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Community responses to the removal of bottled water on a university campus
|
[
"University",
"Sustainability",
"Behavior",
"Australia",
"Bottled water",
"Pro-environmental"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite that most in the developed world are overwhelmingly served by clean, safe and reliable drinking water, the consumption of bottled water continues to be a highly profitable but increasingly controversial global industry (IBISWorld, 2011; Levy and Tapsell, 2007).\n2. Methods: The study was conducted at the University of Canberra, a small regional university in Australia, and was designed in the context of an undergraduate unit of study in research methods. No funding was received for the research; however, approval to conduct the research within the university was provided through the university sustainability planner as part of the university's efforts to integrate sustainability education into academic curriculums. Six months after the removal of bottled water from sale, a group of undergraduate students participated in a research project aiming to examine the impact of the removal of bottled water on the campus community. Seventeen students participated in an action learning project (Revans, 1982; Mughal, 2012) in which they assisted in the design, implementation and analysis of interviews, focus groups and surveys. Student learning in the project was varied and encompassed basic social research skills as well as knowledge about the environmental impact of bottled water and the challenges of implementing sustainability initiatives within institutions and communities. Students involved in the conduct of the study were required to analyze only a limited number of survey questions using basic descriptive statistics. This study aimed to examine how the removal of bottled water from sale on campus had impacted on the university community in relation to awareness of the initiative, knowledge of environmental issues associated with bottled water and views about the initiative. This paper reports only the results of the survey. No data were available about the attitudes, purchasing behavior or knowledge about bottled water prior to the launch of the initiative.\n3. Results: 3.1 Water use and access\n4. Discussion: The removal of bottled water from a campus community is more complex than simply banning the bottle. The responses from campus community members revealed a host of issues that are worthy of consideration for others considering such a sustainability initiative. Various actors are involved in shaping the demand and desire for bottled water (Foltz, 1999), including manufacturers, marketers, media, environmental groups and the consumer. Foltz (1999) suggests that product marketing strongly informs perceptions that can drive a preference for taste or the image associated with particular brands. Wilke (2006) argues that marketing has transformed water from a public good and right into a widely accepted branded commodity. People's perception of water as a resource or commodity, an essential element for survival or as a basic human right can influence their attitudes and practices in relation to water (Mikhailovich, 2009). Consumer research has indicated people use bottled water for a variety of reasons, including fear of contaminated tap water, the perception that bottled water is healthier, for reasons of taste, convenience and image (Ward et al., 2009; Foltz 1999; Diora, 2009). Many of these reasons were also identified in this study.\nConclusion: This project took place within a university setting that holds to the shared values of informed scholarly dialogue. Given the findings from this project, it is clear that the challenges of removing bottled water require a multi-faceted approach that engages all stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue and debate. In other areas of sustainable education, approaches that have adopted problem-based learning approaches have shown favorable results (Dobson and Tomkinson, 2012), while others have reinforced the importance of pedagogies that emphasize collaboration (Cruickshank, and Fenner, 2012). The authors suggest that exploring more collaborative problem-solving approaches (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2008), underpinned by evidence, may be useful to any future bottled water removal initiatives within tertiary education institutions. This will require an expanded notion of evidence that can adequately represent the complex of attitudes, beliefs and practices that individuals, groups and organizations bring to the issue. Adopting a time-series approach to data collection in the form of frequent but light \"pulse\" surveys could also be considered as part of any future strategy.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aimed to examine the impact of the removal of bottled water on the campus community. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted at the first Australian university to remove single-use bottled water from sale on a small regional university campus. The removal of bottled water from sale at the university formed part of the university's commitment to environmental sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study was conducted substantially by undergraduate students who participated in an action learning project in which they assisted in the design, implementation and analysis of an online snapshot survey made available to all staff and students of the university.\nFindings: The results indicated some evidence of changes to pro-environmental behaviors such as increased use of re-fillable bottles, but there were less desirable outcomes such as drinking less water. Community perceptions were dramatically polarized. Restrictions on freedom of choice, concerns about health as a result of increased use of high-sugar drinks and the continued availability of other plastic drink bottles were provided as strong objections to the removal of bottled water from sale on campus.\nPractical implications: The study provides useful insights for university sustainability planners and administrators about the complex range of issues associated with the implementation of sustainability initiatives on a university campus.\nOriginality/value: While extensive literature exists about the environmental impacts of bottled water, few studies have explored the impacts or community responses to the removal of bottled water in the university context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Student-led campus climate change initiatives in Canada
|
[
"Canada",
"Global warming",
"Universities",
"Energy management",
"Students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There are a variety of campus climate initiatives taking place on universities and colleges in Canada. These range from renewable energy production to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy efficiency, behavior change, and institutional change. This paper focuses on a gap in the campus climate literature, that is, the spectrum of initiatives led by students. By determining what climate change initiatives were led by students on Canadian university and college campuses in 2007, and considering the roles students played in these initiatives as well as the levels of youth engagement, this paper contributes to the climate change literature, the campus sustainability literature, and the social movements literature (in particular the youth engagement part of that literature).Specific to climate change initiatives on campuses, the literature has discussed: energy reduction through social marketing to students, through building design, and through energy efficient equipment (Kahler, 2003; Marcell et al., 2004; Pearce, 2006); GHG inventories and energy savings calculations (Marcell et al., 2004; Pearce, 2006); and purchasing or generating renewable energy (Marcell et al., 2004). Besides, these energy-related initiatives, the literature also covers campuses tackling GHG reduction through offsets as well as initiative on refrigerants, transportation, waste, agriculture, and purchasing (Sierra Youth Coalition - SYC, 2008b). Literature about processes for campus sustainability also includes content on climate change. For example, the multi-stakeholder approach to climate initiatives was recently documented in Helferty et al. (2009). The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) (Beringer, 2006; Cole and Wright, 2005), which is active on over 30 Canadian campuses (SYC, 2008c), includes sections related to climate change, as do the policies related to campus environmental management systems (Clarke, 2006). In most of these different initiatives, students have played important roles, yet the literature does not generally consider the features that are particular to youth engagement, and in particular student leadership.Youth \"feel a relatively strong affinity to the environmental movement and regard environmental problems as important\" (Strandbu and Krange, 2003, p. 177). Yet, youth in general, and students in particular, form a demographic that has limited access to the decision making that decides their future (Charlebois, 2008). Perhaps, as a result of this, young people make up a social movement which is known to work outside the decision-making systems to both critique the status quo and to create their own solutions (Pleyers, 2004). Youth groups function in unique ways; Ginwright and James (2002) identified five principles of youth involvement in social issues:1. analyzing power in social relationships;2. making identity central;3. promoting systemic change;4. encouraging collective action; and5. embracing the youth culture.Related to these principles are the practices of providing holistic solutions which build on youth identity and desire for collective action (Ginwright and James, 2002). Gauthier (2003) offered a classification to express the degree of involvement of the youth. This classification ranges in the level of influence. The categories are:* socialization through group involvement or through symbolic participation in \"mock\" decision making;* influence through protests, through being a representative in decision-making bodies, or having a youth advisory body; and* power through partnerships (Gauthier, 2003).This paper addresses three research questions:RQ1. What are the different types of student-led climate change initiatives on Canadian campuses in 2007?RQ2. What roles have students played in these initiatives?RQ3. What can be learned about youth engagement from these student-led initiatives to combat climate change?\n2. Methodology: Empirical data were collected by the SYC on student-led campus climate initiatives in Canada, in the 2007-2008 academic year. The SYC is the main Canadian organization that supports campus sustainability (SYC, 2008d). Since its founding in 1996 as the youth branch of Sierra Club Canada, SYC has been working with students from all over Canada to support them in making their campuses more sustainable through its Sustainable Campuses program. As of April 2008, SYC was working with 55 university campuses of a total of 92 that are members of the national Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada (2008), and ten colleges of a total of 135 that are members of the national association of community colleges (Association of Canadian Community Colleges, 2008; SYC, 2008c). While climate change-related initiatives have always been a component of Sustainable Campuses, it was when the Campus Climate Challenge was initiated in 2006 through the US-Canada Energy Action Coalition that it became a primary focus of the program (SYC, 2008a).Data were gathered throughout the 2007/2008 academic year by SYC staff through campus visits, phone conversations, and an e-mail questionnaire with student leaders at the 65 campuses with which SYC works. These methods ensured a 100 percent response rate from these schools. The universities and community colleges are from every province of Canada and data were collected in both English and French. The data collection were conducted as part of SYC's Annual Evaluation of the Sustainable Campus Program, and was therefore broader than the purpose of this paper. The campuses involved have participated in a variety of SYC programs that relate to climate change, specifically: 20 have conducted GHG inventories, 31 have engaged in an assessment using the CSAF, 57 have multi-stakeholder processes, 24 have an environmental policy, 26 have a sustainability policy, 21 have environmental coordinators and 32 have sustainability coordinators. The content from the questionnaires and other methods of data collection was compiled into one document which included all the campus reports (SYC, 2008c). This document was coded for student-led climate change initiatives, and for the roles students played. The patterns were determined and the findings clustered into categories which are presented in this paper.A limitation of this research is that only 65 of the approximately 227 colleges and universities in Canada participated. Also, it is possible that some schools may not have reported all student-led initiatives, or all the student roles. In addition, the data were limited to the 2007/2008 academic year, and therefore to the initiatives which occurred in that year.\n3. Types of student-led campus climate initiatives: There are many different types of campus climate change-related initiatives. Eight different categories were identified. Outlined in this section are examples of the following types of student-led initiatives:1. awareness-raising;2. sustainability assessments and/or GHG inventories;3. sustainability funds;4. residence challenges;5. on-campus retrofits or renewable energy production on campuses;6. multi-sectoral collaborations;7. staff/faculty-focused programs; and8. policy development.Table I details how many of the 65 campuses are engaged in each of these student-led initiatives.3.1 Awareness-raising\n4. Roles: The types of student-led initiatives on campuses vary substantially and can be undertaken in many different ways. Students play a variety of roles in these initiatives, including:* becoming leaders or volunteers in an on-campus club;* coordinating or participating in a multi-stakeholder committee;* engaging their student union or association and/or being a leader within it;* initiating campus climate-related coursework with a faculty member;* working with an administrative or student union sustainability office or lobbying to create such an office; and* creating and undertaking a work-study position.These different roles can overlap and provide new opportunities - for example, a student could meet a supportive faculty member through a multi-stakeholder committee, and then take on an assessment of the campus as an independent study in coursework supervised by that faculty member.In addition to students creating their own on-campus roles, faculty, staff and administrators have an important role in creating opportunities for students and in supporting student-led initiatives. These more permanent members of the campus community can provide an essential function in institutionalizing the student-led initiative so that it will survive ongoing student turnover.\n5. Discussion: The cases presented in this paper vary in the ways in which youth are engaged and the degree to which youth are involved in decision making. The cases have been categorized into three types of youth engagement: socialization, influence, and power (Gauthier, 2003), in Table II.Gauthier's (2003) levels of youth engagement proved to be useful in assessing student-led climate change initiatives. Several of the initiatives fell into multiple categories, demonstrating the variety of ways in which an initiative can be implemented on a campus. The types of initiatives with higher levels of youth engagement tended to be those that were more institutionalized within the campus or required a higher level of administration, such as sustainability funds and policy development, whereas those with lower levels did not necessarily require the support of many on-campus stakeholders, required less knowledge, or were shorter term initiatives. The initiatives at a lower level of engagement also allowed larger numbers of participants. Typically, an individual student leader will move up this ladder from being socialized to leading awareness initiatives to influencing decisions, to (if the opportunities exist) being a partner in decision making.The staff/faculty-focused program at Concordia was the one type of initiative that was not able to be categorized within these levels since it is a unique case of a youth-run program directed at non-youth so it does not have the characteristics of an \"influence\" relationship, where youth are playing an advisory, representative, or protest role, or a \"power\" relationship, where there is an equal partnership between the youth and adults in decision making. Instead the students have all the decision-making power.In comparing the empirical findings to the principles of youth development in social issues (Ginwright and James, 2002), it was found that some of the principles applied to student-led climate initiatives and some did not. The types of initiatives that had a lower level of youth participation in decision-making tended to apply to different principles than those that had a higher level of participation. For example, a student group running an awareness campaign may be following the fourth and fifth principles of encouraging collective action and embracing youth culture, whereas participation in developing an energy policy may follow the principles of analyzing power in social relationships and promoting systemic social change. None of the initiatives were found to be making identity central beyond the \"youth\" identity, which was more present in initiatives with a higher level of participation in decision making and therefore exposure to and analysis of institutional hierarchy. This may be a result of the initiatives being focused on an external challenge, climate change, rather than an internalized oppression, such as racism or sexism. Lessons learned\n6. Conclusion: This overview of student-led climate initiatives on community college and university campuses in Canada addresses eight different types of initiatives, the variety of roles students have played in these initiatives, and the lessons that can be learned about campus-based youth engagement on climate change. Within the model proposed by Gauthier (2003), socialization was found to be necessary to expose more students and young people to the impacts of climate change and the ways in which they can take action. Peer-to-peer awareness-raising is known to work well on campuses and within groups of young people. The best option for engaging youth leaders in creating climate solutions on campuses is a shared power relationship, as it is the students who will be implementing many of the initiatives in residences and in their student union, for example. While an influence relationship is a situation in which many student groups find themselves, it may not be the most strategic in terms of engaging youth, developing leaders, or ensuring action is taken on climate change. It does not result in a greater understanding within the broader student population of how to personally take action on climate change. In addition, it does not engage youth leaders on an equal footing with other campus stakeholders, so leadership development and buy-in from students will be lower than in a shared power relationship, and the uptake of student ideas (or understanding why student ideas were not adopted) is likely lower than in the shared power relationship.While some of the Ginwright and James (2002) principles of youth engagement applied to certain types of initiatives, they were found to not be entirely applicable to the scenario of young people taking action on climate change on campuses. A possible reason for this is that, unlike many other social issues, the impacts of climate change are not clearly visible in a campus setting, and are not as personal. While the impacts are felt more harshly by certain demographics of people, this is less obvious on a campus than, for example, discrimination against women or people of color. Even without the \"identity\" principle, however, youth approaches to creating change on campus were found to have some of the unique features, thereby reinforcing the need to uniquely consider the engagement of this demographic.History shows that as student-led initiatives become institutionalized, the topic of the initiatives shifts to what requires the most support. Ten years ago, students were conducting waste audits and instituting recycling programs. In more recent years, with waste management programs well-developed at most campuses across Canada, there is less of a need for students to focus on these types of initiatives and so the effort has shifted to GHG inventories and climate action plans. As these initiatives become more and more common and are undertaken by administrative sustainability offices or mandated by government, the focus of students will likely shift again. In the short-term, there is much to be learned from the innovative climate solutions with which student leaders experiment. Student-led campus climate initiatives is an area that warrants further research. A specific project could include an analysis of which initiatives are most effective in transitioning society to carbon neutrality in both the short- and long-term. We may find out that socializing large numbers of young people to create behavioral changes may turn out to have more long-term impact than installing energy efficient technology.Whether in an awareness-raising campaign or the development of an on-campus policy, students are key stakeholders on campuses and have a unique perspective to contribute to any dialogue around campus climate solutions. They also have the potential to create their own initiatives to educate peers on behavioral change or implement mechanisms to reduce GHG emissions. Implementation of many of the campus-wide initiatives is dependent on student buy-in, and there are many opportunities for students to develop leadership skills within the campus setting as a result of a high level of involvement in creating solutions to climate change. In addition, most of the initiatives outlined here can be replicated elsewhere, thereby providing a starting point for students wanting to begin an initiative or providing ideas for other campus stakeholders wanting to engage students in initiatives. In both the short- and long-term, the transition to a low-carbon society will benefit if students are given the opportunity and space to engage in climate change initiatives on campuses, and are supported in their efforts to navigate the complex university system and institutionalize solutions in relatively short windows of time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive list of student-led, campus-based climate change initiatives, and offers details on many specific cases. The paper also documents the roles students have played and considers the larger youth engagement implications. Many of these initiatives can be replicated elsewhere, thereby providing a starting point for students wanting to begin an initiative or providing ideas for other campus stakeholders wanting to engage students in initiatives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Campus reports were collected by the Sierra Youth Coalition from 65 Canadian Universities and Colleges. This qualitative information was coded for student-led climate-related initiatives, and for the roles students played in those initiatives. The patterns were identified and clustered, and are presented in this paper.\nFindings: - Students were found to be successfully leading eight different types of campus climate change-related initiatives, both with the support of other campus stakeholders and without this support. Students were also found to be able to successfully take on a variety of types of leadership roles in these initiatives. Youth engagement ranged from socialization to influence to power, depending on the type of initiative.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A limitation of this research is that only 65 of the approximately 227 colleges and universities in Canada participated. Also, it is possible that some schools may not have reported all student-led initiatives, or all the student roles. In addition, the data were limited to the 2007/2008 academic year, so is limited to the initiatives which occurred in that year.\nOriginality/value: - This paper presents different types of student-led climate change initiatives, the roles students have played in these initiatives, and the implications for youth engagement in creating climate change solutions. It contributes to the climate change, the campus sustainability, and the social movements literatures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Repatriation readjustment of international managers: An empirical analysis of HRD interventions
|
[
"Expatriates",
"Human resource development",
"Training",
"Career development",
"Singapore"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Increased globalization of business activity has augmented the importance of effective expatriation and repatriation of multinational enterprise (MNE) managers (Adler, 2008; Avril and Magnini, 2007; Bossard and Peterson, 2005). If an expatriation process is to be successful, the repatriation process should be started early enough (Brewster and Suutari, 2005). Expatriation and repatriation are not two separate processes, but rather expatriation is the initiation, and repatriation the culmination of the same process (Lazarova and Caligiuri, 2001; Osman-Gani and Hyder, 2004). Researchers like Harvey and Wiese (1998) and Insch and Daniels (2002) have found that expatriates return from their overseas assignments prematurely due to problems such as poor performance, culture shock, personal inconvenience and job dissatisfaction. Repatriation turnover has been a major source of concern for the multinational companies (Lazarova and Cerdin, 2007). The Global Relocation Trends 2003/2004 Survey (GMAC, 2004) reported that 13 percent of US repatriates leave the company within one year after returning from an assignment, and another 10 percent leave the following year. Baruch and Altman (2002) found in their research that some 50 percent of people left the company following the repatriation within a few years after return. Bossard and Peterson (2005) argue that, if the repatriates get frustrated due to unmet expectations and lack of appreciation, they will prefer to leave the company. Turnover rates among repatriates are higher than turnover among other workers (Vidal et al., 2007a). The costs of expatriate failure also include non-measurable losses like damaged corporate reputation and lost business opportunities. By leaving, a repatriating employee not only causes the home organization a financial setback, but also forces the company to lose the employee's recently developed international competence and experience (Hyder and Lovblad, 2007).\nReview of literature: International human resource development (HRD) researchers have recognized that organizational support and training are necessary for expatriates to do a good job in overseas assignments (Hurn, 2007; Osman-Gani and Tan, 2005; Selmar, 2005; Osman-Gani, 2000; Brewster, 1993; Harvey, 1989). However, the literature concentrated on the role of training and development for successful performance in foreign assignments, but little attention has been given to the repatriation aspect. Repatriation, which is the last step of the expatriation cycle, is an under-researched dimension of international assignments (Harvey, 1989; Black, 1992; Suutari and Brewster, 2003), although its importance has been repeatedly mentioned in international business and international HR literature (Allen and Alvarez, 1998; Caligiuri and Lazarova, 2001). For example, Hurn (2007) argues that many returnees experience some \"reverse cultural shock\" with the need to adapt to a different standard of living after a period abroad. Recognizing the significant research gap, this study aims to address some vital repatriation issues by focusing on HRD interventions, particularly the training programs.Importance of repatriation program\nThe research problem: Repatriation problems associated with expatriates coming back from international assignments seldom receives the required organizational attention (Linehan and Scullion, 2002). Issues like family/spouse adjustment, job-related problems and expectations - reality gap problems are often not discussed at the planning stage. Allen and Alvarez (1998) argue that if these problems are not handled properly by the company, the total benefits of sending personnel on overseas assignments may not be realized. In such situation, the repatriates may feel dissatisfied and leave the company (Stroh, 1995). Many repatriate managers see their returning home from an overseas assignment as a potential career disaster (Shaffer et al., 1999). Baruch and Altman (2002) argue that poor induction coupled with lack of proper career planning breeds disappointment and frustration, leading to disillusionment and anger with the company. It means the company will have wasted huge amounts of money on training those employees (wasted investments in human capital), not to mention the time and money they must spend to hire and train a new employee.This study therefore makes an effort to help MNEs overcome repatriation challenges by focusing on HRD interventions for addressing repatriation readjustment problems. It is not enough that overseas experiences are put in the career plan, but there is also a strong need to utilize these experiences effectively, and offer necessary training to the repatriates for facilitating their readjustments. Repatriation training has developed over the last decade as companies are anxious to retain their experienced and successful international managers (Hurn, 2007). Linehan and Scullion (2002) argue that re-entry training should focus primarily on helping the expatriate manager and spouse align their expectations with \"the real world\" that will be encountered in the home culture, both in work- and non-work situations. Topics covered in a repatriation training program should include reverse culture shock training, updates on workplace changes, stress management, communication-related training, a mentoring program, help in forming new social contacts and networking opportunities, and assistance to spouses (Hurn, 1999). Considering these issues, this study addresses the following research questions:RQ1. What programs and content areas should a repatriation training program contain?RQ2. What would be the preferred delivery methods and duration of repatriation training programs?RQ3. Who are the effective providers of repatriation training programs?RQ4. Are there significant differences among the views of repatriates from different national backgrounds?\nResearch methodology: The purpose of this study has been to gather empirical data and first-hand knowledge on HRD issues related to repatriation readjustment of international managers. As an exploratory study, a survey research technique was used since survey is an effective method of generating primary data from a large sample. Until now, however, very little is known on repatriation readjustment, particularly in the Asian context. To bridge this research gap, it was appropriate to begin by interviewing some international managers with repatriation experience, and some experts of the field.Interviews\nResults: Profiles of respondents\nDiscussions: Findings from this empirical study showed that career development, physical relocation, and networking opportunities were the important and preferred features to be included in developing a repatriation policy. Repatriates preferred the repatriation exercise to be handled in similar carefully planned manner as the expatriation exercise. They preferred the preparation for repatriation to begin before they are sent for overseas assignments.Repatriates wanted a clear idea of what awaited them upon their return home, and assurance in the form of a career development plan. Most repatriates preferred to be counseled on their career development at least one to two weeks before departure. This was expected to be done in consultation with immediate superiors.The repatriates felt that they had changed positively as a person after the overseas assignment. They believed that the home office could have done more to help them cope with the repatriation. Most repatriates felt that their present home office job was not as challenging as the overseas assignment. The repatriates had difficulty in finding suitable schools for their children, and their spouses had similar difficulties in getting a job again.Findings from this research will have significant implications for HRD professionals in terms of making appropriate decisions on effective design and implementation of training and career development programs. Most of the companies seem to think that since the repatriates were returning to their own country, there was no need to provide \"refresher course.\" Repatriates, however, preferred the repatriation training to be at least one day long, and to cover several issues like general management and human resource management. \"Lecture/classroom\" and \"workshop/seminar\" types of training environment were seen as most conducive. Programs conducted by home office employees with previous repatriation experience and home office HR personnel were most preferred.Based on the findings, a number of recommendations can be made to professional managers, expatriates/repatriates, and researchers. Companies should provide realistic career development programs to repatriates before they embark on their overseas assignments. This should be a two-way communication process. The content of repatriate training programs must be balanced. It is proposed that more cross-cultural training be provided. During the repatriate's absence, social and cultural changes may occur in the home country. By receiving the right mix of training, repatriates would feel more readjusted to the home country. Training should also be provided to spouses and other family members. The repatriate will have fewer problems to handle if the family is well-adjusted to the home country. Companies should provide training programs of at least one-day duration as repatriates strongly expressed such a view in the study.Repatriates should also ask for specific career path counselling before leaving. This will help them to clear up uncertainties about their future job upon returning from the overseas assignment. Repatriates should get involved with local expatriate club activities in the host country and seek advice on repatriating back to the home country. Repatriates should discuss prospective job positions in detail with the home office long before completing the overseas assignments. This will help the repatriates to clarify their expectations. Repatriates should contact children's educational institutions in the home country before returning home. This will help to alleviate educational problems for their children upon returning home.Considering the above findings in Asia, this research has made significant contributions to the existing expatriation/repatriation literature. However, like many empirical studies, this study also has some limitations. The present study has been limited to certain industries, and therefore more industries can be included in a future study to see how repatriation programs differ between different industries. In terms of covering various nationalities from different cultural backgrounds, this study was limited to repatriates from five countries. Future research could include more countries covering various continents of the world. More statistical analyses could be done to determine the nature of similarities and differences existing among repatriates' opinions based on their age, gender, marital status, children's age, and length of overseas assignment. More variables such as tax issues and repatriation policies for spouses could be further researched. Other variables such as job-hopping, organizational loyalty and motivation could be studied to see if they are affected by repatriation readjustment. Future research could also investigate the effects of retention duration of repatriates after returning from overseas assignments. In addition, more extensive research could be done to study the readjustment of repatriates in other countries of the region, and a general model on the repatriation readjustment with Asian expatriation experience could be developed in future. The cross-sectional research design of this study does not allow observe how the attitude of the repatriates on training have changed over time and therefore a longitudinal study will be appropriate to focus on this issue. Further study is needed to examine how culture and socioeconomic distance between host and home country affects repatriation adjustment (Lee and Liu, 2007). Hopefully, this empirical research will trigger more research interest to study the expatriation and repatriation issues more exhaustively in future.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - With increasing interest in overseas business expansion, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, expatriate management, including repatriation readjustmenst, has become a critical international human resource development (HRD) issue for multinational enterprises (MNEs). This empirical study therefore aims to investigate the use of HRD interventions relating to training and development for effective readjustment of international managers on repatriation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected through a field survey conducted on repatriation experience of international managers from more than five countries, who are working in Singapore.\nFindings: - The study provides valuable insights about repatriation training programmes, training contents, programme duration, delivery modes, and providers of effective training programmes.\nResearch limitations/implications: - HRD professionals and senior executives of MNEs will benefit from the findings of this study in making decisions on effective design and implementation of training and career development programmes.\nPractical implications: - The findings have significant implications for career development of managers involved in international business operations.\nOriginality/value: - This paper discusses readjustment problems of the repatriating managers and suggests how realistic HRD programmes, mainly based on training, can be developed and implemented for retaining international managers. These findings from the dynamic region of Asia will also help in developing appropriate career development programmes.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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An approach to enhance availability of repairable systems: a case study of SPMs
|
[
"Reliability",
"Maintainability",
"Capacity utilization",
"Mean time between failure (MTBF)",
"Mean time to repair (MTTR)",
"Overall equipment efficiency (OEE)",
"Event plot",
"Duane plot",
"Failure rate",
"Hazard plot"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Availability A is the probability that a system is operating satisfactorily at the time t (Govil, 1983). In general, a reliable machine has high availability but an available machine may or may not be very reliable. Availability reduces with downtime, whereas system downtime is the total time during which a system is down for active maintenance (Modgil et al., 2013). Obviously, this varies from one type of failure to another. Furthermore, a complex system (consisting of several sub-systems) is said to be \"Available\" only when all the constituents function successfully. If anyone (or more) component of the sub-system is not operationally available then system is said to be down for repair (Barabady and Kumar, 2007). When a system is often unavailable due to breakdowns, and is put back into operation after each breakdown with the proper repairs, then the mean time between breakdowns is defined as the mean time between failures (MTBF). The term \"mean time to repair\" (MTTR) is the statistical mean time for active repair. It is the total active repair time during a given period divided by the number of malfunctions during the same interval (Mohammed, 2011). Frequently, a system may become unavailable on account of periodic inspections and not only because of breakdowns (Ansell and Philips, 1997).\n2. Literature review: In recent years, a great deal of literature has been published in various journals on the subjects of reliability, maintainability and operations research. Most of these papers are based on certain distributions and models and the work is of a theoretical nature. Case study-based work on the performance of repairable systems and their respective availability remains quite rare.\n3. Problem formulation: From the literature review, it is obvious that low reliability and poor maintainability pushes a machine toward frequent breakdowns causing long downtimes (or unavailability). Downtime is a nightmare for the management, who generally talk in terms of profit and loss, and this effect rises exponentially if SPMs (bearing high initial and running cost) are in the picture. Often, the depreciation cost and lost production costs are so high that they become unaffordable, especially for small and medium enterprises. A machine might have good reliability and maintainability, but if it is unavailable when required, then nobody can prevent downtimes. Poor availability of a machine (or a system) will further bring about low overall equipment efficiency (OEE) or effectiveness. Such conditions reduce the concerned capacity utilization factor and subsequently make financial losses an inherent part of the system. So \"zero breakdown\" or \"maximum availability\" of a machine is the current need, which ultimately leads to ideal mechanized systems.\n4. Methodology adopted: The availability of a system is typically measured as a factor of its reliability. As reliability increases, so does the availability. The availability of a system may also be increased by a strategy focussing on increasing testability and maintainability. Improving maintainability is generally easier than reliability. A concrete plan (refer to Figure 1) has been laid for analyzing the given repairable machines (or system) to ensure its maximum possible availability by blending appropriate action plans to improve corresponding reliability and maintainability, respectively.\n5. A case study: The industry under consideration manufactures a wide range of products such as; tractors, cranes, excavators, loaders, motorcycles, piston assemblies, automotive and railway shock absorbers, railway brakes, couplers and telecommunication equipment in various plants situated all over India. One of its plants at Bahadurgarh (India) is engaged in machining Tata-92 Shim Type pistons (refer Figure 2 for details). Four different types of SPMs, namely KD2, M8, FDI and EA2 are being used to perform operations such as seat machining, finish grooving, diamond turning and pin-hole boring of pistons.\n6. Conclusions: The highly expensive machines such as the SPMs studied should not be wholly based on series sub-systems, as this would lead to the total stoppage of a machine in the case of failure of any one sub-system (Rakas and Hecht, 2007). Therefore, at the time of designing these machines, the functioning of each sub-system must be given proper thought so that the reliability and maintainability of machines is not affected with the failure of a single sub-system. As such, not only the quality of each sub-system should be improved, but also the overall system design covering redundancy aspect must be taken care of. The standby redundancy not only improves the system reliability but also reduces unscheduled maintenance (Fiori de Castro and Lucchesi Cavalca, 2006). However, the unscheduled maintenance reduction accompanying redundancy may also be offset by improving reliability through component improvement technique and design simplification. All these aspects are therefore recommended for the high precision and expensive machines studied. In the recent past, maintenance has changed, perhaps more so than any other management discipline. The changes are due to a large increase in the number and variety of physical assets (plant, equipment and buildings) which must be maintained efficiently, much more complex designs, new maintenance techniques, and changing views on maintenance organization and responsibilities. Maintenance is also responding to changing expectations. These include a rapidly growing awareness of the extent to which equipment or machine failure affects production, environment and safety, a growing awareness of the connection between maintenance and product quality and increasing pressure to achieve high plant availability and to contain costs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a tactical approach to cope with the issues related to low availability of repairable machines or systems because of their poor reliability and maintainability. It not only explores the significance of availability, but also embarks upon a step-by-step procedure to earmark a relevant replenishment plan to check the mean time between failure (MTBF) and the mean time to repair (MTTR) efficiently.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The literature review identifies the extent to which availability depends on reliability and maintainability, and highlights the diversified challenges appearing among repairable systems. Different improvement initiatives have been suggested to avoid downtime, after analyzing the failure and repair time data graphically. Relevant plots and growth curves captured the historical deviations and trends along with the time, which further helps to create more robust action plans to enrich the respective reliability and maintainability of machines. During the case study, the proposed methodology has been tested on four SPMs and successfully validated the claims after achieving around a 98 percent availability at the end.\nFindings: Graphical analysis is the key to developing suitable action plans to enhance the corresponding reliability and maintainability of a machine or system. By increasing the MTBF, the reliability level can be improved and similarly quick maintenance activities can help to restore the prospect of maintainability. Both of these actions ultimately reduce the downtime or increase the associated availability exponentially.\nResearch limitations/implications: The work revolves around the availability of SPMs. Moreover, SPMs have been divided only into series sub-systems. The testability and supportability aspects have not been considered thoroughly during the fabrication of the approach.\nOriginality/value: The work focusses on the availability of systems and proposed frameworks that helps to reduce downtime or its associated expenditure, which is generally being ignored. As a case study-based work especially on SPMs in the auto sector this paper is quite rare and will motivate affiliated engineers and practitioners to achieve future breakthroughs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Commander's evaluation in the context of business decision-making: a multi-perspective approach
|
[
"Decision making",
"Learning",
"Management development"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Decision-making is one of the most fundamental components of effective management and leadership. As organizations continue to experience intensified competitive pressures associated with globalization, rapid technological innovation, shorter product life cycles, and shifting demographics, the ability to make effective decisions becomes even more imperative. Given the importance of decision-making in the success of leaders and, consequently, their organizations, it is surprising that few leaders ever receive any formal training related to decision-making. While there are numerous explanations for this lack of training, one of the most common reasons includes the assumption that leaders or managers have an innate ability to make decisions. Lack of decision-making training is also attributed to the fact that decision-making is a highly complex activity, contingent upon the dynamic context within which each decision is made.The complexity of decision-making is evident in the numerous theories, methods, and tools devoted to improving the decision-making process. For example, the rational or traditional approach to making decisions embodies an intuitive set of four steps including, problem identification/definition, identification of alternative solutions, selection of alternatives, and evaluation. In contrast to this logical method of decision-making, the systems method takes a much more holistic approach, considering the complex interactions between internal and external factors before reaching an optimal decision. Regardless of the methodology or tools used to make decisions, evidence suggests that applying a systematic approach significantly enhances overall quality of consequent decisions.Benchmarking and incorporating best practices are also frequently utilized as strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of management, leadership, and overall organizational performance. Benchmarking involves the identification of effective practices utilized by other organizations, typically within the same industry. However, the value of benchmarking does not, necessarily, need to be limited to organizations in the same industry. For example, military organizations often employ very structured methods of leadership and management that could have profound, positive implications for business organizations. In regard to decision-making, business organizations may benefit from incorporating a modified version of \"commander's evaluation\", used for making decisions in some military settings.\nAn overview of commander's evaluation: Military commanders are often characterized as autocrats, forcing proper planning by the staff under their command. The assigned staff are customarily required to thoroughly think through a task or mission before making proposals to their commander, who makes the final decision. The staff assigned to a typical commander's group includes planners that specialize in each function necessary to carry out that unit's mission objectives. These are often comprised of administrative, intelligence, operations, logistics, and civil affairs specialists. This design exists at lower and higher levels in most military organizations, although at lower levels fewer planners are generally required due to the narrowed focus of objectives.In the context of making decisions, the commander often mandates the development of at least three courses of action. Staff planners work with other team members to present the advantages and disadvantages of each course of action to the commander. Subsequently, the commander offers comments, often requiring the team to go back to the drawing board to reevaluate or considering other factors that might have been overlooked. Once adequate information is articulated, the commander will select the most appropriate alternative. Because the planning team generally includes team leaders and key staff members, the commander's decision requires less explanation and planning prior to implementation.\nApplying commander's evaluation to business organizations: Leaders and managers in organizations often operate in hyper-turbulent environments, making the task of decision-making a crucial undertaking. These leaders and managers could enhance the effectiveness of their decisions by adopting a modified version of commander's evaluation in their organizations or departments. When faced with major decisions, leaders or managers could assign an appropriate number of qualified individuals (\"planners\") the responsibility of developing recommended alternatives. Consistent with the military application of commander's evaluation, assigning a minimum of three individuals this responsibility would likely promote a more comprehensive scope of recommendations, ultimately leading to a superior decision. The formulation of these recommendations would, likely, require the three \"planners\" to include relevant others in the identification of the alternatives as well as potential benefits and pitfalls associated with each alternative. There are numerous direct and indirect benefits associated with involving \"others\" in this process. Major benefits of this involvement include a division of labor, access to a more diverse skill base, more comprehensive information about the decision context, and synergistic dynamics. Further, this approach would also contribute to the professional development and learning of individuals involved. Knowledge is a valuable commodity in organizations, with individual learning recognized as paramount to the very perpetuity of an organization.From an organizational development perspective, using a modified version of the commander's evaluation to make decisions might also contribute to increased perceptions of procedural justice (i.e. perceptions of fairness regarding decisions and administrative processes). Organizational efforts to promote perceptions of procedural justice amongst staff are important given the implications of these justice perceptions on individuals' trust toward leaders in an organization. Individuals who trust organizational leadership are more likely to exhibit behavior by offering contributions to the organization that are above and beyond the call of duty (organizational citizenship behavior). Without these contributions, organizations would flounder, and possibly fail.\nConclusion: On the surface, commander's evaluation has some similarities with a contingency approach to decision-making where the ultimate decision is highly dependent upon the dynamics of each situation. Commander's evaluation is an improvement over contingency-based approaches, in that it requires multiple courses of actions based on the input of a significant portion of the unit's leadership team. Utilizing a commander's evaluation approach not only provides the decision-maker with multiple perspectives and options, but also increases the likelihood that the option selected will be successfully implemented. Indeed, when staff members have an opportunity to participate in making decisions, there is a higher likelihood that the chosen course of action will be positively received and ownership of the decision process will be shared with unit members.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this article is the application of commander's evaluation, used for making decisions in military organizations, to the context of business decisions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The scope of this article incorporates salient issues related to business decision making. This is followed by an overview of how commander's evaluation is used to make decisions.\nFindings: - While used predominantly in military organizations, commander's evaluation has important implications for business decision making. Developmental advantages associated with incorporating this method of making decisions into non-military organizations are elucidated.\nPractical implications: - Utilizing a commander's evaluation approach provides the business decision-maker with multiple perspectives and options, while also increasing the likelihood of success.\nOriginality/value: - This article makes a unique contribution to the literature by providing practical strategies for incorporating the use of commander's evaluation into the process of making decisions in business.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An overview of strategic responses of Vietnamese higher education institutions
|
[
"Higher education",
"Strategic management",
"External environment",
"Five forces",
"Government planning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Vietnam's education system has undergone transformational changes ever since the government decided to pursue market-driven economy in 1986. Before the reform era, the system was highly centralized with maximum involvement from the government. The schools depended on the government financially and strategically. It funded for universities' activities, decided teaching curricula, controlled student enrollment and monopolized the education sector; universities were uni-disciplinary and teaching-based with no research activities. During the renovation period, the country aimed to reduce higher education institutions' (HEIs) dependence on state's budget and planning (World Bank, 2004). A lot of changes to the education system were initiated, most notably including the permitted presence of private institutions and the encouragement for internationalization. Besides private HEIs, there are a few 100 percent-foreign-invested schools such as RMIT (the first to be opened in 2001) or British University and joint-venture schools established by Vietnamese government and foreign governments such as Vietnam-Japan University, Vietnam-France University, etc. Moreover, domestic universities are achieving the internationalization goal by establishing joint programs with foreign counterparts. It is hoped that internationalization orientation would help diversify income stream of educational institutions as well as expose the country's obsolete education system to international standards and practices, facilitating the enhancement of academic quality.\n2. Methodology: The paper is a conceptual analysis, where Vietnamese higher education is analyzed using Porter's Five Forces Model (Porter, 1980) to identify five external forces that affect the sector: suppliers, buyers, new entrants, competitors and substitutes. According to Oya (2017), HEIs should act in response to expectations of the government and the business world and thus, higher education can be viewed as an industry and can be investigated with a business model. Application of the Five Forces Model in the examination of strategic planning in higher education has also been addressed by Martinez and Wolverton (2009, p. 24), who believed that \"industry analysis using Porter's five forces model can aid colleges and universities as they define the parameters within which new rules, participants and markets continue to emerge.\" To provide a comprehensive description of higher education, they included government as a sixth force. Government at different levels have a great impact on the sector one way or another; they play the role of monitoring, disseminating information, funding and so on. This paper does not address the sixth force separately but discusses its influence throughout all the sections to demonstrate the centralized nature of Vietnam's higher education.\n3. Competitive forces in Vietnamese education environment: 3.1 Suppliers\n4. Internal resources of Vietnamese higher education institutions: As financial resources of HEIs are mostly in the form of government funding and school fees (Do and Do, 2014), the pressure to increase student enrollment makes institutions neglect other important activities such as investing on research capabilities, school facilities or development of qualified human resources. Public institutions, with support from the government, generally tend to be more financially secure and have a better chance of attracting students, compared to private ones which are often viewed as second option if students are unable to get accepted into public universities. Students and funding are concentrated at those in big cities; those in suburban areas receive less attention from the government, further impeding their development. In terms of human resources, the shortage of staff makes most institutions have high student/lecturer ratios; besides, generally only a small number of faculty staff are doctorates and even fewer earn international degrees (Do and Do, 2014). Foreign-owned institutions which have modern facilities with internationally certified staff and high school fees, are possible option for only a small portion of students.\n5. Discussion of strategic responses: As analyzed above, rising competition, growing trend of studying overseas as a substitute, coupling with the mounting demand and government direction, stimulated HEIs to expand scope of services in several forms.\n6. Implication: Despite a lack of academic research on Vietnamese higher education (Nguyen, 2016), it is generally agreed on the weak governance of education system. Vietnamese HEIs keep expanding scope of activities, which could be considered as sensible amidst rising domestic demand and international opportunities. However, quality of programs is not upgraded as fast growth exhausts physical and human resources. It would be better if the growth strategy is implemented in parallel with the development of staff and facilities. Having gone through a stage of massification itself, China has also dealt with quality issues and one of its many efforts to enhance teaching and research performance is a three-tier project that aims to attract international scholars, provide support professional advancement for the most outstanding faculty staff and fund for further studies of young faculty members (Shi, 2015). Vietnamese government does have Project 911 which financially support lecturers to obtain PhD degrees overseas (Le and Hayden, 2017), but effort to attract and retain those academic expats when they return is not clear. Furthermore, no matter what activities implemented by HEIs, performance would not be improved without effective evaluating mechanism. The government did set some quality standards but they are unrealistic given the circumstances of insufficient resources: student/lecturer ratios are mostly unachieved across universities due to shortage of staff; or academic research quality is still poor due to scarce facilities as well as heavy teaching loads on lecturers (Dao, 2015). Besides, the standards set by MOET were \"vague\" (Dao, 2015, p. 75) while clear guidance is absolutely vital when universities are practicing their newly granted autonomy. Vietnamese HEIs do have their own internal quality assurance units; nevertheless, lack of experts and financial resources make the internal mechanism unable to fulfill its role successfully. In many Asian countries, except for Vietnam, there is a system of local, national and international accreditors to assess the quality of higher education (Hou et al., 2013). Accreditors at different level, running without government intervention, would create pressure for universities and colleges to rigorously and continuously review and enhance their practices to ensure their academic quality is up to high standards. Accredited universities and colleges would have a better chance of competing for students and increasing revenues generated from tuition fees to invest in educational and research activities.\n7. Conclusion: The education system in Vietnam has been in total control of the government, it would take quite some time to relinquish their interference. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the reform attempt may not be achieved due to a lack of clear processes that guide HEIs to reform and poor quality assurance mechanism (Harman et al., 2009). Do and Do (2014) claimed that problems of Vietnamese education are caused by ineffective management and planning by both the State and HEIs themselves. Competitive strategies are often managed so as to respond effectively to factors in the external environment. Regrettably, in the case of Vietnam's education, the growth strategies implemented by HEIs appear to be reactive to the State's guidance with little analysis of both external factors and their internal capabilities. Institutions have been increasing the number of courses offered and student enrollment to capitalize the growing demand as well as ensure financial resources in the time of reduced governmental support, but have failed to address the quality of teaching curriculum, the sufficiency of physical and human resources, the capabilities of teaching staff and the demand of the labor market. Furthermore, quick expansion in terms of student body when facing shortage of qualified staff further impede them from enhancing research capability - a key determinant of academic quality and of international standard. Improvement in education system will only be achieved if the government and higher educational institutions have good planning based on detailed analysis of problems, of external and internal environment; renovate management and control system; focus on long-term sustainability instead of aiming for short-term or immediate results; along with the development of quality assurance networks. Even with decentralized control, the governing body remains the key factor in facilitating and guiding universities and colleges to exercise their autonomy to achieve high-quality performance and internationally recognized status.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the strategic management of Vietnamese higher education institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper examined the external environment of the country's education system based on the five forces framework by Michael Porter and inspected the strategies of universities and colleges.\nFindings: It was concluded that lack of environmental analysis from both the government and higher education institutions themselves diminishes the intended effectiveness of the reforms; problems of skill shortage in the labor market, staff insufficiency and poor quality are prevalent; and that strategies developed by the institutions are purely responsive to the State's direction without considering sustainability.\nResearch limitations/implications: Lack of literature on Vietnamese higher education limits timely analysis.\nPractical implications: Strategic planning based on a thorough investigation of the environment is imperative to enhance the performance of the education system generally as well as of academic institutions individually. The government plays a key role in developing initiatives to enhance staff capabilities and improve quality of educational outputs.\nOriginality/value: There has not been any paper that approached Vietnam's higher education management under such an analytical framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Implications of securities class actions for cost of equity capital
|
[
"Securities",
"Legal action",
"Equity capital",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: How does the filing of a securities class action lawsuit affect the firm's cost of equity capital? Determinants of cost of capital are of immense economic significance. Public companies rely on their ability to raise capital for the existence and expansion of their businesses. Even a small increase in the defendant firm's cost of capital can lead to large shifts in capital allocations and thus affect the economy as a whole.Prior research by Bhagat et al. (1994) and Griffin et al. (2004) indicates that both the disclosure event and the subsequent filing of the lawsuit result in negative market price reactions. This negative reaction is related to two potential effects of the litigation. One effect arises from the reduction in the firm's future earnings. The other relates to the increase in the firm's perceived risk which leads investors to demand a higher rate of return. A lawsuit brings to the defendant firm not only financially observable direct costs, such as the cost of defense and damage awarded to plaintiffs, but also unobservable indirect costs, such as reputation damage, difficulty in recruiting directors and auditors, possibility of more negative information discovered through the litigation, and disruption of its relationships with suppliers and customers (Black et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2000). These indirect litigation costs weaken the defendant firm's governance, increase the information asymmetry between managers and investors, and increase the uncertainty in firm operation, all of which increase the perceived risk in cash flow. As a result, investors demand a higher rate of return for bearing this litigation risk.However, empirically assessing the impact of a lawsuit filing on a firm's cost of equity capital is difficult because many lawsuits are filed within a few days of the revelation event, making it difficult to distinguish the impact of the lawsuit filing from that of the revelation event. Prior research documents the impact of disclosure events on the cost of equity capital. For example, Hribar and Jenkins (2004) report that announcement of a restatement leads to an increase in the firm's costs of equity capital. We posit that filing of a lawsuit will lead to an increase in the cost of equity capital incremental to that caused by the disclosure event. We select lawsuits with a long delay between the filing date and the disclosure date, to isolate the impact of the lawsuit filing from that of the disclosure event. Consistent with prior studies, we find a significant negative market reaction to the lawsuit filing. More importantly, we find that the defendant firm's cost of equity capital increases significantly after the lawsuit is filed.We conduct a comparison group study to further illustrate the incremental effect of lawsuit filing on the cost of equity capital. We compare changes in the cost of equity capital for a group of defendant firms with disclosure events and lawsuit filings occurring in two consecutive forecast periods with changes in cost of equity capital for a group of defendant firms with disclosure events and lawsuit filings occurring in the same forecast period. We observe significant increases in cost of equity capital in both forecast periods for the former group of firms but no further increase in the cost of equity capital in the second forecast period for the latter group. This indicates that although the impact on cost of equity capital of the disclosure event is reflected in the immediate forecast period, the subsequent lawsuit filing leads to an incremental increase in the cost of equity capital.Additional analysis suggests that the increase in cost of equity capital accompanying the lawsuit filing is higher when:* the defendant firm is accused of generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) violation;* the merit of the case is higher; and* firm size is small and leverage is high.Interestingly, we find that firms with financial restatements actually experience no further increases in cost of equity capital, suggesting that the market anticipates the lawsuits for firms with restatements and already incorporated their expected litigation implications in the cost of equity capital at the restatement disclosure event. Consequently, only lawsuits filed against firms with GAAP violation but with no restatement convey new information to the market and result in upward adjustments in the cost of equity capital. Our finding that the increase in cost of equity capital is related to whether the case is subsequently dismissed suggests that the market is able to assess the merit and potential outcome of the lawsuit.Our study makes at least two important contributions. First, it provides strong evidence that the filing of a class action lawsuit increases a firm's cost of equity capital in addition to the increase caused by the revelation event. This result is consistent with there being residual uncertainty at the time of the revelation event about whether a lawsuit will subsequently be filed. Thus, lawsuit filings bring new uncertainty and risks to the defendant firm and the market reacts to this new information by reassessing the cost of equity capital accordingly. Second, we provide evidence that the type of allegation, the merit of the lawsuit, and firm size and leverage are important factors in determining the extent of the adverse impact of the lawsuit on the cost of equity capital. Our results also indicate that the market is efficient in assessing the merit of lawsuits and the possibility of lawsuit filings for restatement firms.The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a review of the relevant literature and the rationale for our predictions. Section 3 describes the cost of equity capital estimation methods and the sample selection. Section 4 discusses the results and section 5 summarizes and concludes the study.\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Market reactions to the disclosure events and subsequent litigation\n3. Cost of equity capital estimation and sample selection: 3.1 Cost of equity capital estimation\n4. Results: 4.1 The impact of lawsuit filings on the cost of equity capital\n5. Summary and conclusion: This paper investigates the effect of the filing of securities class actions on defendant firms' cost of equity capital. The filing of a lawsuit is likely to increase the firm's perceived risk in corporate governance, information asymmetry, and operation and therefore its cost of equity capital. To distinguish the impact of lawsuit filings from that of disclosure events, we focus our main sample on lawsuits that have long lags between disclosure and filing dates to allow the market sufficient time to incorporate the disclosure news into the pre-filing cost of equity capital. Using three different models to estimate the cost of equity capital, we find that the defending firm' cost of equity capital increases significantly after the lawsuit is filed. This finding is robust to a group comparison study, where, for a group of observations with disclosure event and lawsuit filing occurred in two consecutive forecast periods, we find increases in the cost of equity capital in both periods, while we find no further increase in the second period for a group of observations with both disclosure and filing occurred in the first period. Further multivariate regression analysis shows that the changes in the cost of equity capital related to the lawsuit filings are affected by:* the type of allegation, with allegation of GAAP violation resulting in the largest increase in the cost of equity capital;* the merit of the case as indicated by whether the case is dismissed later on; and* firm size and leverage.We also find evidence that the market was able to foresee a lawsuit coming once a firm makes a restatement, thus there is no significant increase for the restatement firm after the lawsuit is field. These results suggest that accounting concerns play a significant role in the litigation's impact on the cost of equity capital, and indicate that accounting-related litigation adversely impacts future financial reporting credibility and leads to a higher cost of equity capital. The finding that the increase in cost of equity capital is related to whether the case is subsequently dismissed suggests that the market is able to assess the merit and the possible outcome of a lawsuit.If the market is able to foresee a lawsuit filing, it will incorporate its implications to the reaction to the disclosure event and no further market reaction to the filing will be found. Our results suggest that the market is unable to fully anticipate the occurrence of lawsuits. Consequently, the filing of a lawsuit brings new information to the market and leads to a significant market reaction including upward adjustment of the cost of equity capital. Since the market already partially incorporated the impact of lawsuits on the cost of equity capital after the disclosure event, what we document here is part of the total increases in the cost of equity capital caused by the lawsuit. Further studies could examine the trade-off between the settlement recovery and the share value loss resulting from filing the lawsuit.\nNotes: 1. Romano (1991), Bohn and Choi (1996) also report significant negative abnormal returns to defendant firms in response to the filing of a class action lawsuit.2. Hellard (2006) reports that directors in securities class action with large settlement or in which the SEC has initiated a case suffer from reputational penalty.3. Kasznik (2004) argues that restatements actually reduce the uncertainty associated with a firm's earnings quality and lead to decrease in the cost of equity capital. In the same vein, the period prior to litigation may be subject to more uncertainties and the filing of a lawsuit might resolve some of those uncertainties and lead to reduction in the cost of equity capital. However, while the filing of a lawsuit may resolve the uncertainty associated with the direct litigation costs such as the damage amount sought by the plaintiffs, it is unlikely to resolve the uncertainty related to the indirect litigation costs which are considerably more difficult to assess at the time of filing. These unobservable indirect litigation costs lead to the increase in the cost of equity capital after the filing.4. Since our study does not focus on assessing the validity of these models, we are agnostic about the correct model and instead employ these three widely used models to assess the rigor of our results.5. A few firms were sued more than once during this sample period. We include these lawsuits as separate observations.6. Griffin et al. (2004) suggest that the market incorporates the news that precipitates the litigation as well as the litigation news rather quickly, and that \"a ten-day period should provide more than adequate time for the stock price to incorporate fully any lingering effects of the corrective disclosure\".7. Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects investors from fraud committed by firms and auditors. The plaintiff must provide evidence of a misrepresentation or omission of a material fact, made with scienter, in connection with purchase or sale of security. Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 prohibits fraudulent misrepresentations in the registration statement, which is required to be filed by a firm before offering securities for sale publicly.8. These median increases in the cost of equity capital seem to be not economically significant. Further investigation reveals that these low median increases are mainly caused by lawsuits that are filed with at least a lag of two forecast periods. Since these lawsuits are filed with a very large lag, the market has gradually absorbed the information dissemination about the upcoming lawsuit, leading to less new information to the market when the lawsuit is filed. In addition, a too long lag may indicate less merit of the lawsuit or difficulties in collecting evidence to file the lawsuit, thus leading to less negative market reaction. Once we restrict lawsuits with lags that are not too long (but long enough to distinguish the effect of the lawsuit from the revelation event), the median increases are economically significant. For instance, In Panel A.2 of Table V, we observe economically significant increases in the median cost of equity capital for lawsuits filed with lags of only one forecast period.9. We require these observations to have forecast revisions in the first post-filing earnings forecast.10. Comparing the results in panel A.1 to those in Panel A.2 also sheds light on the relative extent of increase in cost of equity capital with respect to the disclosure vs the filing event. The mean and median increases as shown in Panel A.2 are higher than those in Panel A.1, suggesting that lawsuit filings lead to larger increases in the cost of equity capital than disclosure events do.11. This is consistent with the findings of prior research of Griffin et al. (2004) and Ferris and Pritchard (2001) that suggest that the market incorporates the news that precipitates the litigation rather quickly.12. Kasznik (2004) argues that analyst forecasts tend to be revised downward over the forecast horizon, thus the first post-earnings announcement forecast is much higher than the last pre-earnings announcement forecast; consequently, the cost of equity capital estimated at the first post-earnings announcement forecast date is much higher than that at the last pre-earnings announcement forecast date. Since firms tend to disclose their litigation triggering events such as restatement concurrent with their earnings announcements, the increase in the cost of equity capital from the pre-disclosure to the post-disclosure is the same as that from the last pre-earnings announcement to the first post-earnings announcement and should be attributed to the forecast bias. Nevertheless, in our paper, even if all disclosure events were concurrent with the earnings announcements, the forecast bias would work against our finding since we would be comparing the cost of equity capital at the first and second post-earnings announcement forecast date (for example, in Panel B of Table III and Panel A.2 of Table IV).Another concern of Kasznik (2004) is that analyst forecasts do not reflect bad news information in a timely manner, causing the cost of equity capital to be over-estimated. To address this issue, as discussed previously, we limit samples to those with revisions in the first post-filing forecast to ensure timely incorporation of lawsuit filing news into the forecast. In addition, In Panel A of Table IV, we find the changes in forecasted earnings to be statistically and economically significant for both periods when the disclosures were made and the lawsuits were filed respectively. On the other hand, the changes in forecasted earnings in Panel B of Table IV, are either economically or statistically insignificant in the second period when there were neither disclosures nor lawsuit filings. This indicates that forecasts incorporate litigation news rather quickly. Finally, we test the impact of lawsuit filing on the cost of equity capital three months and six months after the filing (not tabulated) and find that the cost of equity capital stays at the plateau reached after the filing. This is additional evidence that the observed increase in the cost of equity is not a result of untimely incorporation of the information in analyst forecasts.13. A test of the sum of the coefficient of DRESTATE and DGAAP indicates that the sum is not significantly different from zero.14. This result is consistent with Hribar and Jenkins (2004), who find no more significant additional increase in the cost of equity capital three months after the restatement. If lawsuit filings for restatement firms lead to further increase in the cost of equity capital, some of their sample firms that experience lawsuits after the restatements would have increased the cost of equity capital further.15. One possible explanation of this insignificance is that the lead plaintiff won't be appointed until after the 90th day of the lawsuit filing, thus its impact is not impounded in the immediate post-filing cost of equity capital.16. When assuming future earnings beyond year 4 equal EPS4 or grow at a rate of g, PT becomes P4 and equals EPS4/r or (EPS4 x (1 + g))/(r - g).17. The residual income of (EPS - r x BV) can be rewritten as ((ROE - r) x BV).18. We assume a perpetual growth rate (g1) of 4 percent in the OJ model to represent the long-term growth rate it the economy. The results are robust if we vary the g1 from 2 percent to 6 percent.Opens in a new window.Figure 1\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of class action litigation on firms' cost of equity capital.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper uses three different models to estimate the cost of equity capital. To separate the impact of lawsuit filings on the cost of equity capital from that of the revelation event, a sample of lawsuits with a long lag between the disclosure events and filing dates was analyzed. Also, a comparison group study was conducted to illustrate the distinct impact of a lawsuit filing on the defendant firm's cost of equity capital. Finally, a multivariate analysis was used to examine the factors that affect the magnitude of such impact.\nFindings: - The paper finds that filing of a class action lawsuit results in a significant increase in the defendant firm's cost of equity capital incremental to the effect of the disclosure event. Additionally, increases in the cost of equity capital after the lawsuit filings are higher when the lawsuits involve generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) violation and have high merit, and when the defendant firms are small and have high leverage.\nPractical implications: - Findings in this paper suggest that the filing of a lawsuit brings new information to the market and is likely to increase the defendant firm's cost of equity capital by increasing the perceived risk in corporate governance, information asymmetry and operation.\nOriginality/value: - This paper reveals securities class actions increase the defendant firms' cost of equity capital.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Logistics service providers in China: Current status and future prospects
|
[
"Service delivery",
"Management standards",
"China",
"Competitive strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Under the central economic planned system, the Chinese government assumed a high degree of responsibility and control over the procurement, production, distribution and the price consumers pay for goods. A three-tier distribution system was established to control the flow of commodities with no market forces at work. Private business was largely banned while state-owned logistics providers only offered transportation and warehousing services, but rarely performed value-added and other logistics activities. This system had resulted in inefficiencies in management, organization and operation of logistics.In 1978, the government decided to reform the distribution sector through establishing a new commodity circulation system, in which state-owned enterprises played the leading role while the collectives and individuals were encouraged to engage in some logistics activities. Buyers were given a greater degree of autonomy to appoint logistics providers. However, these forms of ownership - state, collective and private were not allowed to co-exist equally within the economy until 1993. With China become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), restrictions on foreign firms in providing logistics services will be phased out in the next few years, making the logistics system progress toward a free market mode.The development of the logistics sector has drawn much attention from the government. It has been recognized as one of important drivers for national economy and business development. Some eastern cities, such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have identified the logistics as one of important urban sectors and some have adopted preferential policies in tax and land use to enhance the development of this sector. Meanwhile, the increasing need for the third-party logistics (TPL) service has attracted many new players, including some foreign firms, such as MAERSK, DHL and UPS.However, little research has been done on Chinese logistics service providers in the literature. In light of the increasing interest in both TPL providers and China as an emerging player in the world economy, an understanding and assessment of China's logistics service providers is appropriate and timely. The key objectives of this article are (1) to study the current status of logistics providers in the whole country as well as a comparatively developed Chinese city (Tianjin), (2) to reveal the disparities between China and Tianjin, as well as the local firms and their foreign counterparts, (3) to identify the challenges faced by Chinese logistics providers and suggest strategies for local logistics service providers in an increasingly competitive environment.\n2. Literature review: A large proportion of research has been conducted to study logistics service providers. Leahy et al. (1995) find that the typical US TPL is relatively young. Over 50 per cent enter the industry since 1985. Most firms provide a wide range of value-added services and are optimistic about growth opportunities. Ulengin and Uray (1999) find that in Turkey, the basic factor restricting logistics improvement is top management's lack of education on the subject. A survey on Danish logistics service providers indicate that the firms tend to be \"niche\" to the domestic market and limited sets of customers, while offering little services in the areas of information systems and supply chain design (Larson and Gammelgaard, 2001). The most important strategic service element for Taiwanese ocean freight forwarders is value-added service, followed by promotion, equipment and facilities as well as speed and reliability (Lu, 2000). Panayides (2004) find a positive relationship between market segmentation and logistics performance.Some articles have investigated the Chinese logistics sector from various perspectives. Many multination enterprises find it difficult to implement coherent strategies since their sourcing and distribution throughout China are hindered by poor transportation (Speece and Yukiko, 1995). Carter et al. (1997) indicate several shortcomings of local logistics providers, such as undependable and unresponsive service. Normally new international joint ventures have to take a number of years to achieve high levels of local purchasing and managers have to take a proactive approach to develop both technological and management expertise in their local suppliers (Zhang and Keith, 2001). Luk (1996) reviews a series of distribution reform activities and find that some problems, such as regional differences still exist and deter the development of Chinese logistics sector. Jiang and Prater (2002) argue that although there are some barriers, three forces, i.e. booming economy, entering the WTO and e-commerce are modernizing the distribution and logistics system. Hong et al. (2004a, b) examine the Chinese manufacturers' usage of outside logistics services and find that there is an increasing trend for firms to outsource logistics services in China. Moreover, major dissatisfaction is caused by rate level, on-time delivery performance as well as comprehension of service offering.The above literature review suggests that most previous studies investigate the Chinese logistics from the perspective of logistics users, but largely ignore the perspective of logistics service providers, especially their competitive strategy. This research attempts to analyze the current status of logistics service providers based on a recent survey, as well as offer some managerial implications on logistics competitive strategy. Before proceeding to report the survey results, we would like to introduce a conceptual model of logistics strategy.\n3. A conceptual model of logistics competitive strategy: According to the well-recognized typology in strategy studies, firms' competitive strategies could be classified into four types: pure cost leadership, pure differentiation, cost and differentiation and no competitive advantage (Porter, 1980, 1985). The theory proposes that there are two main sources of competitive advantage: cost and differentiation. The cost leadership strategy focuses on cost reduction only. To obtain cost advantages, the pure cost companies might limit themselves to offer only basic and standard services. Since there is a lower entry barrier, competition will be stronger and hence companies obtain less profit. On the other hand, companies taking a differentiation strategy attempt to differentiate their products or services from competitors. Customers prefer more comprehensive and value-added services that generate higher customer service levels than basic services, and are willing to pay more for these value-added or differentiated products.Based on Porter's theory, some researchers (Shapiro, 1984) propose two generic modes of logistics operation: full service mode and low cost strategy. A \"full service\" mode attempts to provide full logistics services, which is appropriate for the market in which the customers value one-stop and differentiated services. A \"low cost\" strategy emphasizes price competition, in which neither customization nor rapid delivery is offered. With increasing competition in the market, we can expect that more and more logistics providers will shift from low cost strategy to full service mode, in order to meet their customers' requirements on comprehensive logistics offerings and broad geographical coverage.There are three possible ways to accomplish this upgrade: internal activities, acquisitions and strategic alliances (Lewis, 1990). A firm can perform the activity internally and adopt an all out strategy for a complete overhaul and upgrade, but this is apt to be hindered by limited capital availability and the uncertainty of changing market. It can also acquire other firms that have the specialized resources, but this is normally difficult and expensive. The last way is to be more aggressive and go for alliances and partnerships to broaden both service offerings and geographic coverage. In many cases, strategic alliances can avoid the problems of outright acquisition (Simchi-Levi et al., 2003). It has been used to facilitate communication and interaction between firms that require resources of one anther (Ratten, 2004), and is an efficient way to shorten the learning time, improving market access, adding value to services and reduce development costs. Thus, strategic alliance offers a good option for logistics firms that have limited capital availability, which characterizes most local logistics providers in China.\n4. Methodology: China's TPL industry is just in its infancy. We believe that most of Chinese logistics providers fail to meet the definition of \"modern\" TPL providers, namely, multi-function capabilities and longer-term mutually beneficial relationship (Leahy et al., 1995). Moreover, many of them may not recognize the concept of \"modern\" TPL. In this study, we define logistics service providers as those who have recognized the concept of \"modern\" TPL and intend to adopt it, or those who have adopted and implemented it. They are believed to be on the leading edge of TPL development in China.4.1 Chinese logistics survey\n5. Findings: 5.1 Respondent profile\n6. Managerial implications for logistics providers: The accession agreement for China's entry into the WTO has opened the service and distribution sectors to foreign investment. Doing business in China will be easier and more foreign logistics firms will enter the market. Although the entry barriers will not be removed totally until 2005, local logistics service providers should review their current management strategies before greater competition sets in. Arising from our survey results, several key managerial implications could be drawn for local logistics service providers:6.1 Competitive strategy\n7. Conclusions and suggestions: This research has attempted to study current status and future prospects of China's logistics service providers. Several important characteristics have emerged. First, there are two main sources of TPL providers: new firms and transitional firms. New firms are comparatively small while transitional firms are more likely to employ more workers. Second, Chinese logistics providers depend mainly on transportation and warehousing businesses but lack logistics information management and value-added services. Three most important selection criteria to customers perceived by Chinese providers are rate level, information processing and pickup and delivery reliability. These are quite different from the findings of previous research. Local providers may fail to appreciate the importance of lead-time performance.With China's entry into WTO, Chinese logistics suppliers are pressured to improve due to greater competition and higher customer requirements. It forces Chinese logistics firms to make quantum leaps and upgrades. Main barriers restricting improvements include institutional problems, shortage of funds and underdeveloped infrastructure. Chinese logistics providers have a long way to go in achieving international service standards, especially in improving customer service, providing logistics information management and increasing value-added services.This research has also revealed differences between logistics service providers in the whole country and those in a relatively developed area (Tianjin). Comparatively speaking, more of Tianjin logistics firms are non-state owned, with smaller scale. It was also found that Tianjin logistics providers have large service geographic coverage. More of them have realized the importance of the lead-time performance in competition. On the other hand, the differences between them in the age structure, the service offerings, the perception of advantages of foreign providers and barriers to logistics development are insignificant.Some managerial implications have been drawn from this study for local logistics service providers. Local providers must review their current strategies of pure cost, basic service functions and limited business coverage. As greater competition sets in, they should attempt to offer more comprehensive logistics services in a broad market, as well as improve customer service in terms of the lead-time performance, reliability and consistency. Given the limited financial capability, the establishment of strategic alliances could be an appropriate choice to achieve this goal.This research has also provided some policy implications for the government authorities. The survey results indicate that institutional problems are the most serious barrier that prevents the development of logistics industry in China. The Chinese government should strengthen the coordination between logistics-related authorities, prevent regional protectionism, take policies to encourage the state-owned logistics users to detach in-house logistics departments, and channel more resources to develop the education and training programs on logistics.This study could be considered as a pilot study in analyzing the current status and future prospects of logistic service providers in China. Of course, future studies with larger samples and more detailed survey questions will produce more invaluable information for local providers and government authorities. It could also be useful for foreign logistic service providers to better understand the logistics market in China and hence take an appropriate strategy when they enter it. At the same time, this research provides a useful guide for future studies in studying the logistics market in developing countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The article attempts to study the current status and future prospects of logistics providers in the whole country as well as a comparatively developed Chinese city (Tianjin); reveal the disparities between China and Tianjin, as well as local firms and their foreign counterparts; and identify the challenges faced by Chinese logistics providers and offer managerial implications for logistics providers in an increasingly competitive environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This research is based on two surveys conducted in China and Tianjin, respectively, under the support from government authorities. Comparative analyses were conducted to ascertain the differences between logistics firms in China and developed countries, as well as regional differences within China.\nFindings: - The results reveal that Chinese logistics providers depend heavily on transportation and warehousing businesses but lack value-added services and logistics information management. Rate setting ranks highly in provider priority while the importance of lead-time performance is largely ignored. Significant regional differences in logistics exist and there is a long way for Chinese logistics providers to go in achieving international service standards. Most local firms wish to establish strategic alliances to enhance competitiveness.\nOriginality/value: - This research enriches the literature by investigating the current status and future prospects of logistics service providers in a transitional economy. China being an emerging player in the world economy, an understanding and assessment of China's logistics service providers is appropriate and timely. It offers invaluable information and implications for local providers, government authorities and foreign logistic service providers that are interested in the market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluating after-sales service units by developing inverse network data envelopment analysis model
|
[
"Data envelopment analysis (DEA)",
"After-sales service"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: After-sales service implies services that are provided to customers after products are delivered. The after-sales services can become a crucial differentiator for companies (Vitasek, 2005). They are considered as a significant source of income for manufacturing companies that can also be considered as a competitive advantage and business opportunity (Gaiardelli et al., 2007b). To this end, modern organizations establish performance evaluation systems in their after-sales service units (Gaiardelli et al., 2007a).\n2. Proposed model: In this section, we develop an INDEA model. Here, we define the following notations:\n3. Case study: Here, we assess ten representatives of the after-sales service of an Iranian car manufacturing company[1]. The mission of this company is to distribute spare parts of cars to the representatives. These representatives are analyzed in terms of the following criteria:\n4. Conclusions: After-sales services are vital in a competitive market (Cohen and Lee, 1990). After-sales services cause clients' satisfaction, increase market share and augment the income of businesses (Li et al., 2019). They are crucial for organizations to evaluate the performance of their after-sales services. Besides, sales and customer service representatives play essential roles to improve customer satisfaction and organizational competitiveness (Izadbakhsh et al., 2009).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an inverse network data envelopment analysis (INDEA) model to solve resource allocation problems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors estimate inputs' variations based on outputs so that the efficiencies of decision-making unit under evaluation (DMUo) and other decision-making units (DMUs) are constant.\nFindings: The new INDEA model is developed to allocate resources such that inputs are not increased while efficiency scores of all DMUs remain constant. Furthermore, the authors obtain new combinations of inputs and outputs, together with a growth in efficiency score of DMUo such that efficiency scores of other DMUs are not changed. A case study is provided.\nOriginality/value: This paper proposes INDEA model to estimate inputs (outputs) without changing efficiency scores of DMUs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Contagion across exchange rates: New evidence on the role of information spillovers and eight major exchange rates
|
[
"Contagion effects",
"Exchange rates",
"Information spillovers",
"Parametric and non-parametric methodologies",
"Currency markets",
"F41",
"F30",
"C10"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Despite a substantial volume of theoretical and empirical research, no consensus has emerged regarding the true drivers behind contagion effects in asset markets. This paper makes use of the concept of contagion in relevance to the most common definition which is the intensification or increase in the spillover of a particular shock to one asset price to another asset price and seeks to uncover the exact role of information spillovers across exchange rates. Understanding the channels by which information is transmitted between currencies it will provide better information on how to formulate policies aimed at insulating economies from the damage that may occur as a result of a future potential crisis in relevance to exchange rate markets. While this paper is closely related to various strands of the literature on asset market interactions and contagion within and across asset markets (Ehrmann et al., 2011), to the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first empirical attempt that provides a systematic analysis of identifying the major drivers behind exchange rate contagion effects, spanning the period 2003-2013. Previous studies on contagion have primarily focussed on examining interactions across other asset markets, i.e., stock markets.\n2. Literature review: There is extensive literature on contagion across a number of asset classes. Noussair and Xu (2015) explore whether the presence of asymmetric information on correlations between assets can induce financial contagion. Their findings document that financial contagion can arise even in the absence of any fundamental relationship between assets, indicating that the information incorporated may signal changes in the course of the asset not associated with the underlying fundamentals. We focus on studies related to exchange rate markets that highlight reasons for contagion, and methodological approaches used[1]. The effects of news on exchange rate markets are generally clear. When global economies and markets are closely integrated, shocks in one economy could be transmitted to other economies mostly through trade spillover effects (Glick and Rose, 1999).\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Contagion tests based on changes in correlation\n4. Data: The paper employs daily market data on exchange rate returns for a number of major (traditional) exchange rate markets, spanning the period 5 June 2003 to 25 November 2013. In particular, the foreign exchange data comprise eight time series of daily closing exchange rates, denoted relative to the US dollar (USD), namely, the Euro (EUR), the British pound (GBP), the Japanese yen (JPY), the Canadian dollar (CAD), the Australian dollar (AUD), the Swiss franc (CHF), the Chinese yuan (CHY), and the South Korean won (KRW). The FX returns are defined as rt=lnPt-lnPt-1, where Pt is the closing price at day t. Data are obtained from the Bloomberg database.\n5. Empirical analysis: Table I presents the results of the contagion test by Forbes and Rigobon (2002) about the impact of within currency market shocks and outside market shocks on exchange rates. The findings in Table I indicate the statistical validity of the source of the shock impacting the recipient that receives the relevant shock. When looking at the findings, the results are ordered in the following way: the first group on the left-hand side highlights the impact of all exchange rates on themselves (i.e. within exchange rate markets shocks). Next is the group of all shocks that are external to the exchange rates, i.e., macroeconomic announcements, credit ratings, real estate information and CDS information related to a systematic risk country, i.e., Greece. The figures denote FR statistics values, while those in parentheses denote p-values. The null hypothesis is \"no contagion\", while the rejection of the null hypothesis denotes that contagion across returns is present.\n6. Conclusions: This paper took a number of empirical steps to shed light on the drivers or sources of contagion effects across a number of major currency markets. The paper used daily data spanning the period 2003-2013 on eight US dollar exchange rates, which extensively facilitated the analysis given that exchange rates were actively traded during announcement times. Moreover, variables representing macroeconomic announcements, to proxy a part of the information spillovers and from the exchange rates themselves spillovers, were used explicitly to identify the drivers of potential contagion effects across exchange rates.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate contagion across eight major exchange rates by providing more information on the role of information spillovers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis makes use of two methodologies that capture channels of contagion. Such methodologies explicitly consider information spillovers characterized by the response of currency markets to real-time macroeconomic surprises, i.e., divergences between expectations and realizations.\nFindings: The empirical findings denote the presence of contagion effects, originating from information spillovers.\nPractical implications: The empirical findings provide insight about how to derive appropriate policy responses, which are crucial for policymakers to understand the source and nature of such exposures, while this insight might have some bearing with respect to the choice of an exchange-rate regime. The results from this paper may also have implications for investors in relevance to portfolio re-balancing and the construction of optimal portfolio diversification strategies.\nOriginality/value: This is the first empirical attempt that explores the role of informational spillovers in exchange rate markets and also explores the employment of advanced econometric methodologies to satisfy the above research goal.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Faculty support and student engagement in undergraduate engineering
|
[
"Faculty support",
"STEM",
"Engineering",
"Engagement",
"Emotion",
"Motivation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe importance of faculty: Faculty can influence student experiences in college both through formal class support and interactions that contribute to students' academic integration in college and through informal interactions such as those associated with extracurricular activities which influence students' social integration in college. In turn, both academic and social integration are key contributors to students' ability and decision to complete a degree (Tinto, 1993).Faculty Support of Students: The teaching practices that faculty use and other efforts faculty make to support students have often predicted students' academic performance and engagement. For example, Umbach and Wawrzynski (2005) demonstrated in a large multi-institutional study that student engagement is higher at institutions where faculty used active and collaborative learning techniques and challenged students academically. Faculty support including expressions of care and respect has also been associated with positive feelings toward and emotional commitment to an institution (LaMastro, 2001) as well as improved academic performance (Torregosa et al., 2016), and for male STEM students, improved mathematical self-concept (Kim and Sax, 2018). In other studies, faculty support did not directly predict outcomes such as student satisfaction, but mediated the relationship between student effort and student satisfaction (Fredrickson, 2012).In engineering, student satisfaction with faculty availability and the quality of instruction and advice was found to be negatively correlated with students being disengaged across a broad range of engineering majors at four different institutions (Chen et al., 2008). And, over time, general perceptions of faculty support across multiple courses predicted behavioral and emotional engagement at smaller, teaching-oriented institutions but not at large research institutions (Wilson et al., 2014). While this research reinforces the importance of faculty support in the student experience, relatively little is known about how different demographic populations, particularly under-represented groups, may perceive and respond differently to such support.Faculty Interactions with Students: Faculty and peers are largely regarded as the two primary agents of socialization on a college campus, and despite the powerful influence of peer groups on student values, attitudes and development, informal interactions with faculty can be sufficiently powerful to exceed the influence of the general student culture (Lamport, 1993). More specifically, in a study of over 4,500 students at various doctoral and master's level institutions, Lundberg and Schreiner (2004) found that the quality of faculty-student relationships significantly predicted learning for all ethnic groups. In a more recent study of 242 students at a single mid-size institution, students who thought that faculty were available to interact with them outside the classroom, reported higher academic self-concept and intrinsic motivation in their studies than those who thought faculty were less accessible (Komarraju et al., 2010). Course-related student-faculty interactions have also been significantly linked to GPA for Asian-American students (Cole, 2010). And, in an effort to study 43,000 students from 119 majors across nine campuses, student-faculty interactions were consistently and significantly associated with greater levels of cognitive development (Kim and Sax, 2011). However, a recent study brought into question the importance of student-faculty interactions by demonstrating that for millennial students, student-faculty interactions significantly predicted neither student satisfaction in the first year nor retention in the second year of the undergraduate program (Romsa et al., 2017). This study contradicted earlier studies which demonstrated that student-faculty interactions had significant positive impacts on student satisfaction (Kuh and Hu, 2001) and on retention (Lamport, 1993).In an effort to further understand whether millennial students are different from their predecessors in terms of the impact faculty have on their educational experience, this study examined how student-faculty interactions were related to multiple forms of student engagement. Consistent with recommendations from Gellin that emerged from a meta-analysis of student involvement which includes interactions with faculty (Gellin, 2003), this study also narrowed the context of studying student-faculty interactions to specific courses rather than more generalized contexts which extend across multiple courses or other campus activities.\nMeasuring student engagement: Student engagement is most frequently measured in terms of what students do (rather than what they think and feel) and is measured broadly across multiple courses or academic and non-academic activities. The most comprehensive and far-reaching survey on engagement among college students in the US is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) which was introduced in 1999 to gather information about the quality of colleges and universities and, in its present form, is completed annually by students at over 531 colleges and universities (National Survey of Student Engagement, n.d.). Of particular interest to academic courses on the NSSE are student-faculty interactions (e.g. how often have you talked about career plans with a faculty member?) and effective teaching practices (e.g. to what extent have your instructors taught course sessions in an organized way?) ((National Survey of Student Engagement, 2019). These measures are similar to measures of faculty support and faculty interactions used in this study.Other items on the NSSE that relate to academic courses seek to understand how much time students spend in higher order learning (e.g. how much has your coursework involved evaluating a point of view, decision or information source?), reflective and integrative learning (e.g. how often have you connected your learning to societal problems or issues?), learning strategies (e.g. how often have you identified key information from reading assignments?) and quantitative reasoning (e.g. how often have you reached conclusions based on your own analysis of numerical information?) (NSSE Engagement Indicators, n.d.). Rather than focusing on time spent in these specific activities or other tasks, this study looked at underlying motivators of what students choose to do with their time. Behavioral engagement includes both observable measures such as asking questions and participating in class discussions and non-observable motivators like attention and effort (Fredricks et al., 2004). This study examined the less observable measures of attention and effort. Behavioral engagement is particularly important because it has been shown to influence other forms of engagement (e.g. emotional), link what teachers do with student achievement and mediate behaviors that are critical to learning (Fredericks, 2013).In addition to behavioral engagement measures of attention and effort, emotional engagement measures seek to capture the emotional motivators behind other forms of engagement. Positive emotions are key elements to human adaption and learning, and while high-intensity emotions may impair attention, focus and motivation, low-intensity positive emotions are likely to do the opposite by increasing the ability to regulate behavior (Valiente et al., 2012). For example, enjoyment is a low-intensity emotion that has been linked to better academic performance (Pekrun et al., 2006; Ferris and Gerber, 1996; Puca and Schmalt, 1999). Low-intensity positive emotions can also promote better cognitive and academic functioning by broadening cognition and awareness of potential solutions to difficult problems (Cohn and Fredrickson, 2009). The emotion of interest is likely to help students pay attention and, in so doing, perform better (Valiente et al., 2012). Interest and curiosity are also likely to result in higher achievement by increasing motivation to seek out additional learning resources (Valiente et al., 2012) and enhancing intrinsic motivation and locus of control (Pekrun, 2006).In contrast, negative emotional engagement can signal a lack of or a barrier to motivated behavior. For example, worry and anxiety diminish the capacity and capability of working memory, which, in turn, detrimentally impacts academic performance. Situational anxiety has been linked to negative academic outcomes including diminished test performance and grades (Duchesne et al., 2008; Seipp, 1991). Anxiety and worry can also disrupt memory and the ability to recall material (Linnenbrink, 2007; Linnenbrink et al., 1999; Rice et al., 2007). Anxiety among students can lead to poor performance because these negative emotions decrease motivation or incite withdrawal (Davidson et al., 2000), which, in turn, reduces other forms of engagement (Linnenbrink, 2007).Like behavioral engagement measures, studies which focus on the emotional aspects of engagement in college are not commonplace despite their demonstrated importance in individual success. To contribute to this gap in the understanding of engagement among college students, this study measured both positive and negative emotional engagement as well as effort and attention.\nResearch questions: This study investigated connections between faculty support, faculty interactions and student engagement, resulting in the following research questions:RQ1. Are faculty support or faculty interactions significantly related to student engagement?Previous studies of how faculty behavior relates to student engagement have been largely limited to engagement associated with time-on-task and time spent in high-value educational activities. This study focused instead on the more internal states of engagement related to attention and effort as well as positive and negative emotional engagement. Insight into these relationships may also extend outside of the college classroom into other engineering learning settings in K-12, continuing education for adults or informal learning environments in engineering and STEM.RQ2. Do different types of students appear to respond to faculty differently?Prior research has shown that faculty support can influence different groups of students differently. This study expanded on this notion by evaluating which demographic variables and faculty behaviors interact in relation to both behavioral and emotional engagement. Insight gained from this research question can be applied to expanding diversity and inclusion in engineering and other STEM courses.\nMethods: This study was based on a survey that was specifically designed to measure faculty support, faculty-student interactions and student engagement. The study was conducted at a single large public university classified as a doctoral university with very high research activity (Carnegie Foundation, 2018). Class enrollment in the courses surveyed ranged from 60 to 250 students.Participants\nResults: Skewness and kurtosis of the engagement variables were first calculated to confirm variable normality. Skewness of all four engagement variables was between 0 and -0.5, indicating that the variables were approximately symmetric. Kurtosis for all variables ranged between 0 and -1, indicating that the distributions of the engagement variables were neither too flat nor too peaked. Thus, the engagement variables were assumed to be sufficiently normally distributed to proceed with analysis (George and Mallery, 2010). Bivariate correlations between pairs of engagement variables were all below 0.5. Therefore, all four engagement variables were retained.Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: RQ1. Are faculty support or faculty interactions significantly related to student engagement?\nLimitations: This study was limited to seven engineering courses at a single institution. Thus, we cannot claim that our findings are generalizable to other engineering courses at other institutions. Furthermore, sample sizes of both Black and other URM students were small, which may have reduced the possibility of finding significant results within the data. Despite small sample sizes, this study demonstrated that students' response to faculty support and faculty interactions is likely different, depending on gender, race/ethnicity, US status and transfer status. Another important limitation of this study is that the collected data are cross-sectional in nature and cannot prove cause and effect. However, an argument can be made that, within a single term and course, what faculty do is more likely to influence student engagement than student engagement is to influence what faculty do.\nImplications: Evaluated in the context of the broader research, this study reinforces the broad and consistent importance of the faculty member in the student's life. The results of this study imply that how faculty express care, concern and respect for students, interact with students and are available to help can impact students' emotions and motivations, which has implications for greater achievement not only in the course in which this support and interaction occurs but also in future courses. Faculty support and faculty interactions also seem to be particularly important for under-represented students, whether females, racial/ethnic minorities, international students or transfer students. This has important implications for faculty professional development and efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in engineering at all levels. Simply put, how faculty support and interact with students is as important as how they teach and also to varying degrees who they are interacting with - whether that be a student who is a member of a majority group or one who belongs to an under-represented group in engineering.\nConclusions: This study found that both faculty support and student-faculty interactions are significantly associated with both behavioral and emotional measures of student engagement. The nature of these associations varies with the type of engagement as well as the type of student. Students who are under-represented by race/ethnicity or gender or who are in a minority by virtue of being a transfer or international student often appear to be more responsive to faculty support and faculty interactions than majority students. These results suggest not only that those who teach engineering must be strategic in both their teaching practices and their interactions with students, but that adjusting interactions with under-represented groups may serve to support them better and enhance feelings of inclusion in engineering.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study investigated how behavioral and emotional forms of engagement are associated with faculty support and student-faculty interactions among engineering students.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Quantitative research methods were used to analyze survey data from 781 undergraduates in seven large undergraduate engineering courses. Linear hierarchical regression models were used to evaluate the relationships between demographics (gender, race/ethnicity, family education, US status and transfer status) and student engagement and between faculty behaviors and engagement.\nFindings: Faculty support was consistently, significantly and positively linked to all forms of student engagement, while student-faculty interactions were significantly and positively linked to effort and positive emotional engagement and negatively linked to attention and (an absence of) negative emotional engagement. Gender, race/ethnicity, international student status and transfer status significantly predicted at least one form of engagement.\nResearch limitations/implications: Although this was a single institution study and cross-sectional, the findings suggest that faculty support and student-faculty interactions, while important for engagement, have different effects on different types of students. Faculty and teacher professional development efforts should raise awareness of these differences in order to enhance diversity and inclusion in engineering courses and curricula at all levels.\nOriginality/value: The analysis of behavioral and emotional forms of engagement represents more of a motivational lens on engagement in contrast to the traditional focus on time-on-task or time spent in fruitful educational practices, as is the norm with much of the engagement literature in higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The narrative strategies of B2B technology brands
|
[
"Narratives",
"Internet of things",
"Artificial intelligence",
"B2B brands",
"Transmedia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: \"Position: Marketing Storyteller - Digital Story\n2. Conceptual background: 2.1 Business-to-business brands and narratives\n3. Methodology: The aim of this research is to analyze the assemblage of the elements comprising a narrative brand strategy, and the implications of this narrative approach for strategic level branding. Therefore, we used a case study because it is especially relevant in contexts where the aim is to increase understanding of a research area that has been explored only partially (Miles et al., 2014).\n4. Findings: Two aspects of the two brands' narrative strategies were of particular interest. The first is the assemblage of narratives around a key metanarrative and its articulation with existing sociocultural narratives. The second is the articulation of narratives broadcast via different channels, in other words, the transmedia strategy used by the brand.\n5. Conclusions and recommendations: The goal of this paper was to analyze the general structure of B2B narrative-based brand strategies. By analyzing the cases of IBM and Cisco, we have shown that the narrative world of brands comprises a plethora of little stories. These stories are based on a broader metanarrative, with a variation of characters and sometimes temporality. The causal link stays the same in every story. These stories are also inspired by broader narratives and myths that circulate in the sociocultural sphere. We have also shown that both Cisco and IBM use a transmedia strategy, in which they can re-create narratives, in addition to adapting them, across media. The narrative strategy of both firms is also supported by developing new skills in narrative design, either internally, by hiring staff trained in narrative writing or externally, by partnering with firms in creative industries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: With the rise of digital media and content marketing, business-to-business (B2B) technology firms increasingly use narratives in their marketing strategy. If research has studied the impact of narrative on audiences, the structuration of the narrative strategies is still an overlooked area. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structuration of narrative strategies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Authors studied the cases of narratives on the Internet of Things produced by two leading technology firms, IBM and Cisco, between 2012 and 2016. Material includes advertising campaigns, blogs, written customer cases, white papers, public speeches and selling discourses.\nFindings: The research highlights the importance of metanarratives as the core of the structuration of seemingly different contents. It also shows how firms tap into fundamental mythic archetypes and broader sociocultural narratives to try and legitimate the emerging technology. Finally, research also introduces the concept of transmedia strategy and illustrates its use by the two firms studied.\nResearch limitations/implications: The results are based on only two cases of multinational firms, limiting the generalization of the findings.\nPractical implications: The results of the research may encourage firms to use more narrative branding strategies. They also offer directions for the key elements to manage when elaborating a narrative strategy (defining key metanarratives, identifying and using broader sociocultural narratives, designing a transmedia strategy).\nOriginality/value: The paper is among the first to try to understand the structuration of narrative branding strategies. While exploratory, it contributes to research on B2B branding and digital branding by bringing the narrative into B2B branding research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Aligning competitive priorities in the supply chain: the role of interactions with suppliers
|
[
"Supply chain management",
"Strategic alignment",
"Competitive advantage"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the last decade the competitive landscape has pushed organizations to compete not solely on their own capabilities but with their entire supply chain (Hult et al., 2007). Increased customer requirements coupled with competitive pressure from globalization have forced managers to ensure that their organization's resources are well aligned not only across all functional areas but also throughout the entire supply chain. This alignment is key in developing and maintaining capabilities required in meeting evolving customer demands.Several studies have suggested the necessity of having a supply chain structure that aligns with the product and market characteristics (Fisher, 1997; van der Vaart and van Donk, 2006). Examples suggest that the markets and/or the customers' requirements should be matched with the appropriate supply management approach. For instance, Black & Decker, facing a price-sensitive market, asked their suppliers to adopt lean management practices to eliminate waste and to become more efficient; in contrast, IBM selected suppliers based on their capacity to support the product development function of its organization (Vonderembse et al., 2006). Such supply management activities are widely implemented by Japanese automakers, particularly Toyota, who coordinate their supplier network and ensure that they contribute to fulfilling the needs of their end customers (Dyer and Hatch, 2004). This type of matching necessitates the alignment of competitive priorities throughout the supply chain, and it is contingent on the type of interactions that an organization has with its suppliers. Such interactions can take several forms (Spekman et al., 1998).Interactions with suppliers can be characterized according to the type of governance that has been adopted by an organization. The transaction cost literature, spurred by the seminal work of Williamson (1979), recognizes that an organization may adopt a governance structure that is either an arm's length, transactional-based interaction with suppliers or a total integration with the supplier, often referred to as vertical integration (or hierarchy). This bi-polar conceptualisation has evolved in the literature by considering a hybrid governance that is between these two extremes, representing different forms of cooperative relationships (Hennart, 1993; Rinehart et al., 2004). While the literature has addressed widely the issues of governance in the supply chain, very little research has examined the linkage between the alignment (or the lack of alignment) of competitive priorities in the supply chain and the type of interactions with suppliers. Such a gap in the literature inspired this paper for which the underlying research question is to what extent are interactions with suppliers linked to the strategic alignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain.The primary goal of this paper is to assess the linkage between the degree of alignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain, as assessed by the difference between customer's requirements and the emphasis that the organization puts on these same requirements in dealing with its suppliers[1], and the interaction with suppliers comprising either an arm's length approach or a more cooperative approach. In other words, we study the extent to which supply management practices reconcile customers' requirements with those asked of suppliers.This research offers many advantages from both an academic and a management perspective. The notion of aligning competitive priorities in the supply chain has already been the subject of analyses resulting primarily from observations of companies or simulations (Vonderembse et al., 2006). This research uses data from a large-scale survey to assess such relationships and therefore contributes empirically to the field. This research also provides the development of conceptual linkages using new constructs in supply chain management as recommended in the literature (Kouvelis et al., 2006). Finally, by examining the practices that might reduce the misalignment between supplier competencies and customer requirements, this research also provides managerial insights.This paper has five further sections. First, the literature pertaining to the concept of alignment is reviewed, and the various types of interactions with the suppliers are identified. Also in the second section, a series of four testable hypotheses are developed. In the third section, the research methodology, comprising the development of scales, is presented. The empirical analysis takes place in fourth section. The next section discusses the results. Finally, a concluding section includes the research limitations and future research avenues.\nSupply chain alignment and inter-organizational practices: The concept of alignment has already been extensively discussed in the operations strategy literature which, for instance, always considered an intimate link between production processes and products (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1979). The process-product matrix is a well-known outcome of that literature, and it has been redeployed and applied to supply chain management (Fisher, 1997).Alignment: from operations strategy to supply chain management\nMethodology: The relationship between the alignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain and the type of interaction with suppliers was tested using a survey of Canadian manufacturing companies. The survey was conducted in two waves:1. In summer 2003, a questionnaire (in French) was sent to 2,000 Quebec manufacturers with at least 20 employees. These 2,000 manufacturers were randomly selected from a comprehensive directory provided by the Centre de recherche industrielle du Quebec.2. In fall 2005, the same questionnaire, in English, was sent to 3,000 manufacturers in the rest of Canada[3]. The 3,000 manufacturers were randomly selected from the Canadian Scott's Directory using the same criteria mentioned above for the Quebec sample frame.The questionnaire was pre-tested with four purchasing managers prior to its distribution. The unit of analysis was the company, and careful screening was made in the sample to avoid duplications of respondents. The target respondents were high level managers in purchasing or operations management. Out of the sample frame of 5,000 companies, 142 were returned because the companies were out of business or the address had changed; 512 completed questionnaires were returned for an effective response rate of 10.5 per cent. While this response rate was rather disappointing according to the field standard (Frohlich, 2002), it is comparable to other studies that were published in operations management (Melnyk et al., 2003).Dependent variables\nEmpirical analysis: Bivariate correlations between the different variables are presented in Table III. Some correlations among the independent variables can be deemed relatively high, thus raising concerns regarding possible collinearity. For instance, the two types of interaction with suppliers are significantly correlated (Table III, correlation = 0.25). However, the higher variance inflation factor is 1.6, well below the recommended threshold of 5 suggested in the literature (Hair et al., 1998). Note the substantial and significant correlations between the misalignments and their respective level variables are all above 0.47 and significant (p<0.01).The relation between supply chain misalignment and interaction with suppliers was tested using ordinary least square regressions. A regression was run for each dependent variable: cost reduction, total cost of ownership, product flexibility, logistical flexibility and delivery (Table IV).Characteristics associated with supply chain efficiency were not linked to arm's-length interaction with suppliers leading to the rejection of H1. That is arm's-length interactions were neither contributing to, nor hampering, the alignment of efficiency related competitive priorities. However, partial support was found for H3 as the cooperative interaction coefficient was negative and significantly related to cost management (model 1, p<0.05). Therefore, cooperative interactions are associated with a better alignment between the respondent's perception of their customers' expectations and what is requested from suppliers in terms of cost control and reduction. However, such a relationship was not found for the total of cost of ownership.The coefficient linking arm's-length interaction with the delivery gap was significantly negative (model 5, p<0.05). This counters H2, which argues that such interaction with suppliers would be associated with lesser alignment. However, strong evidence was found for H4 (models 3 and 4, p<0.01). H4 states that cooperative interaction would be related to the organizations' alignment of their competitive priorities characterizing supply chain responsiveness.Not surprisingly, the respondent's perception of their customers' expectations was positively related to all metrics of misalignment (p<0.01). Firm size was positively related to the misalignment for supply chain responsiveness measures, meaning that larger firms encounter greater difficulties in aligning their supply chains for greater flexibility and faster/reliable deliveries. This result reinforces the point that large organizations are complex and that complexity can hamper delivery performance (Vachon and Klassen, 2002).\nDiscussion: The purpose of the paper, as expressed in the initial research question, was to evaluate whether the type of interaction with suppliers was linked to strategic alignment in the supply chain. Note that alignment represents the capacity of an organization to meet customers' expectations and requirements. Building on that perspective, the discussion does not account for situations where customer requirements were overshot by what is required from the suppliers on any particular competitive priorities, which by definition would constitute a situation of misalignment in the supply chain. Hence, an implicit assumption is tied in with the discussion: lower differences between the respondent's perception of their customer expectations and what is required from suppliers is beneficial for the organization. The empirical analysis suggests that the type of interaction with suppliers is linked to supply chain alignment as measured by the difference between what is required by the customer and what is required from suppliers.Cooperative interactions and strategic alignment in the supply chain\nConclusion: The notion of alignment that is widely discussed in the field of operations strategy aims to ensure the coherence of strategic decisions with the competitive priorities selected by organizations (Bozarth and McDermott, 1998; Joshi et al., 2003). Given the intense competition, however, decisions must include the interactions with suppliers. This paper has therefore adopted this notion of coherence, applied it to supply chain strategy, and empirically tested its validity.The results from the analysis lead to some interesting research avenues. First, cooperative interaction with suppliers, which significantly reduces the misalignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain, is centred on improving communication among supply chain parties. It would be interesting to define in a better way the nature of the communication mechanisms adopted by the business partners. Do companies with stronger cooperative practices have distinct behaviours with regard to communication mechanisms? The answers to this question would deepen our understanding of these practices.Another potentially rich research endeavour would be to assess the relationship between strategic fit in the supply chain, through the assessment of the degree of alignment of competitive priorities and firm performance. Other studies have examined if the alignment of the manufacturing strategy with competitive priorities leads to improved performance (Rho et al., 2001); it would be interesting to analyze the impact of reducing the gap between customer requirements and those imposed on suppliers on the performance of the focal company. After all, alignment efforts should eventually lead to increased competitiveness or improved financial results. However, very little research has investigated the distribution of such gains generated from a better alignment in the supply chain. As discussed earlier, within the context of a supply chain, better alignment that leads to improved performance might not be for all partners but for the organizations whose position in the network allows them to exert pressure (i.e. the member with power).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Over the last decade, competition in the manufacturing sector has increased as globalization and customer requirements have evolved. Now, organizations are competing not only with their internal capabilities but also on their abilities to leverage capabilities in the supply chain. Recent studies suggest that strategic alignment in the supply chain, assessed by the degree of matching between supply management and market requirements, is critical for the success of organizations in the global marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible linkage between strategic alignment (or lack of) in the supply chain, based on the traditional competitive priorities (i.e. cost, quality, flexibility and delivery), and the type of interactions with suppliers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Strategic alignment in the supply chain was measured by the difference between customer's requirements and the emphasis that the organization puts on these same requirements in dealing with its suppliers. The types of interactions were assessed by six items, three of them to measure the degree of arm's length practices and the other three to assess the degree of cooperation with suppliers. The empirical analysis used data from 512 manufacturing companies in Canada surveyed in 2003 and 2005. Linear regressions were conducted to test a series of four hypotheses linking alignment in the supply chain and the type of interactions with suppliers.\nFindings: - Interactions with suppliers that are increasingly based on cooperation were found to be linked with a better alignment of competitive priorities that are characteristic of responsive supply chains. An unexpected result was the positive link between arm's length interactions and delivery, a dimension that is also associated with responsive supply chains.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The choice of interactions with suppliers can be critical in the alignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain. A limitation is that the empirical analysis rests on data collected from one respondent per organization.\nOriginality/value: - This paper contributes to research by providing empirical evidence of the link between the type of interactions with suppliers and the alignment of competitive priorities in the supply chain.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Classification of rolling element bearing fault using singular value
|
[
"Wavelet transform",
"Feature extraction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: Rolling element bearing (REB) is one of the critical components of rotating machines in domestic and industrial applications. Proper functioning of these machineries depends, to a great extent, on the health condition of the bearings. The defects in such bearings, unless detected in time cause unnecessary failures leading to increase in down time, thereby affecting the productivity of the organization (Tandon and Choudhury, 1999) Different methods are used for detection and diagnosis of bearing defects: temperature measurement, wear analysis, vibration and acoustic signal analysis. Among these, vibration signature analysis is one of the widely used methods, as it provides vital information about the status of the bearing (Patil et al., 2008). The vibration signals acquired from rotating machines are non-stationary and typically consists of three major components: first, a periodic component resulting from the cyclic interaction between interfacing elements of the bearing such as vibration caused by interaction between rolling elements and the raceways. Second, a transient component caused by \"one- time\" event such as a localized defect on the bearing elements and third, machinery operating conditions which are usually noisy (Liu et al., 2011).\n2. Experimental setup: 2.1 Bearing test rig and collection of vibration data\n3. Brief theory of WT: The WT is a kernel function used in an integral transform. It is a tool that breaks the data into several frequency components, and then studies each component with a resolution matched to its scale. The CWT of a signal x (t) is given by:(1)\n4. Feature extraction: The denoised vibration signal of size (250,000 x 1) has been divided into 25 segments and each segment contains 10,000 samples. From each segment, 17 statistical features have been extracted which constituted a single pattern. Hence, for four fault conditions of the bearing, two speeds and two load conditions, a total of 400 patterns (25x16) have been extracted. The feature set matrix thus consisted of 17 features x 400 patterns. Each feature has been suitably normalized, so as to attain values between 0 and 1. Table II gives the details of the statistical features where xi is the signal.\n5. Singular value decomposition: Literature survey (Yang and Tse, 2003; Yang, 2007) revealed that DRTs can be effectively used to form a compact feature set by selecting a few sensitive features from a large data set. This can be effectively used for bearing condition classification. This work makes use of SVD as a DRT. SVD (Golub and Loan, 1996) is an optimal orthogonal decomposition, which finds applications in modeling, prediction and information compression of data sequences. In SVD, singular values are uniquely related to eigen values. Mathematically, it is evident that SVD is effective and it can be calculated with higher computational accuracy when compared to eigen values, as it reduces the data by taking the square root of the eigen value (Chakraborty and Saho, 2010).\n6. Proposed method: To identify the changes during the process of CM of an equipment, machinery or component, an index is necessary, which is a quantitative description of the health condition of the item under study. The index, in comparison to the other fault diagnosis schemes, serves in an intuitive way to define bearing health condition (Wang et al., 2009). Miao et al. (2007) used singularity analysis with wavelets in order to obtain the Holder exponents, using which a kurtosis based HI was proposed. Lin et al. (2004) used the residual error signal to develop an improved fault growth parameter (FGP1) which was a modified version of fault growth parameter (FGP) to define the condition of the machine. Ramani (2008) developed a HI for an induction motor, which was associated with electrical and mechanical problems. Bearing failure is one of the common problems in induction motor. He proposed a HI to determine the condition of the system at any instant of time and to predict the future performance of the system. The use of HI can be found in (Jin and Chow, 2013; Jin et al., 2012).\n7. Conclusions: In this paper a novel HI has been proposed and developed based on singular values of the statistical features. Vibration signals has been denoised using \"MKHTR\" scheme and decomposed using DWT to extract 17 statistical features. SVD has been effectively used to reduce the dimensionality of the data set. The singular values of the selected features namely RMS and Pk exhibits a characteristic number, which has been used as an index for evaluating the different fault conditions of the REB. Some of the salient conclusions that can be drawn are as follows:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to classify different conditions of the rolling element bearing (REB) using vibration signals acquired from a customized bearing test rig.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An effort has been made to develop health index (HI) based on singular values of the statistical features to classify different conditions of the REB. The vibration signals from the normal bearing (N), bearing with defect on ball (B), bearing with defect on inner race (IR) and bearing with defect on outer race (OR) have been acquired from a customized bearing test rig under variable load and speed conditions. These signals were subjected to \"modified kurtosis hybrid thresholding rule\" (MKHTR)-based denoising. The denoised signals were decomposed using discrete wavelet transform. A total of 17 statistical features have been extracted from the wavelet coefficients of the decomposed signal.\nFindings: Singular values of the statistical features can be effectively used for REB classification.\nPractical implications: REB are critical components of rotary machinery right across the industrial sectors. It is a well-known fact that critical bearing failures causes major breakdowns resulting in untold and most expensive downtimes that should be avoided at all costs. Hence, intelligently based bearing failure diagnosis and prognosis should be an integral part of the asset maintenance and management activity in any industry using rotary machines.\nOriginality/value: It is found that singular values of the statistical features exhibit a constant value and accordingly can be assigned to each type of bearing fault and can be used for fault characterization in practical applications. The effectiveness of this index has been established by applying this to data from Case Western Reserve University data base which is a standard bench mark data for this application. HIs minimizes the computation time when compared to fault diagnosis using soft computing techniques.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A stages of change perspective on managers' motivation to learn in a leadership development context
|
[
"Learning",
"Leadership development",
"Training",
"Managers",
"Leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Increasingly, leadership development efforts are expected to play key roles in organizations' attempts to enhance their competitiveness and transform themselves and their cultures (Armenakis et al., 1999; Tichy and Cohen, 1997). For example, the management and leadership development efforts of general electric are cited as keys to its competitiveness (Tichy and Sherman, 1993). More and more, leaders and managers have to be prepared to perform in team-based, global, fast-changing environments and organizations have a vested interest in preparing them to do so (Goldstein and Ford, 2002). Clearly, organizations have a keen interest in making sure that development efforts are as effective as possible.\nProchaska's stages of change model: In an attempt to understand the successes and failures of both self-mediated and psychotherapeutically-facilitated efforts to intentionally change problem behaviors such as smoking and overeating, Prochaska (1979) emphasized the role of motivation to change and articulated a \"transtheoretical model of change\" incorporating motivational, cognitive, social learning, and relapse prevention theories. In an early study guided by this change model, DiClemente and Prochaska (1982) compared the experiences of individuals who had stopped smoking on their own with individuals participating in treatment programs. Interestingly, they found strong evidence across both samples for progression through distinct stages of change marked by different motivations, concerns, and intervention requirements. These findings led to a series of studies whose results were articulated in a stages of change model (DiClemente and Prochaska, 1982; Prochaska and DiClemente, 1982, 1983) that provides a framework for categorizing stages of change readiness and motivations and ultimately the interventions appropriate to support progress at each stage.In the first stage of the model, precontemplation, individuals are either naively unaware of the need for change or actively resist awareness of the need (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1982) and have no intentions of changing in the foreseeable future (Prochaska et al., 1992). In the second stage, contemplation, individuals are aware of a need for change and are seriously considering changing but have not yet committed to it (Prochaska et al., 1992). At the third stage, preparation, individuals are intending to take action very soon or have already initiated initial actions. At the fourth stage, called \"action,\" contemplation and preparation gives way to actual initiation of change behaviors. In the fifth and final maintenance stage, motivation is focused on the prevention of relapse to the pre-change set of behaviors (McConnaughy et al., 1989; Prochaska et al., 1992). Using the decisional balance inventory (Velicer et al., 1985), Prochaska et al. (1994) demonstrated that the stages were related to the relative weighting of the perceived pros and cons of the change. In precontemplation, the cons dominated but started to deteriorate at higher stages with the pros dominating at the action stage.The stages of change model has received an extraordinary amount of empirical evidence supporting its ability to predict behavior change across a variety of problem behaviors. In an integrative study investigating the generalizability of the stages of change model, Prochaska et al. (1994) examined a wide range of personal change behaviors across a variety of samples. In all, they examined 12 behaviors: smoking cessation, quitting cocaine, weight control, reducing dietary fat, reducing adolescent delinquent behaviors, practicing safe sex, condom use, sunscreen use, avoiding radon gas exposure, exercise acquisition, mammography testing, and physicians' preventive practices with smokers. The authors purposefully chose a wide variety of problems that differed in many ways, including their frequency of occurrence, legality of the behavior, the visibility of the behavior (i.e. public vs private setting), and social acceptance of the action. In addition, some changes involved ceasing problem behaviors (e.g. smoking and cocaine use) while others involve practicing safe behaviors (e.g. condom use and mammography testing). The researchers found the stages of change model was confirmed across each sample.Since, its introduction, the stages of change model has generated research results with pragmatic implications for understanding and reacting appropriately to the different types of readiness and willingness for change associated with each stage. In essence, this research suggests that \"efficient self-change depends on doing the right things (processes) at the right time (stages)\" (Prochaska et al., 1992, p. 1110). For example, in the Prochaska et al. (1994) study of 12 different behaviors, the researchers, based on the respondents' change stage, were able to accurately and reliably predict the decisional processes and types of techniques that facilitated individuals to make progress.Not surprisingly, the stages of change model has started finding its way into organizational research. Prochaska et al. (2001b) provide a good overview of much of this work. In their study of a large-scale change effort in a hospital, Cunningham et al. (2002) provide preliminary support that both individual (e.g. self-efficacy) and job characteristics (e.g. decision latitude) variables were positively related to change readiness, as operationalized by the stages of change, and readiness was positively related to subsequent participation in the change activities.Prochaska et al. (2001a, b) have summarized the fundamental processes that can be used to motivate organizational change and their appropriate application to match readiness stages. Specifically, they argue that consciousness raising (increasing awareness of the problem or need for change), dramatic relief (creating fear of not changing or excitement for changing), and environmental reevaluation (creating an appreciation of the social and work environment advantages of the change) are most appropriate when individuals are in precontemplation. To move individuals from the precontemplation to contemplation stages, they suggest that efforts should focus on reducing perceptions of the cons for change and increasing perceptions of the pros. Self-reevaluation in order to create an appreciation of the positive benefits of the change for self identity, happiness, and success is deemed most appropriate for the contemplation stage. To move from contemplation to preparation, they suggest the importance of taking small behavioral steps. Self-liberation strategies focused on increasing efficacy regarding successfully changing best match the preparation stage. Finally, more behavioral, skill, reinforcement, and action-oriented change processes seem best suited for the action and maintenance phases. Specifically, they judge reinforcement, helping relationships through social support, counter-conditioning (replacing old ways with new behaviors and cognitions), and stimulus control (changing the environment to facilitate new behaviors and inhibit the old) as most appropriate for the action and maintenance stages.As demonstrated by Cole et al. (2004) in college classrooms, the stages of change model appears to also be highly applicable to management learning contexts. In particular, they provide results suggesting that action sentiments are most consistent with traditional treatments of learning motivation. In other words, learning motivation assumes an awareness of a need for change. The stages of change approach augments that assumption by emphasizing the importance of awareness that accompanies movement from precontemplation to contemplation. It seems likely that potential participants in a management development activity would have differential degrees of awareness of the need for, and desires to participate in, such development. Furthermore, if participants' stages of readiness were assessed reliably, more precise tailoring of developmental content and approaches to match the stage needs of participants would be facilitated. The study described here is a first attempt to apply the stages of change model to a company-sponsored leadership development context.\nHypotheses: If the stages of change model offers a valid approach to understanding pre-training motivational sentiments, then it should demonstrate appropriate convergent and discriminant validity and relate in predictable ways with other organizational and training relevant variables. Specifically, in the present study, we propose that the stages of change should relate in meaningful ways to participants' developmental readiness, learning motivation, organizational attitudes, perceived developmental needs, and reactions to the developmental program content and delivery.In the remainder of this paper, we limit our focus to three of the five change stages: precontemplation, contemplation and action. Preparation is oftentimes treated and measured more as a transition phase between precontemplation and contemplation rather than a distinct stage. Prochaska et al. (1992) have suggested that preparation sentiments are inferred from scores on contemplation and action scales, and, therefore, do not explicitly measure preparation. We also felt the omission of the maintenance stage was appropriate since the focus of leadership development is generally on acquiring new skills and abilities rather than providing support and encouragement for those already acquired and practiced. This omission is consistent with the empirical decisions made by others (Cole et al., 2004; Lam et al., 1988).Readiness for developmental change\nMethod: Research setting and sample\nResults: The relationships between our measures of the precontemplation, contemplation, and action stages and the criterion variables for H1-H4 were assessed using third-order partial correlations. The results of these analyses are shown in Table II.Hypothesis 1\nDiscussion: Study contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of Prochaska and colleagues' \"stages of change model,\" which has generated substantial support in the therapeutic literature as a useful framework for understanding the dynamics of motivation to change problem behaviors, in a leadership development context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A group of over 70 supervisors/managers was studied over a period of nine months as they participated in a company-sponsored leadership development effort.\nFindings: - Results provide initial evidence that the stages of change model has the potential for being reliably and validly assessed in a leadership development context. Participants' stage scores related in meaningful ways to relevant criteria such as job attitudes, perceptions of personal leadership areas needing improvement, and evaluations of actual development module content and presentation over a nine-month period.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Participants were drawn from only one organization and this was the first major leadership development effort undertaken by this organization.\nPractical implications: - Study results provide support for the appropriateness of applying the stages of change model and its measurement in a leadership development context. Results demonstrate that the stages of change model appears to offer useful and pragmatic insight into motivation to learn and on improving the effectiveness of leadership development activities.\nOriginality/value: - The present study is unique in that makes use of a stages of change model to empirically examine differential patterns of relationships between participants' stages of change and their organizational attitudes, leadership developmental needs, and longitudinal reactions to the development effort.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Graduates construct their management careers from day one: Development program concentrates on providing practical experience
|
[
"Management development",
"Construction industry",
"Graduates"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: A UK trade distributor of plumbing and heating products and supplier of construction materials has launched a training program that sets participants on the road to management jobs from day one.\nPractical approach to learning: During their first placement, trainees experience not only counter sales but also warehousing and managing stock. Business updates, product training and presentations by subject-matter experts form part of this practical approach to learning.\nKey people goals: The company's key people goals are to:\nChallenges of the supply-chain industry: A graduate in French from the University of Sheffield is currently a supply-chain manager at the company.\nVital experience in different areas: A graduate in international management and modern languages from the University of Bath is currently product manager for commercial and industrial valves. Before joining the firm he spent 13 months working for the airline-reservation system Amadeus in Sofia Antipolis, near Nice, southern France, as a member of the finance department.\nGaining the trust of customers and staff: A politics and sociology graduate from the University of Northumbria is now a branch manager at the firm. She was attracted to the company by the opportunity to build a business, to influence people and to build good relationships with customers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describes the management-development training program in operation at a UK trade distributor of plumbing and heating products and supplier of construction materials.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Provides the reasons for the program, the form it takes and the results it has achieved. Includes interviews with people who have taken part in the program.\nFindings: Explains that trainees are exposed to every aspect of the business and culture from the start, by combining working in a branch with classroom training at the company's management academy. Reveals that trainees are supported throughout the program by their placement manager, who helps in day-to-day activities; a coach from the senior-management team, who offers advice and guidance; and a mentor, many of whom have themselves been through similar schemes.\nPractical implications: Demonstrates how participants who are willing to roll up their sleeves, make decisions and use their initiative can expect to take on a management position within 12 months.\nSocial implications: Highlights, in case-study interviews, the varied backgrounds of employees who have carved out successful careers with the company.\nOriginality/value: Gives the inside story of a successful management-training program.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Robustness and flexibility of human resource management practices: The results of a repeated survey of Russian subsidiaries of multinational corporations
|
[
"Russia",
"Multinational corporations",
"Human resource management",
"Surveys",
"Manufacturing subsidiaries"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite the current political tensions between Russia and the west and the retaliatory exchange of economic sanctions, subsidiaries of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) continue to occupy a very important place in the Russian economy. This is especially so in the manufacture of consumer goods, such as foodstuffs and food packaging, personal and home care products, construction materials, home appliances, consumer electronics, and car assembly. By some estimates, in 2012, Russian subsidiaries of foreign MNCs accounted for more than USD100 billion in output, or 30 percent of Russia's total manufacturing production of consumer goods that year (Gurkov, 2014, p. 223).\nHRM in the Russian context: \"Genuine\" companies vs subsidiaries of MNCs: Russia's transition to a market economy revolutionized the HRM practices within industrial enterprises that had existed in the Soviet era. These practices have been carefully studied in both Russian and international research publications. Shulzhenko (2012) summarizes more than 60 Russian books and articles on the subject, thereby presenting a good overview of the Russian-language research on this topic. With respect to English-language (international) publications, we should distinguish among three groups of studies: first, those within the tradition of industrial sociology, which are based on intensive qualitative studies (e.g. Clarke, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2014; Rautio and Kosonen, 2006); second, those focusing on labor-market issues, using macroeconomic data and medium-size surveys (e.g. Gimpelson et al., 2010a, b; Kapelyushnikov et al., 2011, 2012; Gimpelson and Kapeliushnikov, 2015a); and third, management studies that combine such issues as company strategy, organizational learning, leadership and HRM, and are based on surveys of corporate executives (e.g. Gurkov, 1999, 2002a, b, 2013; Gurkov and Maital, 2001; Gurkov and Zelenova, 2009; Gurkov and Settles, 2013). Moreover, in 2008, the first Russian survey of HRM officers was implemented, using the Cranfield Network on International Human Resource Management (CRANET) methodology of international comparative analysis of HR practices (Gurkov and Zelenova, 2011; Gurkov et al., 2012). This survey allowed for some comparison of the Russian HRM system with international HRM systems.\nData and methods: Our study aims to retrace the sources of robustness of the operations of manufacturing subsidiaries of western MNCs, during the downturn, from the point of view of applied HRM practices. In pursuing this objective, we used a method of mixed design that combined both qualitative and quantitative data. More specifically, we used three types of information: interviews with subsidiary managers; evaluations of secondary data on the operations of MNCs in Russia during the period 2014-2016; and a repeated survey of plant managers of Russian subsidiaries of western manufacturers.\nFindings: Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs in mid-2016\nDiscussion: Our repeated survey addressed the following five pillars of the HRM systems of the manufacturing subsidiaries of foreign MNCs in Russia: the legal forms of employment; the relationship between the fixed and variable parts of home-take pay; types of bonuses; the use of various methods of moral recognition of employees; and the use of social benefits. The first two elements - the legal forms of employment and the relationship between the fixed and variable parts of home-take pay - remained completely unchanged. The share of employees working under permanent job contracts remained above 80 percent of total employment, and the variable part of home-take pay (accounting for monthly and annual bonuses combined) remained below 25 percent of total take-home pay.\nConclusions, limitations, and opportunities for further study: We retraced the evolution of HRM arrangements in the Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs and identified the arrangements that remained mostly intact and those that underwent significant changes between 2014 and 2016.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to retrace the sources of robustness of the operations of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of western multinational corporation (MNC) during the downturn, from the point of view of applied human resource management (HRM) practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A repeated survey of heads of Russian manufacturing plants of western MNCs was implemented. The same respondents aswered the similar questions in 2014 and in 2016.\nFindings: The current evolution of HRM arrangements in the Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs can be explained by an attempt for ambidexterity. On the one hand, managers of the Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs attempt to prevent employee alienation. Thus, they retain permanent contracts and preserve guarantees of home-take pay. On the other hand, there is the elimination of several social benefits. In the author's opinion, the cost-minimization approach has been used excessively. The authors speculate that the system of social benefits will need to be adjusted again to transform the system from one that is \"crisis-proof\" to one that is \"stagnation adapted.\"\nOriginality/value: The findings provide a basis for a broader discussion on mutation of HRM systems in manufacturing subsidiaries of MNCs facing deteriorating market conditions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What matters for knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures? Empirical evidence from China
|
[
"Knowledge management",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Collectivistic culture",
"Motivation",
"Trust",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In the rapid development of knowledge-based economy, knowledge and knowledge management has become one of the most important success factors for organizations (Bruton et al., 2007; Lam and Lambermont-Ford, 2010; Lin, 2011; Zack et al., 2009). The ability to create, transfer and share knowledge within the organization affects the organization's long-term development and strategic resources allocation. Organizational efficiency and performance are directly related to the knowledge generated and possessed by organization members (Zack et al., 2009). Organizations that can generate and effectively retain and manage their own unique knowledge tend to have more enduring competitive advantages (Barney, 1991; Lank, 1997).\nTheoretical framework: Knowledge has been defined as:\nResearch model and hypotheses: Knowledge is created by individuals and knowledge sharing is accomplished through knowledge conversion in organization where existing knowledge is converted into new knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). In the process of knowledge sharing, individuals socialize and externalize individual knowledge and organizations have organizational knowledge which is created through the conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and back again (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Organizational knowledge comes from individual knowledge and crystallizes it as organizational technology, patents, production and management know-how and further as organizational norms or culture, organizational procedures or work habits. Knowledge sharing drives the process of knowledge amplification and moves knowledge from individual level to group, organizational and inter-organizational levels (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).\nMethod: The sample\nResults: Table I reports means, SDs and correlations among knowledge sharing, individual characteristics, the format of knowledge and different aspects of environment where knowledge sharing in project team occurs. In general, the correlations reflect expected relationships and provide confidence that the measures functioned properly for the effects tested in this study.\nDiscussions: Knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures is largely under-studied, and it is not very clear to what extent existing evidence concerning influences of environmental constraints and individual differences on knowledge sharing can be applied to collectivistic cultures and other international contexts (Huang et al., 2008; Ma et al., 2008). As a large number of multinationals expanding their operations in the global market, they bring with them the most valuable assets - managerial and technological know-hows and other knowledge products, and the issue on how to manage and share these knowledge products becomes a critical factor for their success in the era of knowledge-based globalization. It is, thus, essential to have a better understanding of cross-cultural differences in knowledge sharing to better manage the dynamics of knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures and to increase their own competitive advantage. This study helps explore key success factors in knowledge sharing using the data from a typical collectivistic culture, China, by examining the impact of individual differences, forms of knowledge and environmental factors on the willingness to share knowledge with others.\nImplications and conclusions: Knowledge is the most important and also a unique source of lasting competitive advantage in the era of knowledge economy (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Organizational knowledge, such as operational procedures, special skills and technical know-how, constitutes the most valuable asset for organization to compete in the global market (Spender, 1996; Zack et al., 2009). Knowledge sharing among organizational members, as well as between organization and its customers, suppliers and alliance partners, greatly facilitate the process of improving the quality of customer service, reducing production cycles, increasing the cooperation between different department units and consolidating the relationships with alliance partners, which thus enhances organization efficiency and functionality.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify key factors that facilitate knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures and further help better understand knowledge management in the international context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a survey method, this study collected data from over 200 managerial employees in knowledge management-based project teams from China. Regression analysis was then conducted to analyze the impact of individual differences and environmental factors on the willingness to share knowledge among team members to identify key factors for successful knowledge retention in the constantly changing organizational environment in a collectivistic context.\nFindings: The results show that incentives are very important in individual's decision to share knowledge in project teams even in a collectivistic culture like China and both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated individuals tend to share more knowledge with their team members. Individuals with high altruism are also found more likely to share knowledge with others. Moreover, a trusting environment and explicit knowledge will facilitate knowledge sharing for better retention.\nResearch limitations/implications: More studies should be conducted in other collectivistic cultures to explore cultural barriers in knowledge management in the international context and comparative studies using samples from different cultural backgrounds are also encouraged to help extend the theories on knowledge management.\nOriginality/value: While it is well-known that knowledge sharing is essential for organization to maintain competitive advantage, relatively few studies have examined knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures, and even fewer have done so in China. This study adds values to the literature by identifying key factors for knowledge sharing in China, and thus helps refine the knowledge management theories and provides insights for multinationals on knowledge management in the Chinese market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Analysing the accounting measurement of financial sustainability in local governments through political factors
|
[
"Financial sustainability",
"Income statement",
"Local governments",
"Political factors",
"Users of financial information"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The structural gap in public finances, provoked by the unsustainable tendency of all governmental levels to spend more than they collect (Bailey et al., 2014), has intensified the international situation of economic and financial crisis. Indeed, the reestablishment of a sustainable equilibrium between income and expenditure continues to be a major challenge, which has led financial sustainability to become a key concept in governmental entities and even more important than the other dimensions for public sector management (Overmans and Noordegraaf, 2014; Rodriguez Bolivar, Navarro Galera and Alcaide Munoz, 2014). This situation has attracted the attention of researchers (Rodriguez Bolivar, Navarro Galera and Alcaide Munoz, 2014; Cohen et al., 2015; Heald and Hodges, 2015) and international organisations (GRI, 2013; IFAC, 2013; EU, 2015).\n2. The financial sustainability in local governments: 2.1 Institutional context: the structure of the power in local governments\n3. Empirical research: 3.1 Sample selection and explained variable\n4. Analysis of results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Discussion and conclusions: Based on the empirical analysis of large Spanish municipalities during the 2006-2014 period, our results arrive at new knowledge about the utility of the income statement as an accounting measure for financial sustainability, indicating political factors that can favour the relevance of the income statement to the stakeholders' decision making.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to obtain new knowledge about the accounting measurement of financial sustainability in local governments, by studying the influence of political factors on the evolution of income statements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper analyses income statements of Spanish municipalities from 2006 to 2014, together with mayor profiles and political-institutional factors, using the generalised method of moments system.\nFindings: The income statement represents a useful measure to assess financial sustainability, showing the effect of political factors on three dimensions proposed by IFAC (i.e. service, revenue and debt), such as ideological coincidence, political competition, political ideology, and absolute majority or political fragmentation.\nPractical implications: The findings can be useful for policymakers and accountants responsible for accountability, supervisory bodies, fiscal authorities, voters, users of public services and other stakeholders interested in governmental income statements.\nSocial implications: In the Eurozone, the crisis of government finance has made the citizens and the policymakers question the size and volume of public services. Likewise, in countries such as Spain, politicians remain one of the main problems for citizens. These circumstances make it very interesting and timely to study the accounting measurement of financial sustainability and its political explanations.\nOriginality/value: The findings provide new empirical evidence about the accounting measurement of financial sustainability in local governments, and they identify political factors that influence the evolution of income statements.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
IT disaster recovery: Oman and Cyclone Gonu lessons learned
|
[
"Natural disasters",
"Contingency planning",
"Risk assessment",
"Business continuity",
"Communication technologies",
"Oman"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In today's business environment information technology (IT) resources, including data, are some of the most important assets owned by organizations. Earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, hackers, computer viruses, sabotage and terrorist attacks are disasters that threaten these assets. Organizations need to be prepared for and be able to respond to these attacks. To ensure their survival they must be able to quickly recover their data, continue their operations and protect their reputations. If they do not, losing vital computing resources can bring companies to a standstill and cause them to close their doors - forever. Effective disaster planning is not optional, it is critical for the success of organizations.Various types of disasters have wreaked havoc on valuable data stored by businesses worldwide. In recent history there have been many such disasters including Cyclone Gonu in Oman in 2007, the Tsunami that hit Asia and Africa in 2004, the bombing attacks in London in July 2005, and Hurricane Katrina in the USA in 2005. Such manmade and natural disasters will always occur; they must be prepared for and protect against.In Oman, as is the case internationally, there is an increased dependence on IT systems and services. Recent climatic events have brought this dependence into sharp focus. Public and private sector organizations, large and small, need to understand their vulnerability to disastrous events, whether naturally occurring or otherwise.It is clear that organizations must do more not only to protect their data, but also to protect the systems they use to deliver services to their customers. Planning for disasters is putting in place the necessary resources to protect data, and reliably operating them. This is a specialized area of IT, and requires skills and competencies in DR and BCP.1.1 What are DR and BCP?\n2 Research methodology: A blend of data collection methods were used to gather the needed information for this study. First, the researchers made descriptive/interpretive studies of the literature, including previous studies by academics and industrial institutions, concerning IT DR and BCP. Second, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with IT professionals working in the public and private sectors. Finally, the same interview questions were converted to a questionnaire, which was emailed to IT professionals also working in public and private organizations.\n3 Survey results: Oman based public and private sector organizations were surveyed to determine what issues arose from, and what concerns there were regarding Cyclone Gonu. Twelve completed survey questionnaires were received and analyzed. In the following sections the various responses are reviewed and discussed.3.1 Organizational demographics\n4 Conclusion and recommendations: If an organization has a DR system it can minimize the impact of unexpected events, no matter what the source. By minimizing this impact it assures corporate survival in an increasingly competitive world.In Oman, as is the case internationally, there is an increased dependence on IT systems and services. It was observed that while some organizations paid attention to the need for DR/BCP, many did not. It is particularly significant that almost half of the organizations surveyed did not rehearse their plans. Gonu provided a valuable lesson and warning to organizations that they need to adopt industry best practices for their DR/BCP.Where companies outsource their IT operations, in whole or in part, they should not automatically assume their contractors have properly constituted DR/BCP plans. They should ensure that such issues are properly addressed from a contractual standpoint being included in business processes such as service level agreements and due diligence planning.Survey results indicated that the principle causes of difficulties due to the Gonu event were in the area of flooding, transportation, and utilities. All organizations planning new installations, be they IT related or not, need to consider these issues with a view to minimizing organizational risk (e.g. carefully considering the location of their installations). Existing organizations need to learn from past events and consider revamping their installations to avoid a recurrence of past events.Oman's government can play an important role in ensuring that organizations adopt best practices through a combination of awareness raising (sponsored events and technical briefings), encouragement of the development of professional standards organizations, legislative requirements (as with the Central Bank regulations), a move to standardizations (especially in national government) and other similar initiatives.One initiative that may be worth considering is the development of a National Disaster Recovery (NDR) centre, for lack of a better name. The NDR would be able to provide the necessary IT based DR resources for the national community, including both public and private sectors. This entails having a measurement of the most critical data that need to be protected. For example, for an education system the most critical data would be the student records, for the police it might be passport and citizen information, in enterprises it could be employee data and financial information. NDR could serve as a safe repository for organizations' most critical data.Typical services that NDR could provide may include:* consultancy and advice on all aspects of protecting data against loss and maintaining operational integrity;* secure data storage, including maintenance of backups; and* failover server hosting, including the operation of emergency services.As this is a generalized and early stage proposal a wide variety of issues need to be addressed. These include:* Funding, for initial start up, and then operations, including charging strategies.* Security and confidentiality issues, like how would private information owned by different commercial organizations as well as government agencies be protected and maintained separately.* Geographical location must be analyzed. Decisions about the number of repositories required, their locations, communications, configurations and layout, are critical to project success.* An in-depth market study is necessary to identify potential customers and take their expectations into account in the design of the facility. Regional and international alternatives can be considered also.* Finally, the organizational and ownership structures must be carefully thought through. For example, would such a resource by operated as a public or private sector entity.The Information Technology Authority in Oman is the most suitable agency to initiate these steps at a higher level in collaboration with other interested organizations.\n5 Research limitations and future directions: All organizations surveyed say they learned valuable lessons from Gonu. It remains to be seen whether these lessons will be turned into effective, properly managed and supported DR/BCP plans. At a suitable time it may be appropriate to follow up this survey with another to determine what has changed, if anything.Although this study contains some limitations and difficulties, such as the size and type of sample, it shows some awareness of DR/BCP within organizations. However, it is not clear as to whether all organizations have a sophisticated understanding of the methods used in effective planning. For example, there is little evidence that organizations are integrating classical IT based DR with their wider BCP. The proposed follow up survey will be able to answer this, and other questions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the issues of information technology (IT) disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity planning (BCP) in light of Cyclone Gonu in Oman.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper includes a survey of the latest literature on the subject, then documents a study of public and private sector organizations together with their DR and BCP practices.\nFindings: - The paper investigates how public and private organizations in Oman plan to respond to disasters. It shows that while some organizations pay attention to the need for DR/BCP, many do not. A significant finding is that while organizations have disaster related plans, almost half of those surveyed do not rehearse them. Nevertheless, organizations surveyed indicate that they have learned valuable lessons from Gonu. It remains to be seen whether these lessons will be turned into effective and properly deployed DR/BCP plans.\nOriginality/value: - This paper draws lessons from the experiences and challenges raised by Gonu, and concludes with a set of recommendations that organizations may adopt to ensure business continuity. It provides a useful evaluation of the preparedness of IT departments in both public and private sectors in Oman. The recommendations given at the end of the paper could be of a great value for many organizations and groups, spreading awareness of the importance of being prepared for such eventualities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Does the "capstone" of the "comply or explain" system work in practice? Evidence from Athens Stock Exchange
|
[
"Legitimacy",
"Compliance",
"Corporate governance codes",
"Mimetic behaviour",
"Quality of explanations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays, it is essential for companies listed on the stock exchange to disclose information on their performance. Diouf and Boiral (2017) marked that 53 per cent of the 500 largest companies listed on the US Stock Exchange and 93 per cent of the 250 largest companies around the world publish sustainability reports. Sustainability reporting is more than a trend; a practice used in common and along with the Global Reporting Initiative indicators, it improves standardization (Diouf and Boiral, 2017; Berman et al., 2003).\n2. Theoretical background: As concerns the legitimacy theory, there is a relationship between the organization and society. It is not a company's structure or action that grants it legitimacy, but the relationship between the company and society itself (Suchman, 1995, p[0].594). Thus, every company tries to ensure that its investors perceive its actions as desirable, proper or appropriate (Seidl et al., 2013). Although compliance with laws is an institutionalized expectation, companies use various strategies or practices to preserve legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). These may concern \"promising reform\" (Meyer and Rowan, 1977) or dialogue with society to convince investors about the desirability or moral superiority of an alternative manner of action (Seidl et al., 2013; Deephouse and Suchman, 2008; Oliver, 1991). Suchman (1995, p. 586) noted that legitimacy management \"rests heavily on communication - in this case, communication between the organization and its various audiences\" and this can be translated \"in the language employed in the UK and German code documents which speak of \"general expectations\", \"justifications\", \"considered explanation\", etc. (Seidl et al., 2013, p. 795).\n3. Research methodology: The purpose of this study is to explore the legitimacy practices that companies use in deviating from the Greek Corporate Governance Code. To do so, it considered the annual compliance statements and Governance Reports of Greek listed firms for the year 2016. In these reports, companies should declare their compliance with the national code or explain any deviation therefrom. Moreover, the study tries to investigate whether the explanations provided by companies represent mimetic behavior.\n4. Empirical findings: Regarding Table I and as concerns the examination of corporate governance statements, the study sample reveals that Greek listed companies tend to use the flexibility provided by the \"comply or explain\" principle. Of companies in the FTSE25 index, 32 per cent declare deviations from the national code, as do 80 per cent of companies in the FTSE40 index. The other ASE-listed companies that complete the study sample declare deviations from the national code at a rate of about 76 per cent. In general, about 71 per cent of the sample's companies declared that they use the \"comply or explain\" principle, deviating from the national code.\n5. Conclusions: This article tried to investigate whether Greek listed companies comply with or deviate from the National Corporate Governance Code. For that purpose, context analysis was made on 80.2 per cent of these companies (162 out of 202 companies) for the calendar year 2017. The analysis showed that 59.3 per cent (96 companies) deviate from the Code and use the \"comply or explain\" principle.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In recent years, the principle of the \"comply or explain\" approach has become the trend in corporate governance statements that are not fully compliant with national codes. This is because managers of companies deviating from corporate governance codes try to be lawful, providing reasonable explanations; thus, they reach an impasse, copying explanations from other companies, in a mimetic behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether companies listed in Greek Stock exchange tend to imitate one each other thus to be legitimate in terms of the \"comply or explain: approach\".\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study focuses on the \"comply or explain\" approach in Greek listed companies, analyzing statements by 162 companies (80.2 per cent) listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), showing a total of 1,211 deviations from the national code. Therefore, the explanations were classified for analysis, grouping them into three main categories and investigating the degree of imitation.\nFindings: In total, 96 companies deviating from the Code (56.3 per cent) provided explanations as to their legitimacy practices. Thus, the managers of these companies tried to explain their deviations from the national code in such a way that it could be considered that they tend to imitate each other, striving to be lawful.\nResearch limitations/implications: Owing to Greece's ongoing economic crisis, many companies listed on the ASE in previous years have suspended the trading of their shares. An examination of previous years may have led to biased results, owing to the different samples of companies. Another limitation concerns the number of companies in the sample; although it covers almost 80 per cent of listed companies, the actual number of companies is not big enough.\nPractical implications: This study tries to investigate whether Greek listed companies comply with or deviate from the National Corporate Governance Code. For that purpose, context analysis was performed on 80.2 per cent of these companies (162 out of 202 companies) for the calendar year 2017. Most companies tried to explain their deviations from the Code in such a way that it could be considered that they tend to imitate each other.\nSocial implications: Companies that deviate from the corporate governance code tend to imitate each other. This phenomenon occurs mainly in small companies, which, while striving to be lawful, even copy other companies' phrases verbatim. This study reveals that managers of such companies care to provide an explanation for only deviations from the Code as a logical justification and not to capture the existing situation of their companies.\nOriginality/value: This study is the first to examine the mimetic behavior on corporate governance statements in Greece. Although the trend of imitation is a fact in developed economies, similar studies never took place on emerge economies. This study contributes to the literature by examining whether the trend of mimetic behavior exists in emerging economies as well.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The failure of non-binding declarations to achieve university sustainability: A need for accountability
|
[
"Agreements",
"Universities",
"Organizational change",
"Sustainable design",
"Australia"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many high-level commitments to sustainability have been made by universities in the last decade (ULSF, 1990; UNESCO, 1997), but it has become clear that universities in general have had a very low-success rate in translating these promises into reality (Bekessy et al., 2003). Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University was a leader in signing declarations and developing policy, so its failure to achieve much progress can be used to learn some valuable lessons.It is widely acknowledged that support and leadership by university executives and administration at the highest level is essential to achieve sustainability in mainstream practice (Bekessy et al., 2003; Carpenter and Meehan, 2002; Sharp, 2002). It is also widely known that this leadership has failed to materialise in most universities. Some researchers have suggested that \"in the absence of strong administrative leadership, proponents of sustainability need to develop strategies that do not assume a top-down approach\" (Thompson and Green, 2005). Others state that organic, flexible strategies rather than strategic plans will succeed due to the organizational characteristics of universities (Sharp, 2002).This paper argues that while small-scale action by interest groups is valuable, it is not in itself sufficient to lead to the adoption of sustainability in the mainstream business of the university. The evidence of RMIT's engagement with sustainability shows that, for example, even when successful pilot studies are conducted, these initiatives may do little to affect the mainstream practices of a university unless certain conditions exist. The experience of RMIT University demonstrates that the process of change is complex and requires a range of strategies for success. Relying on a \"ground up\" approach may not achieve the cultural shifts that are a precondition for mainstream sustainability.Further, this paper argues that given the role of the university in society, small-scale and gradual changes in university practice are a far from adequate response to the urgent sustainability imperative. This band-aid approach may be a misdirection of energy and attention away from the real issue of achieving broad-scale, long-term mainstream change such as many universities have committed to at the highest levels. In addition to innovative projects, which are often effective at a small scale, proponents of sustainability need to focus on making university leaders accountable. Although this is a difficult task, this analysis of sustainability at RMIT University demonstrates that unless university leaders meet their most basic commitments, even the efforts of the most dedicated individuals are futile.Signing key declarations is a concrete demonstration of commitment from universities and an excellent vehicle to create publicity for the move (Bekessy et al., 2003). Full, visible and tangible support from the university president, vice chancellor or rector and university executive is critical to the success of sustainability strategies. However, it is widely known that the adoption of sustainability declarations and policy does not necessarily translate into the implementation of their basic commitments (Bekessy et al., 2003; Calder and Clubgston, 2003; Gudz, 2004). The positive publicity that universities receive from signing declarations and releasing policy precedes putting them into practice. However, as the example of RMIT demonstrates, there is little or no public accountability for failing to deliver. Universities are therefore rewarded before they have actually delivered any results; a violation of the rule of thumb known as \"Grandma's Rule\" in which children are not given dessert until they have eaten their vegetables.We argue that signing a declaration or releasing a policy has two functions. Firstly, they act as excellent directives for the steps required to achieve sustainability; and secondly, they assign a university's progress and commitment to achieving sustainability to the scrutiny of the international public, academic and corporate arena. It is this scrutiny that can make a university accountable, and it is critical that proponents of sustainability focus on this task.\nHistory of engagement with sustainability at RMIT University: The year 2006 marks RMIT University's 12-year commitment to the principles of sustainable development. Compared to other Australian universities, RMIT was quick to initiate and participate in high-level sustainability commitments and agreements on a local, national and international scale. An historical survey of the success of these sustainability initiatives bears out the conclusion of the Global Higher Education for Sustainability Partnership, an alliance between the ULSF, COPERNICUS-Campus, the IAU and UNESCO, who recognise that the adoption of declarations does not necessarily translate into the implementation of their basic commitments (Corcoran et al., 2002, p. 100). Today, 12 years after first engaging with the sustainability agenda, RMIT is neither meeting nor being seen to be making adequate progress on the sustainability commitments made nationally, internationally and, most importantly, those that respond to RMIT's own staff and student desires and well-being. A brief review of several of these commitments clearly demonstrates this lack of progress. Table I provides an overview of agreements and policies signed by RMIT University between 1994 and 2006. The scope of the agreement, actions and outcomes to date and some explanations for apparent failure are also summarised.Talloires declaration\nPhases of change: Over the 12 years of its engagement with sustainability, RMIT's efforts have clearly deteriorated in contrast to its early status of active participation in high-level sustainability commitments. An historical analysis of the key milestones, events and obstacles that have influenced RMIT's ability to mainstream sustainable practices has demonstrated that despite the efforts of a dedicated but limited number of people, the university's world-class repertoire of sustainability rhetoric has failed to translate into practice. The cumulative influence of four overt trends has undermined RMIT's sustainability agenda. These phases can be summarised as:* the establishment of extensive sustainability rhetoric that has not been applied in practice;* the implementation of isolated but effective pilot projects that were terminated; and* non-compliance with sustainability commitments and the reduction of critical human and financial resources dedicated to the implementation of sustainability initiatives.The final phase is the review phase and presents an opportunity for university leaders, who have an excellent understanding of the importance of sustainable practice and the barriers to its implementation, to honour the commitments the university has made both internationally and in its own policy.Rather than following the classic, linear phases defined in institutional change theory (Yencken, 2001), RMIT University achieved initial successes and committed substantial resources to sustainability, but this deteriorated over time. It seems that the initial phases of growing awareness and high-level commitment do not necessarily lead to further progress. Identifying the barriers to this process may provide guidance for the institutional change strategies required to mainstream long-term effective change for sustainable practices within universities and other organisations.\nBarriers to sustainability: In 2001, Australian Commonwealth grants (excluding HECS) accounted for 43 percent of the higher education sectors' revenue, a significant fall from 47 percent of revenue in 1999 and 69 percent in 1990 (OECD, 2004). Can the failure of Australian universities to meet commitments under a range of declarations and agreements be blamed on lack of resources, or are other factors at play?To determine the knowledge, practices and attitudes towards sustainability at RMIT of those who govern and/or drive RMIT's sustainability agenda, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interviewees included the previous vice chancellor, seven PVC, and key sustainability stakeholders from across the university. The majority of participants indicated that they are highly aware of sustainability principles and consider them integral to RMIT's core activities; and are aware of sustainability-based commitments, reports and similar documents endorsed by RMIT. Participants revealed that they practice sustainability principles at RMIT to varying degrees; responses were rationalised by priorities, capacity and institutional limitations. When asked to identify the \"top three obstacles to mainstreaming sustainability at RMIT\" participants proposed a diverse range of factors. However, five common themes can be drawn from the interviewees' responses..RMIT's conservative culture and autonomous structure\nThe impact of being a signatory on university leaders and key stakeholders: Becoming signatory to high-level declarations and agreements demonstrates visible and tangible support from the university executive and is likely to be critical to the success of implementing sustainability strategies (Bekessy et al., 2003). However, the translation of commitment into action requires a strategic, institution-wide, multifaceted response (Sharp, 2002). Signing key declarations is an excellent vehicle to create publicity for the move, but is classic \"greenwash\" (Helvarg, 1996) if it does not translate into the implementation of their basic commitments.In 2002, external consultants employed by the GSI, Sustainable Market Developments (SMD), emphasised the need for RMIT to prioritise addressing the fundamental failings that exist within the RMIT culture and organisational structure if change to sustainable practices is to be advanced. These included the existence, but repeated non-application of a variety of excellent reports, audits and strategic documents produced by both internal and external sources; lack of accountability for the implementation of sustainability initiatives by university leaders; the low priority or resistance to thinking of sustainability as an every day activity rather than an additional part of their work load; the reabsorption of dedicated sustainability budgets into traditional expenditures; the lack of student and staff participation and training opportunities; and the absence of reporting and monitoring structures (Samson, 2004). In this manner, RMIT encountered the seven sustainability blunders outlined by Doppelt (2003). RMIT neglected to act upon SMD's recommendations and as a result, RMIT failed to comply with external commitments, to monitor and report on initiatives implemented to reduce the environmental impact of the university's operations.The positive publicity that universities receive from signing declarations and releasing policy precedes putting them into practice. However, as the example of RMIT demonstrates, there is little or no public accountability for failing to deliver (Walton, 2000). We argue that signing a declaration or releasing a policy has three functions. Firstly, they galvanise attention (Walton, 2000); secondly, they and act as excellent directives for the steps required to achieve sustainability; and thirdly, they assign a university's progress and commitment to achieving sustainability to the scrutiny of the international public, academic and corporate arena. It is this scrutiny that can make a university accountable, and it is critical that proponents of sustainability focus on this task.\nNew directions: Problems with ground-up approaches to implementing sustainability\nStrategies for mainstreaming sustainability: Considering the substantial period of engagement with the sustainability agenda and the apparent lack of progress at some universities, there is a need to introduce genuine accountability into the process (Walton, 2000). Given that high-level commitment has been demonstrated, successful pilot studies have been implemented and the benefits of sustainable practices have been realised, there appears to be no excuse now for failure to mainstream sustainability. While pinning responsibility on individuals in universities is near impossible due to staff changes, the autonomous nature of university departments, and the complex nature of the organizations, holding leaders accountable for their responsibilities remains crucial to achieving sustainability. Unless there is an accreditation process or other rewards for implementation, signing declarations and agreements is unlikely to result in genuine change. We argue that commitments should have procedures attached to them that articulate the actions required to meet objectives, suggest indicators of progress and identify specific accountabilities. Progress should be outlined in annual reports and measures put in place to respond to failures.One of the key problems with achieving mainstream sustainability in universities is that it is ad hoc, relying on the interests of the current leaders (Bekessy et al., 2003) or the dedication of interested individuals. To succeed in mainstreaming sustainability, it is essential to focus on making the changes long-term and systemic. The focus should be institutional transformation, rather than isolated victories (Sharp, 2002). Hence, it is important not to focus on individual pilot studies, appointments, or projects at the expense of the far more difficult but essential task of setting up systems to ensure permanent change. Problematically, establishing these systems may seem like a chicken and egg situation in which the strategies such as a permanent budget that are required to make mainstream sustainable changes, also require cultural change to occur before they can be put in place. What is clear is that these systems are required and will usually need to be secured through the efforts of people other than university leaders and administration.\nConclusion: Analysis of the RMIT University's 12-year engagement with sustainability shows that neither non-binding international declarations nor individuals or small groups are the answer to lasting institutional transformation. Furthermore, small-scale pilot studies, even when unquestionably successful, do not necessarily lead to wide spread adoption of practices.The findings of this study beg the question of whether non-binding declarations and agreements have had a constructive role in advancing the sustainability agenda. The positive publicity that universities receive from signing declarations and releasing policy precedes putting them into practice and it seems that there is little or no motivation to deliver on commitments, or public accountability for failing to deliver. Failure to implement rhetoric is classic greenwash and sends a message to other institutions, companies, governments, and society as a whole that universities do not value sustainability, and are unable to implement it.We argue that two critical steps should follow the signing of declarations or release of policies. Firstly, an appropriate, long-term budget should be assigned to ensure that resources are available to enable universities to meet their commitments. Without a dedicated budget, any response is likely to be inadequate given the difficulties associated with achieving genuine transformative change and the seriousness of the sustainability imperative. Secondly, a university's progress and commitment to achieving sustainability should be exposed to the scrutiny of the international public, academic and corporate arena. It is this scrutiny that can make a university accountable, and it is critical that proponents of sustainability focus on this task.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to assess the impact and value of non-binding agreements or declarations in achieving sustainability in universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University is presented, analysing the reasons for lack of progress towards sustainability and evaluating best ways forward. Using a timeline and analysis of historical records for the 12 years since RMIT first engaged in the sustainability agenda, major trends in the process of implementing policies are identified. Secondly, 15 semi-structured interviews with university leaders and key sustainability stakeholders from across the university are analysed to provide insight into how and why the university has failed to achieve sustainability.\nFindings: - New implications for successfully achieving sustainability arise from these findings. Accountability is a key issue, as RMIT appears to reap benefits from being signatory to declarations without achieving genuine progress. To ensure that declarations are more than simply greenwash, universities must open themselves up to scrutiny of progress to determine whether commitments have been honoured.\nPractical implications: - Relying on small-scale \"club\" activities establishing demonstrations and raising awareness is unlikely to lead to permanent change. The evidence of RMIT's engagement with sustainability shows that, for example, even when successful pilot studies are conducted, these initiatives may do little to affect the mainstream practices of a university unless certain conditions exist. Furthermore, given the on-paper commitments institutions have made, and the role of the university in society, small-scale and gradual changes in university practice are a far from adequate response to the urgent sustainability imperative.\nOriginality/value: - The initial engagement of RMIT University with the sustainability agenda 12 years ago marked it as a world leader in sustainability best-practice. Analysing how and why such a disappointing lack of action has resulted from such promising beginnings provides insight into future directions for implementing sustainability in universities. The paper argues that considering the key responsibility of universities in leading the sustainability agenda, a more systemic and serious response is required.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Learning about sustainability: an interdisciplinary graduate seminar in biocomplexity
|
[
"Teaching",
"Sustainability",
"Biocomplexity",
"Graduate education",
"Interdisciplinary"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The intense and rapidly changing nature of environmental challenges necessitates novel approaches for teaching the next generation of researchers and teachers (Kurland et al., 2010). Scientists often must cross disciplinary boundaries to develop and implement innovative solutions to our most vexing problems. An interdisciplinary focus is particularly useful for exploring the diverse facets of sustainability (Dalrymple and Miller, 2006; Dow, 2006; Fortuin and Bush, 2010), including the ecological, economic, aesthetic, cultural, ethical, philosophical, political, scientific, social, spiritual, and technological dimensions (Selby, 2006). An appreciation of the interaction between these elements results in an understanding of sustainability that makes a \"whole that is different from the sum of its parts\" (Kinzig, 2001, p. 709).\n2 Interdisciplinary research and teaching: As environmental challenges become increasingly complex and seemingly intractable, universities have assumed a central role in sustainability education and research. More than 400 university presidents worldwide have signed the Talloires Declaration, thus affirming their commitment to sustainable development and environmental management. In the USA, nearly 700 university leaders have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Recent evidence suggests that taking a sustainability course is associated with enhanced environmental knowledge and developing a moral obligation to protect the environment (Mobley, 2011). Sustainability is thus an essential dimension of higher education in that \"no other concept seems to compare to [sustainability] in terms of its ability to cut across virtually all disciplines and in its fundamental importance to the human enterprise\" (Uhl et al., 1996, p. 1308).\n3 Course description: The graduate-level \"biocomplexity seminar\" was initiated at Clemson University in Fall 2002 and has been offered every semester since then. With its focus on \"organisms ranging from microbes to humans\" (Michener et al., 2001, p. 1019), the biocomplexity lens was particularly suitable for our interdisciplinary graduate seminar in sustainability[1]. In the early stages, the class was funded through a two-year grant from the sustainable universities initiative (SUI) to ten natural, engineering, and social sciences faculty. During Year 2, the faculty team obtained a second SUI grant to study the team process used to teach the class. These grants allowed us to sponsor guest speakers for the class, provided momentum during the early years of the seminar, and increased the visibility of the course across campus and in the eyes of the university administration.\n4 Study background and methods: The goal of our study was to gain insights into participants' experiences of learning about sustainability in an interdisciplinary context. Thus, we used a qualitative, inductive approach to learn about the influence of the biocomplexity seminar on participants' knowledge about other disciplines and participants' views on sustainability. Our qualitative interviews allowed us to gain deeper insights about participants' experiences and understandings of sustainability, biocomplexity and interdisciplinarity than could be obtained through a quantitative approach, such as a survey.\n5 Results: 5.1 Influence of the seminar on learning about other disciplines\n6 Discussion and implications of the project: In this paper, we have described one approach to training a new cadre of researchers and teachers who have the desire, skills, and knowledge to cross disciplinary and cultural boundaries (Fortuin and Bush, 2010). Our pedagogical approach invites students and faculty to venture out of their disciplinary silos to explore, together, the vast complexities of sustainability. Our interviews revealed that the seminar increased understanding of sustainability and broadened their perspectives on other disciplines.\n7 Conclusion: Our interdisciplinary seminar has established a culture that values disciplinary crossings and has thus avoided some of the traditional barriers to interdisciplinary collaborations documented in the literature as occurring at the individual, disciplinary, or programmatic level (Jakobsen et al., 2004). We have learned that this approach requires careful planning, a high level of motivation among participants (Kurland et al., 2010) and a core of dedicated faculty, if not at least one champion who has a continuous presence (Jerman et al., 2004). Indeed, our efforts have been characterized by long-term involvement from several core faculty members, as well as a continuous stream of students interested in learning about sustainability in an interdisciplinary context.\nAcknowledgements: Preliminary results of this study were presented as a poster \"Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning about the Environment: An Innovative Approach for Teaching Environmental Sociology\" at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society New Orleans, LA, April 2009.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper aims to report on the experiences moderating an interdisciplinary graduate-level sustainability seminar. Initiated in Fall 2002, the seminar has explored diverse sustainability topics and reached approximately 150 faculty and students. The paper describes how the course shaped participants' perceptions of sustainability and influenced their viewpoints on interdisciplinarity. The paper discusses the implications of this seminar format for communicating about sustainability and provides suggestions for replicating the course at other institutions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Information about the course is complemented by analyses of the results of 15 in-depth interviews of students and faculty who have participated in the course.\nFindings: The course facilitated positive outcomes for students and faculty by expanding their familiarity with interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability and environmental issues, increasing respect for other disciplinary perspectives, learning the basic vocabulary of disciplines outside their area of expertise, and strengthening collaborations between faculty. The course can be strengthened with more involvement from colleagues from the humanities and social sciences, and with attention to equal participation from all involved.\nOriginality/value: The experience is unique in that it represents a nearly decade-long initiative to teaching about sustainability and biocomplexity from an interdisciplinary perspective. The innovative format, content, and pedagogical approach used for this course can be easily implemented in other disciplines. The learning community has facilitated other teaching and research endeavors. This model of sustainability education can advance understanding of complex environmental issues at a time when both interdisciplinarity and sustainability are becoming more common in higher education.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
It's 2008: do you know where your talent is? Connecting people to what matters
|
[
"Employees",
"Social networks",
"Management technique"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In today's competitive talent environment, organizations tend to address workforce shortages by engaging in a war for talent (Athey, 2004). They aggressively recruit and then try to stanch the outflow of their top people with extra money. They do not focus enough on developing people in ways that foster growth, deploying them into roles that tap their strengths and interests, and connecting them in ways that enhance performance. Among these different factors in managing talent, \"connect\" is emerging as the most important, but also the least understood and managed.\nA framework for connecting people: To make this amorphous topic more practical, we focus on three broad kinds of connections: connecting people to people in ways that promote personal and professional growth; connecting people to a sense of purpose; and connecting people to the resources they need to do great work (see Figure 1).Connecting people to people\nConnecting people for performance: The connections we described here - people to people, to a sense of purpose and to the resources they need to do good work - spur innovation and enhance performance. But these connections do not occur by chance, but rather by design.For many organizations, effective connections require profound organizational change. This is especially true for those organizations hanging on to the vertical structure of an industrial era when hierarchy ruled. Command-and-control silos hinder knowledge flows and slow decision making, a death knell in today's global economy. Likewise, organizations that lack a compelling strategy, solid underlying values and an adequate reward system can spark confusion and interpersonal toxicity.Short of major organizational redesigns, here are eight practical ways leaders can create connections that promote learning, speed decision making, tap the energy and knowledge of their people and infuse them with a greater sense of purpose.1. Get strategic about on-boarding. Traditional approaches to \"onboard\" talent tend to be ad hoc rather than purposeful. A new employee's first weeks are often a mishmash of introductions and orientation programs that are divorced from the reality of the job. Such approaches can leave new recruits dazed, confused and disillusioned. When new recruits fail, organizations lose their investment in the individual, as well as performance from the surrounding employees in terms of lost time, disrupted efforts and damaged morale.Rather than isolate and overwhelm recruits, organizations must deftly integrate them into the organization. The first step is to connect new hires early to key people from whom they can learn. BMW, for example, appoints mentors to help new hires adapt efficiently to BMW's culture[8]. Illuminating informal networks and pointing out role models are also important. The conversations that emerge through these connections convey the values of the organization in a much more compelling way than bullet points or mission statements.New hires must also quickly gain legitimacy in the eyes of their peers. This is done by encouraging recruits to observe, ask lots of questions and listen, rather than jump immediately into projects and exert their old ways of doing things, which may alienate new colleagues.2. Encourage ongoing performance conversations. Most people dread the anxiety of annual or semi-annual performance reviews. Both frustration and lack of recognition get bottled up over the course of months to be uncorked on one fateful day. It doesn't have to be that way.Business changes too frequently for goals to be set and reviews to occur rigidly once or twice a year. Weekly, monthly or quarterly reviews allow leaders, managers and their direct reports to reconnect as situations evolve. Done well, such reviews bring clarity to expectations, job responsibilities, performance standards and hurdles. They also offer people a chance to develop and navigate their careers. At Green Cargo, a large Scandinavian transport and logistics company, managers meet with their direct reports every month to discuss three-month performance review contracts, and develop plans to improve skills and meet specific goals. The government-owned company credits these one-on-one conversations with helping it turn a profit for the first time in its 120-year history (Marsh, 2005).Perhaps the most difficult aspect of such conversations involves giving feedback that encourages personal and professional growth, rather than making people shut down. For this, it is important that conversations always be a two-way process and that leaders act as role models in emotionally intelligent ways. When counseling employees, it is important that managers focus on the specific actions and behaviors that influence performance and avoid praise or criticism that labels a person in one way or another.3. Provide collaboration tools. As more and more people work at a distance, the richness of collaborative technologies becomes increasingly important. Asynchronous applications such as e-mail can actually isolate people from their colleagues. Many organizations are moving away from e-mail towards collaborative, real-time technologies - shared whiteboards, video, chat and interactive decision-support systems - that encourage the free flow of ideas.One particularly important kind of social software, wikis allow people to collaboratively create documents and web sites. TWiki.org lets users combine free-form content with structured content and keep intranets up to date, taking pressure off webmasters. By encouraging contribution and interaction, wikis convey a sense of community. At software company SAS, a travel wiki has evolved on which employees share their experiences on traveling to the company's offices around the world. On the site, users may find travel, hotel and restaurant recommendations, as well as links to learn about the country and advice on social norms. Because the site is created by users, it continually evolves; updates happen naturally[9].Providing collaboration tools is the first step - and often the easiest. How people use the tools is critically important because the usage determines whether value is created. To get the most out of their investments, leaders are wise to try and understand the nature of people's networks and how collaboration tools help (or hinder) the execution of strategy.4. Stimulate rich networks of high-quality relationships. People have always reached out to those they know and trust to ask for on-the-job help and to create new opportunities. Yet as jobs and roles become more complex, people need to reach out to an ever broader array of players to learn and progress.Most people build their networks instinctively. Yet the networks of high performers share common traits:* they are broader and more diverse than those of average or lower performers (Cross, 2004);* they span borders, hierarchies, generations, gender and ethnicity;* they are carefully formed, not ad hoc; and* they are cultivated in ways that engender trust.High performers - and innovators in particular - also build robust external networks with people who will challenge their thinking.5. So what can individuals and leaders do to help build networks that advance professional and organizational growth? Popular web-based applications such as LinkedIn, Spoke, Friendster and MySpace assist individuals in building and managing their networks of contacts. Another powerful tool, social network analysis (SNA) maps people's networks in ways that allow them to improve their connections. In essence an x-ray of the relationships between individuals, groups and organizations, SNA brings light to such things as who shares knowledge with whom, how frequently individuals communicate with one another, who holds power and who holds things up[10].SNA can be used in many ways. Leaders commonly use SNA to map people's relationships and flows of knowledge in critical areas. In the case of a merger, for example, SNA can detect structural holes (for example, gaps in trust or information exchange) that hinder performance. Veterans of SNA find that mapping networks is often the easy part. Shifting behaviors to create lasting change is much harder. Leaders can go far by encouraging people to pause, listen and more fully engage with one another.6. Cultivate communities. Communities are proliferating in many organizations as leaders recognize the powerful role they play in learning, innovation and execution. As magnets that draw people's commitment, they offer people a haven of shared identity, belonging and support. People are more likely to invest extra effort for colleagues with whom they share interests and emotional bonds than they are for leaders they barely know.At a more pragmatic level, communities allow managers to manage processes faster and more effectively than traditional structures. In oil companies, for example, communities of practice (CoPs) form around critical projects such as deep oil well drilling, bringing people together across geographic and organizational boundaries (Rumizen et al., 2004). CoPs can save organizations millions of dollars by helping them to quickly respond to changing customer needs, improve supply chains and streamline product development processes[11].Finally, communities are powerful because they help organizations develop social capital - the value people produce when they work together to achieve mutual goals.In comparison, an individual builds human capital through his or her unique education, knowledge and skills. Both human capital and social capital are important, but as work becomes more complex, organizations need to pay particular attention to how people build the latter.7. Make meetings more meaningful. Too often, individuals and groups come together in meetings simply to inform others of their progress. The result is crammed agendas and an endless steam of charts, graphs and bullet points. These kinds of meetings offer platforms for self-promotion, but often do little to enhance connections between people, build a sense of purpose or spark the ideas that lead to innovation and growth. Ideally, people should leave meetings feeling that they have learned and grown from the experience and that they can do their work more effectively by having participated. Otherwise the meetings should not happen at all.When meetings have to occur on a grand scale, they should be memorable and stretch participants in some way. By stirring up meaningful conversation, leaders invite people to share ideas and re-imagine their day-to-day work in new and constructive ways. In the past decade, many exercises have emerged that facilitate adult learning and creativity, from simple breakout sessions that bring groups together around specific topics, to multiple-day sessions in which large groups create visions for their future (Bunker and Alban, 1997, 2006).8. Design physical space that fosters connections and allows for concentration. The role of physical space may get short shrift in a world where technology unites people across oceans. Yet when groups share common missions in a single location, the design of physical space can catalyze the informal interactions that lead to learning and innovation. It can also make the difference between an energized and an apathetic workforce.Rather than group people by department, many organizations group interdependent people around key strategies and projects. Both proximity and layout are important. The spillover of conversations can encourage informal networking that may not otherwise occur. In addition to collaborative space, however, people need quiet space in which they can think and reflect.By and large, leading organizations pay close attention to physical space, allowing people the flexibility they need: dedicated teaming spaces for formal collaboration; quiet workplaces where they can concentrate; and informal areas in which to relax, brainstorm or simply run into others. Other factors, such as allowing people control over lighting, can impact their motivation, task performance, health and well being (Boyce et al., 2003).9. Build an organizational cushion of time and space. \"Noise\" acts like an insidious disease in today's workplace. It goes beyond ringing cell phones and the constant ping-ping of e-mails to information and cognitive overload of all forms. Frequent reorganizing and shifting priorities can disrupt people's networks, relationships and goals. Continuous \"firefighting\" stifles innovation. Intense pressure to achieve often leads to hyperactivity, frequent distractions, micromanaging and individual heroics that thwart team performance.Studies around the globe report how workplace problems, from declining job satisfaction to low employee engagement, are due in part to the noise created by toxic interactions, constant restructuring and 24/7 technologies. No matter the metric, the trend is clear: people at all levels in organizations feel increasingly stressed out or checked out. This may seem like a soft issue, but it is not. The way many key people work today is simply unsustainable. Studies show that leaders who glorify emergencies and view long hours as noble and heroic actually hurt performance by triggering stress, burnout and family conflict that infect the workplace (Perlow, 1997; Bailyn et al., 1997).By providing people a cushion of time - to learn, think, reflect or pursue other interests - organizations achieve greater performance and employee engagement than by pushing them to the end of their ropes. They are also likely to spur greater creativity. At Google, all engineers are given \"20 per cent time\" to pursue projects they are passionate about, resulting in products that might otherwise have taken an entire start-up to launch (www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html).The pressure on organizations is unlikely to ebb. But true to paradox, the more leaders and individuals increase the pressure on themselves and others, the less they will gain in the long term.\nTools and approaches to connect people for performance: * Social network analysis. Social network analysis is a methodology that brings transparency to the informal networks through which work gets done.* Blogs are web sites that allow individuals or groups to publish text, photographs, video, audio files and links on a regular basis[12]. Wikis are collaborative blogs.* Communities of practice. Communities of practice are self-organized networks that bring people together around a shared passion or purpose. More formal strategic networks focus on critical competencies and processes.* Peer assists are facilitated sessions in which specialists and seasoned practitioners are invited to share their knowledge with a less experienced team.* After-action reviews and retrospects. After-action reviews and retrospects are exercises in which a team reviews its performance both during and after a project to see what went well and what could have been done better.* Mentors. Mentors are experienced individuals who intentionally pass along their insights to those who need it. Coaches guide their charges towards an end result by assessing their unique capabilities and strengths, providing advice and monitoring their progress (see Table I).\nAn upwards spiral: High-quality connections are contagious and virtuous when leaders and individuals work together to create living networks of high-trust relationships; an ongoing sense of mission and purpose; and cushions of resources, time, budget and space. In these ways, the three types of connections create a self-reinforcing spiral that propels organizations towards improved performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to speak of the importance of connecting people in the workplace. It describes the types of connections that foster employee development and engagement, and proposes methods and tools that help strengthen these connections.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis in this report is based on industry and literature reviews and interviews with top executives. It builds on research carried out by Deloitte Research on talent management.\nFindings: - In today's competitive talent market, it is not sufficient for companies to follow a traditional \"attract-retain\" talent management strategy. A \"develop-deploy-connect\" strategy seems to better engage and meet the demands of the workforce. Of these three components, \"connect\" is emerging as the most important but least understood.\nPractical implications: - Because value today is created largely out of interactions, people's connections are increasingly important and complex. Companies that do not invest thought and effort in understanding this amorphous topic will find themselves battling attrition. Conversely, meaningful connections help people build the networks and relationship skills that lead to professional effectiveness and organizational growth.\nOriginality/value: - This article categorizes connections into three main types: people to people, to a sense of purpose, and to the resources they need. It presents leaders with a solid framework, research-backed ideas and leading practices to connect people for performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A comparison of local management of regeneration in England and Greece
|
[
"Local government",
"Economic development",
"England",
"Greece"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: some foundations for comparative local government studies: The comparative study of political systems has now generated an extensive literature. One of the most important contributors thereto, Peters (1998, p. 10) postulates five approaches, in his well-respected text:1. Single country studies of foreign countries, using a common analytical framework, thus enabling one to draw conclusions about the similarities and differences between that country and the author's own.2. Analyses of similar processes and institutions in a limited number of countries.3. The development of typologies or other classifications of regimes.4. Statistical or descriptive analyses of data from a subset of countries.5. Statistical analyses of all countries.Another major contributor to the comparative government literature, Rose (1993), proposes that comparison can be achieved by lesson drawing. He proposes five approaches:1. Copying the institutions and practices of another country.2. Emulation of another country's institutions or practices, after adjustment to suit differing circumstances.3. Hybridisation involves combining institutions or practices from two countries.4. Synthesis - combining elements of practice from three or more places.5. Inspiration - developments in some countries provide the intellectual stimulus for developing new programmes.The object of this paper is to explore comparisons, using Peters' analytical approach and typologies, together with Rose's emulation and hybridisation, between the English and Greek local government systems, in the hope offering some fresh insights in the regeneration and management of local areas. Comparison is easier if some general similarities between the two states in question can be identified. There are at least three significant similarities in the development of the English and Greek local government systems. First, both countries are unitary or union states with strong centralist traditions that are trying to cope with demands for regional and local devolution, including pressures generated by their EU membership. Both countries are relatively homogeneous (especially if we use England rather than the whole UK as the comparator) but there are tensions between centres and peripheries in both states. Both have a history of centralised government but not only are regions and localities increasingly demanding autonomy; also European Union (EU) policies are encouraging the extension of local autonomy, encouraging the development of regional and local government agencies with which the commission can negotiate the allocation of its structural funds.This leads to a second problem that England and Greece have in common: both countries are on the periphery of the EU. Partly because of this, both states face major regional and local regeneration and development problems. Thirdly, they both suffer from major internal imbalances: London and the South-East of England are considerably more prosperous than the peripheral English regions, especially those in the North. The latter have suffered economic deprivation and environmental degradation from the collapse of the heavy industries that used to provide most of their employment. Nearly half the Greek population lives in its two main conurbations, Athens/Piraeus and Thessaloniki. The rest of the country is mountainous and therefore sparsely inhabited, with many villages still dependent on primitive agriculture and fishing, although many coastal communities considerably augment their income from tourism during the summer months. Both countries have also experienced a long-term population drift from their rural areas to the major cities, especially their capitals. All these imbalances need to be addressed by public managers at all levels of government.However, they have very different histories, which may restrict comparisons between them. The UK has not been invaded since 1066 and has gradually evolved a stable if still imperfect democratic political system. Greece by contrast has had a turbulent history, having been invaded many times. It gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1830s. Multi-party democracy has only been firmly established there since the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic in 1974. Nonetheless, Greece has a European cultural and political heritage; indeed, many of the founding principles of European democracy were derived from the writings of Greek thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. A more detailed comparison of aspects of the two countries' public management should, therefore, offer scope for interesting comparisons and contrasts.We are seeking here to explore community leadership and local management, by engaging in comparative analysis of aspects of English and Greek local government. In a previous paper (Chondroleou et al., 2003), we explored the reasons why both countries have engaged in structural reorganisation of their local government systems and the effects this has had on their community governments. Here, we discuss the issue of local political leadership, at a time when changes in local political management arrangements are taking place in many European countries.\nReforming community leadership in Britain and Greece: England\nElected mayors and local political leadership in Greece: In Greece, by contrast, there has been concern to reduce the power of locally elected or otherwise selected leaders, the toparxes, ever since Greece won independence in 1830, because they have tended to be at the centres of clientelistic and often corrupt local networks, now maintained by their links with the political parties (Kafetzis, 2003; Lyrintzis, 1984; Makridimitris and Liverakos, 2000). However, mayors have acquired additional powers and functions as the responsibilities of local councils have increased. Also, the central government has wished to increase its control over local communities and their governments in order to increase the pace of economic and social development. However, there is also a need to develop networks to bring about economic regeneration and better social provision at the local level.The issue in Greece is therefore more concerned with governance than governmental terms, because it is concerned chiefly with the reduction in corrupt inter-agency relationships at the local level and securing increased state control over local communities, while at the same time encouraging local economic development and the provision of better local services. The governmental issues concerning internal management are not as significant as Britain, perhaps because most Greek demoi and koinotites are too small to present significant internal management problems of co-ordination and control. With a population of 12 million, Greece still has more than twice the number of local authorities that now exist in the UK with some 58 million inhabitants. Hence there are only 12,000 people on average in each primary local government area, compared with 127,000 in England. However, some of them are large enough to run into the same problems of co-ordination and control that exist in Britain. Another reason why managerial issues are less significant may be that \"new public management\" has not yet entered the Greek administrative agenda.Local political leadership\nConclusions: These case studies illustrate the problems facing two centralised countries struggling with varying but limited success to cope with various public management issues raised by local devolution and decentralisation. In particular, they illustrate how central governments respond when local governments or agencies start behaving in ways that are unanticipated and perhaps inimical to the centre's intentions and policies.Central government may not like the results when local people express their will and must decide whether to accept their verdict or recentralise control over local governments and agencies. The Blair government did not want Ken Livingstone to win the first London Mayoral election and the Labour Party suffered a series of embarrassing electoral defeats when mayors were elected in other communities. Hence, it responded by losing interest in the whole mayoral project. The Greek government seems unable to dislodge the clientelism and corruption that is endemic among mayors who enjoy local support. The upshot is that since local government autonomy is valued and has to be respected under the terms of the European convention on local self-government, central governments must learn self-denial and not interfere when the results are not to their liking. The English and Greek experiments with developing local self-government provide some reassurance and some causes for concern but above all, they demonstrate that in unitary states, ministers and civil servants at the centre find withdrawing from interference in local affairs a very hard exercise in self-denial. This is all the more important as community leaders are urged to regenerate their locales, improve the management of their local governments and set policies in motion to achieve key objectives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Explores comparisons between the English and Greek local government systems, in the hope of offering some fresh insights into the regeneration and management of local areas.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Discusses the issue of local political leadership at a time when changes in local political management arrangements are taking place in many European countries.\nFindings: - The English and Greek experiments with developing local self-government provide some reassurance and some causes for concern but, above all, they demonstrate that in, unitary states, Ministers and Civil Servants at the centre find withdrawing from interference in local affairs a very hard exercise in self-denial.\nOriginality/value: - Illustrates the problems facing two centralised countries struggling with varying but limited success to cope with various public management issues raised by local devolution and decentralisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Production sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships: A study of the differences between small and large enterprises in the Hong Kong clothing industry
|
[
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Large enterprises",
"Sourcing",
"Buyer‐seller relationships",
"Garment industry",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The textile, clothing, and footwear sectors in Hong Kong have played a key role in sustaining the economy of the territory over the last several decades. Of all three sectors, the biggest by far is the clothing industry. In 2002, the clothing sector generated a gross output of US$22.34 billion (World Trade Organization, 2003). Although its importance has been overtaken by Mainland China, Hong Kong is still the world's second largest clothing supplier. Undoubtedly, Hong Kong has lost much of its share of the world market in recent years. This has been due to the emergence of low-cost competitors, global over-supply, short product life cycles, falling international prices, and high rents and labour costs in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department, 2000a, b). In response to pressures from both domestic and global competitors, many garment firms in Hong Kong have attempted to sustain their competitiveness by increasing their reliance on sourcing production from non-owned affiliates (outsourcing) and/or neighbouring low-cost sites (offshore production).Pursuing either outsourcing or offshore production has been regarded as a new opportunity to maintain comparative and competitive advantages (Zeng, 2000; Villa, 1998). As suggested by Zeng (2000), an organization's profitability is determined and defined, to a large extent, by its purchases or sourcing. Thus, sourcing strategically has been considered as one of the key drivers for company survival and growth. Nonetheless, a production sourcing strategy can be enhanced by the appropriate adoption of buyer-supplier relationships. The buyer-supplier relationship refers to the interaction between buyers and suppliers, which involves different kinds of marketing exchange activities. Maintaining good buyer-supplier relationships has been seen as a powerful tactic to strengthen sourcing activities (Monczka et al., 2002). Not surprisingly, the adoption of appropriate production sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships is not only confined to large enterprises (LEs), as a great number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also actively take this into consideration (Villa, 1998).SMEs differ from LEs in many aspects (Pratten, 1991; Hall, 1995; Villa, 1998). A number of existing publications focus on the differences in business nature between SMEs and LEs (Daniel and Grimshaw, 2002; Karlsson and Olsson, 1998). However, studies comparing production sourcing strategies between SMEs and LEs are limited. The main purpose of this paper is to study the differences between SMEs and LEs in the Hong Kong clothing industry in terms of the adoption of production sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships.\nLiterature review: Characteristics of LEs and SMEs\nMethodology: This study was based on a questionnaire survey administered by face-to-face interviews. The interviews were conducted in two locations:1. the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where the respondents were part-time evening students studying for a Master's degree in Textiles and Clothing; and2. the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where the respondents were exhibitors during Hong Kong Fashion Week[1], Fall/Winter 2004.The first group of respondents was chosen for this study because they were practitioners in the Hong Kong clothing industry. Most of them were very experienced and held a senior position in their company. Furthermore, as they were students in the department, they understood the importance of research and were very willing to support academic study. The reasons for choosing the second group of respondents were first, that the exhibitors during the Hong Kong Fashion Week were directly involved in the trading and/or manufacturing sectors of the Hong Kong clothing industry; and second, that Hong Kong Fashion Week is an international exhibition attracting over 1,000 exhibitors each year. Amongst these exhibitors, many were SMEs and LEs from Hong Kong. In fact, the exhibition provides a convenient venue from which to access a large number of enterprises in the Hong Kong clothing industry at one time.Eventually, a total of 300 target respondents were approached and 120 usable questionnaires were received, representing a response rate of 40 percent. The informants of the returned questionnaires were owners, CEOs, general managers, departmental managers, designers, merchandisers, and sales or marketing executives. This indicates that the information provided was reliable for this study. Data collected from this survey were then analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).\nFindings: Background of the responding firms\nConclusions: This study has examined the differences between SMEs and LEs in the Hong Kong clothing industry in terms of the adoption of sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships. SMEs enjoy the advantages of greater flexibility and a higher level of efficiency, and do not have to be held back by a complicated organizational structure. However, SMEs are severely constrained due to their lack of funds and human resources. In comparison with LEs, SMEs have less ability to undertake research and development, less opportunity to benefit from economies of scale, insufficient production capacity, and inadequate resources to support their selling and marketing activities (Pratten, 1991). In addition, due to the limited resources of SMEs, their goals are relatively short-term and profit-oriented. To compete with LEs, SMEs have to ally strategically with their trading partners. Adopting sourcing strategies in a more cooperative manner is therefore imperative. Nonetheless, both SMEs and LEs should exploit their advantages by adopting proper or innovative combinations of sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships, and hence their respective disadvantages can be offset and their competitive advantages can be enhanced. As the adoption of sourcing strategies and buyer supplier relationships may change over time, future research should also be direct toward collecting longitudinal data. In this way, a more comprehensive picture regarding the difference between SMEs and LEs can be seen.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to compare the differences between the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the large enterprises (LEs) of the Hong Kong clothing industry in terms of the adoption of production sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A questionnaire survey was conducted among 120 small to large-sized clothing firms in Hong Kong.\nFindings: - The results show that there were certain differences between SMEs and LEs with regard to production sourcing: LEs are more able to disperse production globally; LEs are more likely to adopt single sourcing, while SMEs prefer multiple sourcing; SMEs tend to use a combined strategy of in- and outsourcing, whereas LEs select either insourcing or outsourcing; and LEs are more likely to develop a formal strategic alliance with their trading partners.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The adoption of sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships may change over time: future research should also be directed towards collecting longitudinal data.\nPractical implications: - To compete with LEs, SMEs have to ally strategically with their trading partners. Adopting sourcing strategies in a more cooperative manner is therefore imperative. Nonetheless, both SMEs and LEs should exploit their advantages by adopting proper or innovative combinations of sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships, and hence their respective disadvantages can be offset and their competitive advantages can be enhanced.\nOriginality/value: - This paper examines the differences between SMEs and LEs in the adoption of production sourcing strategies and buyer-supplier relationships. This study provides an implication for the management of SMEs and LEs in terms of production sourcing.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Highly talented and "only" an apprentice? Selected results of a longitudinal study and its consequences for vocational research of the highly-gifted
|
[
"Vocational training",
"Pupils",
"Switzerland"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This article discusses the above-average ability of young people who choose to undertake vocational apprenticeships rather than completing a high-school certificate (A-Level equivalent) through high school education. Justification for a focus of this kind stems from the current position of educational policy in Switzerland:In June 2003, the Swiss Delegation to the World Championships for the Professions in St. Gallen won 20 medals and thus the first place, ahead of South Korea and Austria. This is a pleasing confirmation that much has been achieved on the Swiss professional-education front. On 20 September 2003, at the \"Professional Education Day\", Johannes Deiss, member of the upper house of the Swiss parliament, commented that this success would prove to be the initial impetus for future outstanding achievements. In stark contrast to these successes, research into promotion of the gifted in Switzerland is \"caught in a trade-off between education and profession\" (Manstetten, 1991) and is, as a result, much neglected. Thanks to the new and innovative law on professional education which has been in effect since the 1 January, 2004, this situation may well change over the next few years. Various aspects of this law focus on the promotion of particularly talented young trainees. In commenting on the law, the Swiss parliament also referred to \"exploiting the reserves of the talented\" in terms of professional education. However, the commonly cited \"lay theory\", according to which a linkage of the talented with professional education is dismissed as unlikely or lacking credibility, and the resultant desire to relegate such activities only to high schools and universities may prove a considerable barrier. If these two traditional educational forums are considered as the only legitimate ones for promoting the talented, things may be rather less promising than one would hope.Against this background, an attempt is made in this paper to provide a critical analysis of the subject from the perspective of educational science and with the inclusion of empirical findings on the career selection by above-average talented young people. This will be achieved through a four-phase process. Firstly, the main problems as well as the educational theory and policy issues will be considered in the European context. In a second step, the findings of a Swiss long-term study (Stamm, 2003) of school careers of young people who are currently 16 years old will be analysed. The professional objectives of respondents with above-average cognitive talent profiles, will be presented and analysed. Contrary to the current trend, a group can be identified which does not follow the conventional high school route (in Switzerland, the \"Gymnasium\" where the \"Matura\" is awarded), but rather the route into professional training - an apprenticeship. On this basis, a number of different open questions have been formulated. It is intended that these will be further examined throughout the coming years within the framework of a research project focusing on the training procedures of highly-gifted young people undertaking vocational apprenticeships, sponsored by the office for vocational training research of the Swiss Confederation's Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI). Subsequently, a number of suggestions for training requirements pertaining to vocational research of the highly-gifted will be put forward.\nThe professional promotion of talented people: theoretical and education policy perspectives: If it is really the case that an increasing number, particularly of talented young people, follow a direct route into professional training, then research findings must be viewed with an open mind, because they refer to an unusual and perhaps unfortunate fact. This is, the professional training sector must also accept that it will be confronted by people with above-average capabilities whose talents are not always visible and cannot readily be exploited. This fact is perhaps disturbing, because it must be assumed that the heterogeneity of learning and training conditions amongst the trainees is larger than previously assumed. Why is it that such findings are disturbing? Why are we so far from assuming the presence of such potential talent in professional training, while on the other hand, we attribute this unquestionably to the \"customers\" of high schools? Does professional talent have a lower value in our society (Manstetten, 2000)?In theoretical terms, an initial answer can be found in the hiatus between general and professional education courses of the nineteenth century, \"the teaching canon of the high school (Gymnasium) became the epitome of education\" (Manstetten, 1991, p. 6). Subsequently, the classical education theorists such as Georg Kerschensteiner, Eduard Spranger or Theodor Litt, could do nothing to alter the state of affairs, even though they proclaimed professional education as \"portal of human education\" (Kerschensteiner), a profession as an \"opportunity for self actualisation\" (Litt) or education \"beyond the profession and only beyond the profession\" (Spranger). Also, the current concept of education is still primarily characterised by a neo-humanistic and idealised notion of education that proclaims the orientation of the Gymnasium towards scientific preparatory courses and the professional schools towards professional preparatory courses (Pfluger, 1991). Accordingly, even at the beginning of the twenty-first century, giftedness is associated with the successful attendance of a Gymnasium, and promotion of the gifted is accredited to academic-intellectual courses. Consequently, particular gifts are assumed to be present, sought-after and promoted, but not in relatively low-level schools (lower than the Gymnasium) or in professional education.A further cause of this one-sided academic-intellectual orientation can be assumed to derive from the themes and special framework introduced by Picht (1964) in the 1960s, and the resultant proclamation of a German educational catastrophe. His message was that a school system that does not use the potential reserves of the gifted, cannot survive in the face of international competition. As one of his many answers, Roth (1969) formulated a dynamic concept of giftedness and combined this with the claim that the core task of promoting the gifted, lies in controlling and increasing cognitive learning capabilities and performance. Subsequently, all efforts focused on intellectual capabilities, so that all others were regarded, at most, as of compensatory significance. Although, over the last few years, this one-sided orientation has been neutralised somewhat by the identification and promotion of exceptional musical, sporting and artistic talent, the question remains whether there exists in an analogous manner, a disposition for business, technical, trade-related or medical-care performance. This particular question seems to fall outside the ambience of societal interest. Therefore, professional giftedness has been primarily excluded from analysis, so that currently, with the exception of the German studies of promoting the gifted in professional education (Manstetten, 1996; Holling et al., 1996; Stein et al., 2003), there are hardly any well-founded answers with respect to the training activities that ought to be promoted. Those who desperately seek an explanation, therefore search, in the first instance, for arguments such as that the three-level school system provides sufficient potential for the promotion of above-average talent and that the Swiss Matura is equivalent to the Gymnasium Matura and is an appropriate means of promotion. Such people may also believe that the success at the professions championship means that no further efforts are required. However, such arguments do not take into account that, firstly, the formality of a professional Matura is a long way from guaranteeing the desired effect of promoting giftedness. Second, young people who are interested in practical professions turn away relatively frequently from a more academic path, despite having sufficient intellectual potential. Third, despite the many gold medals earned by the Swiss, professional championships or Olympiads provide a good, but by no means systematic approach to the promotion of outstanding talent. They have the character of certificates, but are applied too late and too selectively, because not all talented trainees have the same opportunity to participate. What is really necessary is an early identification of professional talent and a systematic promotion, which commences at the beginning of the training, provides offerings at various different levels, and facilitates special challenges as well as modified learning and qualification conditions.Beyond the above factors, in this context, there is still perhaps the most important and ignored education-policy argument: in the context of the reformulation of Switzerland's university landscape and its integration into the European scene, professional qualifications become of particular importance, not only as feeders for technical colleges, but also as guarantors for discovering professional and practically-oriented reserves and for promoting the professional quality of the new entrants to the skilled labour market. These are the reasons why talent and notions of excellent performance must be rethought and why integration and implementation into the law relating to professional training, is so essential. In an analogous manner to the Swiss \"Leitmotiv\" of simultaneous equality and differentiation for technical colleges or polytechnics and universities, an equivalent high-value strategy for promoting excellent performance must be pursued, so that the presence of potential giftedness in both the academic and professional areas are treated as essential and inevitable. For this reason, the young people must be challenged and their talents promoted. Nonetheless, the orientation should remain differentiated to retain the distinction between the academic-intellectual university level and a completely practical professional or trade-oriented promotion.Research design of the ERM-longitudinal study\nResults: The partial sample considered in this paper comprises 99 young people who are currently in their 9th school year and have proven to have an above-average cognitive capability profile. This entails 25 per cent of the total sample. Of these 99 pupils, 79 attend the highest level of school (pro-Gymnasium), 15 attend the medium level and five attend the lowest level. 34 of those attending the pro-Gymnasium indicated that they wish to undertake professional training and not to follow the (traditional) route to a university education through the Matura. The same applied to 14 graduates of the medium-level school, for whom a Gymnasium education would have been achievable, subject to certain selection criteria. In this manner, our sample currently contains over 53 above-average respondents who will enter into a professional training scheme in summer 2004 or would like to do so. Subsequently, selected results will be discussed relating to three areas: intellectual capabilities and their distribution amongst the various school types, performance processes over time and social origin.Intellectual capabilities and distribution amongst the school types\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Aims to present the empirical results from a study of vocational research on the highly gifted pupils.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Based on data from a Swiss longitudinal study on the effects of acquiring pre-school knowledge of reading and mathematics, intellectually above-average (gifted) pupils, who are now 16-year-olds, are filtered out and analysed with respect to their educational background and plans for the future.\nFindings: - The most striking findings of the analysis are that: those with well above-average ability are to be found in all educational examination standards; their educational careers may be characterised by notable breaks, yet still be highly successful; and a significant number of pupils decide against completing a high-school certificate (A-level equivalent) in favour of vocational training.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A limitation on the authority of the results arises in two respects: with regard to the small size of the sample group and in terms of the fact that the link between performance development, cognitive ability and the actual performance demonstrated cannot be ascertained from the available data.\nPractical implications: - Consequently, vocational training must also increasingly recognise the possibility of having to train a potentially significant number of apprentices with above-average abilities in the most varied of domains.\nOriginality/value: - This is an area that, to date, has not been the subject of much empirical investigation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Doctors as health managers: an oxymoron, or a good idea?
|
[
"Health care",
"Health management",
"Health managers",
"Clinical directorates",
"Hospital management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Hospitals have evolved from being straightforward centres of advice and healing based in temples in ancient Greece (Risse, 1990) into complex organisations (Baker, 2001; Shoemaker, 2010). Hospitals in Australia consume 3.4 per cent of the national gross domestic product, totalling $38.5 billion (AIHW, 2010a). Within these hospitals are different types of health professionals, and medical practitioners or \"doctors\" are a major health professional group (AIHW, 2010b). These doctors who work in hospitals are either salaried employees or work as independent private contractors (Hoff, 2003). Most doctors who work in hospitals work in a full-time clinical role and practise medicine in a medical specialty. There are 850,000 people working in the health workforce (AHMAC, 2008), with about 10 per cent of this number being doctors, who are increasingly moving into hospital management (Doolin, 2001). Some are involved in management as part-time clinician managers (Braithwaite, 2004) and some work as full-time medical hospital managers (Dwyer, 2010b). Doctors are an essential component of the clinical care team, and have higher influence and power compared to other staff members (Degeling et al., 1998, 2003). The engagement of doctors in health care delivery is increasingly seen as a key issue (Bohmer, 2013; Lin et al., 2014). This paper reviews the current literature and summarises the benefits and limitations of having doctors in health management roles in today's complex health environment.\nModels of doctors in health management: Professional bureaucracies\nDiscussion: Distilled from the existing literature, the benefits of having doctors in health management roles can be summarised in Table I and the limitations in Table II. In brief, doctors are able to provide the benefits of bottom-up leadership (Dickinson and Ham, 2008), specialised knowledge of the medical profession and clinical care (Friedson, 1986), and greater political influence (Dickinson and Ham, 2008). Doctors can also be effective change champions in leadership positions, and provide frontline leadership and management (Guthrie, 1999). Doctors in management roles can lead to improved communication between doctors and senior management (Braithwaite et al., 2005a), and are strong advocates for patient safety and quality (Degeling et al., 1999, 2001). Doctors also have greater credibility with public and peers (Simpson and Smith, 1997), and are perceived to have more power and influence compared to other health professionals (Degeling et al., 1998, 2003).\nConclusion: In summary, this paper has shown that management in hospitals has come full circle, with a move to once again have doctors lead hospitals in senior management positions (Ham, 2008). The attempt to replace professional bureaucracies in hospitals with a managed professional business model has been unsuccessful and a hybrid model is in place (Bate, 2000). There more benefits than there are limitations to having doctors in health management. There is a need for more management training for doctors so that they can be competent health managers.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature and summarises the benefits and limitations of having doctors in health management roles in today's complex health environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper reviews the current literature on this topic.\nFindings: Hospitals have evolved from being professional bureaucracies to being managed professional business with clinical directorates in place that are medically led.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations include the difficulty doctors have balancing clinical duties and management, restricted profession-specific view and the lack of management competencies and/or training.\nPractical implications: The benefits of having doctors in health management include bottom-up leadership, specialised knowledge of the profession, expert knowledge of clinical care, greater political influence, effective change champions to have on-side, frontline leadership and management, improved communication between doctors and senior management, advocacy for patient safety and quality, greater credibility with public and peers and the perception that doctors have more power and influence compared to other health professionals can be leveraged.\nOriginality/value: Overall, there are more benefits than there are limitations to having doctors in health management but there is a need for more management training for doctors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reinforcing innovation through transformational leadership: mediating role of job satisfaction
|
[
"Innovation (INN)",
"Jordanian telecommunication sector (JTS)",
"Transformational leadership (TL)",
"Job satisfaction (JS)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Continuous innovativeness in terms of products and services will allow companies to maintain an excellent position among competitors (Lengnick-Hall, 1992; Vorhies and Morgan, 2005). Consequently, scholars have shown more interests in specifying ingredients and elements of bringing about innovation (Damanpour and Wischnevsky, 2006). Recently, a special attention has been paid to the role of leadership in fostering employees' innovativeness. Yet, there are more calls for such research works, this causes a need for in-depth investigations regarding the ways and factors that reveal the ambiguity surrounding the means being used by leaders to influence their followers towards displaying innovative capabilities (Mumford and Licuanan, 2004; Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009a; Hoch, 2013). Nowadays, the majority of the organisations operate within an active environment in which the available technologies rapidly change and product life cycles are shorter. However, those kinds of organisations that deal with technological products and services are most to be affected in such environment (Jung et al., 2003; Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009b; Woodman et al., 1993; Weerawardena and Mavondo, 2011). Leading innovation is a concept being adopted by several industries, especially, in the age of globalisation with the rapid changes as well as the rapid transferring of information, in addition to the spread of e-commerce. There is no doubt that the telecommunication industry dominates the market around the world, since it provides fast links between suppliers and clients (Bigliardi et al., 2012). In this context, leaders are struggling to enhance the employees' level of innovation within a quick and very changeable environment, this, in turn, results in a very high degree of uncertainty and turbulence, and this will also pose a challenge that prevents leaders' struggles.\n2. Literature review: The execution expectations of subordinates will be increased through applying TL behaviours (Bass and Avolio, 1993), since this style of leadership calls for changing the subordinates' attitudes, personal values, and norms in order to reach high level of desires and ambitions (Seltzer and Bass, 1990). The influence of TL on innovation has been widely studied by many scholars along almost 25 years (Howell and Avolio, 1993; Basu and Green, 1997; Jung et al., 2008; Sarros et al., 2008; Noruzy et al., 2013). Yet, some authors in leadership field have pointed out that there are some critiques recently directed to TL style. For example, Van Knippenberg and Sitkin (2013) advocated that this style is suffering of robust conceptualisation, insufficient reasoning of the way every behaviour markedly affects intermediately the processes and outcomes, mixing the implications of TL with its constructs or formation and the measurement of TL invalid due to its failure in reproducing the behavioural construct identified by theory.\n3. Theoretical background and hypotheses development: 3.1 TL and product and service innovation\n4. Method: 4.1 The context\n5. Results: 5.1 Simple statistical descriptive\n6. Discussion: In general, the results from analysing the responses of the questionnaire survey revealed that leaders in the JTS practise, to a high degree, exhibit TL behaviours with their team members. However, there are some leaders who do not approach this style of leadership or/and practise some of these behaviours. Interestingly, the results drawn from SEM supported the study's hypotheses as following.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct role being played by transformational leadership (TL) dimensions in reinforcing product and service innovation. More particularly, the paper focusses on the role of job satisfaction (JS) as a mediator in this relationship.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A concurrent mixed methods technique was employed. The researcher surveyed 486 participants from three major telecoms companies that operate in Jordan to supply the society with mobile phones and internet services. In addition, 15 team leaders were interviewed for the same purpose.\nFindings: The results of this paper support the positive direct impact of transformational leaders on both employees' innovativeness and JS. In addition, JS was found to positively impact product and service innovation. Moreover, the results revealed that JS mediates the relationship between TL and innovation.\nResearch limitations/implications: Leaders are playing a direct and significant role in reinforcing product and service innovation in an interesting manner, especially through JS. Other styles of leadership, populations, and methods may create new perceptions in further research works.\nPractical implications: The findings in this paper indicate that practising superior level of TL behaviours enhances overall JS, which, as a result, reinforces product and service innovation within employees in the Jordanian telecom sector. Superior outputs are achieved through such styles both for the firm as a whole towards innovative products and services, and similarly, for individuals within teams who involve in further innovative team climate.\nOriginality/value: These outcomes augment understanding of practises in which transformational leaders endorse innovation, and emphasise the values added through endorsing more TL behaviours to yield more innovative outputs by employees.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
"The Irish Conflict" and the experiences of female ex-combatants in the Irish Republican Army: Power, resistance and subjectivity
|
[
"Foucault",
"Imprisonment",
"Power",
"Ex-female combatants",
"Irish Conflict"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The fundamental purpose of this paper is to critically explore the importance of the experiences of female former combatants during the Irish Conflict, colloquially known as \"the Troubles\" and outline key moments of resistance for female political prisoners during their time at Armagh jail[1]. There is a relatively large gap in the research literature relating to a gendered understanding of ex-paramilitaries and experiences of prison despite an ironic wealth of information on The Troubles in the politics of Ireland. Hence, this paper attempts to fill this gap by making critical intersections between Foucauldian theory, women's narratives and social practices in the carceral estate. The research impact of such qualitative experiences reveals original narratives that come from a \"hidden population\" within prison. The research generates fresh and significant insights into the daily experiences of ex-combatants relating to confinement and the mobilisation of resistance. Such experiences also reveal policy fault lines for understanding gender and complex power relationships in the institutional domain of the prison estate. Whilst in recent years, feminists (Bosworth, 1999) have pointed to women's experiences of imprisonment as important and significant as men's incarceration; the huge gap in the research literature relating to female ex-combatants during the Irish Conflict reveals the impact associated with the failure of penal policy and that of the British State to address the human right violations that occurred to Irish Republican prisoners.\nMethodology: The research methodology was primarily qualitative in order to elicit complex stories and narratives deriving from a hidden population in prison. Community activists, ex-prison groups provided contacts in which the snowballing approach was used. The main ex-combatant group had a database of contacts for former political male prisoners but there was not an equivalent for women. In the process of gaining access, contact was made with: Voices: Republican Women Ex-prisoners Group, Tar Anal and Coiste na nIachmi[2]. The latter responded in a positive way but felt that it would be difficult to find women who would speak about their experience. It was through the other two organisations that access to women and male former ex-combatants/volunteers was gained. The 28 women and 20 men interviewed in the course of this research came from across Ireland, some came from cities and others came from rural areas. Some had spent time in prisons in the UK and others served time in the Republic of Ireland or in the North of Ireland. In total, 48 semi-structured interviews were conducted with both women and men former ex-combatants, 28 of the semi-structured interviews were conducted with women. The interviews were formal only in the sense that they were conducted individually in a separate room and were tape-recorded. In addition to the interview guide, specific interview questions under each theme to prompt the participants and served as an aide memoir, whilst at the same time keeping the interview running smoothly. There was no fixed order to the questions and the phrasing of the questions was not prescribed in advance, since this was dependent on the individual. Many experienced being on the run and all experienced levels of brutality at the hands of the State. Ethical approval was granted from the Queens University Research Committee.\nThe Troubles, women's struggles and imprisonment in the Irish Conflict: There is an important contextual political backdrop before the paper examines and explores such important and significant narratives. In 1964, The Campaign for Social Justice was formed to address the discriminatory practices against Catholics in the form of employment, housing allocation, electoral boundaries and the over-use of stop and search on the Catholic population. A number of protest marches began to take place seeking to reform, not to overthrow the existing state.\nSecurity, resistance and the body: The women experienced new levels of harassment and violence and subsequently the female body had to be reinvented as actively resisting the power to punish, thus restoring the political potency of political prisoners. In the context of a prison where other forms of resistance are narrowed and may become obfuscated by the isolation of setting (Scott, 1990), the body may move to \"the centre of a political struggle\" (Turner, 1984, p. 39). It is argued that the violence applied to the female body in a visible manner transformed the movement of time across the somatic surfaces of the female political prisoner's body (Bosworth, 1999). Thus acts of resistance have to be understood not only in terms of their location in power relations but also through their intended and received meanings. Indeed, through the voices of the women, the paper will elicit how political subjectivities were constituted through political struggles, but also that there are many spaces of struggle through which people become political.\nThe beginning of the No Wash and living conditions: The crisis started when the prison officers insisted on finding and destroying all the pieces of black clothing in the women's cells. It was reported in the Irish Press on 9 February 1980, that paramilitary clothing and flags were discovered during a search. The prisoners were moved to a different wing of the prison on 13 February with very few personal belongings. Mairead Farrell[5] wrote:[...] within a week we were given back a few items of personal property - comb, toothbrush and a few photos of relatives. They were housed in \"A\" wing; two to an eight-by-twelve-foot cell with two beds, two pillows, two chamber pots, two plastic mugs and plastic knives and forks. In response to the rising public awareness and concern for the women prisoners, the NIO[6] responded by publically stating that a number of women had been confined to their cells and deprived of toilet facilities, except for their \"slop-pots\" [sic] (Irish News 8th February 1980). With the lack of toilet facilities, the cells' chamber pots overflowed.\nDiscussion: the power to punish: The use of excreta and menstruation as a weapon of resistance against the prison was not, however, the only bodily weapon available to the prisoners. The No Wash was by any standard of political culture, and certainly by that of Ireland, an unusual political action for women to participate in. However, the British national press, upon visiting Long Kesh and the men on the No Wash Protest for the first time, called it: \"the most bizarre protest by prisoners in revolt against their gaolers\" and \"self-inflicted degradation\". It was an incomprehensible act to the general public as it was to prison officers and the British government administration.\nImplications and conclusions: Despite the existence of a very small body of research studies and campaign literature regarding the treatment of female politically motivated prisoners in Northern Ireland, women remain marginal in academic and first-hand accounts of the Conflict. Such accounts therefore capture neither the gendered specificity of their experiences or the complex interplay between their experiences as gendered subjects socialised within a historically specific, politically shaped ethno-nationalist discourse of womanhood, nor their self-identification as soldiers in the struggle against an oppressive colonial state.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the importance of the experiences of female former combatants during the Irish Conflict, colloquially known as \"The Troubles\" and outline key moments of resistance for female political prisoners during their time at Armagh jail. The paper will situate the analysis within a Foucauldian framework drawing on theoretical tools for understanding power, resistance and subjectivity to contextualise and capture rich narratives and experiences. What makes a Foucauldian analysis of former female combatants of the Conflict so inspiring is how the animation and location of problems of knowledge as \"pieces\" of the larger contest between The State, institutions of power and its penal subjects (ex-female combatants as prisoners). The paper has demonstrated that the body exists through and in culture, the product of signs and meanings, of discourse and practices.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is primarily qualitative methodology underpinned by Foucauldian theory. There were 28 women and 20 men interviewed in the course of this research came from across Ireland, some came from cities and others came from rural areas. Some had spent time in prisons in the UK and others served time in the Republic of Ireland or in the North of Ireland. Many prisoners experienced being on the run and all experienced levels of brutality at the hands of the State. Ethical approval was granted from the Queens University Research Committee.\nFindings: This paper only examines the experiences of female ex-combatants and their narratives of imprisonment. What this paper clearly shows through the narratives of the women is the gendered nature of imprisonment and the role of power, resilience and resistance whilst in prison in Northern Ireland. The voices in this paper disturb and interrupt the silence surrounding the experiences of women political prisoners, who are a hidden population, whilst in prison.\nResearch limitations/implications: In terms of research impact, this qualitative research is on the first of its kind to explore both the experiential and discursive narratives of female ex-combatants of the Irish Conflict. The impact and reach of the research illustrates how confinement revealed rich theoretical insights, drawing from Foucauldian theory, to examine the dialectical interplay between power and the subjective mobilisation of resistance practices of ex-combatants in prison in Northern Ireland. The wider point of prison policy and practice not meeting basic human rights or enhancing the quality of life of such prisoners reveals some of the dystopian features of current prison policy and lack of gender sensitivity to female combatants.\nPractical implications: It is by prioritising the voices of the women combatants in this paper that it not only enables their re-positioning at the centre of the struggle, but also moves away methodologically from the more typical sole emphasis on structural conditions and political processes. Instead, prioritising the voices of the women combatants places the production of subjectivities and agencies at the centre, and explores their dialectical relationship to objective conditions and practical constraints.\nSocial implications: It is clear from the voices of the female combatants and in their social engagement in the research that the prison experience was marked specifically by assaults on their femininity, to which they were the more vulnerable due to the emphasis on sexual modesty within their socialisation and within the ethno-nationalist iconography of femininity. The aggression directed against them seems, in part, to have been a form of gender-based sexual violence in direct retaliation for the threat posed to gender norms by their assumption of the (ostensibly more powerful) role as combatants. They countered this by methods which foregrounded their collective identity as soldiers and their identification with their male comrades in \"the same struggle\".\nOriginality/value: This paper is one of the first to explore the importance of the experiences of female former combatants during the Northern Irish Conflict with specific reference to their experience of imprisonment. The aim of this significant paper is to situate the critical analysis grounded in Foucauldian theory drawing on theoretical tools of power, resistance and subjectivity in order to make sense of women's experiences of conflict and imprisonment in Ireland. It is suggested that power and resistance need to be re-appropriated in order to examine such unique gendered experiences that have been hidden in mainstream criminological accounts of the Irish Conflict.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Critical factors of effective implementation of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS
|
[
"Information technology",
"Competitive positioning",
"Critical factors",
"ISO-9000 quality management standards"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The increasing global competition has placed a renewed focus on quality enhancement for the long-term survival of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (Flynn et al., 2015; Kharub and Sharma, 2015). Research studies have argued to create resources which can meet the requirements of industrial values and can become an origin of inimitable competitive advantage (Drnevich and Croson, 2013; Peppard et al., 2014; Sanchez et al., 2015). In an attempt to build these tangible unique resources and intangible distinct skills, various approaches have been pursued by SMEs; the most notable and recommended approach is the adoption of quality management system (QMS) such as ISO-9000. ISO-9000 QMS provides a set of guidelines for international standard of quality and has become popular in SMEs. Recently, Kharub and Sharma (2018) reported from Indian SMEs that from last eight years, the adoption of ISO-9000 QMS's certification has increased from 4 to 73 per cent. As per Terziovski and Guerrero (2014), the system's guidelines provide a structure which helps organisations to ensure predetermined standards of product design, quality delivery and service. The guidelines stress on the elimination of non-conformities which leads a firm towards continuous improvement. However, the effectiveness of the ISO-9000 QMS is highly questionable. The studies are assessing its impact and have shown mixed results (Sila, 2007; Wahid and Corner, 2009). In their study, Terziovski and Guerrero (2014) reported that in actual practices, the performance of the ISO-9000 QMS had been often disappointing due to its weak implementation. In recent studies, researchers suggested to explore the ways of implementing ISO-9000 QMS and stressed to link it with other competencies which also make a firm objective oriented (Kharub and Sharma, 2018; Ismail Salaheldin, 2009; Peppard et al., 2014; Sun, 2017).\n2. Theoretical background: Small manufacturing firms are implementing ISO-9000 QMS to avoid product failure, customer complaints, safety problems and failure costs. An effectively performed ISO-9000 QMS intensifies the competitiveness of a company and gives strategic advantages in the marketplace (Kharub and Sharma, 2018). To assure QMS's implementation and benefits, a firm has to emphasise on other pre-requested appropriates (Ismail Salaheldin, 2009). That is why more and more companies are stressing on IT to ensure effectiveness in QMS's guidelines and their operations (Basu et al., 2018). IT not only assures its guidelines but also provides transparency in its services. When a company adopts a QMS, it has to convince its performance and need to assess whether the system is implemented effectively (Sila, 2007). According to Kohli and Grover (2008), to facilitate communications at varying organisational levels and understanding of QMS's operations, IT has been acknowledged as an essential tool.\n3. Research framework and hypotheses development: In summary, even the scope of QM or the role of ISO-9000 certification has been evolved enough, and the value of IT competence has been determined well, but still their relationship with firm performance and competitiveness is required to be investigated. To this effect, in this work, accordingly, an empirical study has been designed to examine the impact of effective implementation of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS on firm performance as well as competitive positioning. In controlling the direction of the research investigation, a framework (Figure 1) and three sets of research hypotheses were developed, as presented in Table II.\n4. Research design: 4.1 Construction of measuring instrument\n5. Data analysis and results: 5.1 EFA results\n6. Discussion: This study empirically examines the relationship between CFEI of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS and its effectiveness; effective implementation of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS and firm performance; and the mediating role of firm performance between the relationship of effective implementation of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS and firm competitive positioning. From extent review of the literature, the study first identifies 39 measuring items representing nine LVs. Based on these original items data, analysis is directed to a model consisting of six unobserved talent constructs that represent CFEI of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS which are: \"strategic attributes\", \"tactical attributes\", \"operational attributes\", \"organisational infrastructure and processes\", \"alignment of IT with firm's strategy\" and \"system knowledge\", two represent firm's performance \"customer satisfaction\" and \"firm performance\" and one for \"competitive positioning\". The structural model revealed that all six CFEI of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS deliver significant support in the effective implementation of the system. These results are in line with Dangayach and Deshmukh (2005) and Kharub and Sharma (2018).\n7. Conclusion, limitations and future scope: The study contributes a theoretically explained and empirically established reliable and valid model to measure the effectiveness and contribution of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS. The findings imply that the efficiency of IT-enabled competence along with adoption of ISO-9000 QMS can significantly contribute to gain the improvements in small firm's performance, in order to increase company's competitiveness in the highly dynamic global marketplace. Also, the study offers managers direction regarding critical factors on which they can focus on to improve the effectiveness of their system, providing necessary resource and support, and developing appropriate policies, practices and procedures. Finally, the evidence given by this study in term of strong relations between the effectiveness of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS and firm performance, such as with customer satisfaction (b=0.766) and operational performance (b=0.779), helps managers to realise the importance of the proposed model. Also, our results show that although the effectiveness of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS does not directly affect firm's competitive positioning, it does so indirectly through customer satisfaction (b=0.627) and operational performance (b=0.482).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although aligning information technology (IT) with quality management (QM) is a popular concept, it has not yet been properly, theoretically and empirically grounded. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify critical factors for the effective implementation (CFEI) of IT-enabled ISO-9000 quality management system (QMS).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The primary field data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 381 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to check the reliability and validity of the data collected. First, using pattern matrix, 48 items (extracted from relevant literature) representing CFEI of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS were grouped into six latent variables (eigenvalue1). Second, to test the relationship among CFEI, firm performance and competitive positioning, six hypotheses were formulated and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure.\nFindings: The study results found that identified CFEI of IT-enabled ISO-9000 QMS, i.e. \"strategic attributes\" (b=0.517), \"tactical attributes\" (b=0.323), \"operational attributes\" (b=0.281), \"organisational infrastructure and processes\" (b=0.231), \"system knowledge\" (b=0.194), \"alignment of system with firm's strategy\" (b=0.230), have a significant effect (p<0.05) on the successful implementation of ISO-9000 QMS. The critical factors are found to have a direct and positive impact on the firm's performance. Study results found that the critical factors do not directly affect the firm's competitive positioning (b=-0.097), but they do so indirectly through customer satisfaction (b=0.627) and operational performance (b=0.482).\nOriginality/value: The proposed model provides critical factors to align IT system with ISO-9000 QMS which is highly required mainly for SMEs. The study will provide a mean by which small manufacturing firms can counter the effects of increasing global competition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Knowledge transfer in alliances: determinant factors
|
[
"Knowledge transfer",
"Strategic alliances"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge-based activities are the basis of sustainable competitive advantage in today's economy. Resource- and knowledge-based theorists claim that firms should focus on the creation and accumulation of knowledge-based competencies in order to yield long-term survival (Barney, 1991; Grant, 1996, Teece, 2000). Given the advantage of emerging economies regarding the cost of labor, knowledge is the critical resource of the future of companies in developed economies. A company's stock of knowledge can include technological knowledge as well as knowledge about how to function in global markets, work with local laws, how to protect intellectual property and how to operate successfully in various forms of partnerships. This package of knowledge resources is critical for the successful development and maintaining competitive advantage through creating value for the company's stakeholder.Research has shown that inter-firm cooperative agreements provide opportunities for knowledge transfer[1] (Si and Bruton, 1999; Mothe and Quelin, 2000; George et al., 2001; Soekijad and Andriessen, 2003), knowledge access (Grant and Baden-Fuller, 2004; Jolly, 2005) and learning (Simonin, 1997; Inkpen, 1998a, b; Larsson et al., 1998). Over the past decades, strategic alliances have become not only one of the most successful modes of internationalization used by firms (Inkpen, 2003), but also the most usual organizational form for absorbing and creating new knowledge (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Van Wijk et al., 1999). Several authors (Simonin, 1997; Inkpen, 1998; Larsson et al., 1998; Mothe and Quelin, 2000; George et al., 2001; Soekijad and Andriessen, 2003) have emphasized the added value of alliance relationships in organizations' knowledge transfer and learning processes.Nevertheless, no study has offered a comprehensive perspective on the important factors that influence efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer through inter-firm alliance. This paper tries to identify and categorize factors presented in the literature of strategic alliance management. In the first section, the importance of knowledge in the literature of strategic alliance management is considered; the main areas of research related to knowledge are briefly present. In the second section, the importance of the subject of our study is discussed, and then in the core section, the factors are presented according to four distinct categories.\nImportance of knowledge in strategic alliances: As mentioned above, inter-firm cooperative initiatives are one of the precious ways for firms to identify, transfer and internalize external knowledge. Kogut's review of literature addressing joint ventures found that one of the firms' main motivations for entering into collaborative agreements was to transfer organizational knowledge (Kogut, 1988). Berg and Friedman, in a study of over 300 JVs at the 2-digit SIC level showed that in many cases, joint ventures did not in fact enhance the market power of the parent firm, but rather functioned as a means of knowledge acquisition (Berg and Friedman, 1981). Thus the issues of knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and learning have attracted researchers and have been examined several times in academic research and management consulting applied studies. Hence, not only has the frequency of these types of research increased but also the importance of such knowledge related issues in strategic alliance literature has increased accordingly. Nielsen (Nielsen, 2005) has classified the research literature of knowledge related issues in strategic alliances (Table I).Knowledge is one of the most important elements of core competence, and firms try to transfer and absorb it in each interaction with their environment. Firms' partners in their cooperative actions are one of the main environmental or external sources of knowledge. Thus, examining Table I, not only the importance of knowledge issues in strategic alliances can be seen but it is evident that in order to research on the topic of knowledge transfer in strategic alliances, the literature of knowledge creation and knowledge absorption should be considered.\nThe importance of factors impacting on knowledge transfer in alliances: The importance of considering the factors impacting on knowledge transfer has been discussed several times in literature, but indirectly and non-comprehensively. Some research and studies take these factors into account separately with different research goals. Some other authors have mentioned the significance of these factors without examining them closely. For example Richter and Vettel (Richter and Vettel, 1995) emphasize that managers must be aware of the boundaries that exist and the determinants affecting what can be learned, before deciding to enter an alliance.The present study tries to identify, collect and categorize them in a bibliographical manner. This section tries to answer the question of why there is a need to identify and consider \"affecting factors\" of knowledge transfer in strategic alliance. Five arguments might be put forward. The first one has a theoretical benefit. The following four have direct managerial impacts.1. There is much research and many studies that present and consider different factors affecting knowledge transfer in alliances, separately and also in depth. However few studies have tried to gather these factors comprehensively. Thus our study has to attempt to complete a missing element in the literature of strategic alliance management. Having this comprehensive list, researchers could focus on considering the factors in different types of alliances (complementary, marketing, R&D ... ).2. The awareness of the existence of these factors could enable alliance managers and all of decision makers involved in a strategic alliance to adjust their decision alternatives. They could also set the well elaborated goals and objectives, and develop more effective functions for achieving them (especially for knowledge obtaining purposes). In other words, this awareness would improve the alliance management capability of firm.3. Considering these factors could affect the interrelationship decisions and modify the partners' reciprocal behaviors. By considering the level of knowledge protection, trust and other factors related to reciprocal behavior of allies, managers could perform better to achieve knowledge related purposes.4. Considering the factors related to the nature of knowledge makes managers aware of what other types of knowledge transfer and sourcing action is required (not only alliance).5. Finally, paying attention to the factors related to absorptive capacity forces managers to improve their internal capabilities in knowledge transfer.In the next section, the factors identified from the literature review are presented.\nThe four categories of factors: With a literature review of knowledge transfer in strategic alliances, certain variables and factors that were introduced by authors in their works are identified. Since these factors are sometimes very different, they are classified in this paper by a bibliographical manner. These factors are classified into the four following categories:1. the nature and characteristics of required or transferred knowledge;2. the absorptive capacity of partners;3. the reciprocal behavior of the partners; and finally4. the nature of alliance activity.These four categories are the results of bibliographical classification, grouping factors according to their similarity. The similarity criterion in this paper is the main area of research related to each factor.The nature and characteristics of required or transferred knowledge\nConclusion: Knowledge is certainly one of the best resources and the only sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge transfer is necessary to firms, as this allows firms to access knowledge that is otherwise outside their reach. Therefore firms try to learn, to transfer knowledge and acquire it in most of the interactions with their internal and external environments. Inter-firm alliances provide opportunities for knowledge transfer, knowledge access and learning. In this paper the factors affecting effective knowledge transfer in strategic alliances were introduced and classified. Four categories were suggested:1. The nature and the characteristics of required or transferred knowledge:* tacit versus explicit knowledge;* simple versus complex knowledge;* core and non-core knowledge; and* knowledge complementarity.1. Factors related to the absorptive capacity of the partners:* relatedness of transferred knowledge with existing knowledge; and* prior relationships.1. Factors related to the reciprocal behavior of the partners:* level of knowledge protection by partners;* learning intent; and* trust.1. Exploration versus exploitation: the nature of alliance activity.It's clear that some of the factors mentioned are not independent from the others. For example, trust could affect the level of knowledge protection of firm. But trust is just one of the determinants of intensity of knowledge protection. For example, being a competitor or not is another factor that influences the level of knowledge protection of partners in a strategic alliance. The final factor also can influence the effects of others, because this factor represents varied learning objectives pursued by partners. For different objectives partners may pool different resources and knowledge which have different characteristics and act in different ways. Figure 1 summarizes the findings of the paper.This paper attempts to present a preliminary framework for further empirical research about knowledge transfer effectiveness in strategic alliances. It seems to be useful that further research consider these factors in different types of alliances in order to know the difference of these factors in different alliances or in international alliances in order to determine the special factors that have importance in international alliances. In addition, each factor should be considered in alliance settings fundamentally different from the knowledge transfer and learning approach. This is in order to know the exact effect of each factor on knowledge transfer according to the different characteristics of alliances.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Resource-and knowledge-based authors claim that firms should focus on the creation and accumulation of knowledge-based competencies in order to yield long-term survival. Several authors have emphasized the added value of alliance relationships in the knowledge development and learning processes of organizations. Over the past decades, thanks to the opportunities provided by the inter-firm co-operations for knowledge transfer, knowledge access and learning, strategic alliances have become one of the most useful organizational forms for developing new knowledge for firms. The purpose of this paper is to identify and classify factors affecting knowledge transfer in strategic alliances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - First, knowledge-related issues in strategic alliance literature are reviewed. Second, the importance of recognizing factors affecting knowledge transfer through strategic alliances is considered. Finally, the paper suggests a classification of factors in a bibliographical manner, which should be considered by researchers in related academic researches and also by alliance managers involved in planning and executing inter-firm alliances.\nFindings: - Four categories are distinguished: the characteristics of knowledge; the factors related to absorptive capacity; the reciprocal behavior of the partners; and finally, the nature and form of alliance activity.\nOriginality/value: - The findings of this paper can help researchers to step forward in considering knowledge transfer in different typologies of alliances, because factors affecting knowledge transfer have varied effects on different types of alliances. Awareness of the existence of these factors is another contribution of this paper that helps practitioners analyze more attentively available options for decision-making and their consequences.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumption-oriented engagement in social network sites: Undesirable influence on personal well-being
|
[
"Social comparison",
"Consumer socialization",
"Anxiety",
"Self-esteem",
"Materialistic values"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The proliferation of social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter over the last decade has considerably changed the ways in which people, especially young people, interact and socialize with peers within their social networks (Bolton et al., 2013; Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Brandtzaeg, 2012)[1]. Unlike traditional media, SNSs allow users to create and share their own content and to access content generated by other users. Features of SNSs that facilitate feedback from peers, such as news feeds and status updates, encourage self-expression and sharing of daily experiences in the online space (Boyd and Ellison, 2013; Smock et al., 2011).\nHypotheses: Negative impact of engagement in social network sites on users' personal well-being\nMethodology: Participants and procedure\nAnalysis and results: EQS6.3 was used to perform confirmatory factor analysis on each construct to assess construct validity. The results show that the factor loading of all measurement items for the six latent constructs were significant at the 0.05 level and all standardized loading values exceeded the threshold of 0.5. The goodness-of-fit indices for each construct either met or surpassed the widely acceptable thresholds and thus the constructs show good convergent validity (Table I). Cronbach's alpha and composite reliabilities for all the scales were well above 0.7, suggesting good reliability of the multi-item measures.\nDiscussion: Prior research has reported mixed results regarding the impact of engagement in SNSs on users' well-being (Gerson et al., 2016). On the one hand, empirical evidence indicates that young adult users obtain various benefits from SNS use, such as social support (Ellison et al., 2008; Manago et al., 2012), accumulation of social capital (Steinfield et al., 2008) and personal well-being (Burke and Kraut, 2016). On the other hand, studies document various undesirable psychological outcomes of SNS use, including negative affect, depression, and risk behaviors (Bolton et al., 2013; Steers et al., 2014). This inconsistency could be attributed to the lack of differentiation among various uses of SNSs and the omission of key variables in the theoretical model that predicts personal well-being (Valkenburg et al., 2016). By focusing on consumers' use of SNSs as an information-sharing tool relating to product news, marketing messages and consumption experience, this research examines how such COE in SNSs affects young adults' personal well-being and spending behavior. The study also theorizes social comparison as a psychological mechanism that mediates the effects of COE.\nConclusion: Increasing empirical evidence shows that engagement in SNSs could have a negative impact on users' personal well-being, but the context in which this effect occurs is unclear. To extend this research stream, this study examines consumers' use of SNSs as an information-sharing tool for product news, marketing messages, and consumption experience. Within the context of this particular SNS use, the present study shows that COE mitigates personal well-being and increases excessive spending among young adult consumers. In addition, these effects are mediated by social comparison and such mediation is moderated by consumers' materialistic values. The findings shed light on the negative repercussions of engagement in SNSs in the consumption domain and provide an impetus for educators, researchers and policymakers to make further efforts to gain a thorough understanding of the pitfalls of social media use. As social media have become more diverse and fragmented in recent years, future research examining the impact of social media use on users' psychological health should identify the unique context in which such an impact may or may not happen.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: Mounting empirical evidence shows that engagement in social network sites (SNSs) could have a negative impact on users' personal well-being. However, studies of the undesirable effects of SNS use have not examined SNSs as a channel for users to share consumption information and experiences. To extend prior research, this study aims to examine the impact of consumption-oriented engagement (COE) in SNSs on young adult consumers' personal well-being in terms of anxiety and self-esteem, as well as excessive spending.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Surveys were the primary means of data collection from a sample of young college students (N = 900). Moderated hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.\nFindings: COE is positively associated with anxiety and excessive spending and negatively associated with self-esteem. Social comparison mediates these relationships, and individuals' materialistic values moderate the mediation.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study demonstrates the psychological and behavioral outcomes of consumer socialization via digital media among young adult consumers. It introduces and empirically validates social comparison as a theoretical explanation for the effects of COE. In addition, it validates materialistic values as a personal trait that moderates the effects of COE.\nPractical implications: The study validates COE as a key precursor to the well-being of young adult users of SNSs and social comparison as the mediator. With this understanding, public policies can be designed to mitigate the root cause of the negative impact of SNS use.\nOriginality/value: Findings shed light on the negative repercussions of engagement in SNSs in the consumption domain and provide an impetus for educators, researchers and policymakers to make further efforts to gain a thorough understanding of the pitfalls of social media use.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effective leadership development in information technology: building transformational and emergent leaders
|
[
"Leadership",
"Mentoring",
"Leadership development",
"Information technology",
"Transformational leadership",
"Emergent leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Effective leadership has been identified as important for organizational success by increasing agility (Lewis et al., 2014), change management capability (Kotter, 2013), employee commitment, trust, and job satisfaction (Top et al., 2015), follower willingness to provide extra effort (Benjamin and Flynn, 2006), creative behavior (Zhang and Zhou, 2014), information technology (IT) success via IT-business alignment (Luftman et al., 1999), and IT capability reputation (Lim et al., 2013). IT continues to increase in importance as a context for organizational behavior research as IT firms establish large industries as well as accounting for significant recurring and discretionary expenditure in other organizations.\nLeadership: Contemporary leadership studies have described both trait- and skill-based models of effective leadership. Traits are inherent and difficult to change, while skills are capable of being developed over time (Northouse, 2016). For the field of Human Resource Development, the value of skill-based leadership models is clear as it relates to training as well as talent development. Only if leadership is capable of being developed can we expect our workforce to develop into leaders. Trait research continues in skill-based models by correlating personality traits to leadership skills. Extraversion is positively correlated with TL, and overall leadership effectiveness is correlated with conscientiousness (Day et al., 2014). Considering the weak relationships between other personality traits and TL, it is essential that we learn how to develop leadership behaviors (Bono and Judge, 2004).\nMethodology: Relevant peer-reviewed research articles were identified using Google Scholar, EBSCO Business Source Complete, and the University Library using the logical AND with the keywords \"information technology\" AND \"leadership\" as well as \"information systems\" AND \"leadership.\" Additionally, the Association for Information Systems journal database was searched for \"leadership.\" Many articles were discarded for focusing on non-professional settings (such as online communities or undergraduate education), while yet others were discarded for discussing the industry segment \"leadership\" of organizations. Several articles were also eliminated where leadership was operationalized as support for a particular policy, such as quality management, since supporting policies does not inform about the content of leadership behavior or qualities. The search was performed iteratively, returning to each source more than once in order to confirm no articles were missed. The inclusivity of broad search terms enables the manual identification of articles bearing relevance to the topics at hand. In total, 13 quantitative studies (all cross-sectional, one of which, Katz and Salaway, 2004, was not peer reviewed), five qualitative studies, and five conceptual papers on the topics of leadership and leadership development in the IT context were retained. Due to the scarcity of relevant articles, non-IT leadership development articles were included to develop propositions.\nIT Leadership: Within organizations, the IT function is highly specialized, requiring expert knowledge of IT, their organization, and their organization's business industry (Rockart, 1988; Smith and McKeen, 2005). IT leadership, then, is bound up with IT intelligence, which can help shape organizational stability and organizational innovation (Karahanna and Watson, 2006). This paper first reviews the behaviors and competencies identified as effective in the IT context because leadership development can only be effective when the competencies it aims to develop are relevant (Cook, 2006).\nDeveloping IT leadership capabilities: The paucity of IT leadership development research is a reflection of the lack of general leadership development research. The literature review uncovered only three (Applegate and Elam, 1992; Roepke et al., 2000; Smith and McKeen, 2005) peer-reviewed articles discussing IT leadership development. In the previous section, the paper detailed transformational and transactional leadership behaviors that are important for the IT context. The next step is to identify effective methods of developing these leadership behaviors.\nConclusion: Leadership development in IT has received very little attention in research so far, a symptom of the paucity of leadership development research in general. TL has been studied more than other leadership styles in the IT context and has shown positive follower outcomes, both with subordinates and non-IT employees undergoing change caused by IT. However, most leadership research in the IT context is cross-sectional, a major shortcoming to advance the field. The propositions included in this paper are that formal mentorship programs, robust feedback, and a long-term process view will improve leadership development program outcomes, which are consistent with Day's (2001) conclusions. The next steps in this research vein include identifying IT units with leadership development programs and longitudinally comparing the outcomes of their programs. Furthermore, training professionals can utilize the study findings to examine if their organizations are making systematic efforts that create a leadership pipeline for their organization. Furthermore, given concerns around lack of diversity in IT sector in general and at the leadership levels in particular, such a pipeline is critical for long-term success. IT continues to increase in importance as it enables disruptive startups to enter industries, so organizations who do not exploit IT as a resource risk obsolescence. Thus, effective IT leadership is vital both for the survival and the success of the organization.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Effective leadership has been the focus of much research in recent years, but leadership development is still understudied. Information technology (IT) continues to grow in importance due to the industries IT creates, the industries IT disrupts, and the potential IT holds for all companies. Because leadership is highly context bound, the purpose of this paper is to examine leadership development in the IT context to take first steps toward establishing best practices for IT leadership development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper reviews leadership in general before performing an integrated literature review of leadership as it has been studied in the IT context. Then the paper presents three propositions regarding effective IT leadership development.\nFindings: IT leadership development should involve formal mentoring, robust feedback that is integrated into the development plan, and should be treated as a core process for long-term success. Emergent and transformational leadership are important for IT.\nPractical implications: It behooves IT departments to implement the leadership development programs proposed here because leadership has been identified as one of the most difficult skills to find in IT employees. The findings can inform training professionals exploring ways to improve the leadership capacity and leadership development in the IT units of their organizations.\nOriginality/value: The paper's literature review uncovered no quantitative peer-reviewed research on leadership development in the IT context, suggesting an area of need for further empirical studies. Researchers and practitioners alike will benefit from a greater understanding of leadership development in IT.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Where will the axe fall? An integrative framework for understanding attributions after a business failure
|
[
"Decision",
"Business failure",
"Attribution",
"Organisational decision-makers"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the past three decades, we have witnessed the dramatic improvements in decision support systems and technologies in an array of areas including employee evaluation, production planning and control and strategic formulation (Shim et al., 2002; Osterwalder et al., 2005). It has been argued that they play a pivotal role in enabling organisations to minimise errors and achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Afuah, 2004).\nTowards a typology of attribution after business failure paradigms: By business failure, we are referring to situations where the inability of the firm to meet stakeholders' expectations and obligations forces it to cease operations (Amankwah-Amoah, 2014a; Hamilton, 2006). Although some scholars have argued that business failure is bad (see Mellahi and Wilkinson, 2004), others have suggested that business failure is good for some stakeholders such as competitors, the communities and the wider economy by removing inefficient firms and, thereby, allowing effective competition to thrive (Knott and Posen, 2005). Some scholars have indicated that: \"some individuals respond to failure negatively, with feelings of dejection and loss of motivation, whereas others respond more positively, with heightened motivation to succeed\" (Johnson et al., 1997, p. 385). In entrepreneurial ventures, recent studies provide evidence that some venture capitalists view past venture failure as a sign that the individual is willing to take risks and are willing to invest in their venture (McGrath, 2011).\nAttribution theory and society's arbiters: We now turn to attribution theory because it provides a unique opportunity to enrich our understanding of how observers attach meanings to events. As Kelley (1973, p. 107) contends, the theory is \"about how people make causal explanations, about how they answer questions beginning with 'why'\". The theory has been found to be particularly useful for examining events or issues that span over a long period of time (Burger, 1985). There are a number of schools of thought on the processes underlying attribution.\nTypes of attribution: Once business failure has occurred, we identify two main types of attribution and their occurrence: immediate and delayed attribution. Immediate attribution occurs instantaneously after business failure, often before regulatory or professional bodies have thoroughly examined the issue. This is largely because the individuals are often the first to be identified, and they are often stigmatised because they might be in the public eye or have a prominent position of representing the company to the mass media. Immediately after business failure, there are executives who are automatically shamed in the media even before their culpability is established; however, there are also those who slip under the radar and never have their actions brought under the microscope.\nWho are the recipients of attribution?: Past studies indicate that social arbiters through the labour market reward or penalise executives and managers for their decisions which bring about business failure or success (Fama, 1980). Broadly speaking, all members of a departed organisation are subjected to attribution; however, the labour market is unlikely to tar \"all managers with the same brush based on mere association with a failed firm\" (Cannella et al., 1995, p. 209). One plausible reason for not indiscriminately penalising managers of failed firms is the different responsibility and degree of controls of each one. Observers are also unlikely to treat all organisational members and leaders as equally influential and skilled or have the same level of expectations and control; therefore, there is a need to recognise, distinguish and reclassify managerial and non-managerial staff based on their level of responsibility and control in the attribution process (Figure 4).\nThe typology of attribution after business failure: Having set out the recipients of attribution and the attribution process, we now turn our attention to the 2 x 2 matrix articulated at the outset of this article and its distinctive features.\nCell I: early internal attribution: Cell I represents a situation where the observers deliver an attribution immediately after the event; however, the failure is attributed to mainly firm-specific factors such as poor leadership, loss of key personnel and inability to identify and address the early signals of decline. Delivering such rapid attribution is essential in an environment, where observers are under intense pressure for rapid decisions by making use of the available information (Dutton et al., 1997). There is little time for the individual to assemble evidence and resources to mount any robust defence to deflect the blame from his or her actions. More importantly, the fresh emotion associated with the business failure means that often those in the spotlight are sanctioned, i.e. first- and second-tier managers.\nCell II: late internal attribution: This is where observers conclude that the locus of causality is internal but render late attribution. This often stems from a long drawn-out process of investigation and the need to identify all of the culprits rather than those immediately visible to the public eye. In this cell, the seriousness of the case and the wider impact force observers to engage in such investigation. The ability to allow things to settle down before an attribution is made helps to take strong emotions out of the process and provides a basis for a better decision. Negative internal late attribution is more likely to lead to a decline in former employees' human capital and undermine any claim of competence.\nCell III: early external attribution: This is where the individual receives an early attribution, but the failure is due to external factors over which he/she had limited control. Under these circumstances, the attribution is less likely to be severe. Despite the early nature of the attribution, the individual recipient has a better chance of diminishing or avoiding any stigmatisation from the event. Although people often attempt to conceal their stigma by suppressing thoughts about it (Smart and Wegner, 1999), there is a greater likelihood that individuals with a tendency to withhold such information are more likely to be severely sanctioned when new information emerges, uncovering their stigma. However, when similar events occur in the future, observers' attention will be drawn to past events which are often moulded into the collective consciousness of interested parties and those who seek further accountability even in the future.\nCell IV: late external attribution: Cell IV is where the causes of failure are attributed to external factors such as global competition, luck and natural disasters, but where attribution is delayed. The delay might be due to the observers' decisions to seek better sources of information on the individuals and the decision-making processes in the departed firm. There are cases where the timing of the business failure becomes very important in the attribution process. For instance, when the firm ceases to exist during times of economic crisis and political instability, this is more likely to be viewed as a \"no-fault dissolution\", where managers linked to the failure are less likely to be stigmatised (Forsman, 2001).\nModerating influences: There are a number of moderating factors which need to be taken into consideration in our quest to deepen our understanding of the subject. Although some scholars have suggested that attribution after business failure is based mainly on careful evaluation of actions and inactions of key players (Wiesenfeld et al., 2008), we contend that hindsight plays an influential role in this process. Given that people have a tendency to view decisions that generate good results in a positive light, observers are likely to view decisions leading to business failure in a negative light. Indeed, it has been suggested that with hindsight, people not only exaggerate what things were foreseeable but also overestimate the predictability of the event if it had led to a negative outcome such as failure (Davies, 1987; Lipshitz, 1989). Davies (1987, p. 50) further argued that:\nDiscussion and conclusion: The primary purpose was to delineate the types of attributions after business failure and the underlying processes through which such attributions are rendered. The study tapped into the existing streams of research on attributions and business failure to develop a 2 x 2 matrix, which incorporates timing of attribution alongside the locus of causality. Crossing the two main causes of organisational failure (i.e. internal and external factors) with two types of attribution (i.e. immediate attribution and delayed attribution) produced the 2 x 2 matrix which entails: early internal attribution, late internal attribution, early external attribution and late external attribution. The conceptual strength of the matrix lies in enriching our understanding of the effects of pace in the attribution process.\nPractical implications: The study offers a number of useful insights for practising managers. First, our findings suggest that there is a need for greater accountability of social arbiters to help reduce or even eliminate errors in both early and delayed attribution. Although recipients of incorrect early attribution might be able to repair the damage, what often results is not the acquisition of fully normal status, but a transformation of self from someone with a particular blemish into someone with a record of having corrected a particular blemish (Goffman, 1963, p. 9).\nDirections for future research: The typology has suggested a number of promising avenues for future research on attribution after business failure. A great deal remains to be learned about the role of organisational and national culture in the attribution process and the extent to which attribution differs across cultures. Unlike American society, many countries in the emerging world such as Ghana take a different attitude towards failure and often offer little or no opportunity for individuals to move on or recover (Amankwah-Amoah, 2013; Sandage, 2005). This area presents a fruitful avenue for scholars to enrich our understanding of attribution in general.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the types of attributions after a business failure. Although business failure has garnered a plethora of scholarly attention, there remains an ambiguity and a lack of clarity about the process and types of attribution after a business failure.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a synthesis of the multiple streams of research on the subject. This led to the development of an integrated framework of attributions after business failure.\nFindings: The paper integrates the business failure literature and attribution theory to develop a 2 x 2 conceptual framework which accounts for not only the effect on pace (time) but also locus of causality in the attribution process. Crossing the two main causes of business failure with two types of attribution produces the 2 x 2 matrix of types of attribution after a business failure which includes early internal attribution, late internal attribution, early external attribution and late external attribution.\nResearch limitations/implications: The theorisation of the literature offers a number of implications for theory and practice.\nOriginality/value: The study also explains the underlying processes inherent in learning from others' failures and consequences of business failure. The framework removes some of the ambiguity in the existing literature and outlines a number of fruitful avenues for future research.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Consumers gain equivalent levels of happiness from sharing about an experience and an object
|
[
"Happiness",
"Word-of-mouth",
"Experiences",
"Objects"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Firms have become increasingly aware of the importance of word-of-mouth (WOM) for both experiences (Filo et al., 2015; Gelper et al., 2018; Romaniuk and Hartnett, 2017) and material products (Babie Rosario et al., 2016; Consiglio et al., 2018; Packard and Berger, 2017); and they have invested in innovative and costly campaigns to encourage consumers to talk about their purchases (Sweeney et al., 2012). Indeed, firms have much to gain from WOM; after all, when consumers talk about their experiences and objects, the shared content tends to propagate widely (Mangold and Faulds, 2009) and to be perceived as credible (Ahrens et al., 2013; Huang and Chen, 2006), which make WOM a powerful tool to engender product adoption (Roy et al., 2019). However, recent research has found that WOM also influences how consumers feel about their purchases and the benefits they gain from them (Jones et al., 2014). This investigation focuses on a specific psychological benefit of WOM conversations: consumer happiness.\nTheoretical background: This section is divided into two parts. Each part draws on interpersonal conversation and WOM research to build the rationale for the two competing hypotheses tested here. The first part argues that conversing about an experience or an object advance similar levels of happiness; whereas the second argues that conversing about an experience is more beneficial for happiness than conversing about an object. A possible third hypothesis would be that conversing about an object (vs experience) generates more happiness, however, this idea is inconsistent with previous frameworks (Bastos and Brucks, 2017), and therefore, will not be considered here.\nStudies overview: This paper report results from four studies. Study 1 engages participants in an actual face-to-face conversation. It manipulates the behavior of talking about the purchase (object vs experience) or an unrelated topic (control) to examine the degree to which conversing about each purchase type increases happiness, as compared to the control conditions. Next, Studies 2 and 3 adopt, respectively, recall and framing procedures that have been used extensively by past work in this research domain. This approach allows the present investigation to examine conversations' ability to advance happiness in light of that work. These two studies (i.e. 2 and 3) measure the conversation construct the same way it was measured in previous research (Bastos and Brucks, 2017) and test, via moderation analysis, whether the magnitude of its effect on consumer happiness differs between material and experiential purchases. Finally, Study 4 manipulates conversationality to equalize material and experiential purchases on that dimension and examine whether, when both purchases have equally high conversationality, they advance similarly high levels of happiness, thus eliminating the happiness superiority of experiences.\nStudy 1 - actual conversation: Study 1 tests whether experiential and material conversations lead to similar (H1) or different increases in consumer happiness (H2). It does so by engaging participants in talking about a purchase and assessing happiness. The study randomly assigned participants to recall and write down either a material or an experiential purchase. Critically, participants were later randomly assigned to talk about either the purchase they had recalled (experimental condition) or an unrelated topic (control condition). This experimental design allows for the examination of:\nStudy 2 - recalled purchase: Study 2 uses a recall-based approach to examine the level of happiness resulting from the conversationality of experiences and objects.\nStudy 3 - framed purchase: Study 3 uses a mental framing procedure to examine the replicability of Study 2 with a more controlled approach where the focal purchase is kept constant and participants' focus - on the experiential versus material aspects of the purchase - is experimentally manipulated (Bastos, 2019; Bastos and Brucks, 2017; Carter and Gilovich, 2012; Rosenzweig and Gilovich, 2012).\nStudy 4 - manipulation of purchase conversationality: This study examines the replicability of the previous findings and tests whether objects with higher conversationality increase consumer happiness more, possibly putting them at par with experiences in terms of ability to advance happiness. To do so, Study 4 uses a three-condition design:\nGeneral discussion: This paper documents evidence from four studies that conversing about an object or an experience is equally beneficial for consumer happiness. This conclusion contributes to theory in four major ways: It deepens the understanding of how the purchase conversationality model unfolds, clarifies previous claims made in the literature, shows a new boundary condition for the happiness superiority of experiences, and establishes the causal direction of the effect: conversationality - happiness. These contributions are discussed further next.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine how conversing about experiences and objects affects consumer happiness. In contrast to previous research focusing on conversation frequency, this paper explores how each conversation instance influences happiness.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Four experiments use three different methodologies, namely, actual talking behavior (Study 1), recalled and mental framing interventions and measurement of the focal variables (Studies 2 and 3) and manipulation of purchase conversationality (Study 4).\nFindings: Consumers derive equivalent levels of happiness from each material or experiential conversation they have. When the object is highly conversational (when it generates as much conversation as experiences do), it advances as much happiness as experiences.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings inform precisely how the purchase conversationality model unfolds; clarify previous claims made in the literature; establish the direction of causal effect; and reveal a novel boundary condition of happiness superiority of experiences.\nPractical implications: The findings inform marketing managers how to optimally allocate their world-of-mouth (WOM) resources to advance consumer happiness. Additionally, this work shows a mental framing strategy able to increase WOM for objects - i.e. a tool for the manager.\nOriginality/value: This is the first investigation to disentangle the frequency of conversation from each conversation's ability to advance happiness. It is also the first to engage participants in an actual conversation and measure changes in their happiness, and therefore, conclusively establish the direction of the effect. Additionally, by manipulating purchase conversationality, this work demonstrates a new boundary condition associated with conversationality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Developing serving culture: focus on workplace empowerment
|
[
"Service quality",
"Employee participation",
"Serving culture",
"Workplace empowerment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While drawing on literatures on organizational culture and workplace empowerment, this paper puts forward and empirically tests a new model that aims to answer the following research question:\nLiterature review and hypotheses: In the following sections, this paper reviews prior literature pertaining to serving culture and workplace empowerment. Then, it examines the theorized relationships among structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, and serving culture, and in turn examines why serving culture should mediate the relationships between workplace empowerment and service quality. Finally, the paper investigates the relationship between serving culture and quality of customer service.\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nResults: Validity and reliability of constructs\nDiscussion: This research investigates new antecedents of serving culture, specifically, the nature and strength of the relationships among structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, serving culture, and service quality. Findings demonstrate that the two types of workplace empowerment may not always play equally critical roles in the context of serving culture. The following sections of paper explain the study's contribution to research, recommendations for practitioners, suggestions for future research and the study's limitations.\nConclusion: This study begins with an assumption that service-oriented organizations with higher workplace empowerment should develop stronger serving culture, thereby increasing service quality. Building on findings from prior research, this paper proposes that employees will become engaged in serving behaviors that will \"put the needs of customers first,\" when they become structurally and psychologically empowered. Although the initial assumption suggested that both types of workplace empowerment will play equally important parts in the context of serving culture, the data gathered from healthcare organizations illustrated otherwise. The study's results reveal a statistically significant role of structural empowerment and a positive (but not statistically significant) role of psychological empowerment. This somewhat surprising finding could indicate that in a very dynamic setting such as emergency departments, employees will first of all rely on available structural resources (e.g. sufficient time to interact with patients or peer support) to identify and better address emergent needs of their patients - this contextual setting could therefore explain a somewhat weaker effect of psychological empowerment. By demonstrating that higher levels of structural empowerment could indirectly influence service quality, this study also sends an important message to managers. Management should critically evaluate a policy regulating resource distribution in their firms and aim to establish such workplace practices that will eliminate structural barriers reducing employee access to necessary resources (e.g. access to work-related information). Lastly, this study also suggests that future research should try to further explore the relationship among service quality, workplace empowerment, and serving culture, particularly across different industries. In such a setting, the role of psychological empowerment may become more critical, while the role of structural empowerment could become reduced.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Based on the data gathered from healthcare organizations, the purpose of this paper is to identify new antecedents of service quality. The proposed model posits that workplace empowerment should increase a level of employee helping behaviors, thus supporting the development of a firm's serving culture. Consequently, while focusing on two forms of workplace empowerment, the study empirically tests mediating paths that link structural empowerment and psychological empowerment with service quality via serving culture. The findings expand the understanding of how companies could better manage evolving demands of their customers. Furthermore, the project provides clear guidelines to practitioners by suggesting how firms should allocate their organizational resources to boost service quality.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study uses the original survey data collected from healthcare organizations to empirically test the mediating paths linking structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and service quality via serving culture. The data were tested using structural equation modeling.\nFindings: Although the initial model assumed that both types of workplace empowerment should play equally important roles in the development of serving culture, the data reveal the statistical significance of structural empowerment. Thereby, findings emphasize that in health care, employees must be provided with access to key organizational resources (e.g., vertical and horizontal information flow) to drive up quality of service.\nOriginality/value: This research is one of a few empirical studies examining antecedents of serving culture. An overall implication of the study should be a reinforced call for more empirical studies that could identify how companies could develop serving culture. Furthermore, the paper proposes that managers must remove structural barriers that may exist in their organizations to empower employees to better manage changing customer needs.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Managing e-books in a business school library: case study of Ebrary Academic Complete
|
[
"Electronic books",
"Academic libraries",
"E-books",
"Ebrary",
"Business library",
"Evaluating collections"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: E-resources like electronic journals and databases form an important part of the collection in management libraries. Among the various e-resources like journals, reports, databases, newspapers and magazines, electronic books (e-books) are also a significant part of electronic collections in libraries today. The acquisition of e-resources consumes a major proportion of the library budget, and this includes a trend towards a gradual increase in the spending on e-books. The shift from print books to e-books is reported to be a major reason for the increase in e-book budgets of libraries, which is one of the main reasons to decrease print book budgets (ProQuest, 2016).\nLiterature review: Some studies have been published on e-book models, licensing, acquisition, collection development, features and usage. The review of the literature on e-books also includes a few interesting studies on return on investment and finding value from the e-book subscriptions. Studies have also been conducted on evaluating the usage of e-books in specific institutions.\nObjectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Ebrary Academic Complete, an e-book package, by reviewing the product features and its usage during the years 2012 to 2016 at Vikram Sarabhai Library, IIMA. The library had been subscribing to Ebrary Academic Complete since the February of 2012. The main objectives of the study are as follows:\nMethodology: The ProQuest Ebrary website was studied thoroughly to identify the features available in the Ebrary Academic Complete package. For analyzing the usage of Ebrary Academic Complete at Vikram Sarabhai Library, data were downloaded from the Ebrary website for the years 2012 to 2016. The data was downloaded through different reports that were available and then compiled together as per the requirements of the study.\nAbout Ebrary Academic Complete: Ebrary was lanched by Christopher Warnock and Kevin Sayer in 1999 (ProQuest, 2017). Ebrary offers a full-text searchable database of books, maps, reports, magazines in all academic disciplines. ProQuest had acquired Ebrary in the year 2011. A library could purchase an individual electronic book through patron-driven acquisition (PDA) in Ebrary and or subscribe on an annual basis to the e-books package. One of the popular products of Ebrary was Academic Complete, targetted to the academic library user, a multidisciplinary collection of over 1,38,000 books. The Ebrary Academic Complete included 20 broad subject areas and subjects like business, economics, sociology, computer science and laws were more relevant to business school libraries like Vikram Sarabhai Library. Recently Ebrary Academic Complete has been revamped for access on a new platform E-book Central.\nContent and usage analysis: Copyright year and title\nConclusion: While evaluating an aggregator package like Ebrary for purposes of purchasing/subscribing or renewing the collection, it is important to consider the usage of titles in terms of title downloads, sections downloads, page views, etc. One of the main factors that affect the usage titles is discoverability and ease of access. Ebrary as a platform to host e-books seems to be an excellent addition to the library collection at Vikram Sarabhai Library, with many user-friendly features like IP authentication access, discoverability, device independence, integration with reference management software, provision for usage reports and so on. The Ebrary Academic Complete has been populated with nearly 90 per cent titles published from the past 16 years, and almost 40 per cent of the titles were less than five years old, reflecting currency of content in the e-books package.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the study is to review the e-books collection, namely, Ebrary Academic Complete, by understanding its features, cost and usage at Vikram Sarabhai Library, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). The study attempts to understand the usefulness of Ebrary in terms of its currency of titles, publishers, subjects and cost.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper is based on five-year usage data of Ebrary Academic Complete at Vikram Sarabhai Library, IIMA. The data on usage of Ebrary was downloaded and analyzed on different parameters to find out the overall value or use of Ebrary Academic Complete package from the perspective of a management library.\nFindings: The research concluded that there was an increase in usage of Ebrary Academic Complete over time. The subject analysis revealed that titles from \"Business and Economics\", \"Computers\" and \"Social Science\" were the highest used. The publisher analysis indicated that John Wiley & Sons topped in both the highest number of titles in the package and highest used titles. The annual subscription fee model of Ebrary Academic Complete adopted by Vikram Sarabhai Library was working well with a gradual increase in usage bringing down the per title access costs.\nOriginality/value: The study helps in understanding the approach to evaluating e-book collections in terms of currency of content, subjects covered, publishers included and costs involved. The detailed analysis would assist libraries in decision-making with regard to e-book collection development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Safety risk assessment in industrial maintenance
|
[
"Maintenance",
"Risk assessment",
"Occupational health and safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Occupational risk assessments have traditionally been based on the identification of hazards in the workplace. As subcontracting industrial services becomes more and more typical, the focus of risk assessment changes. While the maintenance services are sold to other companies, the subcontracted workers may virtually be permanent workers with varying tasks on some certain site. On the other hand, the workers may instead specialise on some certain tasks that is executed on varying customer sites. In both cases, the workers face a variety of work tasks and risks in different working environments and unfamiliar organizations. The changing customer sites and/or tasks present new challenges to the service provider's risk management, which must ensure occupational safety also in changing working environments and among changing tasks. Therefore, there is a need for new kinds of risk assessment methods and risk management procedures specifically aimed at assisting the subcontracted companies promote safety on customer sites.In this article, the term \"maintenance\" complies with Reason's (1997) definition of maintenance activities including unscheduled repairs, inspections, planned preventive maintenance, together with calibration and testing. Further, in this context the term \"maintenance crew\" refers to full-time maintenance workers and \"maintenance operations\" to tasks that are performed by full-time maintenance workers in industrial workplaces. According to the Finnish Maintenance Society (2006), the total number of maintenance professionals in Finnish industry is currently approximately 50,000, while in 2004 the total number of workers in industry was 418 298 (Statistics Finland, 2006).This article examines risk management in industrial maintenance from the service provider's perspective. The article aims to answer the following questions:1. What conditions must be taken into account in order to manage maintenance-related risks?2. How can the service providing company assess and manage maintenance-related risks?The results describe the development of a safety risk assessment method for industrial maintenance operations, based on a study that was carried out with service-providing companies and their customers.\nTheoretical background: Risks and risk assessment in industry\nMethods and materials: The research reported in this paper was conducted at the Institute of Occupational Safety Engineering of the Tampere University of Technology in cooperation with 3 companies that provided maintenance services. The project also involved 15 customer companies of the service providers. The research was carried out through six phases.The study was supervised by a group, which included representatives from the cooperating companies (service providers), the researchers, and the financier (The Finnish Work Environment Fund). The progress of the study is illustrated in Figure 1.First, real accident data from two public Finnish databases was analyzed. The databases involved:* industrial safety inspectors' accidents reports describing severe accidents in Finnish industry; and* investigation reports on fatal workplace accidents in Finland.The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health hosts the first of the databases. A single author (safety inspector) carries out the investigation and reporting. At the same time, the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions in Finland coordinates the investigation and reporting of all fatal workplace accidents. In this case, a group of experts from different fields carries out the investigation and reporting. The databases were studied in order to find such accidents that involved full-time maintenance crew members. The analyses included the years 1985-2004 for fatal accidents and 1994-2004 for severe accidents. The analyses examined only such accidents that involved full-time maintenance workers in industrial maintenance operations. The relevant reports were analyzed with the aim to determine the causes and consequences of severe and fatal accidents.All 15 customer companies were then visited. Some of the sites were in very close proximity of each other, and sometimes even on the same industrial plot. In such cases the same subcontracted maintenance crew members were typically responsible for all the customer sites on the area. Therefore, the visits involved 12 maintenance crews representing 15 customer companies. Various industries are covered by the visited companies (Table I). The maintenance personnel at the sites were interviewed in an unstructured way to determine general information about the company, the types of maintenance operations, and the observed and perceived risks within the maintenance tasks. The interviews involved the service providers' supervisors on site, representatives from the customer companies, and some maintenance crew members.Selected maintenance works were next observed, and their risks were assessed at the customer companies. The works were selected by the supervising group, using criteria such as the frequency and perceived risk exposure of the operation. These works consisted mainly of planned preventive maintenance work, like changes of paper machine cylinders and maintenance of a cream tank in a dairy. The risks related to the observed maintenance works were assessed using a general risk analysis tool (Murtonen, 2000). The observations and risk assessments were supplemented by interviewing the maintenance crew members.A tentative version of a content of the risk assessment method was subsequently compiled according to the information collected in the previous phases. The content was revised in the supervisory group.The draft risk assessment method was in turn tested in the customer companies. Researchers used the method with the personnel at five customer sites, while at other customer sites, the maintenance crew used the method independently. The aim of testing was to chart the feasibility and usability of the method. The risk assessment method was consequently developed based on the experiences and feedback received from users and the supervisory group. The final version of the method was delivered to all three service providing companies with the aim to test the method in normal work situations at different customer sites.Finally, a survey was carried out six months later to determine whether the method had been applied and adopted at the companies and sites, and to collect feedback on the utilization and usability of the method. The survey, conducted via phone interviews, involved 20 representatives: the four supervision group members, twelve representatives from the cooperating companies' 15 customer sites, and four representatives from customer companies.\nResults: Real accident data\nDiscussion: This article examined risk assessment in subcontracted industrial services from the service provider's viewpoint. The focus of the research was on industrial maintenance services. The paper presented the requirements and content of the risk assessment method developed for maintenance services. The method adopted a task-based approach instead of the traditional workplace specific one. This type of risk assessment method has not before been presented for industrial maintenance.The method was developed in cooperation with maintenance service companies, which enabled an extensive view to maintenance-related risk factors. A variety of different methods were used to study the notable factors influencing safety in service providing companies. In addition, real accident data was examined in order to research incidents and the underlying risk factors in maintenance work. With this kind of extensive approach the special features of subcontracted maintenance services were successfully included into the method. Also essential requirements of subcontracted maintenance work, like unfamiliar organizations and different working cultures, were taken into account. However, the method includes also well-known industrial risk factors, like hazards related to machinery and chemicals. The method can be applied to different maintenance services in industry, that is, after-sales services and subcontracted industrial maintenance.The increasing trend towards subcontracting in industrial maintenance has highlighted the significance of safety cooperation between the customer and service provider. The developed method supports safety cooperation from the negotiation phase to the execution of work tasks. The developed method consists of three parts in order to cover all the critical safety factors relating to service production and subcontracting. This three-part method supports the different organizational levels in their efforts to manage, supervise and execute the operations to ensure safety. The structure is in line with the concept of total maintenance management, where the three major areas include maintenance management, maintenance operations and equipment management (Raouf and Ben-Daya, 1995). With this structure for the risk assessment method, safety can be promoted also while working on, for example, customer sites and/or alone.Traditionally, safety has not been an important subject of business negotiations. In networked business, where subcontracting is common, ensuring safety becomes more important than before - for two main reasons. First, the organizations are dynamic rather than fixed. This creates good grounding for latent conditions (see: Reason, 1997) that may allow accidents to occur. In addition, active failures may be more probable than earlier because of new work tasks, new environments and different organizational cultures and practices. Secondly, safety may become an important issue in the pricing of subcontracted services. For example, maintenance may have affected the process safety and the customer is responsible for the total plant safety even if it has subcontracted the maintenance. Thus, maintenance is not only a matter of subcontracting work tasks, but a part of total safety of the plant and the related responsibilities. In those cases, the negotiations should also cover the resource allocation for plant safety responsibilities. To support such aims, the developed method includes two parts, by which safety factors can be taken into account already in the negotiation and planning phases.\nConclusions: Owing to the types and causes of risks, combined with increasing trend towards subcontracting, maintenance services require a specific risk assessment method. The tool must take into account the maintenance-specific risks, such as changing sites, working alone, and disassembly and reassembly. It must also advise in hazard identification and safe working. Furthermore, service providing companies must be encouraged to support systematic and continual risk management.To manage maintenance-related risks effectively, there are certain factors that need to be taken into account. From the perspective of occupational risk management the boundary conditions in maintenance operations are as follows:* the task is constant, but the working environment changes (e.g. after-sales service);* the working environment is constant, but the maintained object changes (e.g. subcontracted industrial maintenance); and* the task and working environment changes (e.g. temporary evening out of workloads between customer sites; after-sales service).To ensure a comprehensive risk assessment in maintenance operations, all these conditions must be taken into account. Additionally, the risk management procedures must involve all the organizational levels in the service providing company. As many risks relate to the physical working environment, the method must take into account also safety cooperation with the customer.In order to best involve the different organizational perspectives, the format of the risk assessment tool needs to address the work planning (management), the work supervision, and the worker. It must support the planning of safety and hazard identification to promote safety. The tool must also be feasible and usable in different conditions. In this case, a three-part checklist was found to be an appropriate format.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to answer the following questions: What conditions must be taken into account in order to manage maintenance-related risks? and how can the service-providing company assess and manage maintenance-related risks?\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study was based on analyses concerning: maintenance-related risks in companies; literature review; and real accident data. The development process was carried out in cooperation with companies providing maintenance services.\nFindings: - Based on the findings, the method takes into account various risks relating to maintenance operations. The method includes specific parts for safety planning and hazard identification for managing maintenance safety. In addition, it provides a safety check-list for the worker.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The usability and feasibility of the method should be reassessed and developed. The method could be especially useful in an electronic form.\nPractical implications: - The method can be utilized for assessing maintenance-related occupational risks in different working environments. The results from the assessments create the basis for risk management in industrial maintenance.\nOriginality/value: - Owing to certain specific safety challenges, maintenance operations require a specific risk assessment method. However, such a method has not been previously available. The findings and feedback indicate that this kind of a risk assessment tool can be useful in companies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Conceptualizing the relative openness of supply chain and its impact on organizational performance
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Organizational performance",
"System theory",
"Open system",
"Closed system"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Cavinato (1992) suggests drawing upon system theory in order to develop a holistic view of the supply chain. Organizations operate in a highly dynamic and competitive business environment and constantly need to adapt to external changes in order to survive and remain competitive (Chatterji, 1996). In the context of supply chain management, this quest for survival and competitiveness is pertinent given the fact that the agility and flexibility of business operations result in competitive performance. Increasingly, organizations compete at the supply chain level (Ketchen and Hult, 2007). The need to examine the relationships between organizations and the external environment draws our attention toward employing the lens of open system theory in order to explore the interactions of supply chain partners.\n2. Background: 2.1. Open system perspective\n3. Model development and propositions: 3.1. Toward defining the notion of \"relative openness of a supply chain\"\n4. Supply chain attributes and impact on performance: 4.1. Cooperation among partners\n5. Implication, limitation, and scope for future research: 5.1. Practical implications\n6. Conclusions: A comprehensive framework conceptualizing the relative openness of a supply chain and its impact on organizational performance (financial and non-financial) is presented in this paper. The paper extends the current supply chain literature on collaboration among supply chain partners and stresses the need to study the relative openness of a supply chain. This extension is important with the advent of supply chain management concepts in the last two decades. A range of theoretical perspectives have been applied in the supply chain context (Ketchen and Hult, 2007). According to the interdependence theory, supply chains are made of interrelated components and require the coordination of various entities (Scott, 1981). This has triggered an interest in applying the system perspective in exploring the dynamics of supply chains (Holt and Ghobadian, 2009; Yin et al., 2005). Most of the studies present a descriptive account of a supply chain as a system describing the flow of activities and components of the system. Consequently, the relative degree of supply chain openness and associated dynamics remain underexplored. In order to address this gap in the literature, the current paper considers the notion of openness in supply chain context. The proposed conceptual framework highlights different supply chain attributes and future researchers can operationalize this to investigate the relative degree of supply chain openness and its impact on organizational performance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework conceptualizing the relative openness of a supply chain and its impact on organizational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The literature on system theory and the attributes of supply chain management are used to develop a framework describing the relative openness of a supply chain.\nFindings: Different supply chain terminologies - such as adaptive supply chain network, best value supply chain, and open inter-organizational system - partially draw upon the basic premises of an open system. The relative openness of a supply chain and, consequently, the dynamics of different supply chain attributes remain understudied. This supports the idea that an open system perspective of the supply chain is imperative to improve the understanding of the influence of supply chain openness on organizational performance.\nOriginality/value: The conceptual framework posits that different supply chain attributes affect the openness of supply chain to a varying degree which ultimately influences the organizational performance. The proposed framework and research propositions will serve as a springboard for conducting future empirical studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge integration, teamwork and performance in health care
|
[
"Performance",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Teamwork",
"Health care",
"Teams",
"Questionnaires",
"Knowledge integration",
"Shared mental model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Interprofessional teamwork is one of the most important quality criteria for health care organizations (Antoni, 2010; Kuhlmey, 2011; Gibbon et al., 2002; O'Leary et al., 2012; Ezziane et al., 2012). The complexity of the health care system together with the changing demands in health care call for effective and efficient collaboration among different groups of health care professionals. The need for collaboration in interprofessional teams is further intensified by the changing spectrum of diseases with a growing number of elderly, multimorbid and chronic patients, as well as by the modified roles of patients, exemplified by the wish for more participation in treatment planning and decision making. A further reason for the growing significance of interprofessional teams is the rising importance of economic activities and the efficiency of health care organizations, coupled with the specialization and differentiation (increase of functional diversity) of health care professionals (Fitzgerald and Davison, 2008).\nTheoretical background: Patient-centered teamwork and team performance\nMethod: The present study is cross-sectional with a descriptive-explorative design. Data were collected by means of a staff questionnaire for all health care professionals working at the medical rehabilitation clinics and treating patients. The survey was anonymous and participation was optional for everyone. On completion, the questionnaire could be sent directly to our research team in a pre-paid addressed envelope. The study is part of the grant program \"Design and evaluation of a patient-centered team development program for medical rehabilitation\" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education and the German Statutory Pension Insurance Scheme (Grant number: 01GX1024). It was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Freiburg (Official approval number: 190/12). A positive ethics committee vote is available.\nResults: The assessment of knowledge integration revealed significant differences between health care professional groups (F (4, 285) =7.87, p\nDiscussion: As assumed, the results showed significant differences in the various health occupations' perception of knowledge integration. Physicians rated it better than other health care professionals, which may be due to differences in experiences, expectations, values and power between health care professions (Hall, 2005; Pecukonis et al., 2008; Reeves et al., 2010). However, health professional groups had no effect in the regression and mediation analysis. This can be explained by consistent differences between the health care professional groups over all variables in the model. Previous studies (e.g. Korner et al., 2014) show differences for teamwork between the health care professional groups and underpin this assumption. Furthermore, the study confirmed a positive effect of knowledge integration on patient-centered teamwork and on team performance, with patient-centered teamwork mediating the effect of knowledge integration on team performance. This finding is consistent with the results of studies on shared mental models (Mathieu et al., 2000), which showed that shared mental models (task and team) have an influence on team processes and team performance and that the effect of such models on team performance is mediated by team processes (Mathieu et al., 2000; Klimoski and Mohammed, 1994). As knowledge integration reflects the process of establishing shared mental models, the studies can be viewed as comparable. Other studies found a reciprocal association between shared knowledge and team processes (Mathieu et al., 2000; Stout et al., 1999; Kozlowski and Ilgen, 2006). This means that better patient-centered teamwork is associated with better knowledge integration. However, based on the IPO model (Gibbon et al., 2002; Lemieux-Charles and McGuire, 2006; Xyrichis and Ream, 2008; Korner et al., 2016) and the existing study results (Gibson, 2001; DeChurch and Mesmer-Magnus, 2010; Steinheider et al., 2009; Salas et al., 2005), we decided in this study to categorize perceived knowledge integration as an input variable and regarded it as a precondition for patient-centered teamwork and team performance. The applied IPO model is accepted and often used as a framework for research despite the fact that it is very simple and does not consider the reciprocal association. More complex models exist, such as the input-throughput-output model or input-mediator-output-input model (Ilgen et al., 2005; Schmutz and Manser, 2013).\nLimitations: Our research is limited in several respects concerning methodology and sampling. First, the study was cross-sectional, which does not allow making any statements about causality links. Additionally, all measures were self-reported by the health care professionals in the clinics. This implies the risk of a common method bias as a result of using one questionnaire for all measures, where it can be assumed that the participating team members try to maintain consistency in their responses, or rather, tend to respond with a sweeping statement (Borg, 2003; Bortz and Doring, 2009). Furthermore, constructs may overlap because knowledge integration (shared knowledge, mental model) is sometimes used to operationalize teamwork (Xiao et al., 2013) or relational coordination (Gittell et al., 2009). Teamwork and team performance are also subjective measures and are not entirely distinct because both are assessed by the team members' self-perception at one point in time. Collecting data with a single method from a single respondent at one time is problematic for examining associations. Another major problem is the weak operationalization of team performance. Only a single item asked about the perception of performance. Although the use of a single item for the measurement of psychological constructs is regularly considered as a \"fatal error\" in research (Wanous and Reichers, 1996), assessing performance with a single-item measure \"has a long history in organizational behavior research\" (Wanous and Hudy, 2001, p. 368). \"The main argument against using single-item measures is that internal consistency reliability cannot be estimated\" (Wanous and Reichers, 1996, p. 631) and it is assumed that single items have \"unacceptably low reliability\" (Wanous et al., 1997, p. 247). However, in the case of team performance it can be assumed that the psychological construct \"is sufficiently narrow and unambiguous to the respondent\" that a single item may be adequate in the study (Wanous and Reichers, 1996, p. 631). Further studies should ideally use objective, aggregated and longitudinal data. Furthermore, different assessment methods or different raters for predictor and criterion are needed to eliminate risks (Podsakoff et al., 2003\nFurther research and practical implications: This study particularly confirmed the importance of team members sharing a common understanding of the task as well as of reflected team goals as stated in the definitions of teamwork (Manser, 2009; Kauffeld and Schulte, 2011; Salas et al., 2005; Weaver et al., 2010; Fitzgerald and Davison, 2008). It also showed that the perceptions of the health care professionals working in the team diverged concerning knowledge integration and the extent of the problems. The reasons for these differences (silo effects) should be investigated in further research. More research is also needed on the process of knowledge integration and the strategies for building shared mental models in health care teams. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to focus on knowledge integration in interprofessional health care teams in medical rehabilitation. Longitudinal studies with mixed-method designs should be conducted to verify the associations between knowledge integration, shared mental models, teamwork and team effectiveness.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Knowledge integration is the process of building shared mental models. The integration of the diverse knowledge of the health professions in shared mental models is a precondition for effective teamwork and team performance. As it is known that different groups of health care professionals often tend to work in isolation, the authors compared the perceptions of knowledge integration. It can be expected that based on this isolation, knowledge integration is assessed differently. The purpose of this paper is to test these differences in the perception of knowledge integration between the professional groups and to identify to what extent knowledge integration predicts perceptions of teamwork and team performance and to determine if teamwork has a mediating effect.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is a multi-center cross-sectional study with a descriptive-explorative design. Data were collected by means of a staff questionnaire for all health care professionals working in the rehabilitation clinics.\nFindings: The results showed that there are significant differences in knowledge integration within interprofessional health care teams. Furthermore, it could be shown that knowledge integration is significantly related to patient-centered teamwork as well as to team performance. Mediation analysis revealed partial mediation of the effect of knowledge integration on team performance through teamwork.\nPractical/implications: In practice, the results of the study provide a valuable starting point for team development interventions.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that explored knowledge integration in medical rehabilitation teams and its relation to patient-centered teamwork and team performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
What affects organizational performance? The linking of learning and knowledge management
|
[
"Self‐managed learning",
"Workplace training",
"Knowledge management",
"Organizational performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The recent technological advancement opens a new era, in which a global competitive environment has emerged. Traditional organizational management is no longer considered an appropriate strategy in this highly competitive global market. Consequently, businesses must compete for their survival through continuous improvement and innovation to maintain or gain market advantages. In other words, businesses need innovation in order to obtain opportunities for survival. Resistance to innovation is likely to result in crumbled enterprises (Leavy, 1998). Although globalization has opened worldwide trade markets, which brings businesses opportunities that have never been seen before, this phenomenon also opens the door to numerous competitors in various industries. As a result, \"employees\" are no longer considered as \"laborers\" who only contribute their manpower. As Drucker (1993) points out, knowledge workers have become the most vital asset in the knowledge-based society. Therefore, qualified employees are a critical component of business success, and effective strategies for continuously enhancing employees' competency are in urgent needs.In Jantunen's (2005) research, he states that knowledge is posited in an organization as a strategic asset which can help the firm maintain its competitive ability in a turbulent environment. In fact, knowledge-based assets and organizational learning (OL) capabilities are critical for a firm's innovation activities (Jantunen, 2005). KM is aimed at getting people to innovate, collaborate, and make correct decisions efficiently; in short, it is aimed at getting people to act by focusing on high-quality knowledge (June, 2005). Knowledge is considered the most important resource in organizations (Choe, 2004), and the characteristics and problems of knowledge do not differ because of different geographic locations (Singh et al., 2008). The success of organizations consequently is built upon organizations' and individuals' speeding learning. Thus, learning in organization is the key for organizations to sustain competitive advantages. As Jude-York (1991) points out, organizations striving in today's fast changing marketplace are facing the need to have employees who know how to learn and who can quickly retool and be ready for new challenges. Self-directed learners seem to be individuals who are most likely to succeed at this and are becoming an increasing valuable resource within the modern organizations (Senge, 1990; Naisbitt and Aburdene, 1985).A number of existing studies indicate that self-directedness in learning among employees has an important part to play in the competitiveness of enterprises during the 1990s (Edwards, 1995; Calder and McCollumn, 1998; Robinson and Arthy, 1999). Self-directedness among workers is an objective worthy of pursuit by organizations wishing to achieve knowledge and skill development for a competitive edge in a rapidly changing industrial context (Smith et al., 2007). As Smith (2002) points out:[...] there is considerable commercial value in encouraging employees to become effective self-directed learners such that they can develop and pursue their learning goals and outcomes that contribute to competitiveness without the need for all learning to occur only when there is direct training by an instructor (p. 100).However, even current literature is rich in discussion of self-directed learning (SDL), the evidence that the development of SDL is not well supported in the workplace (Smith et al., 2007).In addition, current studies indicate that a number of organizations have implemented OL strategies (Chan and Ngai, 2008; Lee and Gandolfi, 2007; Chen et al., 2006; Chen and Holton, 2005; Pai, 2006), and have rolled out various professional training programs, SDL and KM programs with the goal of improving organizational performance (OP; Davenport et al., 1998; Gold et al., 2001; Kim and Kil, 2008; Reus and Liu, 2004; Hashim, 2008; Smith et al., 2007; Beitler and Mitlacher, 2007). However, improper strategic planning, insufficient organizational infrastructure and inappropriate diffusion processes may have decreased the value of learning as well as KM, which consequently disappoints employees. Therefore, establishing a systematic organizational structure and fostering an organizational culture which promotes active learning and information sharing are critical issues that should be the focus of all modern organizations (Wickramasinghe, 2007).This study intends to propose a model to investigate the relationships among SDL, OL, KM capability (KMC) and OP using structural equation modeling. The research participants are from 21 electronic industrial listed and over-the-counter listed technological companies that are located in the northern, central and southern parts of Taiwan. The study particularly targets at the middle and the top management personnel and explores their complete perception of the actual condition of SDL, OL, KM, and their effect on OP.\n2 Theoretical framework: This section reviews the literature to identify the relevant practices comprising SDL, OL, KMC and OP.2.1 Self-directed learning\n3 Research design: The research model is shown in Figure 1. The relevant hypotheses of the model and questionnaire design are presented below.3.1 The relationships between self-directed learning and other dimensions\n4 Analysis and result: 4.1 Sampling\n5 Discussion: The following discussion is based upon the results of the LISREL analysis (Figure 2). It is first noted that SDL has a positive direct influence on OL and KMC (H1-1 and H1-2 are supported) but has no direct influence on OP (H1-3 is not supported). However, SDL has an indirect influence on OP through OL (H1-1 and H2-2 are supported) and through KMC (H1-2 and H3 are supported).The results of the current study fail to support the findings of prior studies concerning the influence of SDL on OP (Kandarian, 2004; Janz, 1999; Harvey, 1991; Chen, 2005; Yu, 2002), since we found no direct influence of SDL on OP (i.e. H1-3 is not supported). However, based on the structure of our research model, which includes OL and KMC, the results seem to be reasonable. That is, the model suggests that organizations need to effectively and efficiently manage OL activities and leverage KMC by promoting or implementing an effective SDL system to enhance OP; since SDL can affect OP positively through OL and KMC (i.e. H2-2 and H3 are supported). Support for H1-1 concludes with the argument that SDL plays a pivotal role in facilitating OL, as proposed by many scholars (Maxwell, 1997; Jude-York, 1991; Lew, 2006; James-Gordon and Bal, 2003). It also shows that SDL positively affects KMC, which is supported by several studies, such as Dolezalek (2004), Chen (2005), Akerlind and Trevitt (1999) and Lim et al. (1999).From the perspective of OL, the study concludes that it has a positive effect on KMC and OP. Support for this conclusion can be found in many studies, such as Lee et al. (2008), Battor et al. (2008), Currie and Kerrin (2003), Zellmer-Bruhn and Gibson (2006), Hanvanich et al. (2006), Harvey et al. (2004), Sense (2007), Rhodes et al. (2008), Ruiz-Mercader et al. (2006), Theriou and Chatzoglou (2008), and Yang et al. (2007). Lastly, as with previous researches (Afiouni, 2007; Bogner and Bansal, 2007; Choi et al., 2008; Lee and Lee, 2007; Zhang et al., 2006) the results of this study support the finding that KMC has a positive affect on OP.\n6 Conclusion: Existing literature has consistently show that SDL among employees is a critical component in sustaining competitiveness of organizations since 1990s (Edwards, 1995; Calder and McCollumn, 1998; Robinson and Arthy, 1999). Smith et al. (2007) suggest that self-directedness of employees is worth pursuing by organizations which wish to achieve knowledge and skill development in a competitive fast changing industrial context. The study particularly targets at middle and top management personnel from electronic industrial listed and over-the-counter listed technological companies in Taiwan. The goal was to explore the condition of current SDL, OL, and KMC implementation, and their effect on OP. A theoretical model was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling. Similar models have been largely unexplored by prior researchers.The findings indicate that SDL can only indirectly impact OP though OL and/or KMC, although SDL still has marginal positive effects on OP. This implies that all SDL policies or activities should be constructed to facilitate the activities of OL and/or KMC; otherwise the positive effects on OP cannot be achieved from the policies or activities of SDL alone. Hence, in order to enhance a firm's OP, the executives should focus on promoting a healthy environment for SDL, as well as formulating effective OL and KMC polices and facilitate their implementation. For example, conditions need to exist in the organization for having the right learning environment, or learning climate as Pedler et al. (1997) point out, in which:* all employees are encouraged to learn and share what they have learned with other employees;* systems are established in areas of the organization that require learning;* learning is valued and rewarded in the organization; and* the organization continuously evolves itself with learning.In addition, the members of the organization should be given more control and responsibility over their everyday task, self-development and their job-related training to enhance their self-directedness in learning (James-Gordon and Bal, 2003). Therefore, it is imperative that members in the organization (especially middle managers and top managers) engage in OL and KMC activities to enhance OP. A proper culture which nurtures SDL is necessary to trigger the members of the organization to become self-directed learners (Garver, 1996; Jude-York, 1991) who have higher potential to participate in effective OL and KM activities (James-Gordon and Bal, 2003; Dolezalek, 2004), that result in adding value to the firm (Kandarian, 2004).Several results of this study support the findings of prior research, which proposed a positive relationship between SDL and OL, SDL and KMC, OL and KMC, and a positive influence of KMC and OL on OP. For example, the OL perspective is a critical issue in KM (Currie and Kerrin, 2003) and the interaction effects of action learning and grounded theory, two widely accepted research methods, can be used to discover and articulate new organizational knowledge (Pauleen et al., 2007). In addition, OL and KMC are direct sources for better strategic planning and OP (El-Korany, 2007; Zellmer-Bruhn and Gibson, 2006; Hanvanich et al., 2006; Ruiz-Mercader et al., 2006; Bogner and Bansal, 2007; Lee and Lee, 2007). This implies that the establishment of KMC and facilitation of OL by promoting a SDL system (or culture) should be a critical success factor for organizations. It is necessary to strengthen the members of the organization SDL capability or practice in order to facilitate the diffusion and implementation of OL and KMC which ultimately enhances OP.Even though the empirical results of this study largely support the current model, at least two limitations should be carefully considered. First, since individual informants provide the empirical data, possible biases or preferences (e.g. learning styles, communication methods, social preferences, etc.) may exist due to different personal experiences, family or educational backgrounds. Secondly, the data were collected in Taiwan; the characteristics of these firms surveyed may be quite different from those in other areas or countries. Hence, the present results should not be assumed to represent the general case. However, it may provide a fundamental reference for the firms located in other areas or countries whose environments are similar to those in Taiwan.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual structural equation model to investigate the relationships among self-directed learning (SDL), organizational learning (OL), knowledge management capability (KMC) and organizational performance (OP) and to demonstrate the direct and indirect effect of SDL on OP from the perspectives of KMC and OL.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An empirical study is conducted in 21 technological companies (N=236) in Taiwan and the collected survey data are used to test the relationships among the four dimensions expressed in the proposed structural equation model.\nFindings: - The results show that SDL has a direct and significant impact on OL and KMC. SDL influences OP indirectly through OL and KMC. In addition, OL and KMC have direct and significant influences on OP.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The source of data collected is Taiwan, hence, the results may not be easily generalized to other areas or countries. However, the findings are valuable for managers' reference, especially for those whose circumstances are similar to those in Taiwan.\nPractical implications: - The conceptual structural equation model provides useful information for managers to enhance OP through the adoption of appropriate SDL, OL and KMC strategies.\nOriginality/value: - The study demonstrates how SDL indirectly impacts OP and illustrates the paths of influence through either OL or KMC.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Corporate financial policy and the value of cash under uncertainty
|
[
"Cash holdings",
"Idiosyncratic uncertainty",
"Macro uncertainty",
"Marginal value of cash",
"Sources of uncertainty",
"G32",
"G34",
"D81"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent findings indicate that cash holdings of non-financial firms have dramatically increased. For example, Bates et al. (2009) report that the average cash-to-asset ratio for the US industrial firms was more than doubled between 1980 and 2006. Current disclosures points to a strengthening of this trend. Non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index were holding $1.12 trillion in cash and short-term investments in their most recent financial statements, up 59 percent from $703 billion in the third quarter of 2008 (Monga et al., 2011). While coping with future uncertainty is the most common explanation for accumulating such reserves, investors who can diversify these risks are questioning the value of these historically high cash reserves (Berman, 2011). Does an added dollar in cash reserves, even in uncertain times, increase firm value by one dollar? Does the valuation of cash reserves depend on the source of uncertainty faced by the firm? These are the primary questions we investigate in this paper.\n2. The effects of uncertainty on the costs and benefits of cash holdings: It is well known that some non-financial corporations hold significant amounts of cash equaling a considerable fraction of their annual turnover: in many cases, exceeding their indebtedness (Bates et al., 2009). An increasingly uncertain business environment, primarily due to globalization and technological change, is often cited as the primary reason for this spike in cash holdings. There is an extensive literature on the connection between uncertainty faced by the firm and the benefits of corporate cash holdings, going back to Keynes (1936). He suggests that a firm operating in an uncertain environment may benefit from accumulation of cash due to both the ability to deal with unanticipated contingencies (the precautionary motive) and access profit-making opportunities (the speculative motive).\n3. Modeling corporate financial policy: We test the hypothesis that the marginal effect of cash holdings on excess stock returns is sensitive to uncertainty. To compute this marginal effect, we adopt and extend the approach of Faulkender and Wang (2006) to our more elaborate model. Consider the baseline regression model of their Equation (9):(1)\n4. Empirical findings: Our empirical investigation begins with models estimated over the full sample that incorporate the unexpected change in cash holdings under two alternative definitions of that quantity. In column 1 of Table III, we consider that market participants' expectations of the change in cash holdings matched that realization: DC1, a specification generally comparable to that of Faulkender and Wang (2006), Table II (p. 1973). Our alternative definition, DC3 in their notation, considers the expected change in cash to be the average change in the benchmark portfolio (defined by firm size and market-to-book ratio) over the fiscal year, and is used in the model presented in column 3. In these specifications the marginal value of a dollar of cash for the median firm is $0.89-0.90, as presented at the foot of Table III, along with its estimated standard error. This is consistent with the earlier intuition that the market value of firms' cash holdings incorporates the extra taxes a firm pays for this buffer stock of cash.\n5. Conclusions: Our analysis considers how shareholders' evaluation of the marginal value of cash may be altered by the consideration of uncertainty facing the firm's managers. Our findings indicate that the source of uncertainty - firm-specific vs macroeconomic risk - matters, as the two sources of risk may have quite different effects on shareholders' valuation of a firm's cash holdings. These new findings are robust to alternative definitions of the unexpected change in cash. Our measures of risk also extend earlier work on this issue such as Baum et al. (2008). We explicitly account for the time-varying nature of volatility (or uncertainty) over time rather than categorizing firms into more-volatile and less-volatile categories. This allows us to extend the original hypothesis. The impact of these innovations can be best seen in Figures 1 and 2, where the effect of each measure of uncertainty is plotted against the marginal value of cash. Such an analysis is simply not possible in the original Faulkender and Wang framework.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on how firm-specific and macroeconomic uncertainty affects shareholders' valuation of a firm's cash holdings. This extends previous work on this issue by highlighting the importance of the source of uncertainty. The findings indicate that increases in firm-specific risk generally increase the value of cash while increases in macroeconomic risk generally decrease the value of cash. These findings are robust to alternative definitions of the unexpected change in cash. The authors extend the analysis to financially constrained and unconstrained firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors test the hypothesis that the marginal effect of cash holdings on excess stock returns is sensitive to uncertainty. To compute this marginal effect, the authors adopt and extend the approach of Faulkender and Wang (2006) to the authors' more elaborate model.\nFindings: The findings indicate that different sources of uncertainty affect the value of cash holdings differently. Findings indicate that increases in firm-specific risk generally increase the value of cash while increases in macroeconomic risk generally decrease the value of cash. These findings are robust to alternative definitions of the unexpected change in cash. The authors also extend the findings to financially constrained and unconstrained firms.\nOriginality/value: The findings indicate that the source of uncertainty firm-specific vs macroeconomic risk matters. The two sources of risk may have quite different effects on shareholders' valuation of a firm's cash holdings. Results from alternative sources of findings are new. These new findings are robust to alternative definitions of the unexpected change in cash.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supply chain adaptations for the base-of-the-pyramid business: towards a theoretical model
|
[
"Base of the pyramid",
"BoP",
"Multimethod",
"Supply chain adaptations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Eradicating poverty through profits can be a new source of competitive advantage, this was the central tenet of Prahalad and Hammond's (2002) proposal for businesses to tap into the market comprising 4bn people who live on $5 or less per day (Prahalad and Hart, 2002; Rangan et al., 2011). This market, known as the base of the pyramid (BoP), presents significant opportunities for organizations. Meanwhile, based on the sustainable development goals, eradicating poverty has been identified as the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainability. This underlines the business and moral case for the BoP business, as there is legitimate international urgency to act collaboratively to \"free the human race from the tyranny of poverty\" (UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, p. 1).\nMethodology: We use a multi-method approach (Morse, 2003) combining systematic literature review (SLR) and multiple (secondary) case studies. We studied recent debates on BoP SCM to develop our initial framework (see Figure 1). SC adaptations refer to SC design adjustments (Bendul et al., 2016; Bals and Tate, 2018) across physical (e.g. products/services) and support (e.g. financial, information) flows (Carter et al., 2015) that BoP initiators undertake in response to the specific consumer behaviors and operating environments (i.e. contextual drivers) at BoP (Kistruck et al., 2013; Parmigiani and Rivera-Santos, 2015; Carter et al., 2015). The impact of BoP initiators (Kolk et al., 2014; Fawcett and Waller, 2015) and contingency factors on BoP SC adaptations were also considered in our initial framework.\nDiscussion of findings: Through first and second cycle coding across the 48 papers selected in the SLR stage, and in light of our basic conceptual framework (see Figure 1), we identified the main categories and themes of BoP initiators, contextual drivers, SC adaptations, and contingency factors discussed in the literature. In this section, we discuss our findings.\nConclusion: At the heart of our motivation to undertake this study was contributing to an important debate in the literature centered on \"how to think, design, and deliver differently\" (Fawcett and Waller, 2015, p. 238) at the BoP. In this regard, we used a multi-method design to dissect BoP business cases related to various BoP initiators. Figure 3 encapsulates our findings in an integrative theoretical model that elaborates on configurations of BoP SC adaptations to shed light on \"how do BoP initiators adapt their SC for BoP business?\" We believe this significantly contributes to BoP SCM theory and practice, as explained next.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Research has not yet captured nor synthesized the supply chain (SC) adaptations exercised by various base of the pyramid (BoP) initiators for successful BoP business. This is a crucial shortcoming that the study has taken a step to address, with the aim of advancing theory in BoP supply chain management (SCM). The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors draw on Carter et al.'s (2015) theory of the SC and use a multi-method approach combining systematic literature review and embedded case studies based on the secondary data.\nFindings: The authors compare BoP SC adaptations of MNCs, local companies, NGOs, social enterprises and governments and develop propositions. The authors find that SC adaptations exercised by BoP initiators are influenced by their sense making of institutional and agency drivers at the BoP, and contingent on whether the poor are engaged as recipients or value co-creators.\nPractical implications: The authors develop a multi-initiator understanding of SC adaptations for BoP business. This is useful for BoP initiators who struggle to leverage their BoP business as well as for those who are considering entering the BoP. The authors offer these entities insights for aligning strategy and developing capabilities for BoP markets.\nOriginality/value: The authors develop an original model of BoP initiator-based configurations of SC adaptations for BoP business. As such, the authors contribute toward advancing BoP SCM theory and practice by mapping substantive concepts and their relationships associated with BoP SC adaptations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Adoption of information and communication technology: Impact of technology types, organization resources and management style
|
[
"Innovation",
"Communication technology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Recently, ICT has become a strategic asset which can help improve business processes and change the function of markets. Thus, it is necessary for organizations to continue their efforts in developing and implementing the up-to-date technology. Nevertheless, many organizations still hesitate to adopt new ICT and some even believe IT does not matter as a strategic resource because of its commoditization (Carr, 2003).The purpose of this study is to answer the following two questions:1. Why do some organizations adopt ICT later than others?2. Do organizations have different adoption strategies according to the type of ICT?To answer these research questions, we did the following: first we classified several factors that affect ICT adoption into three categories: corporate strategies, organization resources and management style. Then we investigated whether there were significant differences in these categories between early adoption organizations (EAOs) and late adoption organizations (LAOs). Second, we examined whether organizations, which have been using a certain type of ICT, influenced other organizations that were planning to adopt it. Third, we tried to find whether there are differences in the ICT adoption initiation time and evaluation periods between the two groups. Fourth, we tried to find the difference in ICT performance between EAOs and LAOs. We wanted to ascertain whether LAOs delayed the adoption of ICT on purpose or they delayed it due to organizational limitations. We believe the results of the study will provide useful guidelines in strategy development for managing ICT diffusion by organizations and IT vendors.\n2 Theoretical background: 2.1 Organizational factors for ICT adoption\n3 Research model and hypotheses: 3.1 Research model\n4 Research method: 4.1 Data collection\n5 Managerial implications for information technology management: There has been a long-time dispute regarding early adoptions and late adoptions. Some researchers insist early adoption is better for maximizing ICT effects while others do not (Swanson,1994; Grover et al., 1997). Early adopters may enjoy the advantages of early movers, and late movers can reduce the risk of the first movers and while enjoying the advantages of the fast followers. In this research, we found that the advantages of EAOs or LAOs are different according to ICT type, organization resources and management style. Furthermore, the critical factors for the early adopters and followers should be different; therefore, the strategies should be different. In detail, we found the following findings. First, the results of previous studies indicate that organizational slack is related to early ICT adoption (Singh, 1986; Hoffer and Alexander, 1992). However, in this research slack is related only weakly to Type I ICT and not related to Type II ICT. We believe this result is due to the fact that Type II ICT is less sensitive to the slack as the technology is related more to administration and the CEO is usually the final decision maker. Second, an interesting finding of this research is the relationship between CEOs and CIOs. The final decision maker is the CEO in most firms. However, CEOs usually accept the recommendations of CIOs concerning ICT adoption. The result for H4 and H5 indicate that CEOs tend to emphasize Type II ICT more, while CIOs emphasize Type I more. Based upon the finding above, we can infer the following facts. The critical factors deciding the adoption time is the management style such as CEO interest and CIO age and interest. We infer that \"top-down\" is more effective than \"bottom-up\" for ICT adoption. To adopt the ICT that are related to business administrative process innovation, the decision of the CEO is critical; however, for ICT that are related to the IS technological process innovation, the role of the CIO is critical. We believe the results of the study will provide useful guidelines in strategy development for managing ICT diffusion by organizations and IT vendors.\n6 Conclusion: The results of this study shed several interesting insights about ICT adoption by organizations. First, management style factors, such as the CEO's attitude toward and interest in ICT, ICT evaluation period and initial implementation time, and the CIO's age and attitude toward change are important to promote ICT adoption. However, organization resources are not related to ICT adoption, while the positive drive of the CEO and CIO, and supervision and control in the organization play a big part in the acceleration of ICT adoption.Second, contrary to personal adoption cases, organizations that are considering ICT adoption are not affected by organizations which have already adopted ICT. Slack resources are not strongly linked to early ICT adoption. In order to make ICT adoption occur earlier, the propulsive force of the CEO and CIO is essential. Promoting ICT adoption from the head office also reinforces formalization and centralization in the organization.Third, this study found ICT adoption of LAOs is not affected by imitation behavior. This result might be due to the fact that the effect and performance of RDB and LAN are well-known to many organizations. Lastly, this study found that ICT adoption factors are different according to the type of ICT. This finding provides important insights regarding the current ICT adoption and will contribute to the study of ICT innovation by examining the diffusion process while considering organization resources.This study has several limitations. First, RDB and LAN are not representative of all ICTs. For consistent and stable results, a future study must consider a full range of ICTs. Second, although substantial effects and significance levels were observed in this study, the sample size is relatively small. Replication of this study with additional organizations in the sample will allow stronger validation of diffusion theory.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to find out: why some organizations adopt ICT later than the others, and whether organizations have different adoption strategies based on the type of ICT.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is an empirical study of the ICT diffusion process between the early and late adopters of relational database and local area network.\nFindings: - The results of the study indicate that there are significant differences between early and late adoption organizations with regard to management characteristics such as the age and interests of the CEO and CIO, and also the adoption process such as the evaluation period and initiation time. However, no significant differences were found in organization resource or corporate strategy factors. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that there are significant differences in organizational characteristics such as sales volume, organization slack and rewards between the two types of ICT.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample size is relatively small. Replication of this study with additional organizations in the sample will allow stronger validation of diffusion theory.\nOriginality/value: - It is believed that the results of the study will provide useful guidelines in strategy development for managing ICT diffusion by organizations and IT vendors.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Emerging contractual and legal risks from the application of building information modelling
|
[
"Project management",
"Building information modelling",
"Construction management",
"Legal risks"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The scope of building information modelling (BIM) is evolving rapidly, and its full benefit realisation is expected to be attained with time. There has been an extensive research, investigating the usage of ICT technologies in the construction industry, including, global positioning systems (Kim and Teizer, 2014) and web-based project management systems (Arnold and Javernick-Will, 2013). The ICT studies revolved around exploring issues related to adoption strategies, success criteria and performance indicators. However, these technologies and traditional approaches were unable to handle the complexity and intensity of information flow between stakeholders, leading to a poor coordination and scope changes in projects (Doloi et al., 2012). Because of these changes, BIM technology has been put forward to simulate and analyse problems, trying to find solutions before initiating the actual implementation processes. Due to some of the ICT problems, BIM has received a considerable attention from construction industry stakeholders. According to Ding et al. (2015), the BIM approach is aiming at \"visualization of design, rapid generation of alternative design, building performance prediction, automatically monitoring the integrity of model and reports, providing a communication platform and promoting collaboration between design and construction professions\". Previous research on BIM adoption has focussed on the issues of the perception of stakeholders (Ding et al., 2015). The purpose of BIM is to add value to the construction industry, such as decreasing project cost, increasing quality productivity and reducing project implementation time. For example, Eastman et al. (2011, p. 544) stated that \"BIM represents a paradigm change that will have far-reaching benefits, not only for those in the building industry but for society at large, as better buildings are built that consume less energy and require less labour and capital resources\".\nTheoretical background: The phenomenon of adoption of technology and innovations has been studied for more than three decades. It is well understood in the literature that adoption is related to the decision to use an innovation or technology in terms of both product and processes (Rogers, 2010). Similarly, in the construction industry, it is attributed to the decision made to use new systems to implement in projects and organisations (Winch, 1998; Hosseini et al., 2015, 2016). Hosseini et al. (2015) pointed that BIM adoption is closely aligned with the innovation adoption process. Davies and Harty (2013) advanced the view that companies adopt BIM and implement it on their projects according to the innovation adoption process. Furthermore, BIM adoption in the academic literature has been considered as technology innovation. More importantly, Murphy (2014) postulated that innovation adoption process is the most effective approach for the acceptance of BIM in construction companies. Thus, the innovation adoption definitions advanced by Rogers, 2010; Hosseini et al., 2015, 2016; Winch 1998 are appropriate approaches for framing the emerging legal risks from BIM adoption in the constructor sector.\nMethod and processes: The questionnaire survey method was selected for data collection. It is considered that a survey method is an effective and preferred method for statistical data and opinion collection (Muijs, 2004). The research constructs and risk factors were extracted from the literature, as outlined in the previous section of the paper; these were converted into to risk statements and questions to collect the opinions of experts. Once the questions were developed, they were sent to experts to test their validity. Comments and suggestion from this process were used to modify the questions. Once the questionnaire was ethically approved by the university, the online survey was deployed.\nResults: analysis of the responses: Demographic profile of respondents\nDiscussion: A summary of the variance analysis is shown in Table VII. In general, the findings showed that there were no significant differences in the mean rating of the likelihood of the occurrence of BIM adoption risks among the respondents. This implies that there was a consensus about contractual risk factors emerging in the adoption of BIM.\nConclusion: The research has successfully investigated and documented the legal and contractual risks that might influence BIM application.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There has been a mounting interest in building information modelling (BIM) in the construction industry sector worldwide due to its perceived benefits. However, reliance on information technology is associated with risks. The purpose of this paper is to offer a better understanding of the emerging contractual and legal risks, which might influence the successful adoption of BIM, in order to facilitate the successful implementation of BIM in the construction industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The risks used in the study were documented from the literature, and primary data were collected by a questionnaire survey. The analysis of the results was driven by univariate and inferential statistics (Analysis of Variance) to identify the emerging contractual and legal risks.\nFindings: The findings showed that there were little significant differences in the mean rating of the occurrence of contractual and legal risks between the respondents. The study confirmed that emerging risks are likely to be related to BIM documentations, intellectual rights and liability, missing data and misplaced assumptions among project stakeholders. The results showed that BIM success depends on close collaboration, at the outset of the project, with the client, designers, contractors and consultants.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that contract documents and contract agreements may need to be created in accordance with the identified risks, so that the questions of contractual and legal responsibilities are appropriately defined and allocated among the participants.\nOriginality/value: Important legal and contractual risks have been identified in the application of BIM. It renders a new understanding of the risks that might influence the successful adoption of BIM.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The lure of simplicity: learning perspectives on innovation
|
[
"Innovation",
"Knowledge management",
"Learning organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organisational learning is important to organisations. Learning can lead to improved processes, new products and new services. Corporate survival frequently rests on the renewal of the organisation. Few corporate success cases today appear to be based on keeping products and services intact. In response, the field of innovation is as popular among scholars and practitioners as ever. However, not all companies manage to thrive on and be successful through innovation. In fact, one can assume that innovation is a difficult and complex organisational venue. In this paper, the aim is to identify obstacles to successful innovation: how come organisations fail in their attempt to be innovative? We believe a lot can be learned from understanding the premises under which organisations struggle and fail to be innovative.We apply an organisational learning and knowledge management perspective, because those theories (or groups of theories) generally are interested in outlining the processes organisations go through as they learn and change (Brown and Duguid, 1991; March, 1991). Vera and Crossan (2003, p. 123) define organisational learning as \"the process of change in individual and shared thought and action\" a definition with which we comply. The purpose is to identify and discuss obstacles to learning and innovation, and in so doing match the findings with existing theory in order to extend or develop theory about learning and innovation. Furthermore, the field of organisational learning lacks and would benefit, some argue, from empirical research (Simonin, 1997; Elkjaer, 2003).As will be discussed below, the literature on organisation learning and knowledge management appears to suggest that successful learning - and successful innovation - depend on three groups of factors: managing knowledge itself (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Nonaka, 1994; Grant, 1996; Szulanski, 1996; Simonin, 1999; McGrath, 2001), managing the organisational context (Argyris, 1976; Brown and Duguid, 1991; March, 1991; McGrath, 2001), and managing and responding to institutional factors such as norms and values of the organisation and environment (Fiol and Lyles, 1985; Huber, 1991). While the first group of factors, managing knowledge, has been well recognised and thoroughly discussed in numerous texts, the other two have received significantly less attention, particularly so institutional factors. And so, in this paper we are particularly focused on these two groups of factors. In short, this paper uses organisation learning and knowledge management theory to increase the understanding of how factors such as the organisational context and institutional forces can inhibit innovation.This paper reports the findings from a qualitative study into the ways that organisational learning and innovation is managed in a multinational paper packaging company, SCA Packaging (SCAP), a business unit in the Swedish forestry-multinational SCA (Svenska Cellulosa-Aktiebolaget). SCAP is a world leader in corrugated paper packaging and has been a separate business unit for 15 years. SCAP constantly struggles with the direction of strategic investments and while they are very strong in their core business - making corrugated paper boxes - they have been less successful at developing complementary products and services.The paper is structured as follows: first, we discuss theories about organisational learning and knowledge management to provide a framework for the study. Second, we describe the method applied. Subsequently, follows an empirical account, which is followed by discussion and conclusions.\nTheory: Several groups of theories are concerned with the organisational context and institutional forces related to learning. This study draws on organisational learning, knowledge management and strategy theory.Organisational learning\nMethod: This is an exploratory case study (Miles, 1979; Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003), based on a theoretical framework, with the ambition to expand or develop theory on the factors behind organisational learning, knowledge management and innovation. We follow Yin's \"pattern-matching\" approach, where empirical findings are matched with theory in order to improve it or at least provide empirical insight into the limitations of theory. It is a one case study, and so we make no claims to statistical generalisation but to analytical generalisation (Yin, 2003), meaning precisely the detailed discussion about case peculiarities in relation to existing wisdom - the logic being that an observation cannot be dismissed just because it is only one.The case\nEmpirical interpretations: The presentation of the empirical findings is based on the theoretical categories organisational context and institutional factors, as outlined in the theoretic framework (Table I). A case study like this runs the risk of being extremely rich in content. In consequence, under each theory category we have the highlighted the aspects most important to understanding this particular case and to discussing the theory framework. Initially, it is important to state that SCAP has not focused on innovation over the last years, but it is becoming more important. SCAP produce fewer patents than their competitors (interesting if one believes patents are a good proxy for innovativeness). Secondly, SCAP overall growth has been based on acquisitions. In fact, units within the organisation have declined in terms of sales turnover over the last five years. Thirdly, SCAP managers unanimously believe the company is not innovative enough given strategic ambitions.Organisational context\nDiscussion: In this section, we shall discuss the observations listed above in relation to theory on learning and knowledge management, the objective being to match empirical patterns with the theoretical pattern (Yin, 2003). Because much of the literature on organisational learning and knowledge management rests on factors directly related to knowledge, we said originally that the focus of this research was to increase the understanding of organisational and institutional factors behind innovation. Although knowledge-related explanations seem relevant in understanding the inability to innovate within SCAP, it is equally clear that both organisational context and institutional factors must complement the picture. This is necessary in two ways: firstly, as parallel explanations, but also as explanations prerequisite to knowledge-related factors in the first place.Organisational context\nConclusions: The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of what hampers or drives learning and innovation, specially focusing on organisational context and institutional factors. We have taken in theory from organisational learning, knowledge management and strategy theory, and reported the features and characteristics of SCAP in light of those theories. In conclusion, we claim that learning and innovation depend strongly on both the organisational context and internal and external institutional forces. Our observations make us underline the role of institutional forces as a root cause affecting both organisational context and the knowledge-related factors behind learning. In literature, little emphasis has been put on institutional forces, and it is noteworthy that while strategy scholars have quickly adopted cognitive theories, such as Polanyi's (1966) and the organisational learning field, they have neglected the role of norms and values and incentives.This is a case study of one organisation and so we cannot generalise findings statistically. However, the observations allow us to discuss the theory field. And so, we assume that future research will focus also on institutional forces, meaning neo-institutional theory will play a more significant role. We also believe the intricate matter of such factors will to a higher extent require in-depth case studies. Furthermore, we believe empirical research should be emphasised within the field, given the criticism that the field only includes a limited amount of empirical research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss obstacles to innovation, by using organisational learning and knowledge management theory. The logic behind this purpose is that understanding obstacles enhances our understanding of what may drive innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - While organisational learning and knowledge management tend to focus on cognitive factors this paper focuses on contextual factors such as organisational structure and institutional factors. The method applied follows the case study approach, where a theoretic frame of reference is studied in a one case setting and findings are generalised by means of so-called analytical generalisation. A total of 86 managers and employees were interviewed in one large multinational corporation within the paper packaging sector, to unveil their experience from specific attempts at being innovative and from the general climate of innovation within the company.\nFindings: - The empirical findings support that understanding the significance of the organisational context, particularly the structure and control of the line organisation, the interface between the line and the R&D organisation, the availability of slack resources, and the presence of an effective capital application procedure, is important. They also suggest that institutional forces at the market, corporation and individual level are interdependent and impact the propensity to innovate. Findings indicate that understanding innovation requires understanding the roles of institutional forces and organisational context - not just cognitive explanations.\nOriginality/value: - In that respect, the originality of the paper lies in its addressing these factors not just as prerequisites to cognitive issues but as parallel explanatory factors behind innovation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Over the worst or at the eye of the storm?
|
[
"Learning",
"Adult education",
"E‐learning",
"Wales"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Being in higher education (HE) often feels like being in a maelstrom. There are disruptions that have both positive and negative impacts. Disruption is defined in a number of ways. It can be perceived as something unwelcome or unexpected and it can impede progress and development. However disruption, can also have positive outcomes. Watson (2001) states that information communication technologies (ICT) are often seen as a \"catalyst for change\", that impact on teaching style and learning approaches. Bonk (2004) describes emerging educational technology, enormous learner demands, enhanced pedagogical understandings and extensive cut back in funding combined as \"the perfect storm\" that has propelled colleges and universities into a situation that requires quick and innovative adjustments in learning and teaching to ride the storm out. While many colleges and universities are still being caught in this \"perfect storm\", the case study university in this paper has already weathered a number of storms and learnt first hand the disruption e-learning has created in HE over the past few years.The University of Glamorgan (UoG) undertook a large-scale collaborative e-learning project, E-College Wales (ECW), during, 2001-2005. The project was one of the first and largest e-learning projects in Europe. When the project started in 2001, the project team knew that the University was heading into a storm. However, like a city who thought it was prepared for a storm, the University was still caught off guard in a number of ways. The primary aim of the paper is to understand the impact of e-learning and blended learning and capture the reflections of all the stakeholders who have weathered the technology induced storms.The ECW \"storm\" was ridden out and this project ended in 2005. Using the lessons learnt the University decided to embark on a three-year institution wide project to embed blended learning across the University and its partner Further Education Colleges (FEC). What type of storm would this create? The movement from an e-intensive project to developing an on-campus blended learning strategy and implementation plan could be seen by some such as Pedersen (2002) as moving \"backwards\" in technology. With the emergence of new technologies (such as the new web 2.0 technology i.e. social networking software, blogs and pods etc) and the opportunity to incorporate these in blended learning, we would argue is not a move \"backwards\".The paper is of significant value to others still battling with the e-learning storms as it has had to contend with a number of them. The ECW project considers the disruptive effect on a learning organisation from student, staff and management perspectives. Taking the lessons learnt from this e-intensive project, the paper will focus on the development and implementation of a blended learning strategy during the first year. It reports on progress to date and judges the potential disruption endemic in such a development.The University's move from e-learning to blended learning represents a unique case study that will provide lessons learnt for higher education institutions (HEIs) in responding to the disruptions created by e-learning. Is blended learning creating a new stability after change (hence the idea of \"over the worst\" in the title of this paper), or is it placing the University in the eye of the storm, a still small moment within an ongoing change process?\n2. Methodology and data collection: The project is a longitudinal study and uses a case study approach. It considers data collected from the ECW project and the University Blended learning project. Most of the research team worked on both projects. A series of planned evaluations both quantitative and qualitative data was obtained (see Tables I and II). The research was carried out in a spirit of \"collaborative inquiry\" (Heron, 1996) focusing on learning based in dialogue (Freire and Sor, 1987). This approach allowed the researchers and stakeholders to enter into an exchange of knowledge through dialogue, involving a process of reflection and action for all parties. Niglas (2004) in an evaluation of the combined use of qualitative and quantitative methods in educational research concluded that combined designs enrich the methodology of educational research. This was certainly the case in this research.2.1 ECW project - data collection methods and sampling\n3. Discussion: weathering the storms: The discussion explores factors that created the storms in both projects and the disruptions caused.3.1 Disruption to institutional culture\n4. Conclusion: \"over the worst or at the eye of the storm?\": Storms are unavoidable but learning to recognise, manage and harness them is possible. The ECW project and Blended Learning project generated challenges that forced us to look at the most effective ways to engage staff and students in a changing learning and teaching environment. According to Christensen (2000) disruptive technology is new whilst sustaining technology involves incremental improvements to existing adaptation. As discussed in the above arguments, this project has moved from a primarily disruptive environment to a blended environment that seeks to embrace disruptive and sustaining technology where appropriate. It may be a disrupting and destructive storm if the \"e\" or technology is the only focus and sole agent for change. We would argue that the sustaining and constructive way of transforming learning and teaching is through blended learning, not e-learning alone.The overall conclusion from Christensen's (2000) analysis is that it is extremely difficult for established organisations to adopt and embrace disruptive technologies. A small number of organisations manage it, but a much larger number fail in the attempt. In our research hitherto, we concur with the conclusions of Connolly et al. (2006, p. 47):If e-learning is a disruptive technology, then the next two decades will require a dramatic restructuring of HE. We would prefer to see a planned transition in which universities planned to learn how to implement e-learning, than to wait for universities to be put out of business by new organisations that have been quicker to understand what e-learning can be used for.This paper recognises Glamorgan's experience to provide insights which can be compared and contrasted with the experiences in other institutions to inform others who are attempting this development. This longitudinal study captures a journey that started in 2001 and reports on the way in which a blended learning strategy challenges the academics, students, management and culture of universities.Blended learning does make a difference to the learning and teaching experience, how big a difference will be continually evaluated. Watch this space, as we decide whether we are truly over the worst or still at the eye of the storm.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - Using the analogy of e-learning as \"the perfect storm\", the aim of this paper is to explore the disruptive nature of e-learning in higher education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Taking a case study of a university, the paper explores the movement from an e-intensive approach to e-learning into an on-campus blended learning approach. What are the lessons for higher education and how responsive are we to the new challenges. Is blended learning creating a new stability after change, or is it placing the university in the eye of the storm, a still small moment within an ongoing change process?\nFindings: - The paper presents findings from the E-College Wales (ECW) project, looking at the disruptive effect on such a learning organisation from student, staff and management perspectives. It concludes by moving the focus from the e-intensive ECW project to focus on the developments during the first year of a blended learning project and the disruption endemic in such a development\nOriginality/value: - The paper will be of special interest to the blended learning policy maker, practitioners and educators. It includes a journey of a case study concerning blended learning.\n",
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] |
Foreign retailers in China: the first ten years
|
[
"Retail internationalisation",
"Expansion strategies",
"Post‐entry",
"Localisation",
"Emerging markets",
"China"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Studying the experience of foreign retailers in the Chinese market during the period of its transition to a more open economy provides a deeper understanding of the retail internationalization process. It can help managers of retail firms to better understand how to be successful in China and other emerging economies. China's economy has been growing rapidly since 1978 when it began its move from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. With retail sales growth of about 13 percent per year, China became a most attractive target market for global retailers by 2005. By the end of 2005, over 300 foreign retailers had entered China to look for expansion opportunities as the restrictions were reduced and the Chinese economy grew. Box 1 summarizes the regulatory changes in China since the country opened its retail market.By 2006, most of the major foreign-invested retail chains were operating in China. The growth and dynamics in the Chinese market provide a unique opportunity to better understand the retail internationalization process. There are five stages in this process, including pre-entry, entry, post-entry, assimilation and exit (Dawson and Mukoyama, 2006). Each of the different stages is characterized by different activities of the firm. The relationships between the stages of the process and the various forms of the process of retail internationalization are shown in Table I.Previous research has focused on pre-entry and entry stages of retail internationalization. Little has focused on post-entry internationalization of retailers. Foreign retailers entered China from the early 1990s and they are now at the post-entry stage of internationalization. Post-entry stage refers to the next stage after a retailer has completed its pre-entry and entry stages in a foreign market, when the retailer starts to expand in the host market, signaled by greater rate of expansion (Dawson and Mukoyama, 2006), when the first moves are made to open the second or more outlets in another location.This paper aims to explain the factors that influence foreign retailers' expansion in China from one region to another in the first ten years of operation. Based on empirical research, the findings of this study indicate that foreign retailers apply six key strategies to expand in China: adaptation to the external environment, responses to psychic distance, establishment of business networking, localization, entry strategies into new regions and the application of local management team. The paper offers an exploratory framework, which presents the findings and articulates the interdependent relationships of various factors that influence retailer expansion in China. It helps managers of retail firms to better understand how to be successful in an emerging market.\nThe spatial and temporal scope of the paper: There are four significant phases of changes of government policies that influence the expansion process of foreign retailers in China (Wang et al., 2007). During the first phase, from 1992 to 1994, foreign retailers passed through an \"experimental\" period. The Chinese State Council opened China's retail market to stimulate the development of tertiary industry. However, only six large cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Dalian and Qingdao) and five Special Economic Zones (Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen and Hainan) were opened to foreign retailers, and each of those cities was permitted to have only one or two foreign retail firm(s), which had to be operated in joint ventures (JVs), with less than 50 percent of stakes held by foreign parties. Wholesaling was prohibited. Foreign retailers started to enter China, and the majority of them were from Southeast Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. The second phase, from 1995 to 1998, was the \"preliminary\" phase. In October 1995, the Chinese government took further step to open the retail sector. Beijing authorized foreign retailers to operate retail chains instead of opening single-store only. A partnership with Chinese retailers was required and the law specified the Chinese partner had to hold a majority of the shares. During this period - the period of particular interest for this research (beginning in 1995), foreign retailers from Western Europe and the US began to enter China.The third phase was the \"development and adaptation\" phase, lasting from 1999 to 2000. In June 1999, the Chinese central government further liberalized the retail market. Retail firms were allowed to develop their businesses in all provincial capitals, capitals of autonomous regions, and municipalities as well as the Special Economic Zones. Joint Sino-foreign retailers were also allowed for the first time to enter wholesale operations. Majority foreign ownership of up to 65 percent became legal for the joint-retail chains giving them the potential to purchase large quantities of \"made-in-China\" products and export them to other countries around the world. In April 2000, the Chinese central government decided to reduce or even allow the waiver of land transfer fees or land usage fees under specific circumstances. During this period, foreign retailers were not only developing and adapting in the Chinese market, but they started to develop more appropriate strategies for further expansion in China.Phase four started from 2001 onwards when China joined the WTO. During this period, foreign retailers began a phase of aggressive expansion in China encouraged by an increasingly open business environment. All the restrictions on foreign ownership and the number of branches that could be opened by foreign retailers were lifted by the end of 2004. Foreign retailers benefited from preferential treatment and faced fewer obstacles when operating in China.The focus of this paper on the period between 1995 and 2005 allows the author to analyse important expansion activities of foreign retailers from their entry into China to one year after all restrictions were removed.China is a vast country in which the various regions have distinctive characteristics. The huge scale of the country and the cultural differences between China's various regions make it more appropriate to view the country as a collection of markets. Studying the expansion of foreign retailers in China provides insight into some important factors influencing international retailer expansion.\nTerminologies used in this paper: Retailer in this study refers to multiple-product retailers, whose formats include hypermarket, supermarket, discount department store, Cash and Carry Warehouse retail store, membership stores and department stores. These formats represent the main foreign retail formats operating in China. Foreign retailers refer to non-Chinese retailers from developed economies, most frequently those from North America, Europe and developed Asian countries such as Japan. Expansion process refers to one of the growth activities at the retail firms' post-entry stage in a foreign market. Post-entry stage refers to the next stage after a retailer has completed its pre-entry and entry stages in a foreign market, when the firm starts to expand in the host market (Dawson and Mukoyama, 2006).\nFactors influencing retail internationalization: Previous studies have examined various issues in the retail internationalization process, mainly focusing on the motives behind retail internationalization, market selection, entry modes, retail management considerations as well as the importance of location.Location has been identified as a key factor in retailing, and selecting location involves choice of markets (Eren-Erdogmus et al., 2010). The important considerations influencing initial market selection include cultural proximity, geographical proximity, and the stage of development of retailing (Burt, 1993). Retailers consider political, economic, social and cultural issues for location choices (Sternquist, 1998), as well as entry mode selection (Erramilli, 1991). Moreover, customer characteristics, accessibility, competition, prestige and cost have been found to be important factors in selecting store locations (Pederzoli, 2006). Retailers tend to expand into geographically proximate markets in part because of benefits of proximity for distribution. The logic is the same for international expansion within one state into geographically proximate regions. For a big nation, geographically close regional markets are more likely have similar cultures (Alexander, 1997). This is relevant to our study, which aims to analyze how retailers expand in a large collection of markets in a single country.Push and pull factors are key influences on internationalization (Treadgold, 1990). Push factors refer to unfavorable home country characteristics such as restrictive regulations, competitive pressure, low economic status, an unstable political situation and/or limited resources that push firms to internationalize. In such a situation, firms tend to take reactive approach to internationalization. Pull factors refer to favorable host country characteristics such as reduced regulation, high growth potential, rapid economic development, a stable political regime and/or support that attract firms to enter and expand in a particular market. In this type of situation, firms tend to take a more proactive approach to internationalize into a new international market or expand in an existing international market. Foreign retailers' expansion inside the Chinese market has been influenced by both push factors and pull factors. On the one hand, competitive pressures in the existing regions have pushed retailers to expand; on the other hand, potential growth in other regions has attracted foreign retailers' expansion.Firm's characteristics have been frequently mentioned in the internationalization process. These mainly refer to firms' resource commitment, competitive advantages (Vida and Fairhurst, 1998), and international experience (Evans et al., 2000). Decision-makers' characteristics directly influence firm internationalization. Decision-makers' perception and attitudes, behavior, knowledge (Vida and Fairhurst), educational background (Leonidou et al., 1998), work experience and experience in the host market (O'Grady and Lane, 1996), and leadership (Alexander and Myers, 2000) have been found to be key drivers for internationalization.The concept of psychic distance has also been developed in recent studies of firm internationalization. Psychic distance is defined as \"the distance between the home market and foreign market resulting from the perception and understanding of cultural and business difference\" (Evans et al., 2000, p. 377). The perception and understanding of cultural and business differences between home markets and foreign markets are influential for firms' performance, according to Evans et al. (2000). Psychic distance is linked to cultural distance (Hofstede, 1983; Lindsay et al., 2003) and business distance (Dupuis and Prime, 1996). The existence of psychic distance between home and host country does not necessary lead to poor performance, but perceived psychic distance is crucial. That is, perceived similarity between home and host countries may lead to poor operating performance and perceived greater psychic distance may contribute to better performance, as seen, for example, in Carrefour's failure in the USA and success in Taiwan (O'Grady and Lane, 1996). Thus, the responses to psychic distance are significant for foreign retailers' performance in the Chinese market (Siebers, 2011). In this regard, organizational change, leadership and innovative ideas may play important roles in retail internationalization. This is directly related to the learning experiences from retail operations, which differ strategically from one firm to another. During the learning process, psychic distance might be reduced and retailers become more localized. Multinational retailers learn more than global ones (Sternquist, 1998). There is clearly a temporal dimension in foreign retailers' corporate learning activities (Currah and Wrigley, 2004). The different stages of learning process can influence the process of internationalization.In summary, the literature on the retail internationalization process has covered four significant determinants: location, push and pull factors, the firm's characteristics and psychic distance. Previous studies placed emphasis on the factors related to the causes and consequences of international retailing activities. However, the interdependent nature of various factors needs to be better understood, with particular reference to an emerging market. This paper identifies the factors that influence the retail internationalization process in emerging markets and the relationships between these factors, using the example of China.\nMethodology and data: Choice of method\nExpansion strategies of foreign retailers in China: From the data analysis, four key factors that influenced foreign retailers' expansion in the Chinese market have been identified: adaptation to the external environment, responses to psychic distance, establishment of business networking and localization.Adaptation to the external environment\nProposed framework and conclusion: The foregoing case studies of foreign retailers in the Chinese market during the first ten years China's policies changes in the retail sector between 1995 and 2005 prompt a reflection on the factors that drive retail expansion in an emerging economy, characterized by a combination of rapid, profound changing business environment and political stability (Sun et al., 2010). The chosen cases provide the evidence that some foreign retailers expanded more rapidly than the others and provide insight into the reasons for the differences in performance of different retailers. The more successful companies are characterized by their choice of a more flexible management style and have richer international experience. The less successful ones are characterized by adopting more conservative management style and having less international experience. In this context, foreign retailers' response to psychic distance is the key of retail internationalization. The factors identified in this paper and their relationships provide a comprehensive framework as basis for future investigation. Figure 1 presents a proposed framework that articulates the relationships of various factors influencing retailer expansion in China. The major contributions of this research are indicated by bullet points in the framework.Psychic distance is the starting point of the framework. The responses of foreign retailers' culture and management styles to psychic distance help to facilitate their internal drivers and further improve their interpretation to the external environment. This interpretation helps foreign retailers to develop better expansion strategies. During this process, the local management team plays a significant role in shaping foreign retailers' management style and leadership to handle the external environment. This expansion process will influence foreign retailers' internationalization process and further their performance. Such performance will in turn have impact on their internal drivers through the learning experience. This will further help to reduce psychic distance and improve their strategic responses to the external environment.This framework offers new insights into what factors influence foreign retailers' expansion into a host emerging market and the strategies for that influence the pace of their growth. Understanding the interdependent relationships of these factors is crucial for success in international retailing. This study advances knowledge of some of the characteristics in firm internationalization. It provides an indispensible link between previous research that focuses on the pre-entry and entry stage of retailer internationalization and the future research which may focus on retailers' performance. This improved theoretical foundation provides a good basis for future research on the process of firm internationalization in general.The limitations of study call for more future research topics. First, the cases chosen are mainly from large food grocery retailers. Retailers from other business and formats may provide more insight. Second, this study focuses on China's market only. More country studies may bring more emerging themes on the retail internationalization process. Third, similar studies outside the retail industry may add value onto better understanding of the process post-entry internationalization.\n",
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{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the important factors that influence foreign retailers' expansion in China. By doing so the paper proposes business strategies for foreign retailers to be successful in China and other emerging economies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A case study approach is employed to build theory. Five case studies were chosen, including the world's four largest retail firms: Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Metro and Tesco, as well as the Japanese department store Heivado.\nFindings: - The paper identifies six important activities in successful retail expansion: adaptation to the external environment; responses to psychic distance; establishment of business networking; localization; entry strategies into new areas; and the role of local management team. A new framework articulates the interdependent relationships between various factors embedded in retail internationalization, including external environment, internal drivers, psychic distance, and expansion strategies.\nPractical implications: - The findings provide directions to managers of international retail firms on how to expand successfully in an emerging market.\nOriginality/value: - This paper offers an exploratory framework on post-entry expansion, which provides an indispensable link between previous research on pre-entry and entry stages of retailer expansion and future research on foreign retailers' performance.\n",
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Interim reflections on the corporate university and SME academy business development innovation and its diffusion
|
[
"Corporate universities",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"Human resource management",
"Lifelong learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nECUANET project overview: This article describes the emergence of the corporate university concept and practice in a professional an innovative diffusion process for managing lifelong education, training and work-based learning. It describes how European Leonardo Da Vinci funding has been combined with core partners' funding to carry out action research into performance differences in corporate universities and academies in Europe with reference to other international developments.Project structure\nViews from the project's observatory: The corporate universities and enterprise academies people and organisation development platforms have had a mixed reception in Europe, however, in countries around the world its value is increasingly being recognised as a powerful engine for energising high quality work inspired new learning and also for underpinning the credibility of a company as an employer of first choice to be enjoyed by ambitious and talented people at all levels.The US has led the theoretical and practice development charge for more than 50 years and now China and India are showing rapid growth with ASEAN countries also moving ahead. The European corporate university knowledge market position presents a very mixed picture and is largely driven by the presence of multi-national companies and the member states governments drive to support SME academy style developments.The demand for quality in the innovation and management of new knowledge and its effective reuse is not only present in the high-tech and science and technology spheres but is being recognised as the key to competitiveness in every aspect and function of organisation, for example: in marketing, manufacturing, logistics, education, corporate communications, and matrix skills gap closure, in particular.The corporate university is not a stereotype style management model that can be an adjunct on the side of an organisation as for success it is now known that its role and purpose should become an essential part of the business psyche and culture. It requires customised if not unique solutions in every application situation and as a strategically driven entity it must have freedom of expression and a mandate to keep on re-inventing itself in response to changing organisation and business priorities. Such significant changes are not to be achieved with simplistic or naive cookie cutter techniques but demand multi-disciplinary thinking and experience. Detailed knowledge of the subject's innovative potential combined with detailed strategic and tactical planning about where to start and where it will continue to build and contribute to increases in organisational capability and business profitability are necessary precursors.The potential of the concept is defined by the growing number of it's derivatives in the corporate sector and also in the very creative SME sectors with new highly energised multi enterprise collaborative academy structures producing outcomes that were never achieved by the cluster concept.From this overarching view of the state-of-the-concept and its applications we can move on to look at the project feedback to-date on the variables contributing to:* the positive evolution of the concept - innovation theory and practice; and* obfuscation in corporate university design and management.The following responses to invitations to become case study partners in the project provide insights into attitude and importance given to the different aspects of the subject area:1. Factors contributing to the positive evolution of the concept:* The private and public business sectors awakening to the practical value of knowledge innovation and the evolution of management platforms for creating intrinsic knowledge capital.* A new dawning emerges on the need for powerful innovations in life long learning strategic management processes.* Realisation that knowledge innovation provides the basis of competitive edge.* Enterprise based browser toolkit architectures for effective and efficient multi disciplinary learning process management become more comprehensive and reliable.* Work based stretch assignment learning for progressive development brings the employer and employee together promoting a vision and arena of mutual common endeavour.* High quality strategic new learning and knowledge reuse is becoming the recognised pathway to realising the vision of top management.* Networked corporate university derivatives re multi-enterprise collaboration in the form of SME academies and collegiate structures, open up possibilities for new more pro-active management.* More visible connections are in evidence between value adding learning investments and earning opportunities for employers and employees.* The possibility of access to quality global knowledge in corporate university and enterprise academy process and management best practice helps to mitigate risk.* Provides an opportunity to review and align strategic learning processes and systems.1. Factors contributing to a state of concept and practice obfuscation:* Re general observations:- Naming issues - The term \"corporate university\" whilst being acceptable and preferable in some countries is rejected in others in favour of specific business sector or purpose oriented names.- HR function perspectives - there is ambiguity about its role and the innovation is often seen as a threat.- The contemporary history of the subject in Europe due to over simplification engenders feelings of risk of failure.- Language and culture - the not invented here syndrome.- Inertia of embedded structures - lack of knowledge about the corporate university and enterprise academy as a business development concept.- Disputes about who should own and lead this development?- Traditional mindsets encumbered by traditional intellectual styles and practices that are largely dominated by one-way knowledge transfer processes.1. Re direct participation in the ECUANET project:- Envisaged high internal cost of project participation in addition to matching funding.- Competition for the allocation of funds and future investment needs - where does funding come from.- Interest only in project best practice outcomes - not research oriented.- Poor state of organisation readiness for the innovation.- Already engaged in other EC projects.- The project window/timeframe is not synchronous with established developmental plans.\nDeveloping a perspective on the future rate of adoption: These observations have led us to consider the whereabouts or positioning on the \"innovation adoption curve\" of the corporate university concept and practice i.e. where it is currently landed.Looking at three different adoption curve models we can envisage the probability that there are indicators in these schematics that may apply and be useful in managing the ECUANET project experience, further research beyond the current project that will help to position more precisely where it is on the evolutionary curve in different national and regional areas. Briefly the three reference models we are currently making comparisons with are:1. Everett Roger's s-shaped innovation adoption curve has five dimensions - originally built around science and technology innovation acceptance dynamics - shows a increasing evolutionary sequence of segmented market sector acceptance characterised by how individuals respond to innovation and are denoted by the following communities or groups of people: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. This model also shows the related commensurate training and development curve that is needed to bring about the realisation of the innovation through these supporting parallel evolutions.2. Somekh's model of innovation illustrates six distinct step phases of innovation transition:* Orientation. Acquiring information about the innovation.* Preparation. Analysing and evaluating benefits.* Routine. Pilot implementation and more widespread disseminations.* Refinement. Application experience leads to refinement and extension of capability.* Integration. The innovation becomes an accepted and systemic part of organisation practice.* Creative integration. Looks to greater variety in development.1. Tuckman's stages of innovation applies more-so to team development behaviours but is a recommended dynamic of innovation adoption and diffusion for consideration in the management of education in the context of the learning organisation, the four principal events are described as:* Group or team forming. The innovation is introduced to a trial group for testing and evaluation.* Storming. Discourse takes place and different views and perspectives are articulated and examined by the wider group or organisation.* Norming. The innovation is accepted or rejected by the majority* Performing. The innovation is used and developed successfully in many activities.Not surprisingly all three of these models of innovation adoption and diffusion have common strands between them and also refer to a further stage where the efficacy of the overall innovation management learning process is retrospectively reviewed.The interesting feature in each of these cases is what we call the innovation adoption adaptation dynamic. In a more comprehensive model we consider the coefficients that define the nature of the innovation itself whether it is fixed and inflexible and how far, and when, and whether, the innovation diffusion curve can adapt and proliferate to meet different market and customer dynamics, i.e. is it capable of marginal change or total flexibility, is it protected by intellectual property rights etc?Time frames are also important. Is the adoption diffusion curve 5, 10 or 15 years in length in each situation? What are the timescale expectations for accumulative growth in its customised applications? It took more than ten years for one of the greatest innovations in healthcare to get to the early adopters stage - this illustrative case is penicillin. In other predictions the rate of growth in the application of the corporate university as an innovative business development platform put the scenario forward that they will exceed academic universities in numbers by the year 2010.The early adopters reduce the uncertainty and risk for the later adopters is an assumption in most of these models but this depends upon the quality of the diffusion methodology employed. Knowing the essential characteristics of the corporate university innovation and its process of materialisation is essential and we have observed that me-too-ism and copycat applications have not succeeded in the past.Our project experience of the global free market in knowledge is leading us to believe that the whole area of development dynamics in wealth creation through corporate knowledge and personal capital is accelerating. Those organisations who can professionally manage the innovative corporate university processes that inspire people into engendering business led innovations and squeeze the maximum benefits from them are likely to be those that will prove to be the exciting employers and growth investments for the future.\nMoving towards best practice recommendations: The intensification of organic business development and its growing dependency on the speed at which relevant quality learning can take place and the pace at which its organisational sharing and re-use can take place, places new demands on the management who charged with delivering this highly dynamic environment. The question is who are, or will be, the people who have the necessary corporate university management qualities and are best able to do this?The project research so far shows that with few exceptions the HR functions are reticent to breakout of their traditional mould and move into the multi-disciplinary engaged code of conduct that is inherent in this more innovative and holistic style of management.We have seen that it requires a team of people with a unique blend of transferable management skill-sets in organisational capability development, communication and information technology systems and content and business acumen, who can mobilise and coordinate the specialist and functional resources to provide the learning infrastructure, opportunities and evaluative systems that will simultaneously satisfy the ambitions of both the employer and the employee. The outcome objective being to create a vibrant and cohesive learning-to-earning culture based upon a good understanding of mutual interdependency.The ECUANET project would have been even more satisfying had the exogenous structural factors in the wider business environment been more facilitating to the essential transformations that are taking place in the innovation management and administration of organisational learning in the context of short term doing-business-today opportunistic learning events and more especially in the context of the lifelong learning lifestyle curriculum. The problem is largely summed-up by a comment from a Minister of one of the Europe's member states when making a statement about the nature of the challenges facing conventional wisdom and thinking, policy formation, provision and action, in creating wealth through knowledge - the comment ran as follows:In many countries the ability of industry and commerce to adjust to the new much more competitive environment is curtailed by inadequate institutions and lack of know-how about how to achieve that transition. There is an urgent need for a fundamental reorientation of structure and practices by companies, departments and institutions so that they become more aligned and responsive to the knowledge innovation driven market place dynamics. Beyond the phase of full time education it is hard to find any real motivational cohesion at the level of the individual between the career paths of managers, academics and government officials. Concerted efforts are needed by all parties public and private to overcome these logistical and infrastructure constraints.This is a rather sweeping statement and has no doubt varying degrees of truth and relevance in different countries. However it has some resonance with our project findings where we have observed that a significant expectancy and dependency on the wider unaligned exogenous factors has frustrated and in some cases contributed to the failure of the corporate university model. It raises the question - to what degree should an organisation's corporate university lifelong learning best practice energies be diverted as a means for overcoming or tolerating these constraints, compared with the totally self contained independent model which simply takes its focus on the immediate organisational position where management can create its own set of local very direct and positive development parameters to the exclusion of the wider exogenous factors?The latter self-contained model has control and benefits of policy, practice, and timely action, but the possible shortcomings of limited connection with the local, regional, or national socio-economic environment means that the strengths of these potential synergies do not manifest themselves.It is a point of considerable interest and a challenge for the ECUANET project partners in moving forward to make their recommendations with what is clearly a very fascinating and growing business knowledge and education development phenomenon which has the potential to attract, develop and retain talented people in the context of the entire workforce.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to reflect on and inform about learning points from ECUANET, a two-year duration best practice action research and transnational networking project as it approaches its final stage.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper explicates the key positive and obfuscating dynamics that the project team have had to, and will have to conjure with, in reaching its recommendations about the evolution of best practice in corporate university and enterprise academy design and management. The project partners have operated a voluntary or self selection process in their recruitment of corporate partner organisations to participate in the project action research case study work. The research methodology was based upon the corporate university blueprint architecture and browser toolkit to provide depth in practice evidence and a searchable database for comparative case to case practice evaluation of the key performance indicators (KPIs)\nFindings: - It was found that the corporate university organisation and business development concept is a subject area which is either well understood by company management and education institutions or there is considerable confusion about its role and purpose. This comment does not apply comfortably and consistently universally as there are very different states of maturity, adoption and interpretation in the concept's development and practice across the world region by region. From a wide and diverse portfolio of companies and organisations who where invited to participate in the action research case studies those who accepted have one very important characteristic in common: they are all intensively engaged in managing a major innovation, i.e. they already have the commitment and fortitude to making new ideas work in practice. The experience of this project confirms that to be successful in this turbulent era of intensive new learning management, there needs to be continuous commitment to engendering innovation diffusion in both strategic and tactically inspired new learning process management. In addition it also demands serious reflection about the creative nature of the learning leadership role and also the style of its management.\nOriginality/value: - The a priori browser based corporate university blueprint model architecture employed in the empirical case study research mode proved to have both the depth and flexibility to provide a high quality evaluative framework and capture all the dynamics relating to the key variables in good corporate university design and management. The data base of case foundation information, KPIs and best practice outcomes will be one of the most comprehensive and world class quality reference sources published to date.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Metadata analysis of knowledge management in supply chain: Investigating the past and predicting the future
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Knowledge management",
"Literature"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: With the rapid changes and pressure of global competition in the supply chain (SC), knowledge is recognized as an important source of competitive advantage (He et al., 2013; Tesang, 2009; Cheng et al., 2008). Also, the field of knowledge management (KM) has received increased attention from academics and corporate sectors, with the advent of the era of the knowledge economy (Vandaie, 2008; Xu and Bernard, 2011). The knowledge economy is a term used to describe a new era of significant change, just like the second wave of turning an agricultural society to an industrial economy (Liew, 2008). Knowledge adds value to an organization through its contribution to products, processes and people (Meso and Smith, 2000), while KM transforms information, data and intellectual assets into enduring value by identifying useful knowledge of management actions (Goh, 2006). In this study, KM process involves the acquisition, integration, protection, innovation and dissemination of knowledge at every level of the organization to facilitate it to clear its goals and respond rapidly to the changing competitive environment (Yang et al., 2013). KM is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and enabling people to share and implement the knowledge to improve organizational performance (O'Dell and Grayson, 1998). Well-defined KM processes play crucial roles in improving SC practices and SC performances (Fugate et al., 2009). The main purpose of KM is to make knowledge easily available and re-utilizable by the SC members within the organization.\n2. Existing literature reviews of KM in SC: From the last decade, research within the KM in SC field has increased its importance and awareness within the research persons and organizational decision makers. In line with this, a number of literature reviews were conducted that covering a range of topics relating to the KM process (acquisition, integration, protection, innovation and dissemination) with SC (SC practices and SC performance measurement), where core concepts, definitions, meaning and significance of knowledge, KM and SC issues have been discussed. This literature review is a possible mean to shed light on the work done on KM in SC. It is a mean to summarize past literature review and to \"uncover areas where research is needed.\" It was found during the current research that five literature reviews specifically on KM in SC have been made in the past. These reviews are given in chronological order below:\n3. Methodology: This section elaborates the methodology carried out for literature review of KM in SC. To examine the recent developments in this mature field, we set the investigation period from January 2000 to July 2014 (inclusive). The 14-year period is sufficient to evaluate the literature review in KM in SC. Since, most of the work on KM in SC was introduced in the same time span.\n4. Summary of review and discussion: This section presents the results of the KM in SC review, based on the extracted data from the 176 studies over a publication period of 14 years. In order to make our research processes transparent, and allow independent assessment of classification and analysis full bibliographic details of the selected 176 journal articles for analysis are shown in the Appendix. This section contains the summary of the review of research for KM in SC, examines reviewed papers on the basis of journals involved, number of papers per year, a country in which research carried out, universities under which research carried out, the authors involved, research design, research method, a data analysis technique, industries actively involved and major issue discussed.\n5. Conclusion: This study gives a general idea of the current state of KM in SC research. The results obtained through a systematic and comprehensive review of selected 176 articles from 97 different peer reviewed journals during the period 2001-2014. The result examines reviewed papers on the basis of journals involved, number of papers per year, a country in which research carried out, universities under which research carried out, the authors involved, research design, research method, a data analysis technique, industries actively involved and major issue discussed. It is seen that the number of studies has been gradually increasing in time. This review has carried out to provide a generalized picture of the all selected articles published in all relevant journals. Based on the findings, many implications emerged that improve one's understanding of the identity of KM in SC as a distinct scientific field. Many researchers around the globe studying and publishing articles on KM in SC in major journals in the areas of operations management, information systems, KM, SC, logistics, marketing and decision making. Normally, most of the articles reviewed were based on empirical research (60.80 percent). However, out of total empirical papers, the empirical quantitative papers are (42.05 percent). Furthermore, in some papers the framework of doing qualitative research was also implied. The reviewed papers persistently used survey studies in verification of frameworks and hypothesis. Based on careful assessment, the result shows that most KM in SC literature has focussed on the important elements of KM and SC are, SC performance, SC relationship, SC integration, knowledge sharing, KMS, knowledge transfer, IT, KM model, knowledge flow, etc. We have come to conclusion that KM helps to utilize organization's resources in a smarter and efficient way to achieve effective SC performance. Hope this paper will help readers and KM and SC practitioners in a positive way by developing new opportunities, creating value, obtaining competitive advantages and improving SC performance to attain the organizations objectives. The following subsections illustrate the gaps identified in the research, significant findings of the study and future directions of the research.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive and useful insight into the knowledge management (KM) in the supply chain (SC) research and provide gaps and future research implications. The literature review includes a metadata analysis of KM in SC research along a number of dimensions, the existing dimensions as well as dimensions which are previously not been presented within the current area to predict the future role of KM in SC.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is to examine the status of KM in SC within academic and industrial research in the last 14 years. The systematic literature review of KM in SC is based on 176 peer reviewed articles selected through a multi-stage process, from 1,063 studies during January 2001-June 2014.\nFindings: An increase in the interest level of incorporating KM in SC is clearly visible while studying available literature. The statistics prove that research in the field of KM in SC is overwhelmingly empirically oriented. Another major finding shows that the survey model score highest among all the research method used in the discipline. In general, the research is more interpretive in nature and provides a frame for theoretical critique. The result indicates that there is a need to use of advanced data analysis techniques with traditional data analysis technique.\nOriginality/value: The review simply provides statistical summary which is easy to understand for practitioner and provide increased insights on the current state of research for the KM in SC.\n",
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] |
Industry loss warranties: contract features, pricing, and central demand factors
|
[
"Insurance",
"Loss",
"Warranties",
"Reinsurance",
"Industry loss warranties",
"Alternative risk transfer",
"Pricing",
"Basis risk",
"Moral hazard"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The convergence of insurance and capital markets, in addition to the development of new and innovative products, are driven by several trends. One aspect is the limited supply capacity in the traditional reinsurance and retrocession markets, especially after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. For insurers to manage their capital effectively, they need flexible access to capital in case of need for extra capacity. Other reasons are the benefits of enterprise risk management due to the effects of diversification - insurance risk is generally uncorrelated with main sources of financial risk - and reduction in counterparty risk (WEF, 2008, p. 9). In the course of financial innovation, new insurance risk transfer instruments were developed to close this gap.In this paper, we focus on the innovative class of industry loss warranties (ILWs), which have become recently grown in popularity. The contract payment is triggered by an industry loss that may depend on, for example, geographic region, type of catastrophic event, line of business, or duration. ILWs are either binary or indemnity based; binary contracts pay a fixed amount only if the industry loss is triggered and indemnity-based contracts additionally account for the reinsured company's loss (Swiss Re, 2006). The reference index used is most frequently the insured catastrophic loss data provided by the Property Claim Services (PCS) in the USA. In Europe, the first index has only recently been established by PERILS based on European catastrophic loss data in October 2009. In Asia, there is no industry index in so far.ILWs are easier to draw up, more flexible, and incur fewer frictional costs than, e.g. catastrophe bonds. Owing to the integration of the industry index, ILWs are highly standardized and moral hazard - as faced in the traditional insurance sector - is substantially reduced. Hence, the underwriting and claims processes are rather simple. In general, this type of contract can be offered at a lower price than that charged for traditional indemnity-based reinsurance contracts. Despite these advantages, the purchaser is confronted with the basis risk induced by ILWs, which arises if the industry-wide loss and the actual book of business are not fully correlated (Harrington and Niehaus, 1999; Doherty and Richter, 2002). This leads to a difference between the index-based payoff and the reinsured's actual loss.To date, the literature has focused on other forms of alternative risk transfer instruments, such as cat bonds, for which pricing approaches, basis risk, and moral hazard have been analyzed (Doherty and Richter, 2002; Lee and Yu, 2002, 2007). Most of the previous literature on ILWs has concerned itself with pricing binary contracts by calculating a risk load using the coefficient of variation (Ishaq, 2005) or with analyzing basis risk in the case of binary ILW contracts (Zeng, 2000). Beyond this, Zeng (2003) analyzes the tradeoff between basis risk and the cost of index-based instruments.Cummins et al. (2004) have conducted an empirical study of general index-based instruments for catastrophic losses. In particular, basis risk is analyzed by examining the hedging effectiveness of risk reduction using different risk measures. In addition, the relationship between hedging effectiveness and insurer characteristics is studied. Zeng (2005) applies an optimization method based on the genetic algorithm to measure the reinsurance efficiency of index-based contracts, thereby taking into account cost and benefit. Gatzert et al. (2007) provide a comprehensive overview and comparison of different pricing approaches and measures of basis risk using numerical examples.While pricing and basis risk are important considerations in regard to ILWs, decisions on whether or not to add an ILW contract to the reinsurance portfolio must take some additional aspects into consideration. In the literature, there has been no comprehensive presentation of ILW characteristics relevant for demand. This paper intends to fill this gap by:* providing a comprehensive overview of main factors relevant for the demand for ILWs;* discussing the adequacy of pricing approaches; and* presenting concrete model setups that explain the demand for ILWs from the insurer's perspective by means of a broad literature review.The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the characteristics and key factors of ILWs, including the main factors that affect the attractiveness of ILWs. Section 3 presents the model of the ILW contract, describes the functioning and adequacy of actuarial and financial pricing approaches and includes a measure of basis risk. Section 4 studies central drivers for the demand of ILWs based on several models proposed in the literature. Section 5 concludes.\n2 Characteristics of ILWs: Market and recent developments\n3 Pricing and basis risk for ILWs: In this section, we present two general concepts for pricing ILWs from the seller's perspective and discuss the limitations of these approaches' appropriateness for the valuation of ILWs and a measure of basis risk[4].General model specifications of ILW contracts\n4 Models on insurance demand and there implications for ILWs: In a complete, frictionless and continuous market, the valuation of ILW contracts can be derived using the present-value approach revealed in Section 3 (see subsection \"financial pricing approaches\"). If seller and provider of ILW contracts use the same fair pricing approach based on the replication of cash flows, neither party will receive advantages or disadvantages by signing a contract. However, in insurance practice, some assumptions of \"perfect\" market conditions - as in the case of information symmetry - may need to be relaxed and hence, the trading of ILW treaties could lead to advantages for buyers and sellers[10]. For instance, Mayers and Smith (1982) discuss several reasons that stress the relevance of (re-)insurance in general. In particular, we find two aspects to be important in respect to the demand of ILWs. First, this special form of risk transfer can help to shift risk away from those stakeholders (ILW buyers) who are at a relative disadvantages in risk-bearing terms. Second, the closing of an ILW contract may lower expected tax liabilities (and other regulatory costs) for the purchaser of an ILW treaty. Other reasons mentioned by Mayer and Smith (1982) could also play a role in the context of ILWs. For instance, and in the case of an indemnity-based contract, an ILW provider may enjoy comparative advantages in administering the handling of claims and, in this way, should be able to examine the underwriting activities of the ILW buyer that may otherwise give rise to the risk of higher claims due to moral hazard and adverse selection.If the replication of the underlying of an ILW contract via capital market instruments cannot be provided, a preference-dependent valuation is needed. In general, adequate instruments traded on the capital market that allow the derivation of a replicating portfolio for the payoff of an ILW contract do not exist. The reason for this is that the ILW payoff is based on the company's (and/or industry) loss distribution. In order to use a preference-dependent valuation technique, a specific target function for the ILW buyer must be formulated in order to derive a company-specific demand for such treaties. For instance - and in the context of ILW contracts - Zeng (2003) considers an insurer that wishes to limit basic risk and the probability of ruin to a predefined level while maximizing the company's expected net profits. The insurer's decision variables in order to achieve this goal are the ILW's trigger level and the upper layer limits. Zeng (2003) argues that because of the payoff structure of ILW contracts being non-linear and inherently not smooth, traditional numerical algorithms to solve the optimization sometimes fail to reach the global maximum. To overcome this problem, Zeng (2003) provides numerical examples using the concept of genetic algorithm.In an article by Doherty and Richter (2002), the tradeoff between moral hazard and basis risk regarding index-linked securities in general is analyzed. A decision maker with mean-variance preferences is focused, who can purchase an index hedge - in our case, the ILW contract - and an insurance contract that covers (partly) the gap between the decision maker's actual losses and the index-linked payoff. The demand for an ILW contract in this framework strongly depends on the price offered by the seller of the product. In this respect, Doherty and Richter (2002) assume the providers of the index-linked securities and the gap insurance to be risk neutral, such that only expected claims and transactions costs regarding the treaties are relevant for pricing.Besides the advantage of index triggers to be able to reduce moral hazard in the relationship between insurance sellers and buyers, Finken and Laux (2009) argue that the demand for such contracts can also been positively affected by - compared to traditional reinsurance - a reduction in adverse selection. By referring to the banking literature on relationship lending and informational lock-in, the authors show that private information about insurers' risk in the case of the existence of less-informed market participants regarding the information of claims distribution subject to adverse selection results in high reinsurance premiums and cross-subsidization from low- to high-risk insurers. Such adverse selection with major effects on the competition of an insurance market should not take place with products containing information-insensitive index triggers (like ILWs) and thus increase the attractiveness of such contracts from the viewpoint of potential buyers.Doherty and Tinic (1981) as well as Cummins and Sommer (1996) derive the demand for risk transfer instruments for an insurer from the risk sensitivity of the insurer's policyholders (Grundl and Schmeiser, 2002, p. 461). In this context, policyholders are willing to pay a price for insurance coverage that exceeds its present value in the case that the insurer's safety level (measured by the DPO value) is very high. An insurer could use ILWs to improve its safety level in order to maximize shareholder value.In Doherty (1991) and Froot and Stein (1998), an insurer's risk-averse behavior in the Arrow-Pratt sense (Pratt, 1964, pp. 122-36) is a result of the assumption that the cost of capital is a convex function of the amount of external capital needed in the case of post-loss financing. In this model setup, perfect hedging will be achieved by the provider of an ILW contract regarding the part of the ILW contract that can be replicated by assets traded on the capital market. As laid down earlier, we believe the part that can be replicated by capital market instruments to be rather small. For the fraction of the ILW contract that cannot be replicated, premium loadings are necessary on the side of the seller to cover post-loss financing costs. The post-loss financing costs in this model set up depend on the portfolio composition and the amount of equity capital and hence are firm specific. Giving this line of reasoning, an insurer could save post-loss financing costs by buying an ILW contract. In particular, market conditions for ILW contracts could be derived that confer advantages upon both ILW sellers and ILW buyers when closing a contract. This requires a situation in which the seller of an ILW contract faces advantages in post-loss financing - caused by its better diversified portfolios - compared to the situation of the ILW buyer.\n5 Summary: In this paper, we studied the key characteristics of ILWs. In addition, we presented several pricing approaches, measures of basis risk, and models for the demand of ILWs, and discussed their adequacy against the background of the specific characteristics of ILWs. In particular, financial pricing approaches are highly sensitive to input parameters, which is important given the high volatility of the underlying loss index. In addition, the underlying assumption of replicability of the claims is not without problems.Owing to their simple and standardized structure and the dependence on a transparent industry loss index, ILWs are low-barrier products, which are offered, for instance, by hedge funds. In principle, traditional reinsurance contracts are still preferred as a measure of risk transfer, especially since these are widely accepted for solvency capital reduction. However, the main important impact factor for the demand of ILWs from the perspective of market participants, i.e. large diversified reinsurers and hedge funds, is the lower price due to rather low transaction costs and less documentation effort. Hence, ILWs are attractive despite the introduction of basis risk and the still somewhat opaque regulatory environment.Overall, ILWs, along with other alternative risk transfer instruments, will become increasingly important as risk transfer instruments in the future. However, the attractiveness and the growth in market volume of ILWs strongly depend on several factors. These factors include the regulatory and accounting treatment of ILWs and thus the question to which extent ILWs will be recognized as risk transfer instruments under, for example, Solvency II. An important issue related to this is how reinsureds deal with the basis risk inherent in ILWs. Another central point is the development of a European industry loss index and the creation of an exchange platform to enable an even higher degree of standardization and a faster processing of transactions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of industry loss warranties (ILWs), an alternative risk transfer instrument which has become increasingly popular throughout the last few years.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors first point out key characteristics of ILWs important to investor and cedent, including transaction costs, moral hazard, basis risk, counterparty risk, industry loss index, and regulation. Next, the authors present and discuss the adequacy of actuarial and financial approaches for pricing ILWs, as well as the aspects of basis risk. Finally, drivers of demand and associated models frameworks from the purchaser's viewpoint are studied.\nFindings: - Financial pricing approaches for ILWs are highly sensitive to input parameters, which is important given the high volatility of the underlying loss index. In addition, the underlying assumption of replicability of the claims is not without problems. Due to their simple and standardized structure and the dependence on a transparent industry loss index, ILWs are low-barrier products, which can also be offered by hedge funds. In principle, traditional reinsurance contracts are still preferred as a measure of risk transfer, especially since these are widely accepted for solvency capital reduction. However, the main important impact factor for the demand of ILWs from the perspective of market participants, i.e. large diversified reinsurers and hedge funds, is the lower price due to rather low transaction costs and less documentation effort. Hence, ILWs are attractive despite the introduction of basis risk and the still somewhat opaque regulatory environment.\nResearch limitations/implications: - An important issue for future research is how reinsureds deal with the basis risk inherent in ILWs. Another central point is the development of a European industry loss index and the creation of an exchange platform to enable an even higher degree of standardization and a faster processing of transactions.\nOriginality/value: - ILWs feature an industry loss index to be triggered, and, in some cases, a double-trigger design that includes a company indemnity trigger. ILW contracts belong to the class of alternative risk transfer instruments that have become increasingly popular, especially in the retrocession reinsurance market. There has been no comprehensive analysis of these instruments in academic literature to date. Consequently, the authors believe that this paper provides a high degree of originality.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The role of product innovation and customer centricity in transforming tacit and explicit knowledge into profitability
|
[
"Customer centricity",
"Profitability",
"Explicit knowledge",
"Tacit knowledge",
"Product innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Knowledge management is an essential element of managing any type of business (Gloet and Terziovski, 2004) and is a key enabler of competitive advantage (Yang, 2010). Discussions on knowledge are becoming increasingly important and a firm's future is largely dependent on its ability to manage this asset (Coakes, 2003). The source of competitive advantage is moving away from cost and productivity (Teece, 1998) to innovation backed by knowledge capabilities possessed by the firm (Egbu, 2004; Gold et al., 2001). A firm has competitive advantage when the rents associated with such advantage, i.e. its performance and profitability (Rumelt, 1991) are superior in comparison to industry peers (Grant, 1996a, 1996b; Teece, 2007).\nConceptual framework and hypotheses development: Tacit and explicit knowledge\nMethod: Participants and procedure\nResults: Common method bias\nDiscussion and conclusions: The results show that product innovation partially mediates the relationship between tacit and explicit knowledge and profitability (supporting H1 and H2). Hence, organizations achieve superior profitability from tacit and explicit knowledge either directly or through product innovation. The indirect effect of tacit and explicit knowledge on profitability through product innovation is greater than the direct effect of tacit and explicit knowledge on firm profitability. This clearly demonstrates the importance of product innovation as a mediator variable and emphasizes that tacit and explicit knowledge indeed transforms into profitability through product innovation. The establishment of product innovation as a mediator variable is in line with the results of previous research (Lopez-Cabarcos et al., 2019; Lopez-Nicolas and Merono-Cerdan, 2011; Vaccaro et al., 2010). The study results also highlight that the effect of tacit knowledge on profitability through product innovation is greater than explicit knowledge transforming into profitability through product innovation; nevertheless, explicit knowledge also being a vital component in transforming knowledge to profitability through product innovation. The vitality of explicit knowledge in explaining profitability and competitive advantage which this study has uncovered is contrary to previous studies (Bierly and Chakrabarti, 1996; Grant, 1996b; Grimaldi et al., 2012; Sveiby, 1997; Teece et al., 1997). Another fact that this study establishes is the coexistence of tacit and explicit knowledge for achieving competitive advantage, which is contrary to Hansen et al. (1999) but it is in line with the study of Lopez-Nicolas and Merono-Cerdan (2011), which shows the coexistence of codification and personalization strategies. Our results are also in line with the study of Bollinger (2019), who shows the importance of a \"balanced\" managerial control having the right proportions of human interactions (which are tacit in nature) and information system tools (which are explicit knowledge intensive) to ensure the transformation of the firm's innovation initiatives into firm performance.\nManagerial implications and future research: This study attempts to answer the question on how managers can use knowledge strategies to achieve superior competitive position. The results demonstrate that tacit and explicit knowledge are both important for gaining competitive advantages. For organizations that are in the early stages of embracing a knowledge management model, explicit knowledge strategies can be easier to manage, implement and institutionalize in comparison to tacit knowledge strategies that require human component and intervention to succeed (Kruger and Johnson, 2010). Considering this and given that both tacit and explicit knowledge are important to achieve superior product innovation, customer centricity and profitability, it would be recommended that managers create at first a robust explicit knowledge management system which can possibly provide positive results ahead of moving towards implementing tacit knowledge strategies. With the advent of digital technologies in the form of artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, the importance of explicit knowledge is ballooning. In a sense, such digital technologies and algorithms are extracting deep customer insights and organizational experience that are highly tacit in nature and are codifying the same into explicit knowledge (Holford, 2019; Schneider and Handali, 2019).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: By fusing knowledge-based theory, organizational learning theory and dynamics capability theory, this study aims to explore, on the one hand, the linkage between exploration, sensing and tacit knowledge, and on the other hand, exploitation, seizing and explicit knowledge. Thereby, it argues that not only tacit knowledge but also explicit knowledge contributes to competitive advantage for firms. This study also investigates how knowledge transforms into profitability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The conceptual model is tested with a study sample of 153 industrial organizations using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: Results confirm the importance of both tacit and explicit knowledge for achieving sustainable competitive advantages. Furthermore, both tacit and explicit knowledge transform into profitability, both directly and through product innovation and customer centricity which play partial mediating roles.\nPractical implications: Explicit knowledge strategies can be easier to manage, implement and institutionalize than tacit knowledge strategies, which require human component and intervention to succeed. Managers should hence first implement explicit knowledge strategies to gain expeditious results. Further, with the advent of digital technologies and algorithms that can extract deep customer insights and organizational experiences which are highly tacit in nature and codifying the same into explicit knowledge, the importance of explicit knowledge is further enlarged.\nOriginality/value: By fusing three adjacent theories to establish a robust model specification, this study is able to demonstrate the contribution of explicit knowledge in the firm's competitive advantages.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Futures Triangle 2.0: integrating the Futures Triangle with Scenario Planning
|
[
"Futures Triangle",
"Visualization",
"Scenario Planning",
"Graphic",
"Futures method",
"Foresight method"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The Futures Triangle (Figure 1) is a simple yet powerful futures method introduced by Inayatullah (2002, 2008). It has three dimensions, corresponding to the three angles of the figure: the pulls of the future, the pushes of the present and the weights of the past. The pulls are possible visions and images of the future; the pushes are present trends or driving forces affecting the direction of future change; the weights are obstacles and barriers to achieve different futures. Deliberation on these three dimensions is used as a brainstorming technique to encourage a discussion about possible futures produced by the interaction of these three forces.\n2. Theoretical background: the Futures Triangle and its relation with Scenario Planning: 2.1 The Futures Triangle\n3. The Futures Triangle 2.0: 3.1 Method rationale\n4. Case study: The Futures Triangle 2.0 was tested in the occasion of a full-day futures workshop that the author has given in September 2019 in the Department of Management and Economics of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu, China. Workshop participants were 28 management faculties as well as local and international graduate students majoring in management, human resources management and management and construction engineering, some of whom were graduating from other universities in the city of Chengdu and other universities in China. The nationalities represented were China, Nepal, Thailand and Ghana. A total of 21 out of 28 participants were women.\n5. Discussion and conclusion: In a single figure, the Futures Triangle 2.0 presents a direct and intuitive visualization of three characteristics of scenarios generated in a futures workshop or futures research project: pulls of the futures, pushes of the present and weights of the past. The figure can be easily generated manually with pen and paper or digitally (interested readers can contact the author for a modifiable Futures Triangle 2.0 PowerPoint template).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Futures Triangle 2.0, a methodological advancement of the Futures Triangle method (Inayatullah, 2008), which better integrates the original method with Scenario Planning by visually representing scenarios against the three dimensions of the Triangle, i.e. pulls, pushes and weights.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper explains the theoretical rationale behind the creation of the method, outlines the steps required to use it in a futures workshop or in a futures research project with a step-by-step procedure and reports a case study of its application in practice.\nFindings: The Futures Triangle 2.0 encourages a deliberate and systematic discussion on the three dimensions of the Futures Triangle in each scenario and on whether scenarios differ in these attributes. The method allows the foresight researcher/practitioner to capture the valuable tensions between weights on the past on one hand and pushes of the present/pulls of the futures on the other hand, and to make sure that the scenarios differ substantially in these three attributes.\nOriginality/value: The method integrates the Futures Triangle and Scenario Planning in an intuitive, easily reproducible and visually pleasant graphical procedure.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Six Sigma for improving aesthetic defects in aluminum profiles facility
|
[
"Pareto analysis",
"FMEA",
"Six Sigma",
"Aesthetic defects",
"Aluminum industry",
"Control charts"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Aluminum's first industrial form showed in 1700s, where it has been used in statues by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Nowadays, aluminum is used commonly in the construction projects because of its light weight, flexibility, coloring and durability compared to other materials such as steel or wood. Global production of aluminum in 2005 was 31.9 million tons. It exceeded that of any other metal except iron (837.5 million tons). Aluminum fabricators use extruded aluminum profiles for their production process, these profiles have various shapes and designs and they are designed to fit together and to present the known windowdoorfacade shape. Gaskets and sealing kits are used per profile to isolate the inside from the outside of the aluminum and prevent air, dust and noise from going in. Each fabricator has its own profile systems with different characteristics. The aluminum profiles play a major role in the construction industry. In fact, a large portion of materials at the finishing stage are composed of aluminum casts. Hence, for customers, aluminum profiles are with a keen interest to be defect free. Although many of these defects may not affect the functional characteristics, it affects the product's aesthetics (one of the eight dimensions of product quality). Aesthetic defects can be divided into two types, namely, scratches and improper coating. Scratches can occur from transportation, rough handling, debris on work surface, loading and unloading. Improper coating can occur from chemical imbalance, blocked filters or blocked sprays. Aesthetic defects are hard to detect once production starts, as most of the aluminum surface is covered by protection tape at fabrication.\n2. Background: The aluminum production usually follows the following life cycle: aluminum ore is mined as bauxite ore, aluminum refinery (chemically processed to produce alumina), primary production (alumina \"aluminum oxides\" will be smelted to pure aluminum metal), fabrication (casting, extrusion, forging, etc), then product markets (construction, automobiles, cans [...] etc), and finally, the products will be melted down for recycling at the end of life and sent back for secondary production. Lu et al. (2016) evaluate quantitatively welding quality during the extrusion process. Shahrom and Yusoff (2014) focus on the aluminum waste from machining process, also called chips, produced from turning and milling process to be recycled. The focus of this paper to on the use of fabricated aluminum profiles used in the construction projects. Figure 1 shows the aluminum life cycle.\n3. Problem statement: The US aluminum industry is estimated to provide around US$65bn a year in direct economic impact and US$152bn [1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)] when related business functions are considered (US aluminum association, 2015). Part of any aluminum fabricator's policy is maintaining excellent quality records and defect-free products; this means the products shouldn't hold any defects. The issue is to find those defects and detect them before the fabrication process; the issue intensifies due to the nature of the methodology that work procedures follow (Figure 7). A significant increment has occurred in the percentage of defected aluminum received from key suppliers. Table I shows the samples in July 2014 where it can be observed the fluctuations in the number of defected metal sheets received from the fabrication key supplier. The problem is if the defect was not detected at the raw material or the production stores and sent to fabricators for cutting. It is hard to detect any defects after the fabrication stage, since the aluminum profiles will be covered by protection tape before cutting.\n4. Research methodology: Six Sigma is a known framework using statistical tools to reduce variability in product or service quality, thereby reducing costs. As shown, the current process under the study has fluctuations in the number of defects and hence the use of Six Sigma approach is justified. In general, a Six Sigma process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million by focusing on outputs that are critical to quality (CTQ). Several studies have been conducted and implemented Six Sigma in different manufacturing contexts. For example, Gijo et al. (2011) succeeded in reducing the defects in grinding machines from 16 to 1.0 per cent. Jirasukprasert et al. (2014) was able to reduce the defects in rubber gloves manufacturing process from 19.5 to 8.4 per cent by applying the DMAIC framework. In addition, the Six Sigma methodology has been proven to be effective in technical contexts. Anderson and Kovach (2014) describe using a case study how one specialty construction company used the Six Sigma methodology to reduce welding defects in turnaround projects and generalize the results to demonstrate how methodology can be applied in service-based environments. Scinto (2011) applied the statistical Six Sigma examples into the engine oil industry in North America. The Six Sigma methodology showed improvement in all the studied examples. Nepal et al. (2013) present a case study of a Six Sigma-based quality improvement framework for a medical wire drawing process at a US-based medical wire manufacturing company. Medical wires are used in cardiovascular devices. Therefore, the wire drawing process is extremely critical in terms of creating high-quality products. The Six Sigma approach showed a statistical evidence of improvement in the wire drawing process. Clearly, it is shown that using a Six Sigma statistical approach in industrial contexts is common. The research objective is to reduce the number of aesthetic defects in aluminum aesthetic profiles that reach to the end customer. The research methodology utilized the DMAIC framework (define, measure, analyze, improve and control). The methodology relies on statistical analysis (histogram, control charts and Pareto) and field work (observations, focus groups and interviews).\n5. The aluminum facility: In Saudi Arabia, only few aluminum companies existed at the beginning of the 1970's, whereas today, hundreds of companies and small workshops are competing to satisfy the local market requirements, as aluminum has become the main component used in structural openings. Governmental support has been provided to aluminum use in construction projects, since it provides better thermal insulation. Moreover, it is expected to have new governmental regulations to enforce the use of thermal breaker aluminum profiles, known to save electricity and provide thermal isolation, in construction. This will expectedly increase the demand on aluminum profiles which indeed motivates the need for a zero-defects production. Ideally, defects should be detected before the fabrication process by assuring the quality. The selected aluminum fabricator is one of the largest and oldest aluminum fabricators in Saudi Arabia. The operation of this fabricator is covering most of the major cities in Saudi Arabia. It is believed that this fabricator can be considered as a good role model in the Saudi Market.\n6. Results: The production department's roles include general scheduling, coordinating between different suppliers, general quality outlining, continuous improvement on quality and productivity, specify and approve work/raw materials and suppliers' relations. Figure 9 shows the process of order collection and complaint resolution of returned products. The quality assurance system is highly needed. In specific, defects' detecting after the cutting stage is hard, since the profiles are covered by protection tape. When a defect is detected, material is returned before packaging from the place of detection (either cutting machines or at inspection). The returned material will be dismantled (aluminum and accessories) and sent back to stores. The defected aluminum will be sent again to the supplier for rework, if possible, or scrapped, if not.\n7. Managerial implications and lesson learned on process improvement: Qamar et al. (2004) stated that \"It is rather difficult to find comprehensive and in-depth investigations of product defects in metal extrusion in published literature\". Qamar et al. (2004) provided an example of aluminum extrusion facility in Saudi Arabia that has an overall rejection of 2.57 per cent for the whole plant. However, their rejected production will be scrapped and melted for reproduction. The main problem in the facility understudy is in receiving defected extruded aluminum profiles before fabrication. The main contribution of this research is in providing a Six Sigma approach to revise the quality plan that reduced the amount of defected profiles before fabrication. However, the management support is a corner stone in any Six Sigma implantation project. However, management also needs to be convinced by economic benefits to justify the investments. In addition, management should support necessary actions applied in a controlled environment till the system proves to be error free. As the implemented actions prove their effectiveness, they will become part of the company's policy and will be documented in the quality control's auditory manuals. Using the actions generated in implementation plan, the team found out the following monetary effects as listed in Table XII.\n8. Conclusion: The validation for 2014 data revealed that the new data fits for Four Sigma control charts as demonstrated in Table XIII.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to develop a quality plan to detect aesthetic defects in extruded aluminum profiles before the fabrication stage based on the Six Sigma improvement methodology in an aluminum facility. These defects are hard to be detected at the fabrication stage. It is also hard to be fixed in the site.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research methodology utilized the DMAIC framework (define, measure, analyze, improve and control). The methodology relies on statistical analysis (histogram, control charts and Pareto) and field work (observations, focus groups and interviews).\nFindings: The process shows significant improvement in aesthetic defect reduction that aids in reaching a Four Sigma quality level.\nPractical implications: Aluminum fabrication is known to be vulnerable for many types of defects such as scratches and debris on work surface. In addition, post-fabrication defects may also occur due to improper coating caused by chemical imbalance, blocked filters or blocked sprays.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this research is to demonstrate the use of DMAIC framework to reduce the aluminum aesthetic defects that reach the end customer. The Six Sigma methodology is a well-known quality improvement framework that relies heavily on quantitative data. More precisely, it is widely used to control defects in quantities such as weights, heights, etc. In this research, it has been used to control qualitative data (aesthetic). This will enable objective decisions for facility management rather than subjective.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Framework for measurement of supplier satisfaction
|
[
"Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)",
"Supplier relationship management",
"Factors affecting supplier satisfaction",
"Supplier Satisfaction Index"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Supplier performance and supplier development are widely discussed terms among supply chain practitioners and have received much research attention. Most of the literature on supplier performance and supplier development takes a buyer-centric approach. But developing a buyer-supplier relationship demands the satisfaction of both buyers and suppliers (Ghijsen et al., 2010). Suppliers' satisfaction with their buyers is a rarely researched phenomenon in supply chain management. The causes may be the existence of a power imbalance between buyer and supplier (Benton and Maloni, 2005; Schmitz and Platts, 2003), and buyer-centric market conditions. Indeed, the quality of the relationship which is measured in terms of trust and two-way communication is affected by supplier satisfaction as well (Lawrence, 2005). As modern businesses compete within supply chains, buyer-supplier relationships are gaining significance. The strategic relationships with suppliers help in improving quality outcomes for the buyer firms (Jajja et al., 2016). There is a growing realization that buyer firms need to accept suppliers as partners and work toward improving their satisfaction levels. Thus, with a change in the dynamics of business relationships, measurement of suppliers' satisfaction becomes all the more necessary.\n2. Literature review: Many organizations are currently pursuing to have bonded with many suppliers from around the globe to increase trade, profitability and productivity (Abdel-Basset et al., 2018). Supplier selection is a typical multi-criteria decision problem attracting great attention recently (Liao and Rittscher, 2007). Abdel-Basset et al. (2018) defined supplier selection as \"the process of supplier evaluation, appraisal, evaluation and contracting.\" Supplier selection is a process of taking the best suppliers with the right price and quality at the right time and quantity (Arabsheybani et al., 2018). Cost, quality, delivery and flexibility are usually involved in the supplier selection decision making (Liao and Rittscher, 2007). A lot of efforts and techniques have been suggested based on supplier performance in the literature. But, limited research focuses on measuring supplier's satisfaction toward buyers (Meena and Sarmah, 2012).\n3. Research methodology: The entire research was conducted in three stages, and for every stage, a relevant research method was adopted. The following sections describe the research method selected and the sample or research setting used for that stage.\n4. Results and analysis: Stage 1 of our study resulted in 14 factors with 5-8 KPIs each affecting suppliers' satisfaction. The major factors were - supplier trust, preferred customer status, dynamism of the environment, participation in supplier development activities, performance improvement, technical excellence (R&D), supply value (purchasing), communication (structure, reaction and information sharing), operational excellence (production), support, quality management, payment and finance policy, relationships and coordination policy and purchase policy.\n5. Discussion: The literature on supplier management has majorly focused on the supplier selection (performance management) aspects of suppliers (Meena and Sarmah, 2012). Scarce attention has been paid to supplier satisfaction (Meena and Sarmah, 2012; Huttinger et al., 2012). Some authors, such as Essig and Amann (2009) and Meena and Sarmah (2012), attempted to develop models for SSI, but these models either lacked practicality or were limited in their relevance to the industry. Some exploratory and empirical analyses were made to understand the various factors affecting supplier satisfaction (Praxmarer-Carus et al., 2013; Lee, 2001; Benton and Maloni, 2005; Huttinger et al., 2012; Meena and Sarmah, 2012). Here an attempt was made by the authors to provide a more practical and useful tool to measure quality of relationship between supplier and buyer through supplier satisfaction. This flexible tool enables managers and academics to change factors and KPIs from the framework and calculate overall (SSI) and individual indexes (SI, FPI and KPII) suitable to measure quality of relationship. Thus, this study makes a significant contribution to the field of supply chain and operations management.\n6. Conclusion: The research resulted in two major contributions. The first contribution is the development of a framework for supplier satisfaction. The framework developed has 5 factors and 35 KPIs. The framework provides managers with an exhaustive list of factors and KPIs from which they may choose and pick according to the requirement of the organization. The exploratory study suggests that buyer organizations focus majorly on the operational aspects of support, quality management, and purchase policy and payment terms to make suppliers satisfied. Suppliers are also willing to have a close relationship with the buyer organization as observed in the Indian manufacturing industry. Indeed, suppliers, today expect buyer organizations to involve them in innovation and product development activities. Some of the buyer organizations seem to involve suppliers in product development activities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design, develop, implement and validate a multi-criteria decision model for measuring supplier satisfaction through a case study.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A three-stage methodology was used to develop a framework to measure supplier satisfaction. The framework involved factors and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from literature and exploratory study. Further, using the framework, a multi-dimensional decision model to calculate Supplier Satisfaction Index was developed. The proposed decision framework was implemented as a real-world case study in an Indian manufacturing organization.\nFindings: The study makes two major contributions: first, it develops a framework to measure supplier satisfaction using factors and KPIs suitable to the buyer organization; second, the model developed to calculate supplier satisfaction helps in understanding overall satisfaction of suppliers along with the level of satisfaction of each supplier. The model can also be used to suggest improvements to buyer organizations on specific factors and KPIs under each factor.\nResearch limitations/implications: Supplier satisfaction plays an important role in multinational companies (MNCs), so the sample of practitioners considered in this study is relevant. However, it is likely that the small sample size of only suppliers and companies selected solely from the Indian manufacturing MNCs may have introduced some bias.\nPractical implications: A comprehensive framework for enhancing the relationship with suppliers will be instrumental in deciding, managing and improving the level of supplier satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: This approach provides purchase managers with the flexibility of selecting factors and KPIs at every level of analysis and also a single index to establish supplier's satisfaction with a buyer company.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
BIM-based life-cycle environmental assessment of prefabricated buildings
|
[
"Prefabricated construction",
"Building information modelling",
"Environmental evaluation",
"Construction simulation",
"Modelling"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The construction industry has been considered a key contributor to economic growth in many nations, playing a significant role in sustainable development (Ofori, 2015; Oesterreich and Teuteberg, 2016; Habibi and Kermanshachi, 2018). The adoption of new technological advancements in this industry is a path toward achieving project success. For instance, conventional cast-in-situ concrete construction has been extensively criticized due to low productivity and notable resource waste (Xue et al., 2017). However, in recent decades the prefabrication approach (namely pre-cast concrete) has been widely used in many countries and has resulted in a substantial shift in the construction industry (Yeoh and Fragiacomo, 2012; Hong et al., 2018). Prefabricated concrete construction provides an effective alternative to traditional cast-in-situ construction for the following reasons, including: (1) conducting construction in a more controlled environment to achieve higher quality with less labour-intensive construction process (Ji et al., 2018); (2) reducing construction budget due to shortened project delivery time (Ji et al., 2019); and (3) being environmentally friendly compared to the cast-in-situ construction method (Li et al., 2014; Li et al., 2017).Prefabricated construction procedures primarily focus on designing and fabricating building components in manufacturing factories, transporting the components to construction sites and assembling the components with the assistance of cranes (Smith, 2014; Zhong et al., 2017). Thus, prefabricated construction is also referred to as off-site manufacturing construction (Arashpour et al., 2017), off-site prefabrication (Mostafa et al., 2016), off-site construction (Kolo et al., 2014) or off-site production (Wang et al., 2018). This technology has the capability of offering various benefits for investors and contractors, such as safer construction environments, enhanced quality outputs, less labour rework on-site and waste reduction (Blismas et al., 2006; Li et al., 2014b; Pons, 2014; Tam et al., 2015; Matic et al., 2017). These advantages greatly contribute to improving the construction industry in both developing and developed countries (Salavatian et al., 2019). In particular, after a period of development, precast concrete technology can meet the requirements of environmental protection and housing demand (Hong et al., 2018). Yet the environmental impacts of prefabricated construction projects can be significant and should be regarded as a major aspect in achieving the goals of sustainable development (Kamali and Hewage, 2016). Furthermore, to determine whether prefabricated construction is a promising option, there is a need to develop a framework that investigates the advantages of saving construction resources and reducing pollutants compared to traditional cast-in-situ construction.Previous research reviews (Zhang and Skitmore, 2012; Feng et al., 2017) have proposed preliminary assessments on environmental benefits of, and barriers to, the applications of prefabricated construction projects. Researchers have also attempted to utilize prefabrication as an effective strategy to reduce energy consumption (Kamali and Hewage, 2016), waste generation (Lachimpadi et al., 2012) and greenhouse gas emission (Dodoo et al., 2014). For example, Liu and Ying (2009) have investigated the environmental merits of a typical building adopting a prefabricated construction technique in Shanghai demonstrating the improved environmental performances of construction sites. Li et al. (2014a) have proposed an idea that was used to facilitate the quantification of the impact of adopting prefabrication on construction waste reduction.With increasing attention paid to the environmental concerns of buildings and construction from policymakers and researchers, several models and systems for assessing the environmental impacts have been extensively explored and developed to systematically evaluate the environmental benefits of prefabricated construction projects. Yet the current evaluation systems often employ qualitative scoring methods, such as the Evaluation Standards for Green Building (MOHURD, 2014) and the Evaluation Standard for Green Construction of Buildings (MOHURD, 2011). Their assessment criteria tend to be subjective evaluation and difficult to provide comparable results in depth. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-known analytical framework for assessing the environmental impacts of a product with a perspective from cradle to grave, cradle to gate or cradle to cradle (Reijnders and van Roekel, 1999; Islam et al., 2016). It provides a comprehensive set of environmental indicators that can be interpreted as impact indicators at global and local levels (Bressi et al., 2018). The LCA framework can be divided into four stages, including goal and scope definition, life-cycle inventory analysis (LCI), life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation (The International Organization for Standardization, 2006).Kamali and Hewage (2016) provided a comprehensive review on the benefits and challenges of the prefabricated construction method, indicating that prefabricated buildings exhibited a better life-cycle environmental performance through improvements of on-site reduction of greenhouse gas emissions among others. Aye et al. (2012) have investigated life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and energy analysis of prefabricated reusable building modules. This provided the basis on which the authors quantified the embodied energy of modular prefabricated steel and timber multi-residential buildings in order to determine whether these forms of construction provide an improved environmental performance with respect to concrete construction methods. Based on LCA, the work of Bonamente et al. (2014) provided results for a carbon- and energy-footprint study on prefabricated standardized precast concrete industrial buildings in Italy. Cao et al. (2015) employed LCA models to measure environmental impacts of prefabricated and cast-in-situ construction techniques from the three perspectives of ecosystem damage, resource depletion and health damage. In their study, two typical residential projects employing the two construction techniques were chosen to conduct a comparative study. Results revealed that the selected prefabricated case offers reductions of 20% in energy consumption and 3.5% in ecosystem damage when compared with a cast-in-situ construction case. However, similar projects adopting different construction techniques are not always available for benefit comparisons. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore a method for evaluating the potential benefits for selection of available construction techniques.The research presented in this paper proposes building information modelling (BIM)-based simulation modelling for obtaining accurate environmental impacts comparison of offsite and cast-in-situ construction. BIM refers to an engineering data platform that integrates various construction-related data with three-dimensional (3D) digital technologies (Li et al., 2018). When one of the aforementioned construction techniques is not adopted by an existing building project, its engineering quantities can be obtained through the BIM-based simulation. As a data integration method with building visualization and information, such as building modelling and building construction, BIM can be used to simulate a construction project in a multi-dimensional digital model and provide multitudes of project benefits during the entire project life cycle (Fountain and Langar, 2018). The models can provide detailed information on building components, such as dimensions, volumes, projected floor areas and so on. The BIM models also help simplify project estimation processes, accelerate material procurement and increase efficiencies of machinery rental. Based on BIM, Liu et al. (2016) proposed an ontology-based semantic approach for quantity take-off of building prefabrication. More recently, advanced analytical methods are incorporated to leverage the value of the BIM information further. For example, researchers have used the BIM model information for roofing sheathing installation and drywall layout optimization in a prefabricated housing production line (Liu et al., 2018 and Liu et al., 2019). Industry practitioners also use this production-related information from BIM models to generate work packages for prefabrication construction processes (Li et al., 2019). In the current research, Luban BIM software will be used and has incorporated a comprehensive quota database with the capability of producing a series of results, such as engineering quantity and quota analysis (Lubansoft, 2018).Therefore, from an environmental perspective, the present research aims to provide a comparative analysis of the conventional and prefabricated construction techniques via BIM-based simulation. Prefabricated building projects are rationally transformed into cast-in-situ building projects through a case study using the Luban platform. This study also presents mathematical models to evaluate the environmental impacts, especially air pollutants and resource consumption. The assessment measures will help decision-makers consider appropriate construction techniques in their construction projects. Additionally, the results can be utilized by contractors and investors to raise awareness of environmental conservation.\n2. Proposed methodology: 2.1 Overview of the proposed methodology\n3. Case study: For the preliminary application of the evaluation method proposed in the previous section, an apartment building project is chosen as a case study. The selected project is located in Qingpu District, Shanghai, China. The total floor area spans 87,623.5 m2 (943,171.5 ft2) with a construction period of 782 days. The project consists of ten apartment buildings, all of which have adopted monolithic, precast concrete, shear wall structures. These ten buildings have employed several prefabricated components, including interior wall panels, sandwich insulation siding, laminates, staircases, bay windows and balconies. Furthermore, building ground structures are selected in this research to compare the two construction techniques. In order to facilitate the calculation, it is assumed that the distance between the commercial concrete mixing plant for the cast-in-situ building project and the construction site is equivalent to the distance between the manufacturing factory and the construction site. Both construction techniques utilize system scaffold.Additionally, assembly rates of the ten buildings are listed in Column 5 of Table 2. The assembly rate represents the ratio of the volume of the prefabricated component to the volume of the superstructure of the building, representing the extent to which the building uses prefabricated components. Table 2 also provides other information, such as floor area, concrete consumption and engineering quantity of each prefabricated component, which is used to quantify the differences between the two construction techniques in terms of building design and project input. The data collection approaches primarily involve email exchanges, interviews with project managers, field data collection and acquisition of missing data. The collected data includes manual consumption, material consumption and mechanical consumption data of component factories and labour sites. This includes the stage from the start of the construction to the completion of the main structure. In addition, BIM is utilized to produce simulated engineering quantities when considering the cast-in-situ construction technique.In accordance with the calculation method and steps given in Figure 3, Luban BIM is used to develop BIM models for these projects with different assembly rates listed in Table 2. Quantity take-off is conducted for these prefabricated building projects; in addition, cast-in-situ scenario is also simulated using the BIM platform for comparison purpose. With the integrated data in the BIM platform, the required construction quotas and consumption data are extracted using BIM, as illustrated in Appendix 2. The consumption values of water, electricity and oil are calculated using Eqs (1)-(4) and incorporated with the results from BIM. These outputs are then imported into Ecoinvent 3.5 database, and the final evaluation results are obtained are summarized using ReCiPe 2016.\n4. Results and analysis: 4.1 Environmental performance of emissions and consumption\n5. Conclusions: To summarize, conventional cast-in-situ concrete construction has been extensively criticized due to low productivity and high resource waste. At present, prefabrication technology has been widely practiced in many countries providing an effective alternative to traditional site-based construction. Among its numerous benefits for investors and contractors, there is an urgent need to investigate the environmental merits of prefabricated construction for achieving the goals of sustainable development. Compared with previous evaluation systems, LCA is capable of providing a comprehensive set of environmental indicators. Therefore, the research presented in this paper aims to propose a comparative environmental analysis for conventional and prefabricated construction techniques via BIM simulation. The comprehensive environmental evaluation is formulated in terms of gas emissions and material consumption. A project consisting of ten apartment buildings in Shanghai is selected as a case study. This prefabricated building project is then rationally transformed into a cast-in-situ building project through a BIM-based construction simulation using the Luban platform. Finally, the positive and negative environmental impacts are investigated for the adoption of prefabricated construction.The results reveal that prefabricated construction demonstrates environmentally friendly performances in the investigated aspects with the exception of acidification and mineral resource consumption. Moreover, the environmental impacts are further reduced with the increase in the projected area ratio and assembly rate in the prefabricated construction technique, promoting that the assembly rates could be addressed by construction managers to improve the environmental performance of building projects. Additionally, the assessment measure can be beneficial for decision-makers to consider appropriate construction techniques in building construction projects. The results can be utilized by contractors and investors to raise awareness in terms of environmental conservation. The environmental impact assessment in this study is based on building design and drawings; therefore, the acquisition of data in this study depends on the construction consumption quota, which is used for estimation and lacks accuracy. The accuracy of environmental impact assessment can be improved by using actual data in future research. This research is also expected to contribute to further improvement by addressing more environmental indicators in future studies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This research aims to propose a comparative environmental analysis of conventional and prefabricated construction techniques utilizing a building information modelling (BIM) technique.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A set of indicators are selected to assess the environmental emissions throughout the construction life cycle, based on BIM platform. An existing project involving ten apartment buildings in Shanghai is selected as a case study.\nFindings: The results reveal that prefabricated construction demonstrates environment-friendly performance with some exceptions of acidification and mineral resource consumption. Environmental impacts can also be further reduced by increasing the projected area ratio and percentage of project prefabrication.\nOriginality/value: Overall, the proposed method can be used to identify relevant environmental merits and for decision-making of appropriate construction techniques in building construction projects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Development, present status and performance analysis of agriculture insurance schemes in India: Review of evidence
|
[
"Crop insurance",
"Agriculture insurance",
"Agriculture risks",
"PMFBY",
"Weather index insurance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Agriculture is an important economic sector in many developing nations and is a source of revenue and food security to households who reside in rural areas. Besides fulfilling the food requirements of the country, agricultural sector supplies main raw ingredients to many agro-based companies and occupies an important share in aggregate exports. The agrarian sector plays a pivotal role in the livelihood of the rural community as well as influences the development of allied sectors and the entire economy (FAO, 2017). The early and late coming of monsoon, changing precipitation and temperature patterns, adverse climatic conditions, and weather fluctuations have caused serious financial losses in terms of yield damages and crop failures (FICCI, 2018).Agriculture is the most important occupation in India: it is an employment provider to the majority of the agrarian population and it is the main donor to the nations' gross domestic product (Banerjee and Bhattacharya, 2011). In a developing country like India, about two-thirds of the population rely on agriculture for their employment, but this sector is prone to adverse weather fluctuations. In such a condition, agriculture insurance has operated as a crucial financial institution for insuring the farmers' yield risk (Rao, 2002). Agriculture insurance is significant for rural development, mainly in rain-fed areas disposed to drought risk (Dandekar, 1976) with mitigation of weather risks in agricultural activities (Narayanan and Saravanan, 2011). Weather-related issues are the main reasons for crop failure (Odening and Shen, 2014), and hence, such risks can be protected via agriculture insurance. 1.1 Objectives of the study\n2. Review of literature on agriculture insurance in India: There are different crop insurance schemes launched in India since its inception but each scheme has its own set of flaws and problems that are pointed out by various scholars. Mosley and Krishnamurthy (1995) evaluated the comprehensive crop insurance scheme (CCIS) and argued for the alternative design of crop insurance. Mishra (1996) particularly studied the impact, design, and economic performance of CCIS and emphasized the participation of the private insurers along with government insurance companies. Raju and Chand (2008a) pointed out the difficulties and prospects of agriculture insurance in India specifically for the national agriculture insurance scheme (NAIS) on the basis of an empirical analysis on farmers of Andhra Pradesh state. Bhende (2012) studied the problems of agriculture insurance in India particularly for Karnataka state and suggested the need for crop revenue insurance in the Indian context. Panda (2013) assessed the significance of crop insurance in climate change situation for social-protection to farmers. Sinha and Tripathi (2014) evaluated and compared the crop insurance issues of India and Thailand and found that effective penetration of crop insurance reduced the financial liability of the government. Gaurav (2015) studied insured agriculture households in rain-fed areas of Vidharbha region in the state of Maharashtra and found that smallholder households have partial access to insurance than wealthier farmers. Aggarwal et al. (2016) recommended the use of advanced technology on agriculture insurance. Siwach et al. (2017) suggested the limitation of PMFBY scheme for the state of Haryana. Ward and Makhija (2018) studied empirical exploration drought risk management for the farmers of Odisha state and found that farmers are less interested in crop insurance. Jain and Dharmaraja (2019) proposed a mathematical model for better crop insurance penetration that can cover the specified risk. Bhoi and Dadhich (2019) suggested a model of composite insurance scheme to cover the risk of market failure and crop failure. Ghosh et al. (2019) presented that farmers have more willingness to pay the premium for speedy claim settlement.\n3. Evolution of agriculture insurance in India: The earliest agriculture insurance scheme has started in Germany and France as hail insurance in 1820. In 1883, the first agriculture insurance was launched in the United States for tobacco growers. The initial multi-peril crop insurance was commenced in the United States in 1939, with the creation of a federal crop insurance corporation (Rao, 2010). In this direction, the agriculture insurance company of India Limited (AIC) is an analogous corporation to manage agriculture insurance activities in India. AIC was established on December 20, 2002 and started its business from April 1, 2003 under the control of the ministry of finance (Cooperation, 2015). The agriculture insurance schemes in India are classified into four phases on the basis of their chronological order, namely, evolution, exploration, development, and advancement phase as shown in Figure 1. 3.1 Evolution phase (1947-1971)\n4. Development of agriculture insurance in India: The progress of Indian agriculture insurance is dynamic since its inception. The agriculture, cooperation, and farmers welfare department is the apex body that accountable for the overall execution of the agriculture insurance program and dispense the government's share of premium subsidy. The department of agriculture and horticulture of state governments has liable for the implementation of particular agriculture insurance schemes at the state level (Cooperation, 2015). The timeline and comprehensive features of agriculture insurance schemes in India since independence are shown in Table I. India's journey with agriculture insurance can be classified into two phases on the basis of the pre-independence and post-independence situation. 4.1 Pre-independence situation\n5. Current status of agriculture insurance in India: India's agriculture insurance has the world's biggest program through 25 million insured farmers (Bhushan et al., 2016). However, 95 million farmers are uninsured because of problems in insurance design and interruptions in claim payment (Mahul et al., 2012). At present, two major agriculture insurance schemes are operated in India: PMFBY and RWBCIS. These schemes have been adopted as a public-private partnership (PPP) mode on February 18, 2016 by the government with major control on the design of the insurance product, amount of subsidy and the sum insured. These insurance schemes insured the climate-induced crop risk in agriculture production (Singh et al., 2018). 5.1 Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY)\n6. Performance assessment of present agriculture insurance scheme: The PMFBY and RWBCIS are the presently operated agriculture insurance schemes in India since 2016. 6.1 Performance assessment of PMFBY\n7. Findings: This section summarizes the findings based on the content analysis of the evidence-based literature. We found the following issues most significant to agriculture insurance in India. 7.1 Dissatisfaction among farmers about PMFBY\n8. Discussion: Findings confirm that farmers have perceived the agriculture insurance as an additional expenditure instead of a risk management tool (Praveen et al., 2018). The Indian farmers were exposed to publicly managed and subsidized agriculture insurance from 1972 but all insurance programs are unsatisfactory (Raghuvanshi, 2008) because most of the agriculture insurance schemes were unpromising and unproductive in poverty reduction and financial sustainability (Mosley, 2001). However, crop insurance has not functioned in a significant manner till the nineties because every insurance scheme on agriculture was found inconsistent, inefficient, unsuccessful, ineffective and unsustainable. Yet, agriculture insurance is still developing with respect to coverage, scope and exposure. Although agriculture insurance has an extremely risky financial activity, therefore its design and execution is a very challenging and complex task (Jain and Parshad, 2006). Although, it is very tough for any agriculture insurance program worldwide to justify the philosophies and principles of insurance because of covariate risk faced by agriculture (Shaik, 2013). However, most of the publicly subsidized crop insurance programs at the global level were unable to fully recover their own administrative cost and indemnity payments from the collected premium (GOI, 2011). 8.1 Present scenario of agriculture insurance in India\n9. Conclusion: The primary objective of the present paper has to identify, explore, analyze, and evaluate the evolution, developments, problems, and role of agriculture insurance in India in general and policy interventions and performance appraisal of existing crop insurance schemes in specific. This has been carried out by adopting the content analysis method. It was observed from the review that agriculture insurance is a significant policy risk management tool that has out of reach from the majority of farmers in the country. It has an important role in the financial inclusion of poor households (Taylor, 2016) and provides the livelihood security at the farmer level by risk mitigation for agriculture (Rao et al., 2016). However, India holds an important place in the area of agriculture insurance worldwide in terms of the size of agriculture and their innovativeness in the design of agriculture insurance. Moreover, India's experience with agriculture insurance has provided significant lessons for its own agriculture insurance policy and also influences the strategy of other countries that are planning to launch agriculture insurance scheme (Ghosh and Yadav, 2008).Although, agriculture insurance practiced in India since 1972 but every insurance scheme was inconsistent, ineffective and unable to deliver adequate protection to farmers due to operational defects. From 1972 up to 2016 government of India introduces a new agriculture scheme in every decade by realizing the limitations and drawbacks of past schemes. Every new insurance scheme possesses certain improved features for effective implementation which are absent in earlier agriculture insurance schemes. Every agriculture insurance schemes since their inception are far away from grassroots realities and inefficient in addressing the execution and operational problems (Chatterjee et al., 2005). Moreover, the performance of agriculture schemes is unsatisfactory in all fronts whether administrative, financial and economical. The financial performance of agriculture insurance schemes has suffered from continuous losses while economic performance has to depress with respect to claim payments and received premiums with low impact of insurance schemes besides huge subsidization. At the administrative front, the execution of insurance schemes has very disappointing due to the more complex mechanism of insurance policies at the operational level (Kelkar, 2006).Indian farmers have averse approach regarding agriculture insurance (Ghosh, 2018). However, the government of India has been promoting agriculture insurance since its inception by subsidizing the premium payment but farmers' participation in agriculture insurance programme has not picked up at a satisfactory level as expected. The main drawback of recently launched agriculture insurance schemes under PPP mode is related with the private insurers that have generated the significant profits by insuring the agriculture risks but at the same time, farmers were not benefitted from agriculture insurance by getting the sufficient and appropriate claims as expected for their crop failure. Unfortunately, farmers' losses became the gain for private agriculture insurance companies.From the entire discussion, it can be concluded that additional research is needed for exploring the potential of financially viable and economically sustainable agriculture insurance that effectively indemnifies the farmers' risks in the Indian context.\n10. Research gaps and scope for future study: Specific research gaps were recognized on the basis of missing themes in the published literature on agriculture insurance in India. These research gaps serve as a pathway for further investigation.Further research is required for the digitization of farm records and its linkage with farmers' bank account for quick valuation of yield losses and speedy disbursement of the insurance claim.Scope for research on the use of mobile-based technology for faster and accurate claim settlements and use of digital knowledge to teach the farmers for improving the insurance literacy.The need for research on differentiated pricing of an insurance premium for increasing its affordability on the basis of farmers' wealth.Further research is needed to design specific agriculture insurance for attaining the scalability that is mandatory for all types of farmers whether loanee, non-loanee, smallholders and wealthier farmers.For doubling the farmers' income, agriculture insurance is an important tool but its effective implementation needs further research.Pradhan mantra fasal bima yojna (PMFBY) is an initially effective scheme but currently ineffective due to flaws at the implementation level. There is scope for research for further changes in increasing the effectiveness of PMFBY.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Agriculture insurance is the panacea for the farming community. Many policy interventions were implemented for stimulating agriculture insurance access to farmers in India. However, access to agriculture insurance constantly remained one of the major challenges to Indian policy planners. The goal of the present paper is to explore current policy interventions in the area of agriculture insurance in India.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present paper reviews and analyzes the evidence literature through a content analysis method on development and performance analysis perspective of existing agriculture insurance schemes in India.\nFindings: Agriculture insurance is a significant risk management policy, but this is not easily reachable to the majority of farmers in India. The government of India introduces a novel agriculture scheme every decade, but every crop insurance scheme was inconsistent and ineffective owing to operational defects. Agriculture insurance in India is still developing in terms of coverage, scope, and exposure, but farmers' dissatisfaction about agriculture insurance turned out to be a negative word of mouth. Insurance illiteracy and farmers' preference for agriculture relief payments are the main reasons for limited access to agriculture insurance. The current crop insurance schemes are improperly operated because of implementation issues at the state level.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper will be useful for researchers and academicians to analyze the past and present status of crop insurance in India.\nOriginality/value: The paper is the unique work of the authors as it has attempted to present India's journey with agriculture insurance. An effort is made in the present study to provide a comprehensive and holistic developmental and performance analysis perspective of agriculture insurance in India.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nInstitutional 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).\nBackground 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).\nPhysical 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.\nElectronic 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).\nDisadvantages 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.\nStatistics 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.\nPractices: 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.\nConclusions: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present analysis of collection development in a specialized collection given the demand for electronic or online content.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A review of research in digital collection development was conducted with particular emphasis on veterinary medicine or medical libraries. This article provides a critique of research on digital collection development as it pertains to a specialized collection from the perspective of a veterinary medicine librarian.\nFindings: As collection development tends toward a preference for electronic formats, many advantages for specialized user groups arise from purchasing electronic books.\nOriginality/value: As there are many specialized library types, collection development differs according to user groups. As a veterinary medicine librarian, the author presents a profile of collection development for a specialized user group.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A morphological analysis of research literature on Lean Six Sigma for services
|
[
"Lean Six Sigma",
"Systematic literature review",
"Quality",
"Services",
"Morphological analysis",
"Research gaps"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. 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.\n4. Overview of the literature: The four orientations in the research literature, based on which the classification has been done, are elaborated below.\n5. 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.\n6. 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:\n7. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for services, construct a morphological analysis (MA) framework and identify research gaps to point to future research possibilities and priorities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The MA framework is based on literature review of 175 papers published from 2003 to 2015, across 67 journals recognised by Scopus or ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide 2015. A three-phased methodology is used by the authors, with Phase1 featuring a five-stage systematic review protocol to identify relevant journal papers for review; Phase2 presenting a framework for classifying the reviewed papers in terms of their fundamental, methodological, chronological and sector-wise orientations; and Phase3 constructing an MA framework on the classified papers and identifying the research gaps.\nFindings: The MA framework constructed based on six dimensions, namely, organizational context of applications, desired outcomes, implementation systems, LSS tools and techniques, integration with other management philosophies and evaluation methods, involving 40 focused themes, has revealed 355 distinct research gaps as opportunities for future research.\nPractical implications: This paper confirms the existence of substantial scope and points to specific topics for further research in the area of LSS for services. The findings demonstrate the gaps in academic research on the subject. In addition, the study also helps organisational leaders and practitioners to look at LSS from a holistic perspective in the services context.\nOriginality/value: The MA framework of the existing literature on LSS for services presents a unique, systematic effort to identify research opportunities. In addition, a five-stage systematic review protocol is proposed in this paper. This could be valuable to researchers and practitioners in enabling them to systematically review the literature on research subjects of interest to them.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nLiterature review: Motives for partnership\nResearch design and methodology: Background of case companies\nFindings 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\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To study the motives for partnership in marketing channels and provide an empirical study on mutual selection between manufacturers and distributors.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The data were collected mainly from the interviews which present the perspectives of both the Finnish manufacturers and Chinese distributors and agents.\nFindings: - Based on the empirical study, the new finding is that task-related and partner-related dimensions in partner selection of international joint ventures also apply to distributor relationship. We argue that a distributor relationship is a product-tied relationship, and product innovation can be used as an approach for performance improvement in distributor relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The study consists of four case companies so the result cannot be of general application. Nevertheless, it provides valuable information for further utilization.\nPractical implications: - The study provides empirical evidence of the motives of partnership and mutual selection between manufacturers and distributors in China. The results of the study suggest that distributor relationship management could be improved through product innovation.\nOriginality/value: - The paper attempts to fill the gap in available research on the initiative stage of distributor relationship while also providing some perceptions from the distributor side of the process.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Executive compensation and corporate social responsibility: does a golden parachute matter?
|
[
"Corporate finance",
"Executive compensation",
"Golden parachute",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Interlock",
"Tenure"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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.\n2. 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\n3. 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\n4. Sample and model: 4.1 Data and variables\n5. Empirical results: 5.1 Descriptive statistics\n6. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study examines the efficacy of compensation in encouraging corporate executives to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, it closely examines the effect of a golden parachute (GP) on an executive's behavior toward CSR.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study uses longitudinal data on 1,301 US firms for the period from 1993 to 2013. The data comes from Compustat, MSCI ESG STATS, RiskMetrics and ExecuComp.\nFindings: We find an inverse association between current and long-term compensations and GP on firms' CSR. However, a test on the moderating effect discloses that a GP and long-term compensation jointly and positively increase the firms' CSR performance. This increase supports the idea that executives with a GP seek to maximize their long-term wealth by approving CSR projects that add value. The results also show that female executives are more likely to promote CSR than their male counterparts, and older executives are less willing to engage in CSR projects.\nPractical implications: Adding a GP contractual clause to the executive compensation package could encourage greater engagement in CSR projects. The 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).\nOriginality/value: This study contributes to the literature by examining the moderating effect of a GP on the association between CSR and executive compensation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Experts
'
perspectives on the implementation of traceability in Europe
|
[
"Delphi method",
"Europe",
"Supply chain management",
"Food safety"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nMethod: 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).\nResults: Experts' definition of traceability\nDiscussion: 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).\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The research presented in this paper aims at understanding the views of European food risk management experts on food traceability implementation, implementation of the general food law, and the advantages the system can offer for effective risk mitigation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Delphi methodology was applied to understand experts\nFindings: Traceability was considered to be an effective safety- and quality-monitoring system with potential to improve safety within food chains, as well as increasing consumer confidence in food safety and consumer protection. However, the results underlined the need for further improvements, particularly regarding the definition of food chain traceability, enforcement of regulations, and harmonisation of practice.\nResearch limitations/implications: Expert opinion regarding food traceability and its implementation was confined to Europe and the impact of European legislation. Further research at a global level is needed, given the need to trace food and food ingredients across the regional boundaries imposed by European legislation, the increased globalisation of food chains, and the need for pan-global harmonisation of food traceability legislation.\nOriginality/value: The results provide important insights into the advantages and shortcomings of the present European traceability approach enshrined in the European General Food Law.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Respecting the language: digitizing Native American language materials
|
[
"Digitization",
"Collaboration",
"Digital humanities",
"Digital collection",
"Native American language",
"Zuni Pueblo"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nBackground: 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.\nCONTENTdm: 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).\nDigitization: Why digitize?\nPrototype 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:\nCollaborative 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).\nInteractive 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).\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many academic libraries use digital humanities projects to disseminate unique materials in their collections; during project planning, librarians will consider platforms, scanning rates and project sustainability. Rarely, though, will academic librarians consider how members from the communities that created the materials can contribute to digitization projects. The purpose of this study is to explain how collaboration with Zuni Pueblo (a Native American tribe in the southwest) community members improved a digital humanities project to disseminate Zuni language learning materials.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Methodologically relying on critical making, which involved community member feedback throughout the process, the Zuni Language Materials Collection will provide digital access to 35 language learning items.\nFindings: The authors argue that collaboration with members of the community of creation dramatically improved item description, collection discoverability and collection interactivity. This study historicizes CONTENTdm and describes how the team modified this content management system to meet user needs. This project produced a prototype digital collection, collaboratively authored metadata and an interactive portal that invites users to engage with the collection.\nPractical implications: Libraries continue to struggle to reach and reflect their diverse users. This study describes a process that others may use and modify to engage nearby Native American communities.\nOriginality/value: This piece shares a unique strategy of partnering with Native American community members on all aspects of digital humanities project development and design. This case study attempts to fill a gap in the literature as the first study to describe a digitization process using CONTENTdm with a Native American community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Scale to measure tourist value of destination restaurant service
|
[
"Values",
"Scale development",
"Experiential value",
"Destination restaurant services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nLiterature 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.\nMethodology: 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.\nResults: Demographics of survey participants\nDiscussion and conclusions: Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a measurement scale to explain how international tourists, as consumers at destination restaurants, evaluate their dining experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The measurement scale was developed using a three-stage process: initial item generation, scale development and scale evaluation. A total of 369 self-administered questionnaires validated the developed scale.\nFindings: The results showed five dimensions of value of destination restaurant services: service quality value, authentic experience value, emotional experience value, social value and utility value. The scale, comprising 40 items, was reliable and valid for assessing the value of destination restaurant services.\nResearch limitations/implications: This scale revealed new items that help explain the value of various destination restaurant services among international tourists. The developed scale could be used to extend the research model with antecedents of value and consequences of value for destination restaurant services.\nPractical implications: Considering the popularity of food tourism among international tourists, the developed scale should be useful in assessing how tourists value destination restaurant services, thereby helping restaurant managers create effective marketing strategies.\nOriginality/value: This study contributes with a new, reliable and valid measurement scale that was specifically developed to address the unique value of destination restaurant services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Perceived price fairness of dynamic pricing
|
[
"Pricing",
"Consumers",
"Internet shopping"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 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.\n2 Research background: 2.1 Dynamic pricing\n3 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\n4 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\n5 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\n6 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to adopt illusion of control and lateral consumer relationship in order to investigate their effects on price fairness in online auction and group buying context. These two variables have been known to have strong influences in fairness perception on consumers' decision-making processes and outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors draw their conceptual foundations from previous studies, supplement this from the electronic commerce literature, and test the model through laboratory experiments.\nFindings: - The study demonstrates that consumers' perception on illusion control in price determination and advantageous lateral consumer relationship significantly affect price fairness perception in both the online auction and group buying environments.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings are expected to provide researchers with useful insights to conduct future studies on uncovering the nomological networks associated with price fairness perception.\nPractical implications: - The findings are expected to help managers develop better pricing strategies and design effective dynamic pricing mechanisms.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides the first integrated perspective on the human decision processes in the dynamic pricing environment in electronic markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Psychological empowerment of employees for competitive advantages: An empirical study of Nepalese service sector
|
[
"Nepal",
"Resource based view",
"Psychological empowerment",
"Competitive advantages"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: 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:\nLiterature review: Psychological empowerment\nNepalese 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).\nResearch 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:\nResearch 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.\nAnalysis: 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.\nDiscussions: 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).\nConclusion: 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).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to assess the existing situation of psychological empowerment to employees and explore the relationship between psychological empowerment and competitive advantages in service sector of Nepal.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study followed descriptive cum exploratory research design. Data collected through structured questionnaire based on Menon's three-component model and Wright's four-component model used to measure psychological employment and competitive advantages from employees of banking and hospital sector.\nFindings: Psychological empowerment of employees in service sector is significantly different between public and private organizations. Even though the factors that are extracted are quite different than of Western practices, psychological empowerment has positive and significant impact on the competitive advantages.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study is mainly based on service sector of Nepal: Banking and Hospital.\nPractical implications: This paper is useful to academicians and practitioners seeking to develop psychological empowerment to achieve competitive advantages in their organizations and help to add values in people management areas particularly in South Asian corporations.\nOriginality/value: This is perhaps the very first investigation of its kind in the Nepalese context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Technical subjects in secondary schools
|
[
"Education",
"Technical training",
"Secondary schools"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__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.\nHarnessing 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.\nThree 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\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine technical education in various types of secondary schools, and suggests three levels of technical courses to be taught in secondary schools.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper discusses the differences between technical schools and colleges, and vocational technical courses taught in \"academic\" secondary schools; it recognizes that technical schools also attract students of a high academic quality. With a wider range of abilities, there need to be courses offered in secondary technical schools that suit a range of levels. Three technical courses are suggested here, which are aimed at the different levels of education parallel to secondary schools - for the potential craftsman, for the potential technician, and for the potential technologist.\nFindings: - It is suggested that great care must be taken to ensure that the vocational subjects develop naturally from more general academic studies - the aim of the courses outlined in this paper is to provide a fundamental general education alongside an understanding of vocational studies. The course for the potential craftsman takes the student towards suitable City and Guilds certificates, and involves some designated time for industrial visits. The course for the potential technician aims for four \"O\" level subjects in the General Certificate of Education (GCE), and the course for the potential technologist aims for pupils to gain two subjects at \"A\" level.\nOriginality/value: - The paper suggests a hierarchy of technical courses for integration into secondary schools in the 1950s.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Framing stakeholder considerations and business sustainability efforts: a construct, its dimensions and items
|
[
"Business",
"Sustainability",
"Stakeholder"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nFraming 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.\nFraming 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.\nMethodology: 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.\nEmpirical 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.\nResearch 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).\nManagerial 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).\nConclusions 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.\nSuggestions 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.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: to determine the extent to which companies'(tm) efforts of sustainable business practices consider stakeholders within their organisations, business networks, the marketplace and society, and to develop and test a stakeholder construct in the context of companies'(tm) business sustainability efforts within their business networks, the marketplace and society by identifying underlying dimensions and items.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed-method approach was used. First, qualitative research involving a case study approach was followed so as to describe how companies in different industries in Norway implement and manage sustainable business practices. This was followed by a quantitative research phase to empirically measure and test a stakeholder construct in the context of business sustainability efforts, which is reported here.\nFindings: The results report both an initial factor solution as well as a refined factor solution. The factor analyses confirmed five stakeholder dimensions related to business sustainability in a cross-industry sample of organisations, their business networks, marketplace and society. These include: the focal company, downstream stakeholders, societal stakeholders, market stakeholders and upstream stakeholders. The results indicate satisfactory convergent, discriminant and nomological validity, as well as reliability of each dimension.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study provides a stakeholder construct in the context of business sustainability efforts in focal companies and their business networks, the marketplace and society, based upon five common dimensions. The multi-dimensional framework may be used in both qualitative and quantitative research in future. It may also be used to assess stakeholders'(tm) business sustainability efforts.\nPractical implications: The multi-dimensional framework is useful for practitioners to obtain an indication of stakeholders'(tm) business sustainability efforts in relation to focal companies and their business networks, the marketplace and society.\nOriginality/value: The study provides a general stakeholder construct in the context of business sustainability efforts in business networks, the marketplace and society. The proposed framework can be incorporated in further studies and could be used to assess the general status of stakeholders'(tm) sustainability efforts in their networks, the marketplace and society.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors that influence informal learning in the workplace
|
[
"Learning",
"Learning organizations",
"Workplace learning"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nThe 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.\nInformal learning in the workplace: Formal learning v. informal learning\nConnecting 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.\nMethods: Research questions and hypotheses\nResults: Descriptive statistics on demographic information\nDiscussion: 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.\nConclusions: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that influence informal learning in the workplace and the types of informal learning activities people engage in at work. More specifically, the research examined: the relationship between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics; and perceived factors that affect informal learning engagement.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Workplace learning and performance improvement professionals were invited to respond to an anonymous online survey, and 125 professionals volunteered to participate in the study.\nFindings: - This study did not find a significant correlation between informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics. While age and education level did not impact informal learning engagement, it was found that older workers tended to engage in more informal learning. There were also certain types of informal learning activities in which they were most likely to engage. The findings also include rank-ordered lists of personal and environmental factors that workers perceived to influence their engagement in informal learning.\nPractical implications: - The rank-ordered lists of factors that influence informal learning engagement are likely to be useful to practitioners for prioritizing informal learning interventions. The results of this study suggest that the degree of engagement in informal learning alone would not be a sufficient construct for predicting the presence of learning organization characteristics.\nOriginality/value: - Very little empirical research has attempted to connect individual learning to the learning organization concept. This research addresses that gap by examining the relationship between individual informal learning engagement and the presence of learning organization characteristics.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Do governance factors matter for happiness in the MENA region?
|
[
"Governance matters",
"Happiness",
"MENA countries",
"Panel data"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 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.\n2 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.\n3 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:\n4 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).\n5 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Unhappiness has been recognized as one of the main factors that cause political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in recent years. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of governance matters on happiness in the MENA region while controlling for other relevant determinants.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper applies panel random effects regression analyses by using data from 14 MENA countries over the period of 2009-2011.\nFindings: The empirical results show that higher level of political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness and rule of law significantly increase happiness in the region. Furthermore, the paper finds that voice and accountability, regulatory quality and control of corruption variables have positive relationship with happiness but are not significant.\nOriginality/value: Most studies in this area cover developed countries. Since findings for developed countries might not be directly transferable to emerging economies such as MENA countries, therefore, more work is necessary to obtain a clearer picture of the political determinants of happiness in this region.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An exploratory study of product placement in social media
|
[
"Social media",
"Product placement",
"Brand awareness",
"Placement presentation",
"Product prominence",
"Vehicle and product match"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nTheoretical 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.\nExperiments and results: Experiment 1\nConclusions 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus specifically on the examination of factors influencing the effectiveness of product placement in social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two field experiments were used to test research models and questions. In each experiment, random sampling was used to assign volunteers into groups, controlled by different experimental settings. Questionnaires were distributed to the volunteers in order to collect their attitude toward advertisement, brand impression, and intention to click the advertisement. Their browsing behavior was measured by click through rate, browse depth, and browsing time.\nFindings: The paper found that the effects of product placement conducts (product prominence and presentation) in social media are similar to the effects of product placement in other media. Also, a match between the vehicle and product would create deeper browsing depth and longer browsing time on the product web site. Product placement on a higher awareness vehicle would be more effective for marketing.\nOriginality/value: This study makes its contribution in understanding the effectiveness of product placement in social media on delivering a marketing message. The results further highlight the importance of \"integrating\" the product placement content with its context and its vehicle.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Communicating packaging eco-friendliness: An exploration of consumers' perceptions of eco-designed packaging
|
[
"In-depth interviews",
"Eco-design",
"Ecological cues",
"Packaging design",
"ZMET interviews"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nTheoretical background: Packaging eco-friendliness\nResearch 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.\nResults: Nature of packaging ecological cues\nMain 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.\nFuture 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of eco-designed packaging on consumers' responses. It defines the concept of eco-designed packaging, and proposes a consumer-led taxonomy of its cues. Attitudinal and behavioral, positive and negative responses triggered by the perception of these signals are analyzed.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Results were reached through qualitative methods. A phenomenological approach consisting of eight in-depth interviews has been followed by a series of ten Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) interviews. The synergy of these two methods is underlined.\nFindings: The complexity of packaging ecological cues perception is outlined by expressing the differences in the nature of these cues. A taxonomy is then presented; ecological cues fall into three categories: structural cues, graphical/iconic cues and informational cues. Finally, consumers' responses to the perception of eco-designed packaging are presented and perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices are revealed.\nPractical implications: Packaging is of great importance in consumers' purchase decision process, especially in situations of temporal pressure and hyperchoice environments. Since consumers take more and more into account the ethicality of the brand in their consumption, the understanding of their attitudes and behaviors toward eco-designed packaging may enable brands to build a competitive advantage.\nOriginality/value: The literature review reveals that there is no similar research available. The use of two qualitative methods enables to understand consumers' deep-seated motivations, attitudes and behaviors toward eco-designed packaging. The results of this study can also be used by advertisers, for social marketing campaigns, to encourage consumers to reduce the global ecological footprint of packaging.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The role of culture in e-commerce use for the Egyptian consumers
|
[
"Electronic commerce",
"National cultures",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Trust",
"Egypt",
"Systems analysis"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 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.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Cultural research in e-commerce trust\n3 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).\n4 Research setting: 4.1 Research design\n5 Results: 5.1 Sample description\n6 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.\n7 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.\n8 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to systematically research and characterise the cultural response of a particular culture in the use of e-commerce systems. The research paper highlights the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance (UA), internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper employs a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian internet users during an internet shopping experience. The results are analysed using a number of statistical techniques including structural equation modelling.\nFindings: - The research highlights the significant role of the internet store's perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high UA of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store's reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of the store's familiarity on trust.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This research deals with intentions, not actual e-commerce behaviour. However, 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. Also, 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.\nOriginality/value: - The paper examines the interaction of a certain sub-type of the Arab culture with various elements that are assumed to affect on-line purchasing behaviour, which has not been examined in this depth elsewhere in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nSystematic 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.\nConclusion 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.\nPaths 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper provides a robust and structured literature review on supply chain resilience (SCRES), the supply chain's ability to be prepared for unexpected risk events, responding and recovering quickly to potential disruptions to return to its original situation or grow by moving to a new, more desirable state. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extant research through focussed questions and provide an insightful framework with propositions to guide further publications and identify future research needs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The findings underlie a systematic literature review methodology requiring a robust method of literature analysis. The sand cone model is adopted to develop a comprehensive SCRES framework.\nFindings: The literature review reveals a strong need for an overarching SCRES definition and a clear terminology for its building elements. It indicates that most research has been qualitative and lacks in assessing and measuring SCRES performance.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes a structured overview of 67 peer-reviewed articles from 2003 to 2013 on an emerging area of supply chain research. The review formulates an overarching definition of SCRES, groups and synthesizes the various SCRES elements into proactive and reactive strategies for the ex-ante/ex-post disruption stage and illustrates SCRES measurement through performance metrics. It provides a comprehensive SCRES framework with propositions and indicates gaps in the literature to target for further development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 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.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 Dynamics in the development and growth of REVs\n3 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).\n4 Real options-driven theory and related propositions: 4.1 Real options-driven theory\n5 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).\n6 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Entrepreneurial ventures in the emerging renewable energy sector in China represent a variety of dynamic growth strategies that are stimulated by the domestic energy policy and the evolution of the value chain driven by technological advancements. This paper aims to examine the underlying real options among these first movers to proceed with their further strategic development and finance means.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A literature review is launched to look into the emerging renewable energy sector unveiling challenges in the growth and development of renewable energy ventures (REVs) in China. Three main types of REVs are differentiated based on their technology intensity.\nFindings: - The prospect of international technology transfer through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the next phase of evolution within the sector is articulated. A theoretical framework on complementary developments in the value chain is revealed with four propositions.\nPractical implications: - This paper enables the stakeholders in the renewable energy sector to critically reexamine the pathways of strategic development and finance of REVs over an evolving technological landscape.\nOriginality/value: - This study integrates the theoretical real options into technology management issues pertinent to REVs under the contemporary tactics via cross-border M&As.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing performance-use preferences through an institutional logics lens
|
[
"Performance measurement",
"Public sector",
"Experiment",
"Institutional logics",
"Performance measurement systems",
"Priming"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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).\n2. 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.\n3. 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).\n4. 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.\n5. 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.\n6. 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.\n7. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of shared cognitive frames, in particular, that of institutional logics, on the deployment and use of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the public sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using novel priming techniques derived from behavioral and social psychology, three institutional logics - the public, market-managerial and professional logics - are differentially surfaced in three independent experimental groups. The influence of these primed institutional logics on performance measurement use preferences are then empirically assessed using appropriate analysis of variance techniques.\nFindings: Contrary to theoretical predictions, the paper reveals logic congruence regarding some uses of PMSs in the public sector, and divergence regarding others. Individuals applying a public logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for strategic planning or strategic alignment; while those applying a professional logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for learning, compared to otherwise primed individuals.\nResearch limitations/implications: Considering the sample size and the novelty of the priming tools, it is feasible that other potentially significant effects may have been missed.\nOriginality/value: The paper addresses a gap in literature regarding the influence of shared cognitive frames on performance measurement use in public sector organizations. The paper further presents priming techniques embedded within an experimental design as an appropriate method for the micro-level study of attitudes, preferences and judgments in the public sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
E-retailing ethics and its impact on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention: A cultural and commitment-trust theory perspective
|
[
"Ethics",
"E-commerce"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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\".\n2. 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.\n3. Theoretical background: 3.1. Ethical issues in e-commerce\n4. 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.\n5. Methodology: 5.1. Measurement of constructs\n6. Data analysis and results: 6.1. Descriptive statistics\n7. 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).\n8. Conclusion: 8.1. Theoretical implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The theoretical understanding of online shopping behaviour has received much attention. Less focus has been given to online retailing ethics. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of online retailing ethics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study used a survey amongst a sample representative of universities across Egypt. In total, 310 questionnaire were collected and analysed using structure equation modelling using WarpPLS.\nFindings: The results indicate that the consumer perceptions of online retailing ethics (CPORE) as a second-order construct is composed of five constructs (security, privacy, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, and service recovery) and strongly predictive of online consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors find a significant mediating effect of trust, and commitment on the relationship between CPORE and customer satisfaction. The results also show that individualism had moderate effects on the relationship between CPORE and customer satisfaction. Contrary to expectations, power distance had no significant effect.\nResearch limitations/implications: Despite the contributions of this study some research limitations need acknowledgment. First, this study employed a convenience sample. The authors encourage future studies to use random sampling of general consumers. The ethics literature identifies some factors which influence ethical judgments of consumers (e.g. sex, age, and education). Such research could identify how each variable, individually and cooperatively, impacts consumer ethical evaluations of online retailing. The authors did not collect data from non-internet shoppers because the focus of this study was online consumers referring to their latest purchase online. It may be an interesting extension, however, to test this conceptual model for other populations like non-online consumers.\nOriginality/value: This study developed and empirically tested a comprehensive model of CPORE with its multidimensional constructs and evaluated its impact on both consumer satisfaction and repurchase intention via trust and commitment.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Institutional strategies for developing enterprise education: A review of some concepts and models
|
[
"Corporate strategy",
"Business enterprise",
"Education",
"Entrepreneurialism",
"Universities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nDeveloping 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\nAcademic 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\nAnalysis 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\nConclusions: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to identify criteria for assessing the viability of institutional strategies for enterprise education and to develop models that describe methods of organising enterprise education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper identifies and explains a number of key criteria including: educational impact, financial sustainability, academic credibility, human capital, structural embeddedness, context and infrastructure, alignment with institutional strategy and policy, community engagement, and alignment with policy context and funding. The paper then considers a number of models. These models are separated into two clusters: single department-led models and campus wide models. The evaluative criteria are applied to each model to explore the impact of particular strategies and the criteria are used to assess the long-term viability of each model. The paper concludes by making judgements about each criteria and their usefulness for helping understand long-term sustainability of enterprise education.\nFindings: - The paper shows that different models may be valuable in different higher education contexts and illustrates the temporal nature of the relationships between the models.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This is principally a conceptual paper that can be developed further by the application of the evaluative criteria empirically. The models developed can be tested and analysed further through reference to observations of practice.\nOriginality/value: - The paper makes a valuable contribution to knowledge in this subject area by describing and analysing the various models of organisation that could be used to support enterprise education in higher education institutions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nLiterature 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\nResearch 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\nFindings: 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\nDiscussion: 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.\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to explore public-public partnership issues arising when public sector organisations work together in order to deliver a new government sponsored initiative.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A qualitative approach was adopted for this study, employing in-depth interviews across four UK case study sites. The rich qualitative data gathered from these interviews is analysed utilising a thematic framework.\nFindings: - The findings indicate that most of the participants did not feel that they were involved in a partnership and had little or no contact with their partner. The key role of inter-personal relationships amongst individual members is emphasised.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings presented represent the pilot sites utilised in a government sponsored initiative. As future public-public partnerships develop, further research should be undertaken to explore this phenomenon and establish the generalisability of these findings.\nPractical implications: - The study indicates that while there are clear benefits of partnership working, achieving successful collaboration is not straightforward. Improvements need to be made to develop partnerships using both formal and informal communication methods.\nOriginality/value: - This paper demonstrates the importance of the relationships between, and perceptions of, personnel at an individual level in the success of public-public partnerships.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing organizational innovativeness - evidence from corporate narratives
|
[
"Innovation",
"Communication",
"Intangible assets",
"Multinationals",
"Annual reports"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nContext 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).\nMethodology: To respond to the research questions, we focussed on corporations with high expenditures on R\nResults: This section presents the quantitative results to our research questions. Table II displays the descriptive statistics.\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study quantified the communication of MNCs regarding OI and compared this to the actual investments in R\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: to quantify the communication of organizational innovativeness (OI) on a large scale; and to examine the relationship of communicating OI and the corresponding investments in research and development (R\nDesign/methodology/approach: In total, 3,043 annual reports from 326 MNCs are examined utilizing quantitative content analysis, which focusses on fixed selected terminologies, in the years 1998-2008.\nFindings: Scholars assume that the capacity for OI is becoming the single most important task in organizational survival. Even though in the sample the investments in R\nPractical implications: This is the first study that measures the communication of OI using quantitative content analysis.\nOriginality/value: The results indicate that not only do the communication efforts of an organization's OI have a perceived increasing importance. They also suggest that OI itself has become more important for organizations from a strategic point of view.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining competence factors that encourage innovative behaviour by European higher education graduate professionals
|
[
"Competence",
"Intrapreneurship",
"Employee‐driven innovation",
"Higher education",
"Employees",
"Innovation"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nTheory and research hypotheses: Individual competencies\nMethod: Data\nResults: 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\nDiscussion 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\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to examine the effects of individual competencies and characteristics linked to educational programmes that contribute to the development of competencies conducive to innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors draw on theories of intrapreneurial competencies - i.e. intrapreneurship and competence-based innovation - and the entrepreneurship education literature. The study uses comprehensive survey data on approximately 11,000 higher education graduates, five years after graduation in 12 European countries, collected in 2005. The authors test hypotheses regarding the effects of individual competencies and study programme characteristics on the probability of introducing innovations at work, using logistic regression.\nFindings: - Several kinds of competencies are found to increase the probability that graduates introduce innovations at work: professional and creative, communications and championing, and brokering do so, while productivity/efficiency does not. Education programmes emphasising the development of entrepreneurial skills and problem-based learning also promote innovation. Graduates in engineering are particularly innovative, whereas business and administration graduates are least innovative.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The central implication is that intrapreneurial competencies are learnable. The results refer specifically to higher educated persons, five years after graduation.\nPractical implications: - Organisations that aim at stimulating employee-driven innovation need to emphasise the development of intrapreneurial, and especially, brokering competencies. Higher education institutions should put more emphasis on the development of entrepreneurial competencies, for example through problem-based learning.\nOriginality/value: - The study makes an empirical contribution to theories of intrapreneurship and competency-based innovation, by examining a wide range of competencies that promote innovation by graduate professionals in Europe.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nRelated 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.\nGraph 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.\nComplex 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.\nSampling 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.\nRandom 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).\nMetropolis-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).\nSnowball: 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.\nForest 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).\nRepresent 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.\nEvaluation: 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.\nConclusion: 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).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: In order to initialize a student model in intelligent tutoring systems, some form of initial knowledge test should be given to a student. Since the authors cannot include all domain knowledge in that initial test, a domain knowledge subset should be selected. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In order to generate a knowledge sample that represents truly a certain domain knowledge, the authors can use sampling algorithms. In this paper, the authors present five sampling algorithms (Random Walk, Metropolis-Hastings Random Walk, Forest Fire, Snowball and Represent algorithm) and investigate which structural properties of the domain knowledge sample are preserved after sampling process is conducted.\nFindings: The samples that the authors got using these algorithms are compared and the authors have compared their cumulative node degree distributions, clustering coefficients and the length of the shortest paths in a sampled graph in order to find the best one.\nOriginality/value: This approach is original as the authors could not find any similar work that uses graph sampling methods for student modeling.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The multiple facets of the bullwhip effect: refined and re-defined
|
[
"Stock control",
"Value chain",
"Value analysis",
"Variance reduction"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nResearch 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).\nTheoretical 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\nMultiple 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\nConcluding 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.\nResearch 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper seeks to describe a conceptualisation of the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect between stocking levels within and between value chains and value systems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper provides a conceptual discussion of the bullwhip effect. It is refined and re-defined.\nFindings: - The bullwhip effect has usually been explored between inter-organisational stocking levels. Recently, it has also been explored within intra-organisational stocking levels. A broader descriptive framework is introduced, one that positions the bullwhip effect construct in intra- and inter-organisational, as well as intra- and inter-channel, stocking levels in and between value chains and value systems.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A research agenda is provided that goes beyond current definitional boundaries and state-of-the-art research of the bullwhip effect.\nPractical implications: - The refined and re-defined bullwhip effect is of interest to practitioners. It considers inter-organisational and intra-organisational stocking levels. In addition, it considers intra- and inter-channel stocking levels. It is of great concern to achieve best practices in business.\nOriginality/value: - The principal contributions are - a dynamics model of the bullwhip effect construct; a principle of stocking level variability; a typology of stocking level variability; a framework that describes different levels of analysis of the bullwhip effect; and a re-definition of the bullwhip effect construct - within or between value chains and value systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How organizational culture can shape leadership style: The example of Nigerian universities
|
[
"Organizational culture",
"Leadership style",
"Social exchange",
"Nigerian universities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__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.\nTypes 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.\nIndividual 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.\nLeadership 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.\nComment: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Strong cultural values that persist within a specific nation or society typically determine the type of culture formed within business institutions there. Certain aspects of organizational culture can then exert considerable influence on the leadership style embraced by individuals who occupy management roles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: Strong cultural values that persist within a specific nation or society typically determine the type of culture formed within business institutions there. Certain aspects of organizational culture can then exert considerable influence on the leadership style embraced by individuals who occupy management roles.\nOriginality/value: The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Comprehending customer satisfaction with hotels: Data analysis of consumer-generated reviews
|
[
"Customer satisfaction",
"Three-factor theory",
"Hotel management",
"Consumer-generated review"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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).\n2. 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.\n3. 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).\n4. Discussion and conclusions: 4.1 Conclusions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Building on the three-factor theory, this study aims to unravel how the role of hotel attributes such as basic, excitement and performance factors could differ in accordance with different hotel star ratings and distinct customer segments.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study explores the asymmetric effects of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction by extracting 412,784 consumer-generated reviews from TripAdvisor across different cities in China.\nFindings: By taking into account the origins of customers and hotel star ratings, the study uncovers that guests' expectations of hotel performance differ with respect to their origins (domestic and international guests) and the star ratings of the hotels being reviewed, thereby moderating the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study compares and contrasts the determinants of customer satisfaction for domestic and international guests in the context of Chinese hotels. Care should still be exercised when generalizing the insights gleaned from this study to other contexts.\nPractical implications: The findings from this study translate into actionable guidelines for hotel operators to make informed decisions regarding service improvement.\nOriginality/value: The study extends previous work by offering a deeper understanding of the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction. Specifically, this study provides a deep understanding of the different hotel attributes such as basic, performance and excitement factors in explaining customer satisfaction among different hotel customer segments. Findings from this study can not only inform hotel operators on the significance of various hotel attributes in determining customer satisfaction but also guide the formulation of business strategies to retain customers by inducing delight and not frustration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nResearch 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.\nResearch 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:\nResults 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).\nDiscussions: 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.\nRecommendations: The study recommends that:\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study examines the factors that hinder employee training and learning in the automotive industry in Ghana, Africa.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study adopts quantitative research methodology and cross-sectional survey design. Eighty-nine usable questionnaires from employees of an automotive organization in Ghana are used. Descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test are used for the analyses.\nFindings: The results indicate that organizational culture, poor management commitment to training, inadequate promotion prospects, and lack of transparency and fairness in trainees' selection are the most common barriers to employee training and learning.\nPractical implications: Top management should provide opportunities to employees to apply new skills and knowledge they acquired. Fair and transparent procedures should be used to select training beneficiaries. Finally, organizations should develop cultural systems that encourage continuous learning motivation among their employees.\nOriginality/value: In this era of knowledge-driven economy, this research highlights factors that inhibit employees' motivation to learn.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nMethods: 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.\nResults: 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.\nDiscussion: 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).\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease and a growing global health problem. It is estimated that about 200m people are suffering from this disease in the world. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions and factors influencing the intention to do regular physical activities in order to prevent osteoporosis in Iranian Muslim working women.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The present cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 217 women employed in a university in Iran. The tool for data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire that had gone through validity and reliability processes. The data analysis was done using SPSS ver. 19 software as well as statistical descriptive and analytical tests.\nFindings: The majority of participants were aged 30-39 (50.7 percent) and the least ones were 40 years old (24.4 percent). In total, 67.7 percent of the participants were married. Also, 77 percent of the participants had religious belief on the duty to do strong physical activities, and 83 percent had intention to do physical activities. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of self-efficacy and the mean scores of religious belief between the women with and without having intention to do physical activities (p<0.01).\nOriginality/value: Regarding the relationship that self-efficacy and religious belief had with the intention to do physical activities in women employees, the need to address this issue through educational programming with the focus on self-efficacy and religious culture seems to find priority.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__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.\nTheoretical 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.\nHypotheses: 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.\nMethodology: 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).\nAnalytic 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).\nResults: 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.\nDiscussion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use SEM to explore the effects of enabling school structure (ESS) and academic optimism (AO) on school achievement (SA).\nDesign/methodology/approach: A sample of 58 urban schools, including 42 elementary schools and 16 middle schools in a southeastern district in the USA were included in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the effects of three exogenous predictor variables (ESS, elementary status, and socio-economic status (SES)) on a latent mediating variable (AO) and a latent dependent variable (academic achievement).\nFindings: Findings confirm that three factors; collective efficacy, faculty trust in clients, and academic emphasis come together to create the general latent construct referred to as AO by Hoy et al. (2006). Findings also support the importance of ESS in establishing a culture of AO. Together ESS, AO, elementary school level, and SES explained 77 percent of the variance in SA, with AO having the most significant effect above and beyond the effects of SES.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study was based on a sample of schools in the Southern portion of the USA. Findings may not be generalizable to other areas. The lack of availability of individual student achievement data prevented the use of hierarchical linear modeling.\nPractical implications: Findings from this study point to the importance of administrators establishing flexible rules and regulations and engaging in a leadership style that is collaborative. It appears that ESS not only promotes the establishment of AO but contributes to increased SA and is likely to be critical for upper levels of schooling.\nSocial implications: Reform efforts need to involve parents and community members. AO may provide an appropriate lens to further explore parent and community perceptions of reform efforts and relationships with administrators and teachers. ESS may assist in creating the structures necessary for increased parent and community involvement as well as increased perceptions of AO.\nOriginality/value: This study is one of only three studies known to explore the effects of ESS on AO and is one of the first known studies to explore these effects in a middle school setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Electronic monitoring\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Sample and procedure\n4. Results: 4.1 CMV and non-response bias\n5. Discussion and conclusion: 5.1 Discussion\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to understand how and when employees' perceived privacy violations and procedural injustice interact to predict intent to leave in the context of the use of social networking sites (SNSs) monitoring.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was conducted in a field setting of Facebook to frame the hypotheses in a structural equation model with partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Variables were measured empirically by administering questionnaires to full-time employed Facebook users who had experienced SNS monitoring.\nFindings: The results showed that when an employee believed that he/she had more ability to control his/her SNS information, he/she was less likely to perceive that his/her privacy had been invaded; and when an employee believed that the transparency of the SNS data collection process was higher, he or she was more likely to perceive procedural justice in SNS monitoring.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research draws attention to the importance of intent to leave in the absence of perceived procedural justice under SNS monitoring, and the partial mediation of the perception of justice or injustice by perceived privacy violations.\nPractical implications: For employers, the author recommends that employers come to know how to conduct SNS monitoring and data collection with limited risk of employee loss.\nSocial implications: For employees, the author suggests that SNS users learn how to control their SNS information and make sure to check their privacy settings on the SNS that they use frequently.\nOriginality/value: This study provided an initial examination and bridged the gap between employer use of SNS monitoring and employee reactions by opening a mediating and moderating black box that has rarely been assessed.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Using a business simulation to develop key skills - the MERKIS experience
|
[
"Management games",
"Simulation",
"Teaching methods"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__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.\nStructure 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.\nCase 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.\nCase 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.\nCase 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.\nCase 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.\nMERKIS: Benefits\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to give information about business simulation and its advantages by giving an example of the MERKIS business simulation game.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A description of the business simulation game is given, including an explanation of the game structure and several examples of the problem areas MERKIS can be applied to, as well as four illustrative cases from real-life experiences.\nFindings: - The article highlights the opportunities and benefits of the business simulation, as well as a list of the skills that can be acquired during the MERKIS simulation game.\nPractical implications: - The paper is a useful source of information for company management and individuals who are looking for effective alternatives to traditional seminars and training courses.\nOriginality/value: - The article presents a different approach to personnel/management training and could be of great value to managers, especially HR managers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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.\n2. 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).\n3. 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.\n4. \"All together, we can\" CBSP: 4.1 Aim of the CBSP\n5. General issues of the CBSP: 5.1 Trust mechanisms - relationship building\n6. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe in-depth a community-based social partnership, emerged in response to the financial crisis in Greece, with members from the private, public and civic sectors, using a case example of a grass-root self-organised national network.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Formal and informal interviews as well as written communication with members of the partnership mainly formed the basis for the analysis. Topics covered formation and implementation activities, outcomes, relationship issues, such as trust and links to social capital.\nFindings: A shared community risk and a national media campaign to increase public awareness of the issue were catalysts for individuals' sensitisation and participation in the partnership. The shared risk was the loss of community's social cohesion, through poverty aggravated by the financial crisis. Self-organisation led to innovative relationships, whereas trust, collective action and collaboration show social capital attributes in the partnership enabling resilience development.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research contributes in the fields of community-based partnerships and engagement in building community and crisis resilience. The findings are based on a case example. More evidence is needed in order to derive generalised statements about the partnership's contribution to crisis resilience.\nPractical implications: The partnership has shown impact on community engagement, health and well-being.\nOriginality/value: This paper presents a partnership type for building community and crisis resilience with the case example of one such partnership in Greece, formed to alleviate community distress caused by the crisis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The physician of Packingtown: the life and impact of Dr Caroline Hedger
|
[
"Labour",
"Working conditions",
"Management history",
"Caroline Hedger",
"Packingtown",
"Public health history"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__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\".\nLiving 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).\nWorking 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).\nLabor 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).\nHedger'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.\nConclusion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to illustrate the instrumental role of physician Caroline Hedger during the first half of the twentieth century, with her emphasis on worker health, which influenced American society and helped to improve working and living conditions of people across the USA.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on archival newspaper clippings, original journal articles and books written by the subject, historical manuscripts and other labor history resources, this manuscript pulls together information on this topic in a unique way to give a broad view of the impact of Hedger and her important role not only for the city of Chicago, but the nation as a whole.\nFindings: This research concludes that Hedger was an instrumental force and tireless advocate for the improvement of public health and social change. She was a constant driver for the creation of better living and working conditions of poor laborers, especially immigrants and women, desired the enhancement of child welfare, and was also helpful in supporting the labor movement and educating those involved in the process.\nOriginality/value: This is the first manuscript to explore the role played by Caroline Hedger in relation to her impact on the importance of the health of workers and their families. Her story is a testament to the powerful effect of a single person in a dynamic world, and demonstrates how understanding a worker's health contributes to greater insights about management history.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Environmental and social sustainability in Producer Organizations' strategies
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Cluster analysis",
"Environmental measures",
"Firm strategies",
"Producer Organizations"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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.\n2. 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).\n3. 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.\n4. Results: 4.1 The exploratory analysis\n5. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role Italian Producer Organizations (POs) play in implementing sustainability actions in the fruit and vegetable sector. In particular, it aimed at verifying whether environmental actions reveal different models with respect to implementation of sustainability and at analyzing the relationship between environmental strategies and specific POs' characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The work is based on a field survey carried out by submitting a questionnaire to POs. Collected data were processed by means of exploratory data and multivariate analysis techniques. A cluster analysis was used to classify POs with respect to their ability/will to translate views into sustainability actions.\nFindings: Three different groups were identified with reference to the involvement in ethical and environmental actions. Results show that POs' strategies often include interlinked economic and environmental objectives. In particular, product quality improvement often goes with the promotion of environmentally friendly techniques, while other environmental actions respond to a reduction costs rather than to a sustainability strategy.\nResearch limitations/implications: Only 38 out of 300 POs returned the questionnaire. Because of the small sample, the analysis has only an exploratory nature and aims at giving a first insight on how sustainability issues are intended and implemented in the agri-food sector.\nOriginality/value: Most works have analyzed environmental strategies at the company level. This study focused on POs in the agri-food sector as they can also represent the drivers of a sustainability pattern involving their members.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
School students' introduction to the world of work
|
[
"UK",
"Work experience",
"Employability",
"Part-time work",
"School students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nFindings: A majority experience\nDiscussion: 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the type of activities carried out by young people in a range of jobs that are typically undertaken by school students. The research examines opportunities for skill development in these jobs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research consisted of a nationally representative survey of school students. Multivariate analysis was used to examine the variables which predict the likelihood that a school student will be employed in a job which has a higher \"job activity score\" as measured by the frequency and number of activities undertaken.\nFindings: In total, 38 per cent of school students were working at the time of the survey. The survey demonstrates the diversity of the employment experiences and the opportunities it provides for skill development. The analysis supports the view that this first exposure to employment may offer opportunities for skill development. Unlike previous research in Britain the study is able to explore the extent of variations between jobs.\nPractical implications: The data demonstrates the extent to which school students combine full-time education with part-time employment and the value of this experience. This raises questions about whether schools should engage with naturally occurring employment experiences.\nOriginality/value: The paper uses a unique British data set to investigate what school students do in their part-time jobs, extending the hitherto limited research in this area. By addressing this issue the paper contributes to the debate regarding the value of this early exposure to the world of work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An examination of strategies under the financial tsunami
|
[
"Financial risk",
"Research",
"Business performance",
"China",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 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.\n2 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.\n3 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\n4 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\n5 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\n6 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\n7 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.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors, such as the different strategies adopted and the size of the company, that have a significant determining impact on the financial performance of companies in extreme circumstances.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research target of this paper is the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong. This is quantitative research and it is done on a survey basis, which includes hypothesis setting and statistical analysis. In addition, constructive suggestions are given to companies after analyzing the current situation.\nFindings: - In total, ten factors from four dimensions are determined as the critical strategies for the company to adopt in an uncertain financial situation. The result shows the influence of different factors on return on investment for the companies with different backgrounds.\nPractical implications: - The business environment today is full of turbulence and uncertainties; this, along with the fierce global competition, means that manufacturers are all struggling to survive. The financial tsunami that has swept across the global economy is believed to be the most catastrophic in living memory. Therefore, this research will be especially valuable and useful to companies which wish to achieve excellence in business performance in spite of such a global disaster.\nOriginality/value: - Manufacturers worldwide have suffered badly from the impact of the financial tsunami. The SMEs in Hong Kong are certainly not an exception. However, under the same adverse conditions, some have been able to maintain their stability or even thrive. The findings suggest some specific corporate strategies which will enable companies to survive and remain competitive.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Creating business intelligence from course management systems
|
[
"Management techniques",
"Action research",
"Knowledge management",
"Data collection"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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.\nPurpose: 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?\nMethodology: 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.\nBusiness 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\nTypical 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).\nBusiness 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\nCase 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.\nConclusion: \"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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article seeks to address the interface between individual learning facilitators that use course management systems (CMS) data to support decision-making and course design and institutional infrastructure providers that are responsible for institutional business intelligence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The design of a data warehouse is proposed that draw data from institutional transactional systems to provide decision support to individual action researchers. A prototype data warehouse is built to evaluate by means of a case study the usefulness validity of analyses performed.\nFindings: - 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).\nPractical implications: - The expectation exists that as the technology on which CMSs, as well as business intelligence tools are built evolves, the creation of full-scale business intelligence will become more feasible and scalable.\nOriginality/value: - 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. Research questions are asked and addressed and processes are designed to manage business measurements consistently.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An empirical study on productivity analysis of Indian leather industry
|
[
"Data envelopment analysis",
"Productivity",
"Indian leather industry",
"Technology closeness ratio",
"Grand efficiency"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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).\n2. 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).\n3. 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.\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Analysis based on aggregate data\n5. 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.\n6. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: It is essential to track the development of resource and pollution intensive industries such as textile, leather, pharmaceutical, etc., under burgeoning pressure of environmental compliance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the progress of Indian leather industry in terms of individual factors and total factor productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study applies and examines the various concepts of productivity such as labor productivity, capital productivity, material productivity and energy productivity. Further, it assesses and compares the performance of Indian leather industry in Tamil Nadu (TN), West Bengal (WB) and Uttar Pradesh (UP) based on productivity analysis, spatial variations determinants in productivity and technology closeness ratio.\nFindings: The findings suggest that as per the productivity analysis, WB leather clusters have performed remarkably better in terms of partial factor productivity and technical efficiency (TE), followed by TN and UP. This can be attributed to shifting of leather cluster of WB to a state-of art leather complex with many avenues for resource conservation. Further, the findings reveal that the firm size and partial factor productivities have significant positive correlation with TE which supports technological theory of the firm.\nPractical implications: The results of this study can be useful for the policy makers associated with the Indian leather industry especially to design interventions to support capacity building at individual firm level as well as cluster level to enhance the efficiency and productivity of overall industry.\nSocial implications: The findings also support the resource dependence theory of firm according to which the larger size firms should reflect on resource conservation practices, for instance the concept of prevention is better than cure based upon 3R (reduce, recycle and reuse) principles.\nOriginality/value: The paper gives an explanation of the productivity in the leather industry in terms of its factor productivity and TE.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. 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.\n2. Literature review: 2.1. Agile manufacturing\n3. 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).\n4. Case studies: 4.1. Company A\n5. 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.\n6. 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.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: For decades multiple management philosophies directed toward lean production and mass were assumed as to respond to process inefficiencies and rampant consumerism, optimizing operation costs. However, new customization and flexible productions philosophies have been gaining ground in some industries, such as the agile manufacturing. From a literature review that addresses the history of this philosophy, it is clear that agile manufacturing is not fully comprehended, with very scarce information about practical cases. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper the authors describe an exploratory methodology approach, with three semi-structured case study interviews. The goal is to study which of agile manufacturing practices are being applied in the studied companies and what is the perceived effect that these have on operational performance. Since most of these companies develop highly customized products, the role of agility on new product development can have a huge impact on their operational performance.\nFindings: Agile manufacturing is not yet a widespread philosophy of managing for the companies studied, being virtually unknown as a global concept. However, it was found that many of the practices of agile manufacturing are already implemented in these companies without association with this philosophy. It was also concluded, by the finding through respondents opinions, that agile practices contribute positively to the studied companies operating performance.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of this research derives from observation of agile manufacturing practices in SMEs. This research is useful to SMEs implementing agile manufacturing principles.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Patients' perceptions of healthcare quality in Ghana: A review of public and private hospitals
|
[
"Customer loyalty",
"Ghana"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: 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).\nTheoretical background and hypotheses development: Nature of SQ\nMethodology: Research instrument\nResults: 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).\nConclusion 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).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of service quality (SQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and customer loyalty (CL) in Ghana's health sector and a comparative analysis of private and public hospital SQ.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A convenient sample of 1,236 respondents was generated from both private and public hospitals. The study utilises an asymptotic distribution free estimation technique in CB-SEM using LISREL to test the relationships, while Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to determine the differences in SQ performances between private and public hospitals.\nFindings: The study found a significant positive relationship between SQ and CS. Also, the study found a significant positive relationship between CS and CL. Finally, SQ was found to be better in private hospitals, resulting higher CS and CL.\nPractical implications: The study highlights the significant role SQ plays in generating CS and CL to guide healthcare provider policy decision making to improve healthcare delivery. It also serves as a guide to patients to make informed decisions regarding the choice of alternative hospitals.\nOriginality/value: The study provides a useful guide to strategy and policy formulation in the healthcare sector by exploring the potential viability of SERVQUAL-related model as a relevant tool for assessing SQ in Ghana's health sector. The results also identified SQ gap between private and public hospitals and thus have implications on how hospitals should strategise to improve their SQ.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
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