011 to face the rapid ageing situation (that is, "9073" and "9064" retirement patterns: 90 per cent of the senior citizens obtaining home-based care with the help of relatives or trained workers, 7 or 6 per cent using community-based services such as day care, the 3 or 4 per cent remaining staying in nursing homes (Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources & Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, 2015; The People's Government of Beijing Municipality, 2008; The People's Government of Shanghai Municipality, 2007), which have been formed during the past years), the Chinese Government still has many difficulties in catering to senior citizens' needs regarding ageing in place. 2. Literature review: Physical environments significantly impact individuals of all ages, especially senior citizens, who rely on their immediate locality for support and assistance. Age-friendly housing design, supportive neighbourhoods and connections to families and communities are overarching themes that may help in dealing with the social isolation of senior citizens (Biggs and Carr, 2015; Buffel et al., 2012; Chan et al., 2016). Given that these individuals spend most of their time in homes and communities, they are likely to be sensitive to the services provided by community-based facilities. 3. Research methods: 3.1 Document analysis and brainstorming session 4. Analysis results: 4.1 Characteristics of respondents 5. Discussions: 5.1 Senior citizens' requirements of services provided by embedded retirement facilities 6. Conclusion: Population ageing results in an increasing demand for services meant for senior citizens. From the perspectives of humanities and political economy, promoting senior citizens' participation in building ERFs not only fosters quality and social justice but also ensures that public policies safeguard the rights of senior citizens. Although senior citizens are the end users of community-based facilities, their needs are easily overlooked by decision-makers and facility managers. In addition, senior citizens in China are predominantly passive and relatively silent in formal and informal civic participation because they normally hope that policy-makers can notice and satisfy their requirements.
ISO 9001:2000 in small organisations: Lost opportunities, benefits and influencing factors	[ "ISO 9000 series", "Quality management", "Case studies", "Small enterprises", "Critical success factors" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: Many organisations invest considerable resources in obtaining certification to the quality management standards. Although ISO 9000 has widespread international acceptance, the benefits achieved from the systems are surrounded by many controversies and disagreements. Most of the previous studies investigated areas such as the motives for seeking certification, factors important for succeeding with the standard and benefits from the QMS (e.g. Carlsson and Carlsson, 1996; Singels et al., 2001; Casadeus and Gimenez, 2000; Tsiotras and Gotzamani, 1996). Whereas the motives and success factors don't provide any problems and the research leads to consistent conclusions, the findings on benefits are inconsistent and often contradictory. While some studies point mostly to the marketing contribution (Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, 1994; Quazi and Padibjo, 1998), others especially emphasise the internal improvements in organisations (Terziovski et al., 1997; Brown et al., 1998).Most of the studies used questionnaire surveys as data collection methods, which provide a limited possibility to investigate the context of designing and operating a quality management system (QMS). ISO 9000 is actually only a framework for identifying and managing activities that have an impact on quality. The standard is intended for broad application by a broad range of organisations and there is considerable flexibility in the adjustment of requirements to the particular needs of an organisation. Considering the diversity of business environments, the QMSs designed according to ISO 9001 differ from organisation to organisation to a large extent.Many questionnaire surveys show that the motivation for certification influences the outcomes of QMSs. The overall benefits the organisations gain from the standard are related to the motive that initiated the drive for the certification (e.g. Tsiotras and Gotzamani, 1996; Poksinska et al., 2002; Jones et al., 1997; Singels et al., 2001). Organisations that seek certification focusing on organisational improvements achieve higher overall benefits. In contrast, companies that seek certification for some external motives like corporate image or market share achieve major benefits only in these fields. The findings show that there is no explicit answer about the advantages and disadvantages of ISO 9001. The benefits achieved from the system are not provided by the standard itself, but by the method of implementation and the way of operating it. For these reasons, questionnaire surveys are not the best method to provide consistent findings on the QMS's benefits. There is a need for a larger number of cases with a wide variety of contextually different situations, in which the target problem may be evaluated. By comparing or integrating the different cases it may be possible to answer the question why do organisations achieve such different results from QMSs. Without a more in-depth analysis of the impacts of the standard on business performance and the identification of critical success factors, the question of whether ISO 9000 is a tool for improving business performance will be difficult to answer.This paper provides a case study illustration of three small businesses that have recently gained ISO 9001:2000 certificates. The primary aim of the study was to investigate and to understand the practice of implementing and operating the QMS in the context of small organisations. The paper focuses on discussing motives for certification, the general way of operating the QMS, as well as benefits and factors that negatively or positively influenced the implementation and operation of the system. This paper aims also to contribute to the explanation why organisations achieve such different results from ISO 9000. Previous research: The case organisations are small and therefore the literature review will only focus on studies performed in small enterprises. There is no single definition of a small organisation, but there are definitions based upon several different factors, such as turnover, investment or market. However, most definitions use the number of employees and the authors also use this criterion. Small organisations in Europe are defined as organisations with fewer than 250 employees (EFQM, 1999). The review will include both case studies and questionnaire surveys and try to reflect the current stage of research on QMS implementation and operation in small enterprises.Most of the studies include the following areas of research: motivation for the standard implementation, effects, costs, and reasons for failure. For the summary of the literature review see Table I.Most of the studies have revealed that marketing-related elements are the major driving forces for ISO 9001-3 certification (Brown et al., 1998; Mo and Chan, 1997). Many small organisations face strong external pressure from customers and governmental bodies. The ISO 9000 worldwide push has probably had more impact on smaller organisations than larger ones. Some studies indicate that many organisations are increasingly demanding their suppliers to be certified (Corbett, 2002; Poksinska et al., 2002). Often the reasons reported are also about maintaining a competitive position in the industry and the ability to capture a greater market share. Small organisations need an externally generated motive to push them into a decision to implement ISO 9000 (Nwankwo, 2000).According to some studies, the business benefits of ISO 9000 certification should be the same for small organisations as for large organisations and include both internal and external benefits (Gustafsson et al., 2001; Brown et al., 1998). Only the difficulties of implementation appear to be more critical to small organisations because of their smaller size and limited resources. According to Brown (1998) the most important benefits mentioned by the respondents include not only improvements in the quality of products and services, but also improved management control and quality awareness. Improved quality awareness by employees was also one of the most important benefits found by Nwankwo (2000) and Karltun et al. (1998). Other important internal effects are improved traceability, reduced amount of scrap and defects (Gustafsson et al., 2001). Williams (1997) finds also significant improvements in employee involvement. The external effects most often mentioned are improved image and opportunity to use it as a marketing tool (Nwankwo, 2000).There are also some negative opinions about the value of ISO 9001 for small organisations (Seddon, 1998; Sanders, 1994). Seddon (1998) argues that implementation of ISO 9000 didn't improve, but rather worsened the quality practices of UK companies. He states that ISO 9000 promotes "quality by inspection", which increases errors, adds to costs and lowers morale. Organisations are encouraged to act in ways which make things worse for their customers (Seddon, 1997). Sanders (1994) argues that small organisations often complain that ISO 9000 just results in increased paper work and cannot give them any internal benefits, such as the reduction of scrap or increased productivity. Some studies report also that some organisations cannot see any changes at all as a result of the ISO 9001 implementation (North et al., 1998; Gustafsson et al., 2001). The problem is that benefits of the ISO 9000 system are difficult to quantify and not many organisations spend time on assessing the impact of implementing and operating the system (Nwankwo, 2000; North et al., 1998; Mo and Chan, 1997). Therefore, the benefits reported in the different studies are usually based on subjective perceptions, not on real measurements (Nwankwo, 2000).Research to date has also revealed a number of reasons why some of the ISO 9000 certified organisations do not achieve the results expected from implementing the QMS. According to Nwankwo (2000), the results achieved from ISO 9000 are, without doubt, influenced by people's understanding of quality and quality systems. It might be that small organisations do not have enough knowledge about ISO 9000. The misinterpretation of requirements and the lack of strategic thinking frequently lead to stagnation of the QMS. Another reason is the inappropriate motivation for the standard implementation. Many organisations have obtained ISO 9001-3 only because their major customers require them to do so. With such an attitude, these organisations are less committed to the standard and focus their efforts only on achieving and preserving the certificate, which results in a poor implementation process and performance (Subba et al., 1997). An important reason is also lack of resources. Gustafsson et al. (2001) performed a survey study on small enterprises in Sweden. The results show that the total costs of the implementation and registration for small organisations are a high financial burden and that the expected costs are much lower than the actual costs. The cost of obtaining ISO 9000 can be a barrier for smaller organisations wishing to certify (Mo and Chan, 1997; Orsini, 1995). Also Brown (1998) finds that ISO 9000 series certification is generally an expensive process for small organisations and indicates that this is due to a greater need to use some external help. Many small organisations do not have a quality manager and several managers usually share the responsibility for the system. However, the staff are too busy with the existing jobs and do not do much to operate or to improve the system (Mo and Chan, 1997). Research methodology: This section describes the methodological approach of the case studies performed. A more detailed description of the research methodology may also be obtained from Poksinska (2003). In all three cases the same process of data collection was applied.Porras and Robertson's model was used as a framework for collecting and analysing data (Porras and Robertson, 1992), Figure 1. When developing the methodological approach, a dilemma was faced how to include such a huge number of variables and contextual factors, which may be of importance in answering the research questions. The Porras and Robertson model seemed to be appropriate in this matter because it represents a process of planned change, which is what ISO 9001 implementation actually is. The advantage of this model was that it structured and systematised the organisational work setting variables, which are important in case of ISO 9000 implementation and operation. The authors follow a pragmatic approach to the case study method (Fishman, 1999); the aim of using Porras and Robertson's model in the data collection process was not to prove the causal relationship between the three sets of variables, but to provide a guide to the complexity of the dynamics of organisational change.The data collection process started by studying quality manuals. The aim of studying quality manuals was to understand what goes on in the organisation, how it works, who is involved, what processes operate and how they are controlled. This information provided significant input into further data collection processes and allowed, among other things, taking decisions about the number of interviews and persons interviewed.The second stage at the organisations' site included interviews, document studies and a questionnaire survey of all employees. These three data collection methods were organised so that they offered multiple data sources. The data were collected on the three sets of variables from Porras and Robertson's model: organisational work setting, employee behaviour and organisational outcomes.Interviews Case settings: The organisations studied represent three examples of case situations where ISO 9001:2000 was implemented. Since all three companies wished to be anonymous, the names ALFA, BETA and GAMMA were assigned to them.The potential case organisations were randomly chosen from a list of certified organisations. However, there were three underlying criteria that needed to be fulfilled. First, the number of employees had to be smaller than 100. Second, case organisations were not to be ISO 9000:1994 certified. Third, the time from the certification was not to exceed one year. The reason for the second criterion was that in order to study change processes related to QMS's implementation, the case organisation was to be relatively "green", which means it was not to have implemented a standardised management system before. It was found that this criterion ensures better quality data and simplifies the identification of changes related only to ISO 9001 implementation. The third criterion was important for obtaining the necessary information related to the implementation process. On the one hand, study participants should have recent memories about how the standards were implemented. On the other hand, they should also have some experience from the work with the QMS. After performing the two case studies it was found that it would be interesting to study a third case, which had much longer experiences with ISO 9000 and had recently updated the QMS to the 2000 version. The summary of criteria for choosing the case study organisations and the time boundaries are shown in Table IV.ALFA Results: Motivation for implementation Discussion: Standardising practice vs practising standard Conclusions: The primary drivers for setting objectives do not come from ISO 9001 itself. They are influenced by the organisation's commitment to quality issues, its market position or simply the ambition to improve the organisation's performance. The case organisations started their ISO 9001:2000 implementation as a response to the requests of their major customers. Acquiring the certificates was the primary aim of the implementation work. Consequently, market demand was the major drive for employees' commitment to ISO 9001, which was, however, not always enough to operate the QMS efficiently.ISO 9001:2000 was implemented by standardising the practice and not by practising the standard. The requirements were interpreted in such a way that it was possible to describe the existing practice in the language of standards. The organisations stated that standardising practice is the starting point of the work with ISO 9001 and in the future they also want to practise the standard, but the lack of internal motivation stopped the process or made it very stagnant. The cases showed that it is possible to operate the QMS by standardising the practice alone.As a consequence of this approach many opportunities for improvement were lost. The QMS was not perceived as a tool for managing organisational processes, but as a tool for keeping and updating documentation. Consequently, this was reflected in the benefits achieved. Despite the external benefits like improved customer relations, the internal benefits most often mentioned were more structure and order in the work and standardisation of organisational processes. One should notice that those benefits result from standardising the practice. When looking at the indirect effects, organisations didn't believe that they could achieve many of them or they had difficulties in seeing organisational improvements as a consequence of operating the QMS. If the QMS is perceived as a documentation system, it is hard to believe that it may influence such aspects as product quality or market share.The people involved in the management system were identified in the case studies as the critical factor, influencing positively the implementation and operation of the QMS. The QMS cannot be operated without the involvement and understanding of the employees. Special emphasis was also given to the commitment of top management and the role of a quality manager. Top management need to signal the importance of the QMS, so employees will be willing to place a higher priority on improvement work among their other daily tasks. A knowledgeable and dedicated quality manager is important to solve the problems related to the system and drive the improvement process forward.One of the common mistakes made was the focus on the documentation, not on the activity documented. It was assumed that the change in the description of the activity would automatically change the behaviour of employees. For this reason, working instructions and procedures were perceived as a tool to control and enforce desired behaviour on the employees and not as supporting documents reflecting organisational practices.Finally, the certification organisations seem to have an important role for the effectiveness of the QMS. The auditors' view of the QMS may influence the way the system is operated. The case organisations expressed a relatively high level of disappointment with the amount of paperwork required. Much of the documentation is required for actually preparing material for audits. Auditors were documentation driven and the usual remarks concerned some missing documents, which did not provide any value for the organisations.
Business streamlining - an integrated model of service sourcing	[ "Outsourcing", "Purchasing", "Buyer-seller relationship", "Sourcing" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: The outsourcing of business processes is an increasingly important type of service purchasing. This implies that a broader range of business services are being externalized, including R&D, IT, administration, facilities management and even the sourcing function as such (Agndal et al., 2007; Nordin and Agndal, 2008). Such externalization can often be regarded as a strategic decision that can lead to effects throughout the entire organization, such as improved financial performance, a heightened focus on core competencies and an increased ability to respond to environmental changes (Gilley and Rasheed, 2000). Consequently, the involvement of purchasing organizations in services is changing and growing (Ellram et al., 2004, 2007; Van der Valk and Rozemeijer, 2009). Literature review: Service sourcing Methodology: To grasp the relational and behavioral dimensions of service sourcing over time, the fieldwork of the present study has focused on two case studies that were followed over a period of 18 months. To develop an integrated model, we have adopted so-called "grounded theory" methodology (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Glaser, 1978, 1998, 2001, 2006). Results: business streamlining - an integrated model of service sourcing processes: The model that emerged from the data analysis after several iterations consists of a general pattern, or basic social process (Glaser, 1978, 1998, 2001, 2006) that is termed "business streamlining". This category describes how actors resolve their main concern, which is to manage their business by streamlining, that is by making business processes simpler, more effective and/or more productive. The main purpose of business streamlining is to allow for further attention and focus on the core processes of the organization, while simultaneously allowing for an external party to take over functional responsibilities that were previously performed in-house. This is done by managing four complementary and evolving sub-processes or activities. The activities involved in the business streamlining process are represented by the four following interrelated categories: Conclusions: This study has indicated that contemporary service sourcing processes are complex and multidimensional endeavors, in which the actors involved ultimately manage various activities through a process that is best described as "business streamlining". In accordance to the grounded theory methodology, this basic social process describes the involved actors' main concern and the processes by which it is continuously resolved.
Measuring resource efficiency and resource effectiveness in manufacturing	[ "Sustainability", "Manufacturing", "Performance indicators", "Performance measures", "Resource efficiency", "Resource effectiveness" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: "Humankind has consumed more aluminium, copper, iron and steel, phosphate rock, diamonds, sulphur, coal, oil, natural gas, and even sand and gravel over the past century than over all earlier centuries put together, and the pace continues to accelerate" (Tilton, 2003). With rapidly increasing consumption of energy and material resources in the developed as well as the developing world, the issue of resource scarcity is becoming vital. The resource efficiency (RE) programme by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasise that to meet the needs of the growing population, it is necessary to "decouple resource use and environmental degradation from the economic growth". This will necessitate consumers in making social and environmental concerns, part of their buying decisions. It will require producers to change their design, production and marketing processes (UNEP, 2014). Duflou et al. (2012) argue that while the manufacturing sector plays a vital role in the world economy, it consumes significant amounts of energy and other natural resources and releases solid, liquid and gaseous wastes that lead to increased stress on the already fragile environment. Parker (2007) observes that unless new approaches to manufacturing are found and implemented, global population growth alone is expected to cause emissions and waste production to increase by at least 40 per cent by 2050. 2. Literature review: 2.1 RE and resource effectiveness 3. Research methodology: As depicted in Figure 1, the research methodology consists of three stages: gap identification, development and testing. The research is based on the foundation of two streams of investigation: literature survey and industry survey. Apart from identification of some of the existing REMIs, the literature survey aimed to understand the "resources" that are relevant for achieving "environmental sustainability" in manufacturing. It also aimed to understand the contextual background of measuring RE and/or resource effectiveness in achieving "environmentally sustainability". Both these lines of investigation are used to identify gaps in some of the existing REMIs that are used for the development of a "new indicator". 4. Results/findings: 4.1 Findings of the analysis of 40 REMIs 5. Conclusions: To summarise, none of the 40 analysed REMIs that were identified through the literature survey, capture both, the "resource use", and "waste generation" using 100 per cent operational data in its measurement. Also, none of these REMIs provide incentives to encourage circularity in recovery, reprocessing or reuse of waste. 78 per cent of surveyed manufacturers agreed that a good "resource effectiveness" indicator should include both, consumption of key natural resources and waste generation in its measurement. Also, 54 per cent of the manufacturers agree that a good "resource effectiveness" indicator should be based on operational data. Both these responses clearly validate the hypothesis. Finally, the inverse correlation established between the Gate2Gate OREft index and the RIPU and the WIPU of a foundry and plastic products manufacturing unit, comparison of the Gate2Gate OREft indices of these two units with each other and with four existing REMIs, validates the output generated by the new OREft indicator. The OREft indicator is a "new indicator" of "operational resource effectiveness" suitable for manufacturing units. Unlike many REMIs, the new OREft indicator is based on readily available operational data, not assumptions. In addition to the fact that the proposed indicator captures "resource consumption" and "waste generation" in its measurement, inclusion of "circularity factors" that capture the circularity of resource use and recovery and reuse of waste streams is the key distinguishing feature of this indicator. In terms of its practical implications, the proposed indicator can be used for comparing the operational resource effectiveness of individual factories over a period as well as with other manufacturing units. It also captures useful information such as resource intensity per unit and waste intensity per unit, which also reflect operational RE or resource productivity that can be used to initiate improvement action. Adoption of this indicator across manufacturing supply chain can lead to an overall improvement in the RE, resource productivity, as well as resource effectiveness across the supply chain.
Exploratory study of academic excellence associated with persistence in ODL setting	[ "SEM", "Persistence", "Academic excellence", "Exploratory design", "IPA-CSI" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Introduction: This paper is the reinforcement of previous study on the relatively similar structure with quite different respondents and also with modified attributes primarily in the seven foremost variables as previously introduced by Sembiring (2016). The issues however are still tightly relatable to the students' persistence and attrition by pondering to Tinto (1997) and Bean (1983). Students' persistence, including loyalty (Kunanusorn and Puttawong, 2015), is an integral part of satisfaction as identified by Brown (2006). Satisfaction in academic excellence is also frequently attached to the service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1988; Arokiasamy and Abdullah, 2012). These conceptions, including in educational sectors, and more specifically in higher education context, are widely adopted (Petruzzellis et al., 2006; Rojaz-Mendez et al., 2009; Bharwana et al., 2013). These efforts are essential since many students strived to pursuing their degree and in fact mostly ineffectual to persist (Roberts and Styron, 2009). It just happens so as the service provided and delivered are understandably below the standard and also below of the students' expectation. These perceptions are plausibly relevant in the open distance learning (ODL) environment (Sembiring, 2014). The operational framework: The conceptual or exploratory framework (Figure 1) is then used as a tool of weighing up satisfaction and its inference noticed from academic excellence perspectives. This would let the university to modify the important aspects of operations to accommodate students' need and expectation. It might focus on the institutional directions to accomplish the students' need so that the university is able to maintain and make progress on the size and growth of student body as previously projected and officially stated in the operational plan document of the university. In other words, this is the way on how the university is searching for proper and adequate approach and orientation to maintain the student body. Methodology and the design: This study utilizes mixed-methods approach, i.e. exploratory design (Creswell and Clark, 2011). It is conducted under qualitative approach first and then followed by quantitative sequence. Two instruments are established - they are list of questions for interviews and/or focus-group discussions (for qualitative purpose) and questionnaires (for quantitative purpose). Table I is utilized as a basis to develop required and relevant instruments and sent to 600 out of 1,954 overseas students to be completed. All questions (X11-X72) were simultaneously answered two times by the respondents. The first and second answers are to measure excellence level and its importance degree, respectively. The rests (Y11-Y42) were answered once by the respondents to view the impact of academic excellence related to the students' persistence, loyalty and their expected future careers. Results and arguments: Before conversing to the end results, it is valuable to represent the respondent characteristics as illustrated in Table II. This will enrich the perspectives on the outcomes obtained later. Other elaborative analyses are detailed in the next clarification, including Tables III-IV and Figures 3-4. Remarks for future actions: The research has created both qualitative and quantitative frameworks of academic excellence and its dimensions in Universitas Terbuka milieu with respect to their links extended from a comprehensive analysis of educational perspective and student behavior. The framework was validated using SEM through assessing empirical data by the survey of 184 respondents (Universitas Terbuka students domiciled overseas). The study ascertains that academic excellence leads to persistence and loyalty and then followed by future careers. Additionally, academic excellence is affected by evaluation systems, referral schemes, academic counseling, learning materials and student orientation. Under the IPA-CSI procedure, one aspect that should be cautiously noticed in anticipating and fulfilling students' needs and expectations is on the feedback mechanisms.
Service logic revisited: who creates value? And who co-creates?	[ "Services marketing", "Marketing theory", "Value analysis" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. __NO_TITLE__: The article on service-dominant logic by Vargo and Lusch (2004) immediately gave rise to an international discussion of what a service perspective on business can offer marketing in general. In the following year, a survey was published of the observations of a number of leading international scholars in the service field on service and service marketing (Edvardsson et al., 2005). The key finding was that service was indeed more generally considered to be a perspective than merely an activity: "Service is a perspective on value creation rather than a category of market offerings" (Edvardsson et al., 2005, p. 118). During the 1990s and continuing into the 2000s, the issue of value creation and the locus of value creation for customers had started to gain interest in the management and the marketing literature. The prevailing view that value for customers is embedded in products that are outputs of firms' manufacturing processes, value-in-exchange, was challenged by an alternative view, viz. that value for customers emerges in the customers' sphere as value-in-use in their value-generating processes (Normann and Ramirez, 1993; Holbrook, 1994; Ravald and Gronroos, 1996; Vandermerwe, 1996; Wikstrom, 1996; Woodruff and Gardial, 1996; Normann, 2001; Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Gronroos, 2006). According to this view, value is not created by the provider but rather in the customers' value-generating processes (Gronroos, 2000). As Vargo and Morgan (2005) pointed out, this is not a new approach to value creation, but in the economics and business economics literature it has long been overshadowed by the value-in-exchange notion. Aspects of service: There are at least three different aspects of the concept of service as it is used in the literature today:1. service as an activity;2. service as a perspective on the customer's value creation; and3. service as a perspective on the provider's activities (business logic).Service as an activity is what is traditionally meant by the term service in the literature. It is a process where someone, for example a service firm, does something to assist someone else, for example a customer, and his or her everyday practices (activities or processes). A cleaner washes and irons a customer's business shirts and, thus, enables him to go to his office; a lunch restaurant provides a meal for him or her during the lunch break, so that he or she will be able to manage the afternoon's tasks successfully. In both cases, the firms' activities are providing something of value for the customer. In this form, a service can be defined as follows:[...] a process that consists of a set of activities which take place in interactions between a customer and people, goods and other physical resources, systems and/or infrastructures representing the service provider and possibly involving other customers, which aims at assisting the customer's everyday practices. (Gronroos, 2006, p. 323, slightly modified)[2].Assisting everyday practices means that a service activity should support some activities or processes of a customer, regardless of whether this customer is an individual, a household or a business organization. In definitions of service different aspects can be stressed, but the process or activity nature is often emphasized. Normann (2001, p. 114), for example, defines services as "activities (including the use of hard products) that make new relationships and new configurations of elements possible."The second and third aspects of service are not related to the service activity. Instead they are perspectives that are or can be applied as a foundation for customers' purchasing and consumption processes (customer service logic) and for organizations' business and marketing strategies (provider service logic), respectively. The service concept is probably more important for businesses as a perspective than as an activity only (Edvardsson et al., 2005). In subsequent sections, service as a perspective will be developed further. Consumption as self-service: The citations from 1979 presented in the introductory section of the present paper imply that goods and services are consumed in essentially the same type of process. A good has to be put into an activity of consumption handled and managed by the customer, whereas in the case of services the provider offers the context of this activity, or at least part of it. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the service marketing literature maintained the view that services and goods are different, and services were often defined by comparing them with goods. Since the field of service had to establish a position for itself, this was quite understandable. However, in the 1990s, the view was voiced that, from a consumption and value creation perspective, there may not be any fundamental differences between goods and services. As Gummesson (1995, p. 250) noted, "(customers) buy offerings (including goods or services) which render services which create value". Much earlier, this point had been made by Levitt (1974), but this was ignored by the academic community as well as by marketing practitioners.This view means that people do not buy goods and services for basically different purposes. They are bought by customers in order to assist them with a service that should create value for them. Groceries are not bought for the sake of having them in store. They are bought in order to provide input resources in the process of cooking dinner for the family, for example in order to have a nice family occasion around the dining table. This is the value outcome of the process of cooking dinner. A precious painting is not bought only for the sake of the painting, but in order to be able to look at it, to show it to others, or just for the sake of knowing that it is in the buyer's possession. These are all processes where the painting is an input resource needed to create value for the owner.The process nature of services is their most distinguishing characteristic, and the aim of this process is to assist customers' everyday practices (Gronroos, 2006). The process can be either actively supported by a service provider using a full-service concept (or a variety of full service) or only passively supported through a self-service set-up. By using the possibilities provided by this set-up, the consumer is expected to initiate and implement all activities of the service process needed to get the service and subsequently the value rendered by it. To operate the process and possibly some additional resources, the consumer only has to add his or her skills. Withdrawing cash from an ATM is an example of such a situation. The customer needs some skills to operate the ATM, following a predetermined set of standard procedures, and in addition a plastic card is required as an extra resource. Fundamentally, there are no differences between a goods consumption process and a self-service process. In both cases, a firm provides the customer with some resources, the groceries or the painting or the ATM, and the customer adds skills and, if required, additional resources, such as spices or a wall for the painting or a cash or credit card.Regardless of whether customers are using the service of a self-service vendor or consuming goods, they are orchestrating a self-service process, the purpose of which is to provide value for them. Hence, consumption is basically a self-service process. In the case of a full-service service provider, the situation is crucially different from those involving goods in self-service provision as described above. In this context, the service provider has an opportunity to engage itself with the customers' practices and to interfere with the consumption process, learn from the customers, teach them new skills, provide them with more varied procedures than is possible in a standard self-service context, and adjust to their possible preferences that go beyond what was initially expected. This is still a service process aiming at creating value for customers. However, in comparison with, for example, the self-service process of goods consumption it gives the provider more leeway and flexibility to interfere with the consumption process and influence value creation. This is due to the fact that the service provider can interact with customers during consumption, and during these interactions the provider can actively influence the flow and outcome of the consumption process. This is, of course, a two-way street, as at the same time the customers have the opportunity to influence the activities of the service provider. However, as will be demonstrated in a later section, these possibilities to participate in the consumption process have a decisive impact on a firm's role in the value creation process, and it also has critical consequences for marketing.The unique contribution of service research, especially but not only by the Nordic School of Service Marketing, is to explicitly integrate consumption processes and marketing, building on the interactions between customers and the service provider[3]. Traditionally, consumption has been seen as a black box in marketing (Gronroos, 2006). Whether the consumption of a product was appreciated or not can only be observed through the market exchange mechanism. Customers either buy again or do not buy again. Service research emphasizes the interaction mechanism. Examples of marketing concepts based on the view that interactions with customers form a cornerstone for marketing success in service contexts are: interactive marketing (Gronroos, 1982) in addition to the traditional external marketing function, part-time marketers (Gummesson, 1991) in addition to the full-time marketers of this traditional marketing function, and the perceived service quality concept with its technical or outcome and functional or process and interaction dimensions (Gronroos, 1982; Lehtinen and Lehtinen, 1991) as well as the Servqual (Parasuraman et al., 1988), the Servperf (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) and other quality measurement instruments. Value foundation: the input by the provider and the customer, respectively: The customer service logic relates to how customers create value for themselves. It is a perspective on how customers, by consuming service, create value. It is different from a provider service logic, which in turn is a perspective on how, by adopting a service approach, firms can adjust their business strategies and marketing to customers' service consumption-based value creation.However, the starting-point is that customers consume service, regardless of whether they buy goods or services (Gronroos, 1979; Gummesson, 1995; Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008). By making use of goods or services they have acquired, customers consume the services they manage to create with these resources (Levitt, 1974). Cooking meals, driving cars, looking at or displaying a painting are examples of everyday practices where goods are used so that the consumer can create the service of preparing a meal, getting from one place to another, or having an esthetic experience. Even though these examples are from consumer markets, business customers also pursue everyday activities and processes (e.g. manufacturing, accounting, and advertising campaigns) that have to be supported by their own resources or resources acquired from outside sources. To implement the service processes of cooking a meal or manufacturing a physical product, some resources are purchased for the occasion (steaks and vegetables or raw material), whereas other resources already exist in the customer's possession (spices or the production facilities). In addition, the customer needs the skills required to run the processes.Customers are not primarily interested in what they buy and consume, but in what they can do with what they have in their possession. They use resources in self-service processes in order to "get something out of it". In other words, they use resources to get something of value for themselves. Cooking dinner for the family creates a nice gathering around the dining table, and driving to see a friend enables the driver to enjoy a pleasant evening with friends. Value comes from the family occasion or the evening spent together with friends. Consumers do not even buy fashion garments for the sake of the clothes, but in order to be considered trendy or fashionable by friends or just to feel good by wearing these clothes. Value can, for example, be based on a feeling of being accepted or appreciated.However, value is a concept that is difficult to define and to measure. In this paper, the following simple working definition is used:Value for customers means that after they have been assisted by a self-service process (cooking a meal or withdrawing cash from an ATM) or a full-service process (eating out at a restaurant or withdrawing cash over the counter in a bank) they are or feel better off than before.Of course, there may also be negative value. Sometimes the value that has been created can be measured in financial terms, for example through effects on revenues or wealth gained or through cost saving, but value always has an attitudinal component, such as trust, affection, comfort and easiness of use. In many cases, especially on consumer markets, the consumer's perceptions are predominant.During recent years, the term co-creators of value has been used for customers in the management and marketing literature (Normann, 2001; Prahalad, 2004; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Gronroos, 2006). Also, in the discussion of service-dominant logic, customers are considered to be co-creators of value (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). This view of the customer's role in value creation follows from the notion of value-in-use, according to which rather than being embedded in goods or services (value-in-exchange) value is created when customers use goods and services. However, if customers are value co-creators, what is the role of the firm? Are firms the main creators of value, or what are they?As firms provide customers with resources for their use, they can be viewed as creators of a value foundation through a value facilitation process. When customers use these resources (goods or services) and add other resources (goods, services, and information) and skills held by them, the value potential of the resources is developed into value-in-use. Hence, the customers also bring a value foundation to the table. If they do not have the skills needed to make use of the resources provided by a supplier or if they do not have the additional resources required for this, value-in-use will be non-existent or lower than otherwise. The skills held by customers and their access to other resources needed for the self-service consumption process form the customers' value foundation. However, the value for the supplier of the customer's value foundation is dependent on the value the resources have for customers (value-in-use). As Alderson (1957) already noted 50 years ago, the value created when products are used is more important both for the customer and for the firm than the value that is exchanged between them. Applying the terms value-in-use and value-in-exchange, the former is more important than the latter. If customers cannot make use of a good, value-in-exchange is nil for them. Since they have paid good money for nothing, it is actually negative. Only during consumption, realised value in the form of value-in-use is created.Since value for customers and customer satisfaction can be observed only after consumption, focusing on value-in-exchange is less important for the supplier as well. Dissatisfied customers are less likely to return and long-turn revenues will go down. However, short-term initial sales give an impression of high value-in-exchange and easily hide the fact that due to low value-in-use the value-in exchange is in fact also low. Hence, value-in-use as a concept is not only important for customers, it is equally important for suppliers. Although, it is more difficult than value-in-exchange to observe and measure in the short-term, from the management point of view, the creation of value-in-use is the important value concept for suppliers.However, concentrating on marketing as exchange (Pyle, 1931; Kotler, 1972; Bagozzi, 1975; Hunt, 1976; Vargo and Lusch, 2008) draws the marketers' attention to short-term value-in-exchange and away from value creation (Sheth and Uslay, 2007) and this conceals the importance of customers' creation of value-in-use to long-term marketing success (Gronroos, 2007). As Kotler (1972, p. 48) noted, "... the core of marketing is transaction. A transaction is the exchange of values between two parties." A distinction between direct and indirect exchange, as suggested in the discussion of service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2008), does not change this in any fundamental way. On the contrary, using the term exchange metaphorically weakens the exchange construct's base in economic theory and, moreover, makes its meaning and role even more elusive and difficult to use for analysis and planning. Moreover, as the analysis of value creation according to a service logic in the next section will demonstrate, the real value of an exchange for the firm cannot be assessed before it has been determined whether value-in-use for the customers has been created or not. When creating value for customers is taken as the objective of marketing, as Sheth and Uslay (2007) suggest, a focus on exchange as the foundational marketing construct is no longer supportable (Sheth and Uslay, 2007; Gronroos, 2007). Instead, the interaction concept central to a service logic is a more productive option. As Ballantyne and Varey (2006, p. 336) put it, interaction is a "generator of service experience and value-in-use". Furthermore, interactions help firms gain and deepen their information about customers and their preferences (Srinivasan et al., 2002). Value creation: the role of the provider and the role of the customer: As was argued in the previous section, when customers are using resources they have purchased value is created as value-in-use. Value-in-exchange is a function of value-in use (Ravald, 2001). Theoretically, the former only exists if value-in-use can be created. In practice, goods and services may have exchange value in the short term, but in the long run no or low value-in-use means no or low value-in-exchange. Hence, value-in-use is the value concept to build upon, both theoretically and managerially.However, the question is who creates value as value-in-use? In the previous section, it was argued that both suppliers and customers as value facilitators bring a value foundation to value creation. As value is created in the customers' sphere, it emerges in customers' everyday practices, in customers' value-generating processes (Gronroos, 2000). In the management and marketing literature in general and in the discussion of service-dominant logic as well, the term customer co-creation of value has consistently been used. In this view, customers are considered to co-create value. Generally, the arguments put forward state that firms still create the value, but customers are allowed to engage themselves with the suppliers' work (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2000; Auh et al., 2007) and enter it as co-creators.If value is created in customers' value-generating processes and should be understood as value-in-use, and if value-in-exchange for the suppliers is dependent on whether value-in-use is emerging or not, the customers have to be the value creators. The customer is not co-creating value, he or she or an organization creates value. More than four decades ago, the economist and Nobel Prize winner Becker (1996) described this view in his discussion of the household as a utility or value producing unit. Firms supply the household with the resources, such as goods, services and information, that it needs for this production task. But if customers, or households as in Becker's analysis, are the ones who create or produce value, what is the role of firms as suppliers or service providers in value creation?The first question is why customers have been given the role as only co-creators of value in contemporary management and marketing literature? Key reasons for this are probably the dominant role of the exchange construct in marketing and thus the value-in-exchange concept, as well as the notion that value for customers is embedded in products supplied by firms. Giving up the view that value is exchanged has been seen as too bold, and hence, the most a customer can be allowed to do is to co-create value. However, if value-in-exchange is a function of value-in-use, this cannot be correct. Then it is not value that is exchanged: only resources as a value foundation aiming at facilitating value-in-use are exchanged. In the service marketing literature, one reason for considering the customer as a value co-creator only may be confusing the customer as a production resource with the customer as a value creator. Long ago, it was established that customers participate as co-producers in the service process (Eiglier and Langeard, 1975; Gronroos, 1978). The service firm produces the service activity and the customer takes the role as co-producer. In the case of self-service, the customers' role increases.When the customer's role as value creator is recognized, what is the role of suppliers? Depending on whether a firm adopts a service logic or not, its role in the value-creating process varies. Suppliers have to provide customers with the necessary resources for their value-generating processes. Suppliers can be said to facilitate customer value creation by providing the value foundation required. Hence, basically the supplier's role is to facilitate value creation, and consequently they take part in the value-creating process as value facilitators. When value is created by customers in isolation from the suppliers, which is the case in traditional goods logic-based marketing models, suppliers have no direct means of engaging with the consumption process. In other words, suppliers cannot influence value creation in the customers' processes. Taking a value-in-use approach, they are not even co-creators of value, they are value facilitators. However, the better suppliers manage to facilitate value, the more value-in-use will be created, and eventually, the higher the value-in-exchange will be.The value creation model discussed in this section, where the firm's part in value creation is that of a value facilitator only, is labelled the value facilitation model. The supplier develops a value proposition, which is the value foundation to be used by customers, and if the customers accept this value proposition during consumption as their value foundation, they add their own skills and the additional resources needed into a value-generating process in order to achieve value fulfillment in the form of value-in-use (Gronroos, 2006). The firm cannot engage itself actively and directly in customers' consumption and value-generating processes where value fulfillment occurs. Hence, from a marketing point of view, in this case the firm is restricted to making value propositions only[4]. The value facilitation model is summarised in Table I.When adopting a service logic, firms can assume a larger role in their customers' value creation. The next section discusses the supplier service logic or service as a business logic, and demonstrates how suppliers, adopting a service logic, can engage in the customers' consumption processes and extend their role beyond pure value facilitation, thus becoming value co-creators. Service as a business logic: supplier service logic: Customers are not predominantly interested in goods or services, but in how these can be used for value creation. Both, goods and services are consumed as services in customers' self-service processes. Firms should not be distracted by existing goods or services in their market offerings, but focus on understanding their customers' everyday practices and value-generating processes where goods and services are used. Taking this as the starting-point, suppliers can focus on understanding how they can assist customers' value creation by supplying goods and services that support customers' creation of value-in-use. This is the base for the third service aspect presented at the beginning of the paper, viz. the provider service logic or service as a business perspective.A service-based business logic for a firm means that it:* focuses on well-defined customer practices (activities and processes in the customers' everyday practices);* focuses on assisting those everyday practices in a value-supporting way;* gears goods and services, and new goods and services to be developed, towards the customers' everyday practices;* includes interactions that occur between the firm and its customers in its market offerings, which enables the firm to engage itself in its customers' consumption and value-generating processes and thereby to directly and actively influence these processes;* by engaging itself in the customers' value creation the firm develops opportunities to co-create value with its customers; and* by doing this, the firm is no longer restricted to making value propositions only, but can engage itself in customers' value fulfillment as well.The focus on customer practices means that suppliers should develop its business and marketing strategies based on knowledge that goes beyond the needs that conventional market research reveals. Need is an abstract construct that indicates what people believe creates the best value in some everyday practice of theirs. However, if potential customers' voiced needs had been used as guidance, we would, for example, never have had microwave ovens and text messages (sms). Value is created by customers in their practices and, therefore, a thorough understanding of people's, everyday practices has to be the starting-point for developing a customer-centric offering based on a service logic.Since value is created in customer practices, the firm should focus on supporting value creation in those processes. However, regardless of whether a firm is traditionally considered a service firm or a goods-manufacturing firm, if it attempts to assist its customers' practices and support their value creation, it has to think, plan and act as a service business. A service provider's market offering includes, first of all, a core service package consisting of a core service and facilitating (enabling) and supporting (enhancing) services. However, it further includes the service process making the service package accessible to customers and interactions with the customers in which customers participate as co-producers (Gronroos, 2000).The firm-customer interactions that are a defining characteristic of services make it possible for firms to initiate direct contacts with its customers during the consumption process. In the value facilitation model of value creation in Table I, no interfaces between a supplier and its customers exist, and therefore the supplier's role in the value creation process is that of a value facilitator only. Adopting a service logic and creating interactions with customers provide the supplier with an extended role in value creation. Instead of being restricted to acting as a value facilitator only, the firm can actively take a role in the customers' value-generating processes and directly influence them. The supplier becomes a co-creator of value with its customers.However, contrary to the views expressed in the conventional literature on value creation and value-in-use, it is not the customers who get opportunities to engage themselves in the supplier's processes, but rather the supplier which can create opportunities to engage itself with its customers' value-generating processes. It is not the customer who becomes a value co-creator with a supplier, rather, it is the supplier which, provided that it adopts a service logic and develops firm-customer interactions as part of its market offerings, can become a co-creator of value with its customers. As Storbacka and Lehtinen (2001) observe, customers produce value for themselves independently, but suppliers may offer assistance. Co-creation opportunities that suppliers have are strategic options for creating value (Payne et al., 2008).In conclusion, adopting a service logic makes it possible for firms to get involved with their customers' value-generating processes and, hence, also to actively take part in value fulfillment for customers. Without adopting a service logic this is not possible. In Table II, a value creation model, and value creation and value fulfillment, enabled by a service logic is presented. Since in this model the supplier can directly engage itself in value fulfillment, the model is labelled the value fulfillment model. In Table II, the roles of the firm and the customer, respectively, are described. For comparison, the value facilitation model presented in Table I, and value creation and value fulfillment according to this model, are also included in Table II. The value fulfillment model is based on a service logic, whereas the value facilitation model is based on a goods logic, because firm-customer interactions are lacking. In the bottom third of the table, an exchanged value model is presented. This model is based on the idea that value is embedded in goods and services and exchanged for money or the equivalent. Marketing consequences of adopting a service logic: At least, three fundamental marketing consequences for the service logic can be derived from the nature and scope of the customer and provider service logic, respectively. Two of these have already been listed in the section on service as a business logic, namely: the market offering is expanded from a goods-based offering to including firm-customer interactions, and marketers are no longer restricted to making value propositions only. As interactions between the firm and its customers form an integral part of a service, the market offering is extended to include facets of these interactions (compare the augmented service offering model in Gronroos (2000)).In publications on the service-dominant logic, it is claimed that firms can only make value propositions (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008). From the point of view of the service provider's service logic, this cannot be the case. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. According to the goods logic, firms can only make value proposition, but they cannot get involved in customer's consumption and value-generating processes nor actively influence how value is really created as value fulfillment. However, characteristic for service is the fact that firms can actively influence how the value propositions made are fulfilled through the customers' value creation (for example, the interactive marketing and part-time marketer concepts). Hence, according to a service logic firms are not restricted to making value propositions only, but they have the opportunity to influence value fulfillment as well.As has been noted previously, focusing on the exchange construct that for decades has been considered the foundational construct in marketing conceals the importance of value creation for successful marketing and makes the marketers focus on short-term transactions. Exchange is a goods logic-based concept. When value creation is considered the goal for marketing (Sheth and Uslay, 2007) and customer value is viewed as value-in-use, interaction becomes a key marketing concept. When focusing on interactions, the firm can extend its value facilitation efforts to value co-creation with its customers and directly influence their value fulfillment. Exchanges take place, of course, but exchange is a too elusive a concept to use. In service contexts, it is difficult to assess when an exchange has taken place, and furthermore, exchange makes the marketer focus on the firm-centric value-in-exchange concept instead of the customers' value creation and the customer-centric value-in-use concept.Finally, a fundamental question is whether all firms are service firms? In the sense that customers consume goods and services as service, all firms are indeed service firms. However, this does not necessarily mean that customers always buy everything in the form of services. Although goods are consumed as services in self-service processes, when making purchasing decisions some customers may still focus on the resource they buy (a good or a service) and not on the manner in which it can be used and create value in their consumption processes. When making purchasing decisions, customers who do not focus on goods and services as value-creating processes but rather focus on them as resources or who cannot be persuaded to do so, will not buy services but resources only (as goods, and even a service can be bought as a good). Attempting to approach such customers with a service logic-based approach is clearly not effective. Hence, although from a consumption point of view every business can be considered a service business, some customers still may see and buy goods as goods and not as services. In such situations, value propositions should be developed and communicated accordingly. In conclusion: service logic propositions: Based on the analysis of service logic in the previous sections, the following ten service logic propositions were developed. These propositions combine the customer and supplier perspectives in a marketing context. This means that, like the discussion in the previous parts of the present paper, the propositions were developed and formulated so that they are meaningful for the understanding of marketing according to a service logic. Therefore, the propositions were categorized into three groups, viz. propositions related to value creation, propositions related to the market offering, and propositions related to marketing:Propositions related to value creation:
Narratives of cooperation, resilience and resistance: workers' self-recovery in times of crisis	[ "Cooperation", "Italy", "Self-management", "Narratives", "Social resilience", "Worker-recuperated enterprises" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. Premise: This paper is based on an inquiry on Italian worker-recuperated enterprises, a phenomenon that has acquired growing importance in the country since 2008, following the Great Recession that hit most of the western economies. Aims and methodology: narrative approaches to social action and change: The adoption of a narrative approach in this research is methodologically consistent with an ontological and epistemological position that considers society made of meaningful actions and interpretation as the principal mode of inquiry. As "knowledge by interpretation assumes that there are multiple realities that are socially constructed" (Erol Isik, 2015, p. 120), narratives provide a dense account of the reality perceived by the actor himself and how structure and agency are interrelated. Definitions: Italian worker-recuperated enterprises are mostly the result of WBO, intending with this expression a corporate restructuring, recovery or conversion process in which the employees buy a share of the company that previously employed them (Vieta, 2016). A brief overview of Italian worker-recuperated enterprises: The WBO mechanism in Italy has its foundation in the law 49/1985, so-called "Marcora law", amended by law 57/2001 and integrated in more recent times by the Ministerial Decree 4 December 2014 (so-called "new Marcora"). Worker's narratives of self-determination, resistance and resilience: In order to systematize the comparison between the different types of Italian worker-recuperated enterprises, this section focuses on four crucial analytical dimensions: resilience/resistance, relationship with the territory, relationship with the market and workplace democracy. Final remarks: We believe workers-recuperated enterprises, in their various forms, provide an interesting example of how to strengthen the opportunities for self-realization and self-employment of workers. The policy of supporting workers' cooperatives promoted by the Marcora law supports the employment levels, and, in its amended version (law 57/2001, art. 12), it does so without impacting on public spending, since the funds provided by the financial companies must be repaid within 10 years. These policies generate a virtuous circle that can be summarized in four main components: support to employment, savings in social safety nets, tax revenues, preservation of local production.
Corporate social responsibility reporting in the mining sector of Tanzania: (Lack of) government regulatory controls and NGO activism	[ "Corporate social responsibility", "Globalization", "Neo-liberalism", "Transnational corporations", "Regulatory structures", "Non-government organisations (NGOs)", "Tanzania" ]	Summarize the following paper into structured abstract. 1. Introduction: Recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in the variety and volume of literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (see, e.g. Belal and Owen, 2007; Cooper and Owen, 2007; Unerman and O'Dwyer, 2007). This literature has emerged from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, philosophy, accounting, management, finance, law and politics (see Banerjee, 2007, 2008; Jones, 2008; Vogel, 2005). Within the accounting literature, CSR has been considered as part of social accounting, which overlaps with social and environmental accounting (Beck et al., 2010; Gray et al., 2001). CSR in this context is viewed as a potentially benign mechanism which may be used to mobilise meaningful organisational changes but may lead to less unethical and unsustainable business practices (see Dey, 2007, p. 424). However, notwithstanding the increasing attention being given to CSR in the literature as a postulate for accountability and for the promotion of ethical and responsible business practices, most studies have been primarily western-centric (e.g. Gray et al., 2001; Guthrie and Parker, 1989, 1990). In developed countries, comprehensive environmental regulations are in place, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are relatively active in scrutinising corporate conduct, and labour unions campaign for workers' rights (see Moon and Vogel, 2008; O'Donovan, 2002). These pressure groups arguably generate "invisible" pressures that drive companies to adopt voluntary CSR reporting practices (see Hilson, 2012, p. 132). 2. Overview of the literature on CSR practices: Despite CSR's long history, it has become a much-debated topic in the contemporary era of globalisation (see Puxty, 1986; Spence, 2007, 2009; Tinker et al., 1991). Parker (2005, p. 844) has described the literature on CSR as voluminous, disparate, diverse and exciting, but without a commonly agreed philosophical and methodological standpoint. In the accounting literature, CSR reporting has been considered as part of a wider system of societal governance that requires corporate responsibility to address and disclose issues such as accountability, ethics and sustainability, as well as socio-economic, ecological and humanitarian problems (Gray et al., 2001; Sikka, 2010). The literature indicates that increased awareness of socio-economic and environmental crises, corporate failures and collapses, and the recent financial crisis, have raised further questions about the regulation and morality of capitalism and the complexity of business-society relationships, leading to demands for enhanced corporate accountability and social responsibility (Bakan, 2004; Puxty, 1986; Tinker et al., 1991). Thus, making TNCs socially responsible and accountable has become a major issue in contemporary capitalist society (see Sikka, 2010; Spence, 2009). 3. The mirror: theoretical perspectives: In order to understand the complexities associated with CSR reporting, scholars have adopted a range of theoretical frameworks, such as stakeholder, legitimacy, institutional and political economy frameworks, and these have provided some insight into both the social and environmental problems relating to corporate activities (Deegan and Gordon, 1996; Guthrie and Parker, 1989). Although stakeholder and legitimacy theories have often been used as theoretical frameworks for understanding CSR practices, the extent to which these theories can explain the contradictions and dilemmas faced by developing countries with respect to CSR practices has remained problematic. Thus, while such theories may provide useful frameworks for explaining and understanding business-society relationships, they pay little attention to the broader socio-political, economic, historical and power structures that shape CSR reporting practices (see Banerjee, 2007; Cooper and Sherer, 1984; Tinker et al., 1991). Banerjee (2007, p. 28), for example, has criticised these theoretical frameworks for ignoring the many social and economic conflicts that exist in different societies. For instance, from a legitimacy theory perspective, social and environmental disclosure is perceived as a strategy employed by corporate entities to gain society's acceptance of and approval for their operations. However, this has become questionable, especially in developing countries where, despite the increasing social and environmental impact of corporate activities, companies continue to carry out these activities relatively unchallenged (see Banerjee, 2007). In order to understand CSR practices in a developing country such as Tanzania, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate methodological framework that takes into account the social, political and economic contexts in which business organisations conduct their activities (see Banerjee, 2007; Kuasirikun and Sherer, 2004; Scherer and Palazzo, 2007; Tinker, 1980; Tinker et al., 1991). The methodological framework adopted should be able to shed some light on the role played by local government regulations and nationally organised NGO activism in relation to the global economic and political processes that shape social relations, as discussed in the next section. 4. The Tanzanian socio-political and economic context: Like many other developing countries, Tanzania has had to integrate its economic system into the contemporary global capitalist system. However, as a peripheral state, Tanzania needs capital, technology, skilled labour and financial resources and, like other developing countries, it has had to open its economy to TNCs (see Harris and Seid, 2000; Hoogvelt, 2001). Neo-liberal policies, implemented as a way of opening up the economy, have had serious implications for the Tanzanian Government's ability to promote CSR practices. This section considers the socio-political and economic environment of Tanzania as a background for understanding CSR reporting practices in the gold-mining industry. 5. Analysis of empirical evidence: This section considers some evidence from the Tanzanian mining sector, a sector dominated largely by TNCs. It analyses the reporting practices of the two largest gold-mining companies and draws attention to the need to demystify the serious social and environmental ills often concealed within CSR reports. It argues that, as a developing country, Tanzania's legal and regulatory frameworks and NGO campaigns and advocacy have not been sufficiently strong to bring about a positive impact on corporate social and environmental practices in the mining sector. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of CSR reporting in the mining sector, it is necessary first to consider the socio-political, economic and regulatory context within which these dynamics occur. 6. Summary and conclusions: This paper has demonstrated the importance of adequately regulating social, environmental, labour and human rights issues, and the huge difficulties faced by a developing country, namely Tanzania, in seeking to implement regulatory forms that are acceptable to the TNCs involved and to the wider political and economic interests they represent. The evidence of this paper reveals that, despite gold-mining companies' initiatives to increase their social and environmental disclosures, such reporting has remained selective, and a business-as-usual attitude prevails. The increasing evidence of social and environmental problems in the Tanzanian mining sector raises questions about the adequacy and effectiveness of the legislative and regulatory frameworks, as well as the role played by pressure groups, and NGOs in particular. The persistence of socio-economic and environmental problems in the Tanzanian mining sector points to a neo-liberal crisis at both global and local levels (see Campbell, 2012). This is attributable to the implementation of neo-liberal economic policies in the Tanzanian mining sector that have not only created oligopolies in the sector but have also imposed constraints on government regulatory capability.

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