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Relative size and complexity: e-business use in small and medium sized tourism enterprises in Thailand	[ "Electronic commerce", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Complexity theory", "Tourism management", "Thailand" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The research reported here is part of wider research into the adoption and evaluation of e-business technologies by Thai SMEs in the combined travel and accommodation service sector. In 2006 Thailand generated US$13,780 million from inbound tourism, and the travel and accommodation sector accounted for 40 per cent of this revenue (TAT, 2007). The sector is interesting in that large numbers of SMEs are active and the use of e-business technologies is widespread. Of primary interest in this paper are the different experiences of e-business adoption in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises, and the comparison with their larger counterparts. The paper compares the e-business technologies used in Thai tourism SMEs with large-sized travel agents and hotel chains, namely Expedia.com, Asia Web Direct, Ratestogo.com, Accor and BestWestern. This is of significance in two ways. Firstly, the particular issues associated with introducing e-technologies in developing economies are under-represented in the research literature. And, secondly the comparison of e-business use in large and small firms in the same sector can contribute to our understanding of the importance of firm size, particularly size within the SME sector.The paper is structured into five parts. The first part starts with a consideration of the stakeholders in the travel industry and an understanding of the business models of both the users and the technology providers. There are considerable tensions here as companies of very different sizes are required to both compete and to collaborate. Part two reviews selected prior literature on ICTs adoption in SMEs. In part three the methodology and details of the empirical sample are outlined. Part four discusses the ICT developments within the SMEs and compares these with the practices in established large travel sector firms. Finally, part five discusses the findings and their implications, particularly with respect to size within SME sector.\n2. Literature review: The review is in two sections. In the first an introduction to the characteristics and environment of tourism industry is described to provide a context for the travel service sector and its use of ICT. In the second section the review focuses on prior literature for ICT adoption in SMEs. Together these two literatures provide a basis for discussion on e-business technology adoption in tourism SMEs in comparison to their larger counterparts.2.1 Tourism industry and the e-business technology used in this industry\n3. Research methodology: This paper draws on wider ongoing research focusing on investigating e-business adoption and evaluation in Thai small or medium-sized tourism enterprises. In the research, five SMEs (three tourist agencies (TA) and two hotels (H)) were selected based primarily on accessibility (since they had to be willing to commit considerable time to on-site discussions etc), their size and their e-business use. SMEs were selected that had committed to using internet technology beyond simple e-mail and a static web site, which are ubiquitous. This would allow a richer discussion on the experience of using the technology and its evaluation. In this paper the adoption decision and experience of technology in use by the subject SMEs are compared among themselves, as well as with their larger-sized counterparts, to provide further insights into the impact of size and the realities of ICT adoption.In respect of the larger-sized travel agents and hotels, their e-business technologies and applications were collected using extensive secondary data and used for comparison and as context for the SMEs. The large companies were selected on the basis of the availability, accessibility and reliability of their secondary data but also took into account the views of the SMEs, who knew of, or had direct experience of, these larger firms. Eventually, Expedia.com, Asia Web Direct, and Ratestogo.com were selected as the large-sized travel agent examples, and BestWestern and Accor were selected for the large-sized hotels. All these companies, except Expedia.com, were resident in Thailand.Secondary data were collected from the companies' web site, online travel industry forums (i.e. hotel-online.com, hotelsmag.com, etc.) and from case materials produced by technology providers (e.g. Microsoft.com) (ElementK.com, 2007). These were collected and analysed to see what technologies the companies had adopted and used to enhance their online business. Wherever possible multiple secondary sources were used to cross check data. The individual in-company adoption decisions, however, were not included because of access difficulties and because the adoption processes for these very large firms was outside the scope of the main research. Comparison of ICT between SMEs, and their large-sized counterparts, thus focused on the technology in use, rather than adoption.In the case of the SMEs the sample was split into two. In the travel agencies' sub-sector the majority of firms are SMEs when defined by the standard convention of employees (i.e. less than 250 employees) (SBS, 2003). Here three firms were selected one each in the micro (0-9), small (10-49) and medium (50-99) sub sectors of the SME sector. In the hotels' sub-sector, the definition and classification of Thai \"hotels\" is problematic. Very small establishments are classified as \"guest houses\", \"motels\", or \"inns\", rather than hotels. The majority of Thai establishments that are typically officially licensed as hotels are 100 rooms or more, and have staff complements that define them as large SMEs, or simply large firms (i.e. over 250 employees). The two selected hotels in the sample are large SMEs that are private family owned hotels.From the literature review, the summary of major factors influencing IT adoption in SMEs (Table I) was used as a lens to investigate the five selected SMEs to see how each factor plays a role in each of these SMEs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with owner-managers or managers who were responsible for IT adoption. The questions were open-ended, aimed to elicit the interviewees to discuss factors, both internal and external, influencing their e-business technology adoptions. The technology and business issues were also discussed to learn about their use experience including how the technology has been used to support or enable their business. Overall, the cases are detailed with over 20 hours of interview access in each SME.The sample characteristics are summarised in Table II.\n4. Comparisons between SMEs and large firms: In this section, the factors found influencing ICT adoption in the selected SMEs are discussed first in 4.1 using the classification of factors outlined in Table I. This is followed by a discussion of ICT usage in the SME travel agencies and hotels (4.2 and 4.3 respectively), with reference to their larger counter-parts.4.1 Adoption by SMEs\n5. Discussion, some conclusions and future research: This research set out to learn more about the adoption and use of e-business technology within SMEs in the tourism industry and how and why this differs from its use in large-sized enterprises in the same industry. Of emerging interest to the authors was the difference within different sized SMEs and the significance of application complexity. Given the research goal the findings appear helpful and are discussed below.5.1 Large-sized firms and SMEs\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The research documented in this paper aims to explore e-business uses in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises compared with their larger counterparts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Five case studies were conducted with Thai tourism SMEs to investigate their technology adoption and use experiences. For large-sized enterprises, an extensive review of industry's practice was conducted. A comparison was then carried out based on the scope of the technology, namely inter-organisation, intra-organisation, and front-end side linking to customers.\nFindings: - In terms of e-business use, it is not surprising that Thai SMEs remain less advanced in utilising e-business technology. However, size is found to be a significant factor in determining SME behaviour not only in comparison to larger travel agencies or hotels, but also with the SME sector itself. Associated with this is application complexity that is again significant and linked to relative size. Finally, the choices made by small hotels and travel agents are shown to be influenced by the technology providers.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main research limitation is a limited generalisibility. Future research on SMEs in developing countries would make the comparison more sound and increase generalisability.\nPractical implications: - SMEs should pay more attention on strategic use of IT in order to compete with their larger competitors. At the policy level, more education on IT development skills and business potentials of IT are needed.\nOriginality/value: - The paper adds to the literature on IT adoption in SMEs particularly with respect to size within the SME sector, the importance of complexity and the role of technology provider.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A supply chain integrity framework for halal food	[ "Malaysia", "Halal", "Food industry", "Food integrity", "Food supply chain integrity", "Safeguarding of food integrity" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Recent food scandals have shaken consumers' confidence in the food they consume and led them to demand stricter controls on food production. The sector is therefore governed by myriad laws, regulations, and standards; but there are also many technologies and tools available to firms to ensure product quality and safety (Marucheck et al., 2011). For example, more private food standards have been developed since the 1990s, such as good agricultural practices, hazard analysis of critical control points and those produced by the International Organization for Standardization, all with the general aims of improving supplier standards and consistency, and avoiding product failure; eliminating multiple audits of food suppliers and manufacturers through certification of their processes; supporting consumers' and retailers' objectives by transferring their demands to parties upstream in the supply chain (SC); and producers being able to provide concise information about production processes in case of food incidents (Ali et al., 2014; Elliott, 2012, 2014; Marucheck et al., 2011; Premanandh, 2013; Van der Spiegel et al., 2012; Trienekens and Zuurbier, 2008; Tse and Tan, 2011). However, in light of recurrent food scandals, it is doubtful whether these mechanisms are effective and sustainable in the long term (Roth et al., 2008). Even though compliance with standards is expected to produce a \"snowball effect\" along the SC (Prajogo, 2011), Manzini and Accorsi (2013) argued this is not the case, and that checks on a product's quality often stop at the gate of the supplier that is certified by the governing body.\n2. Research design: Defining the dimensions of food SC integrity requires an exploratory approach that involves gathering qualitative data, and this approach was adopted in the present research. The exploratory approach is useful in determining important variables for further analysis (Marshall and Rossman, 2006).\n3. Framework development: 3.1 Contextualising halal integrity in the SC\n4. A framework for SC integrity in the halal food industry: After reviewing and consolidating the literature and insights gained from the semi-structured interviews, we propose four distinctive dimensions of SC integrity for halal food: raw materials integrity, production integrity, service integrity, and information integrity. The four constructs reflect each stage in the SC: first, production ex ante (raw materials integrity); second and third, production in process (production integrity and service integrity); and fourth, production ex post (information integrity), as shown in Figure 2. We operationalised the in-process stages into the two dimensions of production integrity and service integrity because the interviewees highlighted the issues with integrity in the restaurant and retailing stages of the SC. Other factors such as logistics (Tieman and van Nistelrooy, 2014), infrastructure, and \"enhancers\" (Zulfakar et al., 2014) have also been identified in the literature as being important in safeguarding the integrity of the SC, but they are not included in the present research. This is because the results showed us that they are too broad and dynamic, which happened at each echelon of the SC. Therefore, assigning the logistic factor into any specific dimension of the SC would be confusing especially in the development of this parsimonious framework. Even though in this study we do not venture into complex discussion on logistic, we acknowledged their importance to each dimension of the proposed SC integrity framework as depicted in Figure 2.\n5. Conclusion: The research has consolidated the literature on halal and other types of food in developing a framework for SC integrity for halal food. We define four distinctive dimensions of SC integrity: raw materials integrity, production integrity, service integrity, and information integrity, as summarised in Table IV.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a food supply chain (SC) integrity framework in the context of halal food.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper provides a discussion on the development of food SC integrity framework using triangulation of interviews' insights with literature.\nFindings: Current industry practices such as standards have not been sufficient in embracing the concept of food SC integrity. As the food SC is complex, food SC integrity framework is proposed as a solution. This paper proposes food SC integrity framework for halal food. It consists of four dimensions, namely: raw material, production, service, and information integrity. In addition, key elements for each dimension are derived from the interviews' insights.\nResearch limitations/implications: The framework provides the evidence that the safeguarding of halal food integrity does not rely solely on certification; but it requires an extensive effort beyond certification.\nPractical implications: Safeguarding of food integrity should involve all stages and actors of the SC. Religious standards should incorporate SC integrity profiling through a controlling mechanism to promote higher food product integrity.\nOriginality/value: Food SC integrity framework is important to religious food as it plays a significant role to the population. This study contributes to a newly developed SC integrity framework in the context of halal food.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Dissertations and discussions: engineering graduate student research resource use at New Mexico State University	[ "Citation analysis", "Collection development", "Library instruction", "Engineering graduate students", "PhD dissertations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Librarians want to understand the literature needs of users in order to develop relevant collections. They also seek to know the gaps users may experience in efficiently and effectively working with those collections. Library science has a long tradition of using citation analysis to improve collection development and to a lesser degree, to develop library instruction programs. Surveys or questionnaires, and interviews or focus groups have also long served to refine materials acquisitions and service provision. This study combines graduate faculty interviews with citation analysis to understand New Mexico State University (NMSU) engineering doctoral students' research resource use. Interviews with the College of Engineering (COE) faculty revealed both their expectations for and perceptions of research resource use by dissertators. Information gathered about resource use will assist in making collection decisions for COE.\n2. Objectives: The citation analysis was concerned with answering the following questions comparing NMSU PhD engineering dissertation lists from 1989-1991 (pre-web), 1999-2001 (web-emergent) and 2009-2011 (post-web):\n3. Literature review: A sizable number of citation analyses have been undertaken to inform collection management decisions. These studies are driven by the necessity of maximizing budget dollars spent on library materials, and consequently many are primarily of local relevance. Hoffman and Doucette (2012) examined the methodologies employed in a host of citation analysis studies which were done for collection development purposes, and provide a table of some 34, categorized by the variables each study analyzed. These variables included material type, citation age relative to citing publication date, frequency (journals ranked by citation frequency or scattering/dispersion of citations), local library access to material cited, number of cites per publication, subject area, publishers, impact factor, cost per citation and language.\n4. Methodology: For the purposes of this study the dissertations from three different time spans were selected. To represent the period before online material was readily available, the years 1989-1991 were examined, with 1999-2001 covering an emerging digital period, and 2009-2011 corresponding to when online materials - both open and deep web - were the new norm. Table I shows the number of dissertations by department that were reviewed.\n5. Results and discussion: Reference lists were as brief as nineteen and long as 247 citations. A variety of citation styles were used. Every dissertation had at least one incomplete or ambiguous citation which needed to be verified, and most had more than that. Figures 1 and 2 give the citations by format, and show the percentages and numbers of citations per each three-year period. The use of scholarly journal articles notably increased in this post-web period. Unsurprisingly, there was also an increase in the use of websites.\n6. Conclusion and recommendations: This study, like Conkling et al.'s (2010), failed to find a significant difference in citation patterns from pre to post-web. The conclusion drawn from this study that is most applicable to collection building may be that funds allocated to monographs need to be carefully calibrated against those allocated to serials. This study, as several others (Kushkowski et al., 2003; Williams and Fletcher, 2006), found that journals were the most heavily used resource by engineering graduate students and by some margin. One must not assume funds could usefully be moved from monographs to serials, however. While the doctoral students showed a decline in book use, this may change as more ebooks are added to NMSU Library's engineering monograph collection.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to determine whether the accelerated growth of web content during the years 1989-2011 had an effect on New Mexico State University engineering PhD students' use of the library's collections. The research also solicited direct input from PhD advisors regarding their expectations for and perceptions of present day PhD reference lists. If the collections were being used with less frequency, there would be reason to increase outreach to the engineering graduate student population, as well as to review current engineering collection development policies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Reference lists from College of Engineering PhD dissertations produced 1989-1991 (pre-web), 1999-2001 (web-emergent), and 2009-2011 (post-web) time periods were analyzed using descriptive statistics. PhD faculty advisors from the College of Engineering were interviewed about their expectations for, and perceptions of, research resources used in PhD dissertations.\nFindings: The number of resources cited, percentages of type of resource (e.g. book, journal, patent, etc.) and age of citation did not vary substantially over time, although the percentage of journal articles cited to total number of citations per dissertation increased post-web. Some websites were cited in the post-web period, but not in significant numbers. Engineering faculty expressed concerns that some PhD students were not critically evaluating and fully synthesizing the information they were citing in the literature review sections of their dissertations.\nOriginality/value: The results of the citation study provided PhD faculty advisors with the positive news that there appears to be no degradation in the quality of references post-web. However, the expressed faculty interest in seeing some dissertators undertake a more robust analysis of the literature created an outreach opportunity for the engineering librarian: a graduate student workshop in how to use the library collections to perform a thorough survey of the relevant research in order to write an effective literature review.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Water seepage in multi-storey buildings	[ "Water supply and waste systems", "Buildings", "Hong Kong" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: As with all forms of \"unauthorized building works\" water seepage in private residential multi-storey buildings in Hong Kong is a longstanding and complex problem for residents and the Hong Kong government. Not only does it represent a threat to hygiene, but also causes a deterioration of building safety if left. Where water enters it may bring along with it various organisms and chemicals which could affect the \"healthiness\" of the interior. For instance, fomites via body secretions in leaking sewerage and drainage systems facilitate the vertical spread of communicable disease in high-rise residential buildings. Literature on such housing problems and health related issues in Hong Kong is scarce. The context of research on squatting (Lai, 1985), fire hazards (Walters and Hastings, 1998) and unauthorized building works (Lai and Ho, 2001; Nield, 1989; and Davison, 1990) have been documented. But there is a lack of research on water seepage problems and health related issues in private multi-storey buildings in Hong Kong. To fill this important gap, this study, the first of its kind, discusses the government procedures, legislative provisions and policies in handling such complaints.In an investigation into building defects, Addleson (1977) concluded that the natural causes of defects can be summarized into three generic groups of dampness, movements, and chemical and biological changes. The widespread problem of housing dampness is also significant outside Hong Kong. Chew and DeSilva (2003) studied the building maintenance problems with high-rise residential buildings in Singapore. They found that leakage was the most significant problem, accounting for a full 46.59 percent (ceiling leakage (36.20 percent) and service pipe leakage with corrosion (10.39 percent) of all (nine) problems identified. As a health related issue, the results of Hyndman's (1990) survey show that there are significant relationships between reported and measured damp, cold and mould and various aspects of reported health in the public sector housing in London (UK). In particular, Gunnbjornsdottir et al. (1997) added evidence to a relationship between water damage in their homes from broken pipes, leaks or floods and respiratory symptoms in young Swedish adults. In addition, similar results were found by Brunekreef (1992) in children of 6-12 years old in The Netherlands.The community outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong\nMajor problems: Low success rates\nRecommendations: The following recommendations are suggested to address the seepage issues.Construction practices\nConclusions: Government has practical difficulties in handling seepage complaints. While there is a consensus that the source or cause of the defect is often very difficult to trace, the week \"building care\" culture and the lack of cooperation among individual flat owners or occupiers have contributed to the building neglect. Consider the fact that a large number of households are thought to suffer nuisance created from severe seepage as a direct consequence of their housing, a fact that should be noted in any policy addressing housing and heath issues in Hong Kong. The short-term water seepage solution seems to be the establishment of a centralized task force coordinating government departments and overseeing the external consultants engaged in the identification of seepage source and cause with the help of technology. In the long run, the health risk can be reduced and partly prevented by the active involvement of the Home Affairs Department in increasing general public awareness of the problems, forming Owners' Corporations, enacting provisions of the third party insurance[11] and setting up a repair and maintenance sinking fund[12], and the tight monitoring and control over the building construction by the Buildings Department.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The objective is to address the major issues and suggest solutions to solve the water seepage and health related problems in residential buildings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The methodology relies on a literature review on water damage in residential buildings with references to the vertical spread of SARS in a housing estate in Hong Kong. Working procedures for handling seepage complaints by Hong Kong government departments and their performance are examined.\nFindings: - The study found that individual departments have difficulties in identifying: the cause and source of seepage, and resolutions to the problem given the limited powers and legal constraints that exist. A holistic approach by individual departments is needed to address the issue. The proposed formation of Owners' Corporations, third party insurance and repair and maintenance sinking fund for old buildings would help solve the building defect and health related problems.\nPractical implications: - The suggestions in the study would help reduce and partly prevent the environmental nuisance and, more importantly, health risk. Residents are better prepared in the future for a possible return of SARS or other infectious disease.\nOriginality/value: - Research on water damage is very scarce in Hong Kong. And perhaps this is the first of its kind. The study identifies the broader issue of maintaining and managing a high-rise residential building. The building management and health related problems identified in the study should be noted in any policy addressing housing and health issues.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The idea of transport independence in the Russian Arctic: A Scandinavian institutional approach to understanding supply chain strategy	[ "Case study", "Supply chain management", "Strategy implementation", "Arctic shipping", "Process perspective", "Translation theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The literature on supply chain strategies largely concentrates on supply chain configurations that should ensure profitability, efficiency and/or customer responsiveness (Gunasekaran et al., 2008; Gammelgaard, 2010; Nakano and Akikawa, 2014). However, Fawcett and Magnan (2002, pp. 359-360) argue that \"supply chain strategies lack specificity and reach\" due to variations and inconsistency in the understanding of supply chain management (SCM) in practice. Further, supply chain strategies are often studied in isolation from their adoption in practice through models or hypotheses on supposed organisational actions (Qi et al., 2011; Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013; Nakano and Akikawa, 2014). So it seems like there is a lack of understanding of how supply chain strategies are developed and implemented in practice. Without considering how supply chain strategies are deployed, their feasibility may become problematic (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013).\nSupply chain strategy literature: Overall, supply chain strategies can be divided into two types - those that focus on efficiency and those that deal with responsiveness (Gammelgaard, 2010). The efficiency focus is particularly found in concepts such as Lean supply chain, just-in-time and business process redesign, which aim to achieve a low cost of product inventory and delivery and thereby improve the quality and efficiency of the supply chain (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013). A strategy of supply chain responsiveness, on the other hand, is commonly typified as an agile supply chain strategy (Christopher and Towill, 2001; Gunasekaran et al., 2008) aiming at adapting swiftly to rapidly changing customer needs and market demand (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013). To achieve customer responsiveness, the importance of strategic supplier selection and the forging of close ties with relevant suppliers is often highlighted (Bernardes and Zsidisin, 2008; Vanteddu et al., 2011; Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013). However, the two strategy types commonly employ supply chain practices such as building relationships with suppliers, eliminating waste, facilitating customization and information sharing (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013). Both strategy types have a common understanding of context as being limited to customers, demand factors and/or suppliers. The external and institutional environment does not play a role.\nThe theoretical framework: strategy implementation through translation and editing effects: SCM literature applying institutional theory has so far focussed on what effects the context has on strategic decision making (Kinra and Kotzab, 2008; Tate et al., 2010; Doha et al., 2013), as well as on the implementation of new SCM strategies and technologies in existing or new contexts, when companies seek to expand their markets and activities internationally (Bello et al., 2004; Rogers et al., 2007; Williams et al., 2009; Zhang and Dhaliwal, 2009; Liu et al., 2010; Kauppi, 2013; Doha et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2013; Hoejmose et al., 2014). This literature stream, however, does not touch upon the processes of how meanings and actions change when companies face a choice of supply chain strategy. The Scandinavian institutional approach, as applied to this study, in particular discusses processes and change in organisational actions. It stresses the change of strategies and practices from their time and place of origin to their objectification in ever-new localities (Czarniawska and Joerges, 1996). Scandinavian institutionalism further makes it possible to consider a company's strategic actions in response to contextual pressures, as well as revealing the reverse effects of supply chain strategies on the contexts in which they are developed. In this way application of this institutional approach provides unique insight into dynamic supply chain strategy processes.\nMethod: Research design\nCase presentation: Contextual settings of the Russian Arctic\nSummary: The development and translation of the idea of transport independence as a supply chain strategy in the Russian Arctic roughly encompassed three periods, each propelled by specific processes and their consequences (see Table I).\nDiscussion: The idea of transport independence emerged in the Russian Arctic as a consequence of several contextual challenges that became critical for economic activities in the area. Through its translation into actions and objects the idea manifested itself as a strategic response by the focal company to state pressures and constraints causing both organisational and institutional change. At the same time, the focal company's new SCM practice of sailing without icebreaker assistance violated the historically established principles of cargo transportation in the Arctic waters. The \"idea\" initially shook the major actors and officials because they did not expect it to be effective or powerful enough to produce a number of editing and unintended effects on the external environment, including legislation, supply chain relationships and Russian Arctic SCM in general. Therefore, the findings support the supposition that institutional factors may play a role in how supply chain strategies evolve and that such strategies are not (only) objective, rational processes of goal setting and activity planning. In order to understand how supply chain strategies emerge and evolve, a process perspective is necessary.\nConclusion and implications for theory and practice: Through the lenses of the Scandinavian institutional approach, the study presents the journey of a supply chain strategy, conceptualised as the idea of transport independence in the Russian Arctic. Strategy implementation is viewed through how the strategy emerges under certain circumstances, evolves through translating strategic initiatives into actions and objects, as well as produces the editing effects on the supply chain practices, context and its content after this strategy is translated. Through the analysis of the translation process of the idea into practice, we have found that not only does the environment and institutional context influence supply chain strategy but this strategy may, in turn, impact the context, both in terms of government regulations and reactions of other actors in the supply chains.\nLimitations and further research: The findings provide deep insights into the real-life situation of the translation of an idea into supply chain practices. However, the Russian Arctic is obviously a highly specific context, not least due because of its harsh natural conditions. Further research should include case studies on the implementation and adaptation of supply chain strategies in other contexts to learn more about the processes that we found not to be solely a result of rational goal setting and planning. Even though our choice of a single-case approach points to the importance of case uniqueness, we still suggest that more investigations should be made into strategy implementation in both emerging and developed economies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how supply chain strategies emerge and evolve in response to contextual influence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative single-case study presents the journey of a supply chain strategy, conceptualised as the idea of transport independence in the Russian Arctic context. Data from 18 semi-structured interviews, personal observations and archival materials are interpreted through the institutional concepts of translation and editing effects.\nFindings: The study reveals how supply chain strategies evolve over time and can affect institutional factors. The case study further reveals how contextual conditions make a company reconsider its core competencies as well as the role of supply chain management practices. The findings show that strategy implementation through purposeful actions can represent a powerful resistance to contextual pressures and constraints, as well as being a facilitator of change in actual supply chains and their context. During the translation of the idea of transport independence into actions, the supply chain strategy transformed itself into a form of strategic collaboration and thereby made supply chains in the Russian Arctic more integrated than before.\nResearch limitations/implications: More empirical studies on strategy implementation in interaction with contextual and institutional factors are suggested. An institutional process perspective is applied in this study but the authors suggest that future research should include a human dimension by an exploration of day-to-day routines and challenges that employees face when strategising and the actions they take.\nOriginality/value: The study provides an understanding of how a new supply chain strategy emerges and how it changes during implementation. In this process-oriented study - merging context, process and strategy content - it is further shown that a supply chain strategy may affect the context by responding to contextual and institutional challenges.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Constraint priority scheduling using an agent-based approach	[ "Production scheduling", "Simulation", "Manufacturing systems", "Productivity rate", "Competitive strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The degree of performance excellence that a manufacturing and logistics system can achieve greatly depends on the scheduling performance of the system. Therefore, scheduling needs are to be concise and well-determined before initiating a production job, but able to respond to the ever-changing and uncertain market or environment against the constraints of production capacity, resources, time frame, etc. Scheduling is important because it is an integral part of the manufacturing planning process. Manufacturing processes cannot run without scheduling. Scheduling establishes the timelines, delivery, and availability of manufacturing resources, whether they are personnel, inventory or capital. Scheduling is an essential section of the manufacturing plan as the schedule offers a guide as to how the manufacturing will progress. Scheduling problems arise in diverse domains and areas such as flexible manufacturing systems, production systems, computer design processes, logistics systems, communication, etc. Scheduling is essential particularly in the manufacturing and logistics industry. A scheduling problem can be classified as a flow-shop scheduling problem, a job-shop scheduling problem or a machine scheduling problem (Cheung et al., 2005; Dorndorf and Pesch, 1995; Hoque and Kingsman, 2006; Huang and Chung, 2003). Informally, the scheduling problem can generally be described as a relationship balance between a set of jobs and a set of machines during a given time period. Each job consists of a chain of operations which need to be processed uninterrupted. The objective of the schedule is the determination of an optimal schedule based on the given relationship balance.During the past decades, scheduling problems have captured the interest of a significant number of researchers, with a considerable number of studies and solutions published and proposed (Goncharov and Sevastyanov, 2009; Kempenaer et al., 1996; Leven and Segertedt, 2007; Pritschow et al., 2001; Xuan and Tang, 2007; Zhang et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2007). However, the scheduling problem is the hardest combinatorial optimization problem among the manufacturing and logistics problems (Shen, 2002). Because of its inherent intractability, heuristics procedures or local search methods such as simulated annealing (Laarhoven et al., 1992), tabu search (Amico and Truban, 1993), neighborhood search (Lee and Chen, 2009) and genetic algorithms (Croce et al., 1995; Paredis, 1992; Wang et al., 2000) are used to solve the problem. However, due to the non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-hard nature of the scheduling problem (Baker and Smith, 2003; Cheng et al., 2003; Yuan, 1992; Zhou et al., 2007) that no simple algorithm yields optimal solutions in a limited amount of computer time, and efficient solution algorithms for the common problem features are still not standardized or determined for solving the optimality in polynomial time (Morton and Pentico, 1993), leaving room for improvement.Agent-based computation is a new domain paradigm of information and communication technology (Bigus and Bigus, 1998; Weiss, 1999; Wooldridge, 1997) whose theories and applications have been applied in the scientific and engineering disciplines (Aydin and Oztemel, 2000; Bussmann and Schild, 2000; Cerrada et al., 2007). Agents address autonomy and complexity: they are adaptive to changes and disruptions, exhibit intelligence and are distributed in nature (Ferber, 1999). The interaction of agents is a kind of social activity in the agent-based environment. Agents can help in self-recovery, react to real-time perturbations, and are vital in the globalization context (Horling and Lesser, 2004; Krothapalli and Deshmukh, 1999; Nareyek, 2001; Parunak, 1994). Therefore, by using the agent-based approach in modeling the scheduling problem in manufacturing and logistics industries, it can simulate the autonomy, responsiveness, redundancy, and distributedness of the scheduling activities (Tonshoff et al., 2001; Yokoo, 2001). Agents can be designed to work with uncertain and/or incomplete information and knowledge (Kronienko et al., 2004).Agent-based computation has been regarded as an important approach for the modeling and simulation of manufacturing systems (Jenning and Wooldridge, 1998; Shen and Norrie, 1999; Shen et al., 2001), and has been applied as a methodology to manufacturing enterprise integration (Lu and Yih, 2001; Yu et al., 2003; Park et al., 2003), enterprise collaboration (Surana et al., 2005; Jagdev and Thoben, 2001; Swaminathan et al., 1996), shop floor control (Brennan et al., 1997; Wang et al., 1998; Smith, 1980), holonic manufacturing (Van Leeuwen and Norrie, 1997; Deen, 2003), and manufacturing supply chains (Hilletofth et al., 2009). However, manufacturing case-based agent simulation research in scheduling is rare; areas in the existing literature are mostly in market-based negotiation protocols (McDonnell et al., 1999; Lee et al., 2003; Goldberg et al., 2003), or a combination of agent-based approaches with traditional scheduling techniques such as heuristic search methods (Shen, 2002; Cowling et al., 2004). In this paper, the scheduling problem is modeled and solved by using the domain perspective of agent-based approach in a case study. The integrated agent-based approach is rarely found in the literature. By using an agent-based computation approach, the agents can be implemented to represent manufacturing resources or aggregations of resources. Thus, the scheduling activities can efficiently and effectively communicate and cooperate among departments within an enterprise or among enterprises.The structure of this paper is as follows: Section 2 defines and models the proposed agent-based scheduling environment for the scheduling problem with three agents, i.e. sales agent, scheduling agent, and production agent, and presents the algorithms and logical functions for modeling the agents and the proposed agent communication methods. In Section 3, a simulation of the proposed agent-based model is conducted, datasets are collected and analyzed, and the empirical analysis results are presented. Finally, a conclusion with proposed future developments is given in Section 4.\n2 Agent-based scheduling environment: The proposed agent-based scheduling model is a decentralized and individual-centric approach using a constraint-prioritized algorithm, to model the scheduling problem. In the agent-based scheduling environment, it defines the universal properties for the groups of agents involved and connects the agents within the same scheduling environment. The agents involved in the proposed agent-based scheduling environment explore the scheduling problem space under the guidance of the relationships, limitations, and dependences among problem objects, i.e. the constraints (Beck et al., 1998). In the proposed agent-based scheduling environment, the universal constraints of operation precedence for both job and machine apply to the scheduling environment as well as all agents involved. Individual constraints also can apply to individual agents. A graphical illustration of the proposed agent-based scheduling environment and its agent entities is shown in Figure 1.Suppose scheduling problem has a set of jobs and machines in which each job consists of a chain of operations and is to be processed within an uninterrupted time period in a given machine. A schedule is an allocation of operations to time intervals on machines in order to find a schedule of minimum length. Therefore, the structure for the job-shop scheduling environment in the agent-based approach can be defined as: Equation 1 where Job_ID, Machine_ID, Time_Duration and Agent_Name are the domains, respectively, for the variables job J={1, ... ,m}, machine K={1, ... ,n}, time T={universal clock time}, and agents a={sales agent, scheduling agent, production agent}, in which constraint C={operation precedence for a job, operation precedence in a machine} implying the process sequence for a job and the process sequence in a machine such that process uniqueness is applied.From the perspective of the agent-based scheduling environment, the objective of the constraint-prioritized schedule is to minimize the makespan with respect to the scheduling constraint, i.e. the operation precedence for a job and the operation precedence in a machine. Therefore, for the scheduling constraint of operation precedence for a job, in denoting cik as the completion time of job i on machine k and tik as the processing time of job i on machine k, then the constraints for the processing of job i on machine h precedes that on machine k or the processing on machine k precedes that on machine h, illustrated, respectively, as follows: Equation 2 Equation 3 From the above two disjunctive constraints, a single constraint with an indicator coefficient aihk can be defined for the operation precedence constraint in the agent-based scheduling environment, i.e.: Equation 4 where: Equation 5 Apart from the scheduling constraint of operation precedence for a job, a constraint of operation precedence in a machine is also applied, which means the operation sequence of jobs within a single machine. Therefore, for two jobs i and j that both need to be processed on machine k, then the constraints for job i coming before j or job j coming before job i are illustrated, respectively, as follows: Equation 6 Equation 7 The above two disjunctive constraints can also be defined with an indicator coefficient xihk, and then the constraint of operation precedence in a machine can be rewritten as follows: Equation 8 where: Equation 9 With the constraints (2) to (9), these constraints can ensure that the processing sequence of operations for each job can be related to the prescribed order, and that each machine can process only one job at a time. Therefore, the objective for the agent-based scheduling environment with respect to the constraints can then be defined as: Equation 10 2.1 Sales agent\n3 Modeling and simulating the agent-based scheduling environment: The proposed agent-based scheduling environment and the three agents are modeled using the Java platform of the software package AnyLogic, in which the assumptions and logics presented in Section 2 are applied. AnyLogic is adopted for the agent-based modeling and simulation because it is a readymade software package with an object-oriented technology approach in which computer programming or coding of parameters is not necessary for the development of the agent-based scheduling environment and its agent. Therefore, the cost and time for the design and development of the agent-based model and its simulation can be reduced.In the agent-based scheduling environment, statecharts are used as the building blocks to model an agent, but different logics and activities are applied to different agents to maintain the autonomy and uniqueness. Figure 6 shows a typical statechart flow in AnyLogic.3.1 Agents modeling\n4 Conclusion: In this paper, an agent-based approach is proposed for solving scheduling problems. In this approach, an agent-based scheduling environment with a sales agent, a scheduling agent, and a production agent is proposed. Throughout the autonomous communication between agents, a constraint-prioritized schedule is generated to fulfill customer orders and customer change orders, as well as to achieve a better scheduling performance result. From the simulation results and analysis, satisfactory results show that the proposed model can generate a constraint-prioritized schedule that can completely fulfill customer orders, adjust and fulfill customer change orders, and achieve a better scheduling result. It can thus be concluded that the proposed agent-based approach can provide another perspective domain and concept for solving scheduling problems.The academic and industrial contribution of this study is the agent-based modeling approach enhances the collaboration across the entire scheduling activities. The constraint priority scheduling with agent-based approach aligns the participants (i.e. the sales agent, scheduling agent, and production agent) of the scheduling activities in the agent-based scheduling environment so as to determine the optimal constraint-prioritized schedule. Under the agent-based modeling approach, the participants or agents no longer focuses solely on its own individual activity. Each participant or agent that relates to scheduling activities has to collaborate with others, and contribute to the decision making of the optimal constraint-prioritized schedule, the efficiency and effectiveness in the scheduling activities can thus be increased. Moreover, the agent-based model developed in this study can be used as a reference or a sub-model to develop further models or theories to further improve and enhance scheduling performance in the industry.The proposed model in this paper can be further improved through several aspects, such as enhancing the characteristics of the sales agent with forecasting, the scheduling agent with supplier monitoring, the production agent with inventory controlling, introducing a purchasing agent to monitor the purchasing tasks that relate to or affect the scheduling and production activities, etc. The model also has the potential to be extended to an enterprise resources planning (ERP) system by creating more agents in the environment, such as a purchasing agent, an engineering agent, an accounting agent, a shipping agent, etc. Also, a multi-agent ERP system for the enterprise can be created so as to enhance the overall autonomy of the enterprise.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Scheduling needs to be concise and well-determined but able to respond to the ever-changing and uncertain market or environment against the constraints of production capacity, resources, time frame, etc. The purpose of this paper is to model and solve a scheduling problem with another domain perspective that adopts the concept of agent, and an agent-based scheduling environment is proposed for solving the scheduling problem, in which three agents are developed, i.e. a sales agent, a scheduling agent, and a production agent.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The modeling and development of the proposed agent-based scheduling environment and its agents under constraints are discussed. Constraint priority scheduling concepts are applied to the environment and its agents, and the feature of responding to customer change orders is included in the model. The proposed agent-based scheduling environment with three agents is applied to a lamp-manufacturing company in China as a case study, and the integrated agent-based approach is also illustrated in the case study.\nFindings: - Throughout the autonomous communication between agents in the proposed model, a constraint-prioritized schedule is generated to fulfill customer orders and customer change orders, as well as to achieve a better scheduling performance result. From the simulation results and analysis in the case study, satisfactory results show that the proposed model can generate a constraint-prioritized schedule for the studied company that can completely fulfill customer orders, adjust and fulfill customer change orders, and achieve a better scheduling result.\nOriginality/value: - In this paper, the scheduling problem is modeled and solved by using the domain perspective of agent-based approach. By using an agent-based approach, the agents can be implemented to represent manufacturing resources or aggregations of resources. Under the proposed modeling approach, the collaboration across the entire scheduling activities can be enhanced, and the efficiency and effectiveness in the scheduling activities can also be increased.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impact of career plateau and supervisory support on career satisfaction: A study in offshore outsourced IT firms in Sri Lanka	[ "Career satisfaction", "Hierarchical control", "Communication technologies", "Sri Lanka" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Globalisation, new technologies, and the emergence of new occupations make changes to the employment landscape and have important implications for career management (Ruigrok et al., 1999; Baruch, 2003). The offshoring of services (such as packaged software, information technology (IT) services, banking and insurance) to developing countries is growing at a faster rate and estimated that more than 18 million jobs were likely to go offshore by 2008 (World Bank, 2006, pp. 8-12). Although it is estimated that more than 150 countries are competing to offer offshored services to a handful of wealthy countries, some of the most attractive offshoring countries are China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka (World Bank, 2006, p.11).The current study is confined to explore career satisfaction of IT professionals engaged in the offshore IT firms in Sri Lanka. An IT professional is defined as a person engaged in producing IT related output as his or her primary job function (SLICTA, 2007, p. 7). This definition does not include the employees engaged in IT enabled services (ITES) as their main job function does not involve producing IT related output, although they use IT in their day-to-day work (SLICTA, 2007, p.7). Some of the broad job categories covered by the definition are database administration and development, business analysts and system integration, system and network administration, programming and software engineering, and solutions and technical architect (SLICTA, 2007, p. 7).In the knowledge-intensive offshore business sectors such as IT, economic value is found more in intangibles and less in tangibles. Therefore, knowledge and expertise IT professionals possess is perceived as vital to the success in the knowledge based economy (Powell and Snellman, 2004). Sri Lanka's offshore outsourcing sector emerged in the mid 1990s and currently has approximately a 30,000 member IT workforce of which 45 per cent have a Bachelor's degree or a higher qualification in IT (SLICTA, 2007). In this regard, the World Bank (2006) states that although cost is an important factor in attracting offshore businesses, it is not the only criterion that clients consider in making site selection. In terms of labour quality and external labour market size, the World Bank (2006, p.29) states \"despite its small (labour force) size, the country (Sri Lanka) turns out a significant number of technically qualified individuals especially in IT, accounting and business management\". Hence, the World Bank (2006, pp. 20-29) suggests that Sri Lanka's comparative advantage is in the quality and not in the quantity of its labour force.Understanding career issues of IT professionals in this sector is important for several reasons. First, relatively little empirical research has investigated career issues of IT professionals (without confining to offshore context) outside the Western world (e.g. Appelbaum et al., 2002; Counsell, 1999; Ituma and Simpson, 2006; Lee, 2002). Second, it is very rare to find empirical evidence on the work environment and work practices in the global offshore IT sector as most all empirical studies examine employees attached to the ITES sector (e.g. Bhatnagar, 2007; Budhwar et al., 2006a, 2006b; Raman et al., 2007; the special issues of European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 12 No. 4 in 2003, and Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 12 No. 4 in 2002).Third, previous studies conducted in Sri Lanka provide evidence that IT firms tend to acquire individuals with required capabilities from the external labour market (Mahahettige, 2008), and the premium on the industry experience is very high in compensation decisions (Mahahettige, 2008, Sanjeewani, 2009). Further, opportunities available for promotion are few and far between as there are typically two layers in the organisational hierarchy - top management and technical specialists (Wickramasinghe, 2009). Furthermore, training and development activities provided by the firms emphasise short-term productivity (Mahahettige, 2008). In this regard, one could argue that IT professionals today have a much shorter cycle before their skills become obsolete (Edvinsson and Camp, 2005; Lee, 2002). However, the evidence from the Sri Lankan context reveals that employers expect new recruits to stay with them for about two years from the day they start (SLICTA, 2007). This implies that employers do not expect long-term employee commitment from their IT professionals.It is possible to argue that the offshore outsourced IT firms' preferred people management practices have been tailored to meet business objectives conditioned by the global competitive environment. The issues of addressing economic growth and industrialisation has influenced the Sri Lankan government to initiate mechanisms to attract foreign investment and modern technology. This has resulted in extensive opportunities for IT firms and for IT personnel. However, foreign clients of offshore IT firms could make this sector a \"foot loose\" or highly mobile business sector. As a consequence, on the one hand, IT firms choose to employ personnel in the most efficient manner (Mahahettige, 2008, Sanjeewani, 2009; Wahundeniya, 2009). The firms hire employees from the external labour market, focus on their short-term job performance with short-term productivity targets, and pay them market-based rewards maintaining internal equity (Mahahettige, 2008). Further, IT firms are likely to standardise jobs to facilitate rapid replacement, considering employees as \"short-timers\" (Mahahettige, 2008). On the other hand, the employers' preference for job specific skills and experience creates an environment for IT professionals to hop from one workplace to another and maximise their employability (Mahahettige, 2008; Wickramasinghe, 2009). This may give them a feeling that their experience is rewarded (Mahahettige, 2008). This leads to high labour turnover of IT employees (Wickramasinghe, 2009). In the above context, it is possible to assume that the career issues faced by IT professionals in the offshore outsourced IT firms could be different from other traditional business sectors. Therefore, one could argue that the offshore IT employees are a unique population that is worthy of empirical investigation.The objective of this research, therefore, is to explore the extent to which career plateaus (hierarchical plateau and job content plateau) and supervisory career support influence career satisfaction. Hierarchical plateau and job content plateau are identified as variables that explain the nature of careers in the offshore outsourced IT sector. Supervisory career support is identified as a factor that affects employees' career development. By so doing, the study examines the role of career plateau (hierarchical plateau and job content plateau) and supervisory career support in explaining IT professionals' career satisfaction. It is expected that the findings of this study will provide insight into individual career satisfaction and provide useful information to better understand suitable career management practices to be adopted in the offshore IT firms. Further, it is expected that the findings of this study will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area.In order to provide context for this article, in the next section, the relevant literature is briefly reviewed. This is followed by the methodology adopted. Thereafter, the main findings are presented and discussed. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings and research areas for further inquiry and understanding.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Career satisfaction as a measure of career success\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Descriptive statistics for the variables of job content plateau, supervisory career support and career satisfaction are shown in Table II.Table III shows zero-order correlations between the variables. The correlation between job content plateau and career satisfaction is negative and not significant. Similarly, the correlation between hierarchical plateau and career satisfaction is negative and not significant. The correlation between hierarchical plateau and job content plateau is positive and significant. The correlation between supervisory career support and career satisfaction is positive and significant.To determine how the independent variables predict career satisfaction, multiple regression was performed. Results are summarised in Table IV. The model explained 51 per cent of the variance in the career satisfaction (Adj. R2=0.508, p<0.001). As expected, H1 is supported. It is expected in H2 that job content plateau will have a significant negative effect on career satisfaction. However, the results of the analysis do not support H2. Supervisory career support (b=0.658, p<0.001) has a significant positive effect on career satisfaction, supporting H3. The results also suggest that marital status has a significant positive effect on career satisfaction (b=0.224, p<0.05), where married workers are more satisfied with their career than single workers.\nDiscussion and concluding remarks: The purpose of the current study was to enhance the understanding of career satisfaction of IT professionals in the context of offshore outsourced IT firms and to examine its association with career plateau and supervisory career support. First, the low mean values obtained for job content plateau suggest that IT professionals are not experiencing job content plateau. The results of the regression analysis showed a negative, but non-significant, relationship between job content plateau and career satisfaction. In this regard, previous studies (e.g. Sanjeewani, 2009; Wahundeniya, 2009) conducted in the context of offshore IT firms provide evidence that firms use several practices to avoid job content plateauing. For instance, firms widely use lateral and cross-functional teams in structuring work (e.g. Sanjeewani, 2009; Wahundeniya, 2009). These lateral and cross-functional moves would be helpful in preventing job content plateauing. Further, the offshore IT firms generate revenue by performing projects for foreign clients, and the work is organised around projects (Sanjeewani, 2009). This project based IT work environment could also facilitate meeting the organisation's needs for flexibility and employees' need for broad-based career experiences.Second, the study inquired into the objective measurement of hierarchical plateau in terms of the length of an employee's tenure in the current job. The results of the regression analysis suggest that the hierarchical career plateau does not make a significant contribution to the career satisfaction. This finding supports the findings of Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009) and Nicholson (1993). The sample of our study was highly educated with qualifications in the job related fields. Although the relevance of educational qualifications to the job is related to career success, they are working in an environment where very little hierarchal movement is available. As suggested by previous researchers (e.g. Allen et al., 1998), IT professionals may have recognised that the hierarchical plateauing is an inevitable part of the organisational life in the offshore IT industry.Third, when both job content plateau and hierarchical plateau are considered, past research provides evidence that hierarchical plateau has less effects on career outcomes than job content plateau (e.g. Allen et al., 1998; Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel, 2009; Nachbagauer and Riedl, 2002). However, the findings of the current study suggest that neither hierarchical plateau nor job content plateau have a significant effect on the career satisfaction of individuals. With regard to the relationship between hierarchical plateau and job content plateau, it was found that the correlation between hierarchical plateau and job content plateau is positive and significant. This supports the claim that hierarchical plateau may result in job content plateau although it is not a necessary consequence (see Nachbagauer and Riedl, 2002).Fourth, it was found that supervisory career support significantly predicts career satisfaction. The contemporary literature on career management suggests that the notion of career management has moved beyond organisations to focus on flexible and individual models (e.g. Hall, 2004). Further, it is suggested that organisations and employees have to acknowledge and act upon the increased importance for employees to self-manage their careers (see Strickland, 1997). Yet, the findings of this study suggest that IT professionals need supervisory support for their career satisfaction. This supports the suggestion made by Yarnall (1998) that line managers could be identified as the first port of call in dealing with career development matters. Hence, one of the implications of the findings is that firms should ensure that line managers have the necessary skills to coach and counsel employees as appropriate.Fifth, overseas clients of the offshore outsourced IT firms are in a continuous search for locations that give them the best deal (World Bank, 2006), and offshore IT firms' preferred people management practices may be conditioned by the global competitive environment. The reaction of the IT firms to increasing economic pressures may be replacing the traditional long-term, paternalistic career model with a new, short-term, transactional deal, which does not allow much interference from the side of the firms in managing careers of their employees (Mahahettige, 2008, Sanjeewani, 2009). This supports the arguments made by Appelbaum and Santiago (1997). As a consequence, IT professionals expect continuous support from the part of the immediate supervisor for their career satisfaction.Overall, from a theoretical viewpoint, this study makes a contribution to the analysis of career issues of IT professionals in offshore outsourced IT firms. As very little work has been directed towards their career satisfaction, the findings of the study open the door for future investigations. Therefore, it could be expected that the findings of this study would lead to the advancement of this area as a field of inquiry. Further, the findings could be used to assist in both organizations and individuals to apply strategic decisions in managing individual careers.\nLimitations of the study and future research: This study was designed as a cross-sectional study employing quantitative methodology with a sample confined to full-time IT professionals employed in offshore IT firms. For the study purposes, hierarchical career plateau was operationalised based on the objective measurement of years of tenure in the present job. Although this measure was widely used in the previous research, future studies could collect data on the subjective measures of hierarchical career plateau to complement the objective measure. Further, the study was confined to investigate the influence of career plateau and supervisory support on career satisfaction. However, the findings suggest married employees are more satisfied with their career than those who are unmarried. In addition, findings also suggest a negative relationship between age and supervisory career support suggesting younger workers are more satisfied with supervisory career support than older workers. Therefore, future studies could investigate effects of individual demographic characteristics on career satisfaction. Finally, qualitative and longitudinal studies are needed to enhance the understanding of how IT workers and their employers effectively manage careers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of career plateau (hierarchical plateau and job content plateau) and supervisory career support on career satisfaction.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A random sample of 119 IT professionals employed full-time in offshore outsourced IT firms in Sri Lanka responded. Multiple regression was used for the data analysis.\nFindings: - Supervisory career support significantly predicts career satisfaction. However, hierarchical plateau and job content plateau do not significantly predict career satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: - Although IT employees attached to the offshore IT firms may be identified as a unique population worthy of empirical investigation, details on how they actually manage their careers remain obscure. The findings of the study provide interesting implications for individuals' career satisfaction and will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building institutional capacity: more accountability than autonomy?	[ "Accountability", "Capacity building", "Autonomy", "Organizational improvement" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Inter-school competition coupled with high-stakes accountability and \"autonomy\" measures have become commonplace throughout the world in educational change efforts to improve schools and educational systems (Sahlberg, 2010). Along these lines, the education policy context in England has radically changed with the influence of persistent policies promoted to assert \"autonomy\" at local level and re-assert control through \"accountability\" measures at national level (Ball, 2007, 2008; Whitty, 2008a, b). The contradictory and often conflicting policies of \"autonomy\" and \"accountability\" have created a landscape characterized by \"de-centralised centralization\" (Karlsen, 2000) where the state \"steers at a distance\" whereas schools earn \"autonomy\" in proportion to their performance evaluated through techniques such as the use of targets and performance indicators (Storey, 2004). The performance of schools evaluated against a system of classifications and targets determines their future in terms of funding, their lifespan and the amount of \"autonomy\" they are granted; the risk of closure and re-opening with an extreme \"makeover\" is too real for \"underperformers\" (Gunter and Thomson, 2009; Ranson, 2008; Sammons, 2008).\nCapacity building for school improvement: The term \"capacity building\" has become ubiquitous, not just in educational change and reform literature but throughout the public and private spheres. However some researchers have a strong preference for \"capability\" rather than capacity (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012). Our understanding of this rather recent phenomenon is that its pervasiveness is a consequence of the accelerated pace of change, exacerbated in a world increasingly obsessed by competitiveness. And, yet, little is gained from the assertion that we need to address \"capacity building\" or schools cannot be improved without \"capacity building\" or further sustainable improvements to the quality of teaching and learning in our schools require significant and sustained commitment to capacity building at the school, district and systemic levels (Fullan, 2010; Levin, 2012).\nMethodology: The data on which this article is based comes from a qualitative study of \"school autonomy\" in England, which adopted a case study approach. The sample included five schools, all with varying degrees of success and each serving a range of different communities and representing a different type of secondary schools. Schools were selected through purposive sampling and are broadly representative of the increasing spectrum of \"school choice\" from faith schools to federations. All participating schools have been anonymised with the use of pseudonyms and for ethical reasons concerning privacy and anonymity, we are particularly circumspect about being precise about which participating school represents which school type and in some instances the relationships between them.\nFindings: School improvement in the pressure cooker\nExquisite data workmanship: from data sheets to effective structures: All participating schools are data-rich. Some are obsessional in gathering data about student learning by a variety of people and from a variety of sources. Student data comes from their primary schools, test results, and ongoing school based assessments, both summative and formative. As Terry, head teacher of Riverside acknowledges however, \"measuring the pigs doesn't fatten them up\"; large amounts of data are useful only when focused on instruction and improving student learning. Lack of effective data use to inform improvement was raised at the last Ofsted inspection of Riverside and at the time of data gathering, the school was implementing strategies to move from data-rich to data-driven to track student learning with concrete changes being made to encourage data use and data circulation throughout the school. At all participating schools data collated from various sources are used to place students in the right group, track student progress to ensure they were put in the right group and identify where to focus attention:\nAccountability reproduction: multi-level monitoring: A prominent feature of the reproduction of \"successful\" DNA is the intricate web of accountability. Analysis of who holds whom accountable and for what revealed that performance is generally accepted as a legitimate form of accountability. Within this ensemble, participating schools are organizations that closely monitor their productivity while they encourage teachers \"to think about themselves as individuals who calculate about themselves, 'add value' to themselves, improve their productivity, strive for excellence\" (Ball, 2003, p. 217). The use of staff, department and school targets are the most apparent form of accountability and teachers are monitored closely while departments are held accountable for their performance by school leaders mainly through the use of test scores:\nPerformance and career development: One of the most prominent features of all participating schools is the strong commitment to developing staff performance across the sites with ample well-articulated performance and career development opportunities and support needed to benefit from the opportunities offered. There is agreement among school leaders in the case study schools that professional development is based on performance management, which in turn is based on core standards and influenced by the school development plan. As Patrick, a head of department at Hansberry, states:\nCloning success: For the participating schools, the above school improvement model with three pillars of \"success\" or three successful organizational genes is built upon the \"logic of school improvement\" and if successfully replicated through identity cloning, an attempt to establish organizational identities identical to that of the \"performing schools,\" it can lift less successful schools. This is particularly evident in the Bridgewater and the Peterson Secondary where the commitment to the organizational DNA theory is particularly strong. \"Organizational DNA\", also known as \"enterprise DNA\" and \"brand DNA\", is a well-established term in business management. Scholars who subscribe to this theory argue that organizational \"genetic material\" determines key characteristics of the organization (Govindarajan and Trimble, 2005) and facilitates organizational improvement (Heifetz et al., 2009). Adonis, (Headteacher, Peterson) explains how they apply the organizational DNA theory to educational change and school improvement:\nConclusions: This article investigated how schools build capacity for improvement under the twin towers of autonomy and accountability asking whether these policies produce the conditions necessary for creating the kinds of positive synergies needed for professional renewal and sustainable school improvement or whether they erode the prospect of sustainable transformation of school communities. Cross-case data provides evidence of travelling strategies - exquisite data workmanship, performance development, and accountability reproduction - used by schools, but these are implemented with varying intensity, hybridity and creativity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore the strategies schools use to build capacity in English secondary schools where they operate under strong pressures to improve continuously and failure to do so carries severe penalties.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The approach involved in-depth case studies of six schools that utilized multiple sources of evidence. These include policy documents, interviews with multiple actors and observations of key management meetings.\nFindings: Findings suggest travelling strategies used by schools, but these are implemented with varying intensity, hybridity and creativity. The common travelling strategies re-contextualized in organizational fields are data workmanship, multi-level monitoring, and performance development. For participating schools, successfully replicating these three pillars through identity cloning, an attempt to establish institutional identities identical to that of the \"performing schools\", helps lift schools in different contexts.\nOriginality/value: There has been ample discussion on organizational capacity building, but the evidence on the actual strategies schools use is thin. This paper contributes to knowledge generation and understanding by providing as complete a picture as possible of the strategies schools use while remaining skeptical regarding the long-term consequences of short term \"gains\".\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Does one size fit all? New service development across different types of services	[ "Survey", "Project team", "New service development", "NSD methods", "Service characteristics", "Service typology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The development of innovative services has become a key source of differentiation and competitive advantage (Gustafsson and Johnson, 2003; Storey and Hull, 2010) as well as an engine for future growth in today's markets (e.g. Sawhney et al., 2004). However, firms are reported to struggle with new service development (NSD) (Storey and Kelly, 2001; Alam and Perry, 2002; Edvardsson et al., 2013). In an attempt to determine how NSD should be conducted to reach favorable outcomes, academic research has provided a range of generic frameworks for NSD processes (see e.g. de Jong and Vermeulen, 2003; Kindstrom and Kowalkowski, 2009) and success factors (see e.g. de Brentani, 1991; Menor and Roth, 2008; Paswan et al., 2009). However, these models are typically developed solely on the basis of studies in a single country or sector, particularly financial services, telecom services, or healthcare (e.g. Storey and Easingwood, 1996; Avlonitis et al., 2001; Syson and Perks, 2004), or they are conceptual models that have not been tested empirically. Yet, there is an implicit assumption that these models are broadly applicable to any services, despite the absence of studies confirming this assumption by empirically exploring the nature of NSD across different service types (Kuester et al., 2013; Storey et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 An overview of service typologies\n3. Methods and data: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: 4.1 Identification of a service typology\n5. Discussion: The extant NSD literature has tended to assume that the key practices for NSD identified in one context apply across different types of services. Consequently, researchers have recently highlighted the need to study how service context influences the NSD process (Biemans et al., 2016; Kuester et al., 2013; Storey and Hull, 2010). Recently, Storey et al. (2016) suggested further research on how service sector characteristics influence how NSD is performed. To address this pivotal shortcoming in NSD research, this study aimed to explore how the nature of NSD differs across various types of service. For this purpose, a service typology was empirically developed, and subsequently the features of NSD in each of the four service types identified (i.e. routine-, technology-, contact-, and knowledge-intensive services) were examined. Table V provides an overview of NSD resources, practices, methods, and results across different types of services.\n6. Conclusions and implications: 6.1 Theoretical contributions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The extant new service development (NSD) literature tends to assume that the key practices for NSD identified in one context apply for all services, and has failed to sufficiently consider differences in NSD between service types. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of NSD across different service types.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An extensive, cross-sectoral survey was conducted in seven countries. Data from 1,333 NSD projects were analyzed to empirically derive a service typology and examine if and how different types of services vary in terms of NSD resources, practices, methods, and results.\nFindings: Based on six service characteristics, the study identifies four service types: routine-intensive, technology-intensive, contact-intensive, and knowledge-intensive services. The study also identifies specific NSD resources, practices, methods, and results that are prevalent across the service typology. The evidence indicates that the use of advanced practices and methods differs dramatically between service types.\nPractical implications: The paper enables practitioners to expand their current understanding on NSD by providing insights into the variability of NSD across service types. The results suggest that either service-type-specific models or a configurable model for NSD should be developed.\nOriginality/value: This study provides one of the first empirically derived service typologies for NSD. The study demonstrates that NSD resources, practices, methods, and results differ across service types, thereby challenging the \"one size fits all\" assumption evident in current NSD research.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Learning organization and innovative behavior: The mediating effect of work engagement	[ "Organizational culture", "Work engagement", "Learning organization", "Innovative behavior" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In today's knowledge-driven economy, maximizing the innovative potentials of employees has become a top priority in every organization (Johnston and Bate, 2013). New ideas and initiatives generated by employees offer organizations a competitive advantage through differentiation and enhancement of products or services. With the growing significance of intellectual capital across all business sectors, researchers and practitioners in human resource development (HRD) can thus be expected to develop and provide effective interventions that encourage their employees to engage in innovative behavior. Moreover, considering that innovation requires a cultural change with collaboration, it is not surprising that HRD plays a more critical role in facilitating a culture that supports innovation than ever before (McLean, 2005). Given the current emphasis on innovation in HRD, however, research on determinants that stimulate employees' innovative behavior is still incomplete.\nConceptual framework and model: Theoretical foundation\nReview of the literature and research hypotheses: This section reviews the concepts of innovative behavior, learning organization, and work engagement. Relationships between innovative behavior and two antecedents - learning organization and work engagement - are also postulated based on the results of previous research and the adopted theories of absorptive capacity, broad-and-build, and intrinsic motivation.\nMethod: This study used survey as a data collection tool and implemented structural equation modeling for empirically testing the proposed research model (Kline, 2005). SPSS 19.0 and LISREL 8 were used for data analyses (Byrne, 1998).\nResults: Basic assumptions, reliability, and construct validity tests\nDiscussion: The purpose of the study was to build upon and extend the existing research on individual innovative behavior by offering a proactive way for organizations to encourage organizational learning culture and their employees' work engagement. To achieve this objective, the study developed and tested a model in which learning organization was hypothesized to affect individual innovative behavior directly and indirectly through work engagement. SEM analysis revealed that learning organization does not directly influence innovative behavior; however, it indirectly influences innovative behavior through work engagement. In other words, organizational learning culture promotes individuals' innovative behavior when employees are engaged in their work. The findings of this study suggest that employees with high levels of work engagement are more likely to seek out new and innovative ideas and thrive to improve their organization's effectiveness in the learning organization setting (Dulaimi et al., 2003). Previous studies also reported the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between organizational resources and service climate (Salanova et al., 2005), job resources and proactive behaviors (Salanova and Schaufeli, 2008), and various antecedents (job characteristics, perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support, rewards and recognition, procedural justice, and distributive justice) and job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intention to quit, and organizational citizenship behavior (Saks, 2006). Similarly, this study supports that the learning organization in terms of culture, team learning, continuous inquiry, support systems, embedded knowledge sharing system, and leadership must directly tackle and promote employees' work engagement.\nImplications for future research: Although there is a large body of literature on innovation, the roles of learning organization culture and employee energy in promoting individual innovative behavior have been rarely examined. This study proposed and found that employees' work engagement facilitates innovative behavior within the learning environment. The outcomes of this study add further evidence to a number of studies that have emphasized the effect of employees' energy and motivation in the innovation process (e.g. Amabile, 1996; Dulaimi et al., 2003). Moreover, the results extend the understanding of the interplay of the individual and organizational learning culture as forces of individual innovative behavior. Work engagement should help employees generate new ideas and take initiative in implementing creative ideas with the support of the organizational learning culture. Amabile (1996) noted that intrinsic motivation is a key component of innovative behavior because positive behavior and strong psychological resilience derived from self-fulfillment are necessary to deal with challenges that arise in the innovation process.\nImplications for HRD practice: The findings of this study have three important implications for HRD practices. First, HRD practitioners can provide effective interventions to enhance their employees' innovative behavior by devoting efforts to create a workplace that promotes collaborative learning culture and work engagement. In addition, the study revealed that learning organization itself is not enough to promote their innovative behavior; therefore, HRD practitioners should take employees' work engagement into account when developing relevant programs. Second, the results of the study provide evidence supporting that HRD should be involved in the strategic planning process because building an innovative culture needs organizational change efforts beyond developing individual competencies. In view of the strategic role of HRD in organizational change (Garavan, 2007), the study highlights the fact that HRD practitioners should be proactive in working with senior managers who set organization's goals and strategies and employees across departments within the organization. Third, the study analysis provides vital information regarding the benefits of employees' work engagement. As shown in a number of studies (e.g. Bakker and Bal, 2010; Hakanen et al., 2008; Saks, 2006; Salanova and Schaufeli, 2008), employees' positive emotions and energy contribute to organizational success. Work engagement is a concept that addresses employees' passion, energy, and commitment to work; therefore, HRD practitioners can consider aligning employees' work engagement with organizational success by encouraging them to add value to their work.\nLimitations: Several limitations to this study need to be acknowledged. First, the study did not examine individual attributes/characteristics, for instance, self-evaluation (Crawford et al., 2010), personality (Wefald et al., 2011), or self-efficacy (Lowman, 2005), because Xanthopoulou et al. (2007) shared that the literature did not clarify the role of personality as an input or a mediator for examining innovative behaviors. Individuals might react differently to a leader's attempts to encourage the level of engagement; thus, the personal variables of cognition and affects that matter to the job/task and relations with others should be considered in future research. Second, this study used cross-sectional and self-reported data only. If actual performance measures that reflect the firm's innovative capacity can be captured, such variables should be measured (Skerlavaj et al., 2010). Third, the generalizability of the findings of the study to other businesses and cultures is limited due to a sample drawn from a limited number of consenting organizations and due to the Korean cultural context. Lastly, findings from this study will not be applicable where employees work with a coach or team leader who has been specifically matched for the purpose of improving innovative behaviors. In such conditions, it could be important to include variables such as leader-member exchanges and empowering leadership.\nConclusion: Given the current business environment that constantly demands new and customized products, enhancing employee innovative behavior appears to be of overriding importance. Drawing on several theories related to motivation and innovation, the study examined the positive role of employee energy and happiness in innovative behavior within the learning environment. The study results indicated that individual innovative behavior is influenced by the organizational learning culture through work engagement. In particular, the study suggests that the organizational culture and systems alone are not sufficient without its members' full involvement and commitment. Thus, organizations need to consider how various components of the learning organization can be aligned with employees' work engagement and provide the necessary support systems to develop their employees' innovative capacity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between learning organization and innovative behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used surveys as a data collection tool and implemented structural equation modeling for empirically testing the proposed research model.\nFindings: The study found that learning organization culture makes a direct and indirect impact on employees' innovative work behaviors. Results from hierarchical multiple regressions and structural equation modeling supported that work engagement fully mediates the relationship between the learning organization and innovative work behaviors.\nPractical implications: HRD practitioners can develop effective interventions to enhance their employees' innovative behavior by devoting efforts to create a workplace that promotes collaborative learning culture and work engagement.\nOriginality/value: This study is valuable to HRD specialists interested in developing effective interventions that encourage employees to engage in innovative behavior.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Expatriates' and teenagers' nomadic identities: an intersectional analysis	[ "Teenagers", "Expatriation", "Cultural imperialism", "Intersectionality", "Nomadic identities", "Post-colonialism" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a globalized world, encountering new cultures has become a daily phenomenon. Appadurai (2005) emphasizes that globalization leads to the creation of supranational identification that can affect everybody. In this paper, we will focus on the development of nomadic identities linked to geographical movement. We assume that nomadic individuals are facing or have faced several cultural realities different from their own for a significant period of time.\n2. Theoretical perspectives: 2.1. A socio-cultural perspective: identity construction as a dynamic\n3. Methodology: We focus on expatriates and geographically itinerant young people who have to adapt to different cultures at different periods of their life and develop different relations to the new cultures they encounter. Drawing on the parallels between these two samples, we want to understand how their relations to different cultural environments differ and what other factors intersect in the process of identity construction. This comparison makes the process of identity construction particularly visible; indeed, teenagers go through an identity crisis (Erikson, 1972) breaking free from their parents to identify with groups other than their family. Combining two fields, we approached expatriates and teenagers differently:\n4. Findings: The comparison of our separate analyses allowed the emergence of three axes that account for complex nomadic identities: distance from a culture, self-perception and group identification and power relations resulting from social structure. Three different expressions of nomadic identities also emerged:\n5. Discussion: Comparing the experiences of international executives and geographically itinerant teenagers brings to light significant differences between individuals from developed and developing countries. Social interaction plays a key role in respondents' identity construction. They develop their identities differently through their international experiences in confronting new cultures,' however, this is always through interaction with their environment and according to the role and the status ascribed to them within it. Their practices fit the concept of \"doing culture\", accounting for the social construction of identity. Teenagers and expatriates \"experience the world\" through the frames of reference of dominant groups, producing a pattern of thought and behaviour that reproduces social inequalities. This power relation dynamic strongly influences our respondents' identity construction. They define themselves through their affiliation to specific in-groups, according to their status in society, while differentiating themselves from their out-groups in a social identification process (Tafjel, 1982).\n6. Conclusion: We analyzed the underexplored intersection between cultural context and social status within society and its effects on the development of nomadic individuals. In doing so we went beyond the mainstream approach that focuses on national culture to understand the complex identity development of people who have lived in different cultures.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of the different relations of power embedded in social structures on the construction of nomadic identities at the individual level.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a qualitative approach. The authors interview expatriates adjusting to an international audit firm in Luxembourg and young in geographical itinerancy. A multilevel analysis based on intersectionality let emerge macro- and meso-level influences on the construction of nomadic identities.\nFindings: The authors differentiate three types of expression of nomadic identities thanks to the concept of intersectionality. The authors showed that power relations at the macro level of the society leads to cultural imperialism at the meso level of organizations thus shaping the identity construction of the individual.\nResearch limitations/implications: The qualitative approach remains very specific and future research may focus on different contexts to generalize the results. The influence of gender on the construction of nomadic identities needs to be further investigated.\nPractical implications: Diversity policies should be revisited to avoid cultural imperialism.\nOriginality/value: The authors go beyond the monolithic approach, explaining the development of nomadic identities through the lens of national culture only. The authors point out that the individual develops different social identities intersecting in his or her identity development.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Discovery of repost patterns by topic analysis in enterprise social networking	[ "Content analysis", "Enterprise social networking", "Message-diversity", "Repost pattern", "Retweet pattern", "Topic analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Online social media has become a part of our daily routines. People can easily share and spread messages to their friends or strangers through the internet and their smartphones regardless of time and place. Social media have various forms, such as Sina Weibo, Twitter and Facebook, where users can exchange messages. Enterprise social networking (ESN) is an organization's use of online social media among people who share business interests or activities.\n2. Related works: 2.1 Overview of social media mining in business applications\n3. Method: In this section, we present the development of a novel method for discovering the repost patterns of users in an enterprise social network at the macro-level through semantic analysis. The framework is shown in Figure 1.\n4. Experimental results: 4.1 Data collection and pre-processing\n5. Discussion and implications: This study proposed a novel method to discover the repost patterns of users through a semantic analysis of social media messages. First, topic detection was conducted using the LDA topic modeling method, the results of which showed the legible topic characteristics of messages. Second, the topic diversity of messages was quantified using the defined metric of message-diversity. The statistical characteristics of message-diversity showed that most microblog messages had low message-diversity less than 0.5, suggesting that most of these messages had distinct topic properties. The overall shape of the density curves built from the numeric feature of message-diversity also revealed the message-diversity distribution for all microblog messages. Repost behaviors may be more prominent with high-volume repost numbers for those messages in highly dense distribution regions. However, based on the defined repost rate with message-diversity, we explored the repost patterns of users and yielded interesting results. Specifically, a high repost rate is more prominent for those messages with message-diversity around 0.5. Given that the most value of message-diversity ranges from 0 to 0.5, the value around 0.5 is a relatively higher value of message-diversity. Therefore, those messages with diverse topics are more likely to attract a higher repost rate. In other words, a high repost rate is more prominent for diverse topic messages instead of single distinct topic messages.\n6. Conclusions: In this study, we proposed a novel method that revealed the repost patterns of users in ESN via semantic analysis. We studied the Sina Weibo messages of two enterprises over a period of 46 months and sought to find the repost patterns of users, which were related to the semantic of messages in enterprise social media information diffusion. We then used LDA topic model to understand the latent topic of social media messages. To exhibit the generality of our method, we developed two topic models with different numbers of topics for the social media messages of the two enterprises. Specifically, we proposed a quantitative metric - message-diversity - to measure the diversity of the topics of the messages. We also analyzed the statistical characteristics of message-diversity for each topic and the message-diversity distribution for all messages before exploring the repost patterns from the message-diversity and the repost rate.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: An increasing number of users are inspired by enterprises to repost social media messages, which greatly contributes to the dissemination of such messages in an online social network. The purpose of this paper is to discover the repost patterns of users regarding enterprise social media messages to help enterprises improve information management abilities for social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper proposes a novel method to discover the repost patterns of users in enterprise social networking (ESN) at the macro-level through topic analysis. Specifically, it proposes the message-diversity metric to measure the latent topic diversity degree of the social media messages. Through this technique, the paper analyzes the message-diversity characteristics of the enterprise social media messages and then explores the repost patterns of users.\nFindings: The experimental results show that a high repost rate is more prominent for the messages with diverse latent topics, where message-diversity is as high as 0.5.\nPractical implications: The findings have great potential in several management areas, such as employing social media marketing, predicting popular messages, helping enterprises strengthen their online presence, and gathering more potential customers.\nOriginality/value: This study explores how the repost patterns of users in ESN can be determined through general macro-level behavior of users instead of their micro-level processes. The patterns can also lead to a deeper understanding of which contents can drive people to diffuse information. This study gives an important insight into the information behavior of social media users for enterprise management researchers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Optimal holding period for a real estate portfolio	[ "Investment appraisal", "Market value", "Real estate", "Discounted cash flow", "Sensitivity analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In a companion paper (Baroni et al., 2007) we offered to use simulated cash flow dynamics for the rents income and for the terminal value in a real estate portfolio. These dynamics are assumed to be simple diffusion processes where the corresponding parameters are the trend and volatility, respectively for the rents and for the asset price. These parameters were estimated from a rental index and a real estate price index using transactions data for Paris (France), taking into account the empirical correlation between theses two indices. This approach uncovered an interesting rule played by the holding period in the determination of the present value of a real estate asset.Recent studies on real estate portfolios show the growing interest of the investors in trying to determine an optimal holding period that optimizes asset or portfolio value. Obviously, this holding period may depend on a numerous factors: market conditions and forecasted dynamics, transactions costs, property type, asset volatility, inflation forecasts etc. ...This issue has been examined for some time in the equities literature (see Demsetz, 1968; Tinic, 1972). Evidence suggests that transaction costs influence holding periods. More precisely, Amihud and Mendelson (1986) show that assets with high bid-ask spreads (which are usually a proxy for high transaction costs) would be held, in equilibrium, by investors who expect to hold the assets for a long time. Atkin and Dyl (1997) in an empirical research consider the effects of firm size, bid-ask spread and volatility of returns on the holding period of stocks for a sample of 2,000 Nasdaq firms and 500-1,100 NYSE firms over the period 1981-1993. They show a significant positive correlation between holding period and transaction costs as well as firm size, and a negative correlation between holding period and price variability.Concerning real estate holding periods, research is more limited. For the USA, Hendershott and Ling (1984), Gau and Wang (1994) or Fisher and Young (2000) argue that holding periods are principally conditioned by tax laws. For the UK market, the relationship between returns and holding period seems to be complex. Rowley et al. (1996) in a study based on investors' interviews show that investors and property developers tend to have a holding period in mind from the on start. Their conclusion is that for offices, the holding period decision is related to depreciation or obsolescence factors. However, for retail property, the decision is more empirical and would depend on active management as well as the state of the market.In a more recent article, Collett et al. (2003) underline how the knowledge of the holding period is important in the decision to invest in commercial real estate portfolios. Investment appraisal requires specifying an analysis period and the asset allocation depends on the variances and covariances of assets that are affected by the reference interval or analysis. Using the database of properties provided by IPD in the UK over an 18-year period they conclude from an empirical analysis that the median holding period is about seven years. But sales rates vary across the holding period (probably for rent cycles and lease structures reasons) and the holding period vary by property type. The larger or more expensive the properties are, the longer the holding periods. And if the return is greater, the holding period is lower. However, they were not able to offer conclusions about a possible link between volatility and holding period, because of an absence of proxy to measure this eventual relationship.For small residential investment, Brown and Geurts (2005) gave an empirical response to the two following questions: how long does an investor own an apartment building and why do investors sell some properties more frequently than others? Through a sample of apartment buildings of between five and 20 units over the period 1970-1990 in the city of San Diego, they find that the average holding period is around five years. They also deduced that investors sell property sooner when values rise faster than rents.In an another article, Brown (2004) shows that considering the risk peculiar to real estate investments may explain the reasons for owning real estate by private investors and their buy-sell behavior. However, applying the CAPM for individuals to understand their portfolio management does not drive to relevant results, as demonstrated by Geltner and Miller (2001).In this paper, our offer to determine whether there is an optimal holding period for real estate assets if the terminal value is computed using a growth rate for the real estate prices. Firstly, we analyze the optimal holding period issue within the standard DCF framework. Secondly, we determine the optimal holding period when we consider the terminal value to follow a diffusion process. Finally, the impacts of the key investment valuation parameters on the optimal holding period are explicitly set out using a sensitivity analysis.\nOptimal holding period in DCF: In this first part, the holding period for a portfolio of real estate assets is considered in the traditional DCF framework.Let us denote by k as the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) used to discount the different free cash flows (denoted FCFt for each date t) and PTas the terminal value of the portfolio or individual asset. We assume that the free cash flow of the terminal year T (the last year of the investment period) is used to estimate the terminal value and is assumed to continue growing at a constant rate forever after that date (i.e. at rate g[?]). Consequently, the terminal value PT of the asset is: Equation 1 Then P0,T the present value of the asset sold at date T may be computed as: Equation 2 If g is the growth rate of the free cash flows during the holding period, all the free cash flows in (2) may be calculated from FCF1. Then the expression (2) becomes: Equation 3 In order to study the function P0,T as a function of T, we consider the function P0,T+1-P0,T. From (3) we deduce the following present value for the asset at date T+1: Equation 4 which can be expressed as a function of P0,T by considering separately the last cash flow FCFT+1 and by substracting the discounted terminal value of P0,T: Equation 5 After calculation (see Appendix), we obtain by discounting separately the first free cash flow: Equation 6 The sign of the right part of equation (6) corresponds to the sign of g-g[?].We have then the following situations:* If g>g[?] then P0,T+1-P0,T>0* If g=g[?] then P0,T+1-P0,T=0* If g<g[?] then P0,T+1-P0,T<0Moreover, as k>g, the function (1+g)/(1+k) is less than one and: Equation 7 is decreasing with T, which implies that: Equation 8 Hence, in the DCF approach, if we assume a constant growth rate from the first period to infinity: g=g[?], and a constant discount rate, no optimal holding period can be detected. In fact, in this case, the terminal value which could seem to be separated from the cash flows is actually PT+1,[?] and the portfolio present value is in realityP0,[?]: Equation 9 which can be expressed by taking into account the break at date T in the valuation process: Equation 10 This clearly illustrates the reason why the valuation is constant whatever is T in the case of a unique growth rate. With a constant discount rate, to get a non-constant present value according to the break at date T, it is necessary to consider two growth rates: one for the cash flow for the first T periods (g) and one after T+1 (g[?]). Then relation (10) becomes, by denoting P0,[?]T the present value with a break at date T: Equation 11 The result in (6) shows that the function P0,[?]T is:* a concave and monotonic increasing function of T when g>g[?]* a constant function when g=g[?]* a convex and monotonic decreasing or increasing function of T when g<g[?]For instance, with k=8.40\\, per \\,cent, g=4\\, per\\,cent, g[?]=3\\, per\\,cent and FCF1=1, Figure 1 illustrates the monotonous character of the function in the DCF approach. Figure 2 corresponds to a case where the loss in the terminal value is exactly balanced by the gain in cash flow: g=g[?]. Figure 3 is obtained with g[?]=4.5\\, percent.We can conclude that the traditional DCF framework cannot let appear an optimal holding value for a portfolio, according to the asset present value, whatever the rates of expected growth are.\nDetermination of an optimal holding period using the terminal value trend: Baroni et al. (2007) consider the use of Monte Carlo simulation methods in real estate valuation. Their main contribution is the modeling of the terminal value. They consider that the price of the real estate asset follows a geometric Brownian motion: Equation 12 This equation assumes that price growth rates can be modeled as a simple diffusion process where parameters mP and sP are the trend and volatility. According to the modeling presented in (12), the expected return of the asset at time T is emT, which represents the trend. We offer this modeling to enrich the DCF method in order to exhibit a framework in which an optimal holding period may exist. To compare this new approach with the discrete time case derived in section 1., let us denote m=em-1. First, we must determine the optimal solution in this new approach, and then we will analyze it according the different parameters of interest.Optimal solution\nSensitivity analysis: For a given price P0 and a given WACC, k, we are now going to analyze the sensitivity of the optimal holding period to three key investment valuation parameters:1. a, the real estate portfolio's net initial yield;2. g: the free cash flow growth rate during the investment holding period; and finally3. m the price growth trend for the portfolio's terminal value.Sensitivity to the portfolio net initial yield (a)\nConclusion: As seen above, being in a position to take in consideration all key parameters that are influential in determining an optimal holding period for a real estate portfolio, reveals the complex interaction between these different variables, and illustrates some difficulties in putting this approach into practice. In fact, the precise knowledge of the trend of the real estate price return and that of the anticipated rental growth rate are the key issues. However, our approach, which relies on modeling the dynamics of price returns over a holding period may be more realistic than inputting assumptions on infinite growth rates in DCF cash flow models. The rationale is that, in considering a diversified portfolio of real estate assets, it is not necessarily too difficult to infer a measure of the long-term price growth dynamics from well-established real estate indices. In this paper we have essentially dealt with the growth rates and trends of cash flows and terminal values. The results obtained to determine an optimal holding period may be changed if volatility parameters are introduced in the analysis, but this is left for future research.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for computing optimal investment holding periods for real estate portfolios.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis is set within a standard DCF modelling framework and it is shown that it is not adapted to offer sufficient insight into the mechanics leading to optimal holding periods. A richer framework is offered that enables the portfolios terminal value to behave according to a simple diffusion process.\nFindings: - The findings show that optimal holding periods for real estate investment portfolios exist within very precise conditions. The key parameters are the investor's weighted average cost of capital (WACC), the cash flow growth rate during the investment period, and the investment's net initial yield. The key finding is (loosely speaking) that, if the investor's cost of capital is outpaced by (the sum of) the portfolio's net initial yield and the cash flow growth rate, then an optimal holding period exists and can be precisely computed. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate these findings.\nOriginality/value: - Standard financial theory does not specify a consistent methodology for choosing the optimal investment horizon in investment analysis and in particular in discounted cash flow (DCF) modelling. This problem may be particularly acute in real estate investment analysis and valuation, as investment horizons are often arbitrarily chosen. The paper proves that investment horizon may strongly influence net present value.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The intellectual core and impact of the knowledge management academic discipline	[ "Knowledge management", "Research work", "Languages", "Books", "Journals", "Academic research", "Citation analysis", "Reference discipline", "Relevance", "Scientometrics" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Science is a systematic study of the natural world. It encompasses methods for knowledge creation, the body of knowledge accumulated from applying these methods, and the cultural values and norms that guide scientific inquiries. Scientific studies generate and present knowledge in the form of testable or falsifiable theories, hypotheses and predictions about the phenomenon of interest (Merton, 1982; Merton and Sztompka, 1996). The key motivation of researchers is the pursuit of true knowledge for the sake of knowledge (Mohr, 1977) and the engagement in science for the sake of science (Fuller, 1997). The development of modern science dates back to Ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution during the seventeenth century. Several isolated civilizations also followed a scientific path. Examples include the development of science in China, Babylonian mathematics and Egyptian astronomy (Price, 1961).As modern science advanced, different branches of science appeared, also referred to as fields, disciplines or domains. Each scholarly discipline has two objectives. The first is to advance our understanding of the phenomena, accumulate the body of knowledge, and document it in the form of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, books, etc. The ultimate goal of most scholarly fields is to become a reference discipline, which provides a theoretical, conceptual and methodological foundation for other scientific disciplines. The second purpose is to improve the state of practice, ensure practical application of academic findings, and increase quality of life.Knowledge management (KM) is a young discipline, having emerged less than two decades ago. KM is multi-disciplinary in nature. It builds its theoretical core on knowledge from various fields, including information technology, organizational science, and cognitive science (Dalkir, 2005). On the one hand, it already has its own peer-reviewed journals (Bontis and Serenko, 2009), leading scholars (Gu, 2004; Serenko and Bontis, 2004), research cooperation networks (Dattero, 2006; Ma and Yu, 2010), academic courses (Ruth et al., 1999, 2003; Al-Hawamdeh, 2005; Bontis et al., 2006), conferences (Serenko et al., 2009), and theories (Grant, 2002). These characteristics are considered the necessary attributes of an academic field. On the other hand, the trajectory of the KM field is not fully understood (Sagsan, 2009). Is it progressing towards becoming a reference discipline providing a theoretical, conceptual and methodological foundation for other scientific disciplines? Does it exhibit signs of academic maturity? What is its intellectual core? Is it a scientific fad? There have been calls to answer these critical questions (Grant, 2011; Lambe, 2011), but more research is needed.The KM field grew from the work of business practitioners who developed and applied the first KM concepts in organizational settings. However, it is possible that academic KM research has not met the expectations of industry professionals, and the entire domain has shifted its focus from solving practical problems to pure theory with limited applications (Booker et al., 2008).The purpose of the present study is two-fold. The first is to investigate the intellectual core of the KM discipline in order to understand whether it has become (or is moving towards becoming) a reference discipline. The second goal is to examine the practical impact of KM research. To answer these critical questions, a scientometric analysis of the most influential articles published in the top KM journal, the Journal of Knowledge Management, was done.\n2. Literature review: The purpose of this section is to examine the evolution of scientific disciplines, define a reference discipline, explore the historical trajectory of the KM field, and describe this study's objective.2.1 What is a scientific discipline?\n3. Methodology: In this study, a scientometric analysis of the most influential articles published in the Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) was done. This journal was chosen for the following reasons. First, it is a leading scholarly outlet in the domain with an A+ ranking (Bontis and Serenko, 2009; Serenko and Bontis, 2009). Second, JKM has a wide subscription base. For example, in 2011 JKM articles were downloaded over 344,000 times[1]. Third, it provides a very comprehensive coverage of the scientific domain of interest by concentrating on the various aspects of knowledge management.The use of the most influential articles is a recognized technique in citation analysis (van Zeebroeck et al., 2008). All articles included in JKM h-index as of May 1, 2011 were selected based on Google Scholar by means of the Harzing's Publish or Perish tool (see www.harzing.com/pop.htm for further information). The h-index, introduced by Hirsch (2005), is a measure of scientific impact of individuals, journals and institutions. With respect to journals, the h-index states that a journal has index h if h of its Np articles have at least h citations each and the other (Np - h) articles have fewer than h citations each. The key benefit of the h-index is that it can differentiate between journals generating most of their citations from only a few articles, and those producing well-cited works relatively consistently. It is also a very useful tool in journal ranking development (Saad, 2006; Moussa and Touzani, 2010). Articles included in the journal's h-index are usually considered the most significant works that ever appeared in this outlet.As a tool for citation analysis, the use of Google Scholar offers various advantages. In contrast to Thomson Scientific (formerly known as the Institute for Scientific Information, or ISI), Google Scholar covers a wide variety of publications including open-access journals, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, professional magazines, patents and industry reports (Harzing and van der Wal, 2008). Even though some of these publications are not peer-reviewed (e.g. reports, working papers, government publications, etc.), they are legitimate sources of citations which benefited from ideas expressed in the cited work. In addition, Google Scholar contains non-English publications (Nisonger, 2004; Kousha and Thelwall, 2007), whereas Thomson is mostly limited to English language articles. Therefore, Google Scholar is the most acceptable tool to achieve the purpose of this study.The following steps were followed to obtain and analyze the data:1. All 63 articles included in the h-index of JKM were selected.2. Since Google Scholar, as all other article databases, may contain errors, omissions and duplicate entries, a manual analysis of the h-index articles was done and appropriate adjustments were made.3. A list of 5,939 citing (i.e. publications that cited the examined JKM articles) and 2,057 cited (i.e. references in the examined JKM articles) works was created (for a detailed definition of citing and cited publications, refer to Taneja et al. (2009)).4. Language (e.g., English, German, French, etc.) of each citing and cited work was identified.5. For citing and cited works, three categories of self-citations were identified: author self-citations; journal self-citations; and joint author and journal self-citations.6. Categories of citing and cited works (e.g., peer-reviewed journal, thesis, peer-reviewed conference proceedings, book chapter, practitioner journal/magazine, technical & business report, etc.) were identified.7. For citing and cited peer-reviewed journals, the journal's field of research (e.g. marketing, management information systems, economics, etc.) was recorded by adapting the classification scheme of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative (see www.arc.gov.au/era/default.htm - the list as of March 2010).8. From the list of citing and cited peer-reviewed journals, all KM journals appearing in the list of Bontis and Serenko (2009) were excluded (i.e. these are KM-centric outlets). From the remaining sets, 200 entries were randomly selected. The abstract and full text of each selected paper was analyzed to determine whether the topic of the study pertained to KM.\n4. Results: Table I outlines the language of citing and cited works. It reveals that citing works were written not only in English but also in other languages. The fact that Chinese is the most common non-English language is not surprising since Chinese institutions are frequent JKM subscribers. In contrast, very few JKM articles cited non-English sources.Table II presents self-citation patterns. It shows that the observed self-citation rates are low which demonstrates that the discipline does not exhibit a problematic self-citation behavior.Tables III and IV show categories of citing and cited works, respectively. First, theses, dissertations, and graduate or undergraduate projects, which represent indicators of scientific growth (Andersen and Hammarfelt, 2011), constitute 17 percent of all citing sources. Therefore, the KM discipline is in the phase of academic expansion. Second, practitioner journals/magazines constitute 5 percent and 16 percent of citing and cited works, respectively. The most influential JKM articles frequently use non-refereed sources (see Table V), and contribute to the state of practice, but to a lesser degree. In other words, the KM academic literature borrows ideas, examples, cases, concepts, etc. from the professional literature, uses them to extend the theoretical body of knowledge, and disseminates this knowledge within peer-reviewed literature and, to a lesser extent, practitioner publications.Tables VI and VII show journal fields for citing and cited works. Table VIII outlines topics of citing and cited peer-reviewed journal articles published in non-KM centric journals.The following framework summarizes the findings above and describes the intellectual core and impact of the KM discipline (see Figure 2).\n5. Conclusions: The goal of this study is to explore the intellectual core and impact of the KM discipline on the state of theory and practice. For this, 63 articles included in the h-index of JKM were subjected to scientometric analysis. Based on the findings, a number of important implications and conclusions emerged that warrant discussion.5.1 Implications and recommendations\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to explore the intellectual core of the knowledge management (KM) academic discipline in order to test whether it exhibits signs of a reference discipline; and to analyze the theoretical and practical impact of the discipline.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The most influential articles published in the Journal of Knowledge Management were selected and their cited and citing works were scientometrically analysed.\nFindings: - The KM discipline: builds its knowledge primarily upon research reports published in the English language; successfully disseminates its knowledge in both English and non-English publications; does not exhibit a problematic self-citation behavior; uses books and practitioner journals in the development of KM theory; converts experiential knowledge into academic knowledge; is not yet a reference discipline, but is progressing well towards becoming one; exerts a somewhat limited direct impact on practice; and is not a scientific fad.\nPractical implications: - KM researchers need to become aware of and use knowledge published in non-English outlets. Given the status of KM as an applied discipline, it is critical that researchers continue utilizing non-peer reviewed sources in their scholarly work. KM researchers should promote the dissemination of KM knowledge beyond the disciplinary boundaries. The issue whether KM should strive towards becoming a reference discipline should be debated further.\nOriginality/value: - This study analyzes the KM field from the reference discipline perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sharing economy: becoming an Uber driver in a developing country	[ "Sharing economy", "Uber", "Car sharing", "Gig economy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sharing economy (SE) can be defined as a sharing socio-economic system, which includes the production and consumption of goods and services. Much in the literature of SE has focused on understanding consumers, which is known as collaborative consumption (Botsman & Rogers, 2011; Cheng, 2016; Silveira, Petrini, & dos Santos, 2016); and the producer's perspective has not yet been described in the discussion of what SE really means. The main study about production in SE focuses on understanding people's motivation toward sharing, such study comprehends distributive decentralized means of production of shareable assets (Benkler, 2004). Furthermore, it is possible to understand how intangible open source internet production has occurred with the paradigmatic cases of Wikipedia and Linux (Lessig, 2008).\n2. Sharing economy, car sharing and gig economy: Sharing is a term hypothesized by anthropologists to be a distinct distribution mode in comparison to gifting, which is the main theoretical background in the field and is defined by the reciprocity that maintains individual relationships with one another (Bird-David, 1990). This idea is included in recent studies that further reinforces that the absence of reciprocity in sharing is one of the main variables that distinguishes it from the gift and also commodity exchanges, in which the last defines reciprocity by the payment for a good or service (Benkler, 2004; Belk, 2007).\n3. Research method: This research presents a qualitative case study with descriptive characteristics and was conducted in order to enable the analysis of various sources of primary and secondary empirical data (Yin, 2010) regarding the productive process of Uber.\n4. Data analysis and discussion: This section aims to present the analysis of the data and was structured in three parts, one for each category, each part with a subsection based on the subcategories, as presented on Table III, \"research categories and subcategories and codes.\" The purpose of this table is to report the categories, to introduce the discussions and to provide a broader view of the results described herein.\n5. Conclusions: This research had an initial objective, which was later on divided in two. First, we wanted to understand the reasons why people decide to become Uber drivers. These reasons are more related to the possibility of transforming their private goods and own labor into productive assets than to other motives found in the literature of SE and car sharing. Differently from other studies with Uber drivers (Malin & Chandler, 2016; Hall & Krueger, 2016), the process of becoming a provider in this organization revealed to be much more a way to solve unemployment issues and to generate more income, instead of an adjustment to the market or a search for more flexible and complementary type of work.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze why people have become suppliers in the sharing economy (SE) as Uber drivers in a developing country.\nDesign/methodology/approach: From a background on SE, car sharing and gig economy, the authors carried out a qualitative research. The analysis was based on 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Uber drivers, and on the authors' participant observation as Uber drivers and passengers in the third largest Brazilian city, Belo Horizonte.\nFindings: Empirical evidence shows that becoming an Uber driver is more a matter of solving unemployment on a more permanent way rather than a search for a temporary and flexible work to supplement income. Although there are benefits related to flexibility, income and social interactions, negative externalities identified herein lead to the conclusion that the overall work relations and conditions are negative.\nOriginality/value: Much in the literature of the SE is focused on understanding consumer behavior; this research, on the contrary, is focused on understanding producers, which indicates an incipient perspective. The contributions of this paper show that the SE merges into different distributive decentralized means of production that are seeing as profit/income generated from shareable assets.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of work authenticity in linking strengths use to career satisfaction and proactive behavior: a two-wave study	[ "Work authenticity", "Strengths use", "Career satisfaction", "Proactive behavior" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to positive psychology, authenticity, or acting in accordance with one's true self, is deemed as a valuable attribute of human character (Peterson and Seligman, 2004). The concept of authenticity is rooted in the humanistic model of psychotherapy, which assumes that distress and maladjustment arise out of an inconsistency between one's self-concept and external experiences (Boyraz and Kuhl, 2015). Previous research has shown that authenticity promotes psychological and subjective well-being such as autonomy, personal growth, self-acceptance and happiness, as well as reduced anxiety and stress (Barnett and Deutsch, 2016; Wood et al., 2011) .It is also believed that authenticity is an important dimension or parameter in developing boundaryless careers (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005; Sullivan et al., 2009; Svejenova, 2005). Considering that a boundaryless career is established by building identity and cumulative knowledge in multiple employers (Baker and Aldrich, 1996) and that authenticity is considered an element of identity (Svejenova, 2005), it can be inferred that authenticity plays a key role in establishing the boundaryless career. For example, Emmerich and Rigotti (2017) found that intrinsic motivation promotes work authenticity, which results in higher work ability and less depression. Meanwhile, Metin et al. (2016) reported that job resources, such as autonomy and supervisory support, also promoted work authenticity, leading to higher work engagement, job satisfaction and performance.However, only limited empirical studies have been conducted to examine the antecedents and consequences of authenticity at work, other than the aforementioned studies. Although Svejenova (2005) qualitatively explored the role of work authenticity in shaping a creative career, it has not been quantitatively investigated in the context of career management. Notably, positive psychology stresses the viewpoint that strengths use is closely related to authenticity (Peterson and Seligman, 2004), but no investigation has been conducted to verify this relationship, particularly in a work context. Considering that strengths are part of one's true self and may enable employees to perform at their personal best (Van Woerkom et al., 2016b), strengths use is presumed to facilitate work authenticity, career-related well-being and work behaviors.To address the research gap, this study examined the direct and indirect effects of strengths use on career satisfaction and proactive behavior, mediated through work authenticity, using a strengths-based approach (Bowers, 2009) rooted in positive psychology (Peterson and Seligman, 2004; Seligman, 2002; Seligman et al., 2005). According to this approach, individuals who identify and make use of their strengths, can be hopeful of achieving their goals (Snyder et al., 2002) and possess more positive emotion for building personal resources (Fredrickson, 2001). Considering that strengths are a part of individuals' true self, this study considers strengths use as an antecedent of work authenticity, career satisfaction and proactive behavior.\nLiterature review and hypothesis development: Strengths-based approach\nMethod: Sample and procedure\nResults: Validation of measurement\nDiscussion: Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Although positive psychology asserts that authenticity comes from identifying and using our strengths, no quantitative research has been conducted to test that relationship. This study aims to examine the mediating role of work authenticity in linking strengths use to career satisfaction and proactive behavior.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a two-wave survey with nurses in two large, acute hospitals in Japan (n = 298), a structural equation model was produced.\nFindings: The results show that work authenticity fully mediated between strengths use and career satisfaction, and that work authenticity partially mediated between strengths use and proactive behavior.\nResearch limitations/implications: As work authenticity, career satisfaction and proactive behavior were measured at time 2, it is desirable to conduct a three-wave survey to measure these variables separately in future research.\nPractical implications: It may be imperative to recognize that employees who use their strengths are satisfied with their careers only by enhancing authenticity at work.\nOriginality/value: The main contribution of this study was to identify the mediating role of work authenticity in linking strengths use to both career-related well-being and proactive work behaviors.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The joint effect of association-based corporate posting strategy and eWOM comment valence on social media	[ "Corporate social responsibility", "Social media", "Electronic word-of-mouth", "Corporate ability", "Corporate associations", "Posting strategy" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Social media, known as internet-based applications that \"allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content\" (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61), have been widely adopted by top-performing corporations as important tools to engage consumers nowadays (Burson-Marsteller, 2012; McCorkindale, 2010; Tao and Wilson, 2015). The prevalent use of social media by both corporations and consumers has brought not only opportunities but also challenges for organizations (Siah et al., 2010). The interactivity and connectedness of social media help break the illusion of control as users are able to freely talk about organizations in public with ease and speed (Grunig, 2009). On social media, consumers are not merely influenced by companies in a one-way direction. Instead, they are exposed to multiple voices and can \"create and give feedback on content\" (Coombs, 2014, p. 19) to influence other people's attitudes toward certain companies and brands.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 A theoretical framework: cognitive corporate associations\n3. Method: This study used a 3 (corporate posting strategy: CSR vs CA vs hybrid) x 2 (eWOM comment valence: positive vs negative) full factorial between-subjects experimental design to test the proposed hypotheses.\n4. Results: 4.1 Reliability and validity of dependent measures\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Summary of findings\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Consumers tend to form their perceptions about a company via two associations: corporate ability (CA) that centers on expertise in producing quality products and corporate social responsibility (CSR) that focuses on societal obligations. To date, investigations on the adoption of such association-based corporate communication strategies are yet to address the interactive and multi-source features of social media. Drawing theoretical insights from corporate associations and the warranting principle, the purpose of this paper is to fill the gap and examine the joint effect of association-based corporate posting strategy and corresponding electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) comment valence on social media.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A three (corporate posting strategy: CSR vs CA vs hybrid (CSR + CA)) by two (eWOM comment valence: positive vs negative) between-subjects experiment (n=193) was conducted.\nFindings: The effect of corporate posting strategy on consumers' CSR associations was found to be significant only when eWOM comment valence was positive. Significant main effects of both posting strategy and eWOM comment valence were found on CA associations, perceived corporate reputation, and purchase intention.\nOriginality/value: This study extends the theoretical framework of corporate associations to the interactive context on social media and provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of association-based posting strategies when they are jointly presented with eWOM comments at different valence levels. Findings of this study also provide implications for business and communication professionals to communicate with consumers on social media more effectively.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Building brand loyalty in e-commerce of fashion lingerie	[ "Innovation", "Quality", "Customer satisfaction", "E-commerce", "Brand loyalty" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Fashion industry is an important contributor to European Union economies (Ananda et al., 2015) and the area of undergarment purchasing is an important focus of interest for researchers and the fashion industry. The global lingerie market is estimated to be around US$30 billion, with a projected growth of perhaps 9 per cent over the next five years, and the intimates segment is growing at a faster pace around the world than the lingerie market itself. According to a report by Fashionbi.com, the largest market for lingerie is North America and the USA, while in Europe the highest growth has occurred in Germany and Italy. Overall, the lingerie market is growing with support from the luxury sector, emerging markets and new trends, such as shapewear and eco-friendly intimate apparel made from natural fabrics.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Product quality and innovation\n3. Research approach: 3.1 Measurement\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Data analysis\n5. Conclusions and managerial implications: The purpose of this study was to determine: (Obj1) the importance of quality and product innovation in achieving a high level of customer satisfaction in the e-commerce lingerie fashion market and generating positive effects in terms of trust and loyalty; and Obj2) whether the reputation acquired by a company related to interactions in the virtual community reinforces brand loyalty among its e-commerce customers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to know if the loyalty of online purchasing is determined by the final perceptions of product quality and brand reputation in the online community of lingerie customers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used an exploratory model which aspects in previous studies have evaluated satisfaction, loyalty and trust in electronic shopping, in order to examine whether the customer's perception of the quality and innovation of the final product sold through e-commerce and reputation in the examined was made \"Virtual Community\" are key factors in creating loyalty. The sample was obtained from a lingerie company which sells its products in Europe in the website leonisa.com, the data were analysed with the software SmartPLS, validating the proposed relationships between customer perceptions on the purchased product and loyalty to the brand.\nFindings: The results demonstrate theoretical conceptions regarding product characteristics (Quality, Innovation and Satisfaction), and constructs brand (Virtual Community, Reputation and Trust).\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper presents a case study for a specific brand as exploratory research in the lingerie industry, this must be validated with this type of product for other companies.\nPractical implications: This research has elements of support for management, companies will turn attention to the satisfaction of consumers and to maintain goods levels of reputation in the virtual community.\nSocial implications: This research shows a real case of the correct implementation of brand strategy, detailing how customers are valued and therefore provides valuable information for customers and companies.\nOriginality/value: This exploratory study provides a new analysis of product quality factors that were not directly related to the loyalty of electronic purchasing, also, it allows the fashion industry to have elements of support for management and quality control, and that hypotheses relating to the product quality and loyalty in the electronic shopping is confirmed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Can internet blogs be used as an effective advertising tool? The role of product blog type and brand awareness	[ "Blog", "Brand awareness", "Advertising effectiveness", "Advertising endorser", "Product type" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Rather than browsing and collecting web data, Web 2.0 allows users to also become content creators by composing, editing, modifying, and exchanging data. An early 2007 market survey by Jupiter Research showed that 75 percent of internet users are 18-25 years old. These users read and write internet content. However, content creation is not dominated by young users. One third of users above 55 years of age report having experience in content creation as well (Wertime and Fenwick, 2008). Because most blogs provide a very user-friendly interface, personal blogging is a fad throughout the world, and blog use has grown rapidly. A report released by Sifry (Technorati, 2007) indicated that the number of blogs around the globe has exceeded 70 million, and 120,000 new blogs and 1.5 million new posts are added daily. Pollster Online Survey also reported that 93.8 percent of internet users have browsed blogs, and 66.6 percent have a personal blog. These statistics reveal the prevalence of blogs. Because they embed rich digital content, blogs are expected to be an important digital information source in the Web 2.0 era.\n2. Theoretical background and hypotheses building: Advertising effectiveness\n3. Methodology: Experimental design\n4. Research findings: As Table II shows, the Cronbach's a values for all the constructs were higher than 0.7, which confirmed the good internal consistency of items in each construct. Validity was assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The Bartlett test of sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure were applied to detect co-variation among the values of the research variables. The KMO measure was 0.87, and Bartlett test results reached significance, indicating that there were common factors and that the data were acceptable for factor analysis. Through principal component analysis, five factors were extracted. Items for perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention were convergent and compliant with the expected constructs with total variance explained 70.77 percent. Because the questionnaire items were developed according to previous research, the developed scale was deemed to have theoretical validity.\n5. Discussion and implications: This study demonstrates that perceived risk and purchase intention vary with blog type. Compared with celebrity blogs, expert blogs were characterized by lower perceived risk and higher purchase intention. Purchase intention for products mentioned in celebrity blogs was significantly lower than that for products mentioned in expert blogs and typical consumer blogs. Previous studies endorsers similarly revealed that experts and typical consumers have better communication effects; expert opinions are considered more reliable to consumers and can deepen their impressions about the product (Wang, 2005). In this study, celebrity blogs revealed no advertising effectiveness, probably because most of the articles on celebrity blogs are not composed by celebrities but by product providers. As a result, the non-commercial characteristics of blog articles are limited, which increases perceived risk. Consumers tend to discount the credibility of a blog if they perceive it as commercialized. Consumers are persuaded partly by the perceived expertise of the blogger in a certain area and partly by the description of user experience, particularly if the blog is not commercialized and is intended for sharing of personal experiences.\n6. Conclusions and future research directions: Our study proposed a framework which can help enterprises to evaluate the type and brand awareness of a product to be promoted and to select the blog type that maximizes advertising effectiveness (perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention) in diffusing product information.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: As blogs have become an important information communication medium, selecting blog types that are appropriate and effective for the products they are to promote is now an important issue in corporate advertising. However, the impact of different blog types on consumers and their advertising effectiveness are issues seldom addressed in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to view product information that consumers post on blogs as advertisements and compares advertising effectiveness between different blog types to help enterprises properly employ blogs in their marketing campaigns.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experimental design was adopted, and 12 experimental contexts were designed. A valid sample of over 2,000 responses was collected to study between-group differences in advertising effectiveness.\nFindings: The analytical results showed between-group difference in advertising effectiveness, which indicated that blog advertising effectiveness varies with different combinations of product constructs and blog types.\nResearch limitations/implications: The limitations of this study related to the price factor was not incorporated into the experimental model, and shopping channels were not limited. There might be a gap between the prices of the experimental products and the average expense of online shoppers.\nOriginality/value: The study proposed a framework which can help enterprises to evaluate the type and brand awareness of a product to be promoted and to select the blog type that maximizes advertising effectiveness (perceived risk, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intention) in diffusing product information.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An investigation of key predictors of performance of agricultural projects in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case of Uganda	[ "Uganda", "Stakeholder engagement", "Performance", "Sub-Saharan Africa", "Knowledge management", "Agricultural projects" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Low farm output remains a major challenge for the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa with half of its population under 25 years. This is surprising since Africa's economic growth rate is above the global average. Africa houses most of the world's fastest-growing economies (Da Silva, 2014). Da Silva (2014) observes that, though some African countries have shown impressive growth in the past decade, this has not translated into social protection for rural families. This study is motivated by the existing failure to realize growth in agriculture and rural development that can be translated into social inclusion. The authors think that stakeholder engagement and knowledge management in agricultural projects can propel agricultural development and social inclusion.\nLiterature review: This section provides a critical review of literature on the study constructs of knowledge management, stakeholder engagement and project performance. It examines various ideas that support, evaluate and critic the cumulative knowledge growth in the subject of project performance. We then use it to develop hypotheses that are tested.\nMethodology: Research methodology\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nDiscussion: Consistent with H1, stakeholder engagement was a significant predictor of performance of agricultural projects. These findings are supported by the work of previous scholars (e.g. Bourne and Walker, 2005; Brooks et al., 2012) who reveal that when groups of individuals are involved in decisions that affect them, they tend to improve in the way they do their work. The results indicate that stakeholders need to be absorbed in the agricultural project activities, dedicated to work and with enough information so as to enhance performance of agricultural projects. This will help the projects to achieve deliverables that result into improved project outcomes. Stakeholders need open minds, dedication and enthusiasm to enhance performance. Crucially, however, the level of agricultural project performance depends on allowance for flexibility: on being able to change project schedule, determine who the stakeholders are, collect information, understand expectations, learn the most suitable way to communicate information and build trust, ownership and participation. The fact that model farmers and other stakeholders of agricultural projects tend to be heterogeneous and others homogeneous, then developing competitive teams in different clusters especially at village and sub-county levels is absolutely the way to go if we are to improve performance of agricultural projects. For a group of model farmers that do not have similar characteristics, then engaging them requires clustering farmers in small groups so as to elicit knowledge creation and acquisition, knowledge dissemination and responsiveness to knowledge in order to improve performance of agricultural projects. The collaboration and coordination of governmental officials, project coordinators, model farmers and project team is a sure way to start engagement processes so as to have continuous enhancement of agricultural performance outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.\nConclusion: In conclusion, knowledge management and stakeholder engagement are significant predictors of performance of agricultural projects. The project team, model farmers and other stakeholders of agricultural projects should be equipped with both tacit and explicit knowledge and involved in the decision making process for the success of the projects.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways of improving performance of agricultural projects through stakeholder engagement and knowledge management in a Sub-Saharan context.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 342 agricultural projects in Mukono and Wakiso districts in Uganda. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used in the analysis.\nFindings: The results reveal that stakeholder engagement and knowledge management are valuable intangible resources that significantly influence performance of agricultural projects. The findings, managerial and policy implications are fully discussed in this paper.\nOriginality/value: The authors empirically show that a model that synchronizes stakeholder engagement, knowledge management and performance of agricultural projects is a requirement for promoting sustainable agricultural performance outcomes. This study makes a contribution by providing information that is relevant for filling the practical gap that exists in agricultural projects of Sub-Saharan Africa as well as contributing to the theoretical development of project management discipline.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Financial derivatives use and multifaceted exposures: Evidence from East Asian non-financial firms	[ "MNCs", "Exposure", "Hedging", "Derivatives use", "D21", "G32", "G23" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent decades, the strong development of financial derivatives as the most cost-effective instrument to manage market risks has aroused substantial interest among researchers to empirically investigate firms' hedging behaviors. However, while the determinants of derivatives use have been relatively thoroughly investigated in both theoretical and empirical respects, the impact of financial derivatives use on firms' exposures has only recently become a subject of empirical analysis, and the research remains occasional.\n2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses: 2.1 The use of derivatives and exposures\n3. Sample and descriptive statistics: Our sample consists of 9,691 firm-yearly observations; it is a balanced panel data set of 881 non-financial firms across 34 different industries in 8 countries in East Asia, namely, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia over the period from 2003-2013. We exclude financial firms because they are likely to have different incentives for using derivatives than non-financial firms. All data on derivatives contracts were hand-collected. We strived to verify the data accuracy by searching through a subset of firms' annual reports, Morningstar[6] - an independent investment research database - and the stock exchanges of each country.\n4. Research method and variable construction: 4.1 Measuring dependent variables and empirical specifications\n5. Findings and discussion: 5.1 Univariate results\n6. Conclusion: In this study, we investigated the impacts of derivatives use on multifaceted exposures, including exposures to home/host country risks, exchange rate exposure and interest rate exposure, by utilizing a large unique hand-collected data set containing information on the derivatives activities of non-financial firms in eight East Asian countries over the period from 2003-2013. To our knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore this dynamic relationship when comparing different firm types: domestic firms, domestic MNCs and foreign affiliates.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of financial derivatives use on different exposures by comparing domestic firms, domestic multinational corporations (MNCs) and affiliates of foreign MNCs using a unique hand-collected data set of derivatives activities from 881 non-financial firms in eight East Asian countries over the period of 2003-2013.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors apply a two-stage approach. In the first stage, exposures to country risks, exchange rate and interest rate risks are estimated by using the market model. In the second stage, potential effects of firms' derivatives use on multifaceted exposures are investigated by carrying out pooled regression model, and panel data regressions with random effect specifications.\nFindings: The authors provide novel evidence that financial hedging of domestic firms and domestic MNCs reduces exposure to home country risks by 10.91 and 14.42 percent per 1 percent increase in notional derivative holdings, respectively, while affiliates of foreign MNCs fail to mitigate exposure to host country risks. The use of foreign currency and interest rate derivatives by domestic firms and domestic MNCs is effective in alleviating such firms' exposures to varied degrees, while foreign affiliates' use of derivatives can only lower interest rate exposures.\nOriginality/value: The primary theoretical contribution of this study is applying the market model to estimate exposures to home and host country risks. Regarding empirical contributions, the authors provide strong evidence that the use of financial derivatives by domestic firms and domestic MNCs significantly contributes to a decline in exposure to home country risks, and evidence the outperformance of domestic MNCs vis-a-vis domestic firms and foreign affiliates.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Benchmarking financial inclusion for women entrepreneurship - a study of Uttarakhand state of India	[ "Benchmarking", "Entrepreneurial intention", "Financial inclusion", "Entrepreneurial motivation", "Women entrepreneur", "Family circumstance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: According to the World Bank, Indian economy is one of the important global players in the present time (2018). Considering the size of Indian economy, there is a global interest in keeping a watch on Indian economy. According to India Brand Equity Foundation, India's gross domestic product grew by 7 percent year-on-year in the October-December 2016 quarter, which is the strongest among G-20 countries, as per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Economic Survey of India, 2017. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook Update (January 2017), Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.2 percent during FY 2016-2017 and further accelerate to 7.7 percent during FY 2017-2018. According to World Bank reports (2017), India has made progress on many fronts in leaps and bounds in its 70 independent years. But, in India, a large section of population is still not part of mainstream development. Many are unbanked particularly most of the women do not have any type of bank accounts. This infirmity has led a generation of financial instability among the vulnerable groups who do not have access to financial products and services. In the recent years, the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India are giving importance to the concept of financial inclusion.\nLiterature review: Literature survey is important before starting a study. In the present study, the literature is reviewed from major databases such as Scopus and Ebsco. Keywords used were women entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, developing nations, etc. The period of search was kept from 1990 to 2017. The relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth is studied by Sharma (2016) and Subramanian (2014). They discussed a positive relation between two factors. Primarily, Indian economy is based on the banking system for the flow of fund. So, for the financial inclusion, access to bank and finance is an utmost requirement for a country like India. Women constitute almost half of human resources in India, so it is argued that the Government of India must strengthen this vast population of country to take benefit of the positive connection between financial inclusion and economic growth. It is also important to note that women are considered to bring more innovation and creative thinking at the work place (Busaine et al., 2017). Similarly, the study of Mehrzi and Singh (2016) mentions that employee engagement is a critical factor in success of an organization. And women have an important role to play in improving employee engagement.\nDevelopment of hypothesis: Based on the literature review, studies have found impact of large number of factors on women entrepreneurship. It is important to determine the relative importance of different factors in women entrepreneurship. In India, the central government and state governments have a large number of schemes to enable women entrepreneurship. The list of some of the available schemes in the state of Uttarakhand of India is shown in Table AI. To determine the relationship and impact of financial inclusion schemes on women entrepreneurship, the following hypothesis is formulated:\nResearch methodology: This research study is undertaken to benchmark the relation of financial inclusion schemes on women entrepreneurship and also to develop a cause-effect relationship. Here, financial inclusion efforts are independent variables, whereas women entrepreneurship is the dependent variable.\nAnalysis and interpretation: The primary objective of the paper is to develop a relationship between two variables; therefore, regression analysis was performed on the collected data. Regression analysis is a powerful and flexible procedure for analyzing associative relationships between a metric-dependent variable and independent variables.\nDiscussion and conclusion: During the data collection period, it was realized that the role of women entrepreneurs is largely neglected in the development of the society. Women entrepreneurs are not only earning for their families, but also helping society in achieving the objectives of equitable development. Normally, entrepreneurs are synonymous to men. According to Raghuvanshi et al. (2017), gender discrimination, low level of education, cultural and social environment are some of the important factors in developing a good environment for women entrepreneurship in India. However, according to Raghuvanshi et al. (2017), poor access to financial resources is also an equally important challenge in women entrepreneurship. Moreover, researchers like Tambunan, (2009) and Semencenko et al. (2016) found that the lack of education and training restricts women to expand their business in developed countries. However, in developing countries, the lack of easy access to credit is the main barrier for women entrepreneur (Eastwood, 2004). Many researchers and official reports of organizations like RBI, Ministry of finance, World Bank, International Finance Corporation and IMF have also highlighted the role of financial inclusion in creating a positive environment for women entrepreneurs. Many researchers such as Lutzenkirchen et al. (2012) and Bogdanovic (2017), who are of foreign origin, have also emphasized financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs.\nImplications: Implications of the present study can be discussed in two sections. The study has academic as well as managerial implications.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Benchmarking is a very important tool to know the gap in your performance and best performance. It is possible to apply benchmarking in a wide variety of area. This paper uses benchmarking for assessing women entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurship is a symbol of the balanced growth of the society. Financial inclusion schemes offered by the government are aimed to encourage a large number of women of the country to entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of financial inclusion and others factor like family circumstances, benchmarking, entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial intention of women on their decision to take up entrepreneurship as a career choice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research study is undertaken to understand the relation of financial inclusion schemes on women entrepreneurship and also to develop a cause-effect relationship. Here, financial inclusion effort is an independent variable, whereas women entrepreneurship is a dependent variable. A sample size of 250 women entrepreneur was taken. The sample was selected on the basis of convenience. Out of the total sample, 125 women belonged to the self-help group and 125 women were registered under the RSETI program of lead banks of Haridwar and Dehradun districts of the Uttarakhand state of India.\nFindings: The results of the present study indicate that there is a statistically significant impact of financial inclusion on women entrepreneurship. It provides the platform to the women that help them in establishing a new business.\nResearch limitations/implications: Data for present study were collected from two districts of Uttarakhand. In future, data can be collected from different geographical areas of India for generalizing the findings of the study.\nPractical implications: The results of present study indicate that there is a statistically significant impact of financial inclusion on women entrepreneurship. It provides the platform to the women that help them in establishing a new business. For promoting women toward entrepreneurship, the government has launched many schemes.\nSocial implications: After the study, the author found that the society will accept the fact that women entrepreneurship is emerging as a dire need for the country.\nOriginality/value: The author followed all the guidelines that were concerned about the originality of the paper. This paper is not under review of any journal.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Gender wage gap and education: a stochastic frontier approach	[ "Stochastic frontier", "Job search", "Gender pay gap", "Returns to education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Gender wage gap is a frequently studied problem in labour economics. Based on the human capital theory (Becker, 1962), it is thought that wage differentials observed among workers could be explained on the basis of differences in productivity. Yet, men and women with equal education and tenure, and occupying similar job posts are sometimes paid different wage rates. From an empirical point of view, in non-perfectly competitive job markets, and with imperfect information, other circumstances may affect wage rates and indeed, lead to differences between male and female worker pay. As a result, empirical analysis tends to include other control variables which reflect conditions of supply and demand.\n2. Methodology and data: We model a semi-logarithmic earning equation, as proposed by Mincer (1974), but in which the natural logarithm of i-worker's actual wage (Wi) is explained as a result of the following expression:(1)\n3. Estimation results and efficiency study: The initial estimation results are provided in Table II (Model 1). Tenure exhibits a positive influence on the logarithm of the hourly wage, although this influence is higher in the early stages of the individual's working life, its importance then decreases, as shown by the significant negative sign of the estimated parameter accompanying the squared tenure. By contrast, Age, as a measure of overall experience in the labour market, has little significance.\n4. Discussion and conclusions: The present paper focuses on exploring the gender wage discrimination in Spain and its link to education. In order to achieve this purpose, gender pay gap is split into two components: gender wage discrimination and inefficiency, using the stochastic frontier approach. With this methodology, we estimate a wage frontier with a gender binary variable in order to test whether more highly rewarded women (depending on their human capital characteristics) are able to earn the same as their male counterparts. Nevertheless, workers with imperfect information, who prefer more security at work rather than higher pay, or those who show less unmeasured human capital characteristics, will earn less than their potential wage (estimated by the frontier), and will exhibit a non-negative inefficiency term.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to get deeper insight into the measurement of gender wage gap. A proper method to identify which part of gender wage differences is due to discrimination against women is provided, and the relationship between wage differences and education is studied.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The stochastic frontier approach is employed to measure wage discrimination against women by using Spanish data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Mentioned technique allows the authors to split the gender wage gap of workers displaying the same characteristics into two components: the first measures inefficiency in the job search process caused by imperfect information or gender differences concerning preferences regarding working conditions, where as the second takes account of discrimination.\nFindings: A significant level of discrimination is found in the Spanish labour market at all educational levels, but this problem is quantitatively more important when low-educated workers are studied, and gender discrimination is lower for highly educated women.\nOriginality/value: In this paper, workers' potential wage is estimated, and gender discrimination is measured by the gender potential wage gap, since it is not dependent on other wage determinants such as diverse preferences, unmeasured working abilities or imperfect information.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Service encounter microblog word of mouth and its impact on firm reputation	[ "Service encounter", "Social media", "Airline industry", "EWOM" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The advent of customers sharing their service encounters with firms through social media has received a tremendous amount of media coverage over the past few years. From a video of Dr David Dao being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight for refusing to give up his seat (Bowerman and Aulbach, 2017), to a family being escorted off of a Southwest Airlines flight due to an unruly child (Fearnow, 2018), consumers increasingly share their positive and negative service encounters with firms on social network sites such as Twitter (Abney et al., 2017). They do so via mobile-empowered devices and a range of user-generated content (UGC) via text, photos and videos. Firms, therefore, have a tremendous opportunity to not only engage back with those that mention them but they must also be wary of negative mentions specifically as they could be potentially damaging to their reputations (Berthon et al., 2012; De Maeyer, 2012; Cheng and Loi, 2014; Gregoire et al., 2015; Rauschnabel et al., 2016; Stevens et al., 2018). In addition, and perhaps just as important, positive mentions have the propensity to affect brand outcomes such as increasing sales (Wang et al., 2015; Marchand et al., 2017).\nLiterature review: Importance of a firm's reputation\nConceptual model: In the context of positive and negative valence SEMWOM and any influence it has on receivers' evaluation of reputation after exposure, 11 different dependent variables were created for the model based on the categories identified in the literature: SEMWOM message usefulness; SEMWOM message credibility; SEMWOM issue involvement and eight SEMWOM emotions. With regard to emotions, and as a result of pilot tests, a slightly modified version of Plutchik's (2001) eight basic emotions were used. The emotions used included: joy, sadness, anger, approval, disgust, fear, surprise and not surprised. The impact of \"source style\" was examined with the inclusion of the various types of tweets available at the time of the study - tweets with text only, tweets with a video and tweets with photographs. The model includes both peripheral and central route persuasion variables. A depiction of the conceptual model is provided in Figure 1.\nMethodology: Methodology selection\nResults: Paired-samples t-test results\nDiscussion: Today's social media environment is one that is fraught with both risks and opportunities for firms and their reputations. It is one in which people share their positive and negative service encounters with firms as they carry out their normal, everyday transactions. As such, there has been a growing reliance on social listening activities to help brand managers in their efforts to both protect and enhance their reputations. Although this is the case, there has been a dearth of research to understand the robustness of firms' reputations in specific social media environments and in various contexts. In this study, we explored the impact SEMWOM could have on a firm's reputation when receivers are exposed to positive and negative valence SEMWOM about airlines. In addition, we explored the factors that influence receivers' perceptions of reputation upon exposure to positive and negative valence SEMWOM.\nLimitations and future research: Limitations associated with this study may pave the way for future research. A key limitation is our focus on the airline industry. We chose this industry because it was at the epicenter of service encounter tweets and also offered a wealth of data. Although the use of this industry was a practical one for a sound execution of the study, the research could undertake a similar study with another industry or even a range of industries to determine whether similar outcomes would occur. Another limitation is the location of the experiment (the USA). Given that microblog users can share their experiences of firms with anyone around the world, research should undertake a similar analysis with receivers in other countries. Finally, the study focused on one social media platform, Twitter. It would be worthwhile for research to undertake a similar study using other microblogging applications to determine whether our results hold.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: It has now become a normal part of the consumption journey for consumers to share their positive and negative service encounters with firms on microblogs such as Twitter. There is, however, a limited amount of research on service encounter microblog word of mouth (SEMWOM) and its impact on firm reputation from a receiver's perspective. This study aims to understand the comparative effects of positive and negative valence SEMWOM on receivers' perceptions of firms' reputations and the factors that are particularly salient to receivers' perceptions of firm reputation upon exposure to SEMWOM.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An experiment exposed 372 Twitter users to positive and negative valence SEMWOM. To determine whether changes in perception of firm reputation occurred on exposure to both positive and negative valence SEMWOM, participants' perceptions of a range of US airlines were measured before and after exposure to the SEMWOM. To confirm the factors that influence the perception of reputation on such exposure, six structural equation models were created to determine the comparative effects of positive and negative valence SEMWOM among three electronic WOM media as follows: video, photo and text.\nFindings: Both positive and negative valence SEMWOM affect receivers' perceptions of airlines' reputations on exposure. Furthermore, the factors that influence perceptions of reputation on exposure to SEMWOM vary depending on valence and type of media contained in a tweet.\nOriginality/value: Although consumers now routinely share their positive and negative service encounters with brands on microblogs, scant research has examined receivers of positive and negative valence SEMWOM, important actors in the microblog domain. This study addresses this research gap by empirically investigating the impact of both positive and negative valence SEMWOM on receivers' perceptions of firm reputation upon exposure to it.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The flexibility of industrial additive manufacturing systems	[ "Flexibility", "Additive manufacturing", "Advanced manufacturing technology", "Manufacturing flexibility", "Management of technology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A long-established competitive priority for manufacturing is the ability to achieve flexibility (Leong et al., 1990), which may also influence the performance of other competitive objectives (Gerwin, 1987). Flexibility often constitutes a key tenet of an organization's competitive strategy (Cousens et al., 2009), and it can be leveraged either in response to changing circumstances or as a proactive measure in anticipation of future change (de Toni and Tonchia, 1998). As a result, in the continually changing and highly uncertain business environment that modern manufacturers operate in, flexibility is often viewed as a means to achieve competitive advantage over rivals in a global market (Ghadge et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Defining flexibility\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Case study research design\n4. Flexibility competencies of IAMS: Table V summarizes the internal flexibility assessment, supported by a detailed discussion in the following seven subsections. These findings provide increased specificity regarding the flexibility competencies afforded by IAMS, showing these to arise from a multitude of resources within the manufacturing system, rather than solely from the use of additive manufacturing machines. This observation is consistent with manufacturing systems research for conventional technologies, and highlights the importance of a systems-based approach to evaluation. Additionally, for each of the four system components, different internal flexibility types are achieved to different degrees. Again, this is consistent with conventional manufacturing systems, but at odds with many of the literature assumptions that additive manufacturing is inherently flexible.\n5. Flexibility capabilities of IAMS: As explained in Section 2.1, achieving internal flexibility competencies in manufacturing systems enables the external flexibility capabilities that satisfy customer demand. Linking the external capabilities and internal competencies identified in this study, this section explores the relevance and enablement of the seven external capabilities, highlighting potentially emergent opportunities not explicitly explored in current literature. Looking forward, in Section 5.4 we consider how management can leverage the findings of this work in developing the flexibility of their own additive manufacturing facilities, highlighting the importance of education and training to support the workforce.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: This paper has provided the first detailed study on the strategically important concept of flexibility in an additive manufacturing context. A thorough literature review examined how the established operations management concept of flexibility has been applied to additive manufacturing. Existing additive manufacturing research often uses the term \"flexibility,\" but with little precision regarding its meaning or implications. Using this literature, and drawing upon established operations management principles on flexibility, the paper has increased the specificity with which flexibility in an additive manufacturing context is understood, moving from somewhat vague comments in terms of the machines, to a detailed explanation that delimits flexibility in terms of the capabilities (observed externally) and the competencies (achieved internally).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Flexibility is a fundamental performance objective for manufacturing operations, allowing them to respond to changing requirements in uncertain and competitive global markets. Additive manufacturing machines are often described as \"flexible,\" but there is no detailed understanding of such flexibility in an operations management context. The purpose of this paper is to examine flexibility from a manufacturing systems perspective, demonstrating the different competencies that can be achieved and the factors that can inhibit these in commercial practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study extends existing flexibility theory in the context of an industrial additive manufacturing system through an investigation of 12 case studies, covering a range of sectors, product volumes, and technologies. Drawing upon multiple sources, this research takes a manufacturing systems perspective that recognizes the multitude of different resources that, together with individual industrial additive manufacturing machines, contribute to the satisfaction of demand.\nFindings: The results show that the manufacturing system can achieve seven distinct internal flexibility competencies. This ability was shown to enable six out of seven external flexibility capabilities identified in the literature. Through a categorical assessment the extent to which each competency can be achieved is identified, supported by a detailed explanation of the enablers and inhibitors of flexibility for industrial additive manufacturing systems.\nOriginality/value: Additive manufacturing is widely expected to make an important contribution to future manufacturing, yet relevant management research is scant and the flexibility term is often ambiguously used. This research contributes the first detailed examination of flexibility for industrial additive manufacturing systems.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Forecasting container throughput with long short-term memory networks	[ "Logistics", "Time series", "Forecasting", "Deep learning", "LSTM", "Maritime supply chain" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The container logistics is a billion-dollar industry and a small improvement at strategical, tactical or operational decision levels will render huge cost benefits. The research on container throughput forecasting has evolved with time in terms of using more sophisticated techniques and methods to reduce forecasting errors. The efficient use of port data and its management directly influence the economic development of the port-hinterland region. The number of managerial decisions such as infrastructure-related investments at the port, container inventory management, equipment planning, port layout design and schedules are based on a forecast. Therefore, the forecaster is always looking for better and more accurate forecasting methods. The container throughput forecasting models can be broadly classified as econometric models; hybrid models and machine-learning-based models. The econometric models include autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), simple exponential smoothing (SES), Holt-Winter's (HW) and so on. Hybrid models, on the other hand, essentially include either different econometric models or an econometric model with a machine-learning-based method such as ARIMA + NN. The machine-learning-based models include an artificial neural network (ANN) and deep learning methods. Although machine learning methods have gained a lot of popularity in the past decade, they are still underexplored in the area of the maritime supply chain. Furthermore, very little literature is available on the potential of deep-learning-based methods to predict container throughput. This study aims to bridge this gap and improve the forecasting accuracy of the container throughput with the implementation of the deep-learning-based method, long short-term memory (LSTM).\n2. Review of related literature: 2.1 Container throughput forecasting models\n3. Overview of forecasting methods: Understanding the characteristics of different forecasting methods is essential to apprehend their application. It is difficult to select an appropriate model of forecasting for a specific type of data. Albeit the predicting performance of the hybrid model is found to be better, if a single model can exhibit better accuracy for both linear and non-linear sequences, then the effort of hybridizing different methods is omitted. As per Xie et al. (2013), hybrid approaches produce better forecasts. However, the results obtained from this study are counterintuitive. To understand the basic forecasting techniques, the following subsections provide a brief description of these models in the context of the container supply chain.\n4. Methodology: 4.1 LSTM network\n5. Results and discussion: In this section, the forecasting results for the monthly container throughput are presented, compared and discussed. To measure the performance of the proposed LSTM method, it is benchmarked over other widely used demand forecasting methods. The popular forecasting methods used to benchmark the results are as follows: univariate time-series methods - ARIMA, TBATS (De Livera et al., 2011), SES, ETS, Holt-Winter's ES, double Holt-Winter's ES (DES), triple Holt-Winter's ES (TES); machine learning method - NN; hybrid method - ARIMA + NN; and deep learning method - LSTM. It is observed that double and triple Holt-Winters methods were performing similar to Holt-Winter's method. Therefore, they are excluded from the final table of comparison. Furthermore, the complete implementation details for the LSTM are provided in this section because the deep learning method is quite complex and intricate to apply. This information will facilitate the proper understanding of the model.\n6. Conclusion: The forecasting is carried out for curiosity (to know about future demand), decision making, policy and model evaluation. In this paper, the potential of the LSTM to forecast container throughput is explored and its implementation is discussed in detail. To benchmark the performance, several widely used forecasting methods such as ARIMA, NN and ES are used. The four measures of errors, namely, RME, RAE, RMSE and MAPE are used. Furthermore, the forecasting accuracy of the LSTM model is compared with the other seven methods with the help of a statistical test named DM. It checks whether the forecasting accuracy of the proposed method is significantly better than the other methods of its kind or not. The methods are evaluated on the real-world data set of the port of Singapore. After analysis, it was found that the LSTM outperformed all other methods at all characteristics of forecasting, be it accuracy, bias or variance.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Better forecasting always leads to better management and planning of the operations. The container throughput data are complex and often have multiple seasonality. This makes it difficult to forecast accurately. The purpose of this paper is to forecast container throughput using deep learning methods and benchmark its performance over other traditional time-series methods.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study, long short-term memory (LSTM) networks are implemented to forecast container throughput. The container throughput data of the Port of Singapore are used for empirical analysis. The forecasting performance of the LSTM model is compared with seven different time-series forecasting methods, namely, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), simple exponential smoothing, Holt-Winter's, error-trend-seasonality, trigonometric regressors (TBATS), neural network (NN) and ARIMA + NN. The relative error matrix is used to analyze the performance of the different models with respect to bias, accuracy and uncertainty.\nFindings: The results showed that LSTM outperformed all other benchmark methods. From a statistical perspective, the Diebold-Mariano test is also conducted to further substantiate better forecasting performance of LSTM over other counterpart methods.\nOriginality/value: The proposed study is a contribution to the literature on the container throughput forecasting and adds value to the supply chain theory of forecasting. Second, this study explained the architecture of the deep-learning-based LSTM method and discussed in detail the steps to implement it.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Key drivers of university-industry relationships: the role of organisational compatibility and personal experience	[ "Relationship marketing", "Business‐to‐business marketing", "Universities", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.\nIntroduction: Business-to-business relationships have emerged as a central theme in marketing research, reflecting their importance and strategic potential. Indeed, the area of relationship marketing (RM) has now grown into an established stream, closely interwoven with the services marketing area. However, while an understanding of business-to-business service relationships has developed over time, this research has focused on relationships between private sector organisations. RM research has examined differences between relationship partners on a national culture basis (Ahmed et al., 1999; Johnston et al., 1999). However, relationships spanning fundamentally different organisational environments and corporate cultures have largely been neglected. In order to address this gap, this article identifies research-oriented university-industry relationships (UIRs) as a highly topical research context.Given the increasing need of organisations for innovation in competitive, fast-moving marketplaces around the world, research customers provide a highly relevant services business market. Research services are anchored in vast pools of knowledge, capabilities and facilities and may take on a number of forms due to the diversity of research areas and methods accumulated at universities. They all encompass one characteristic, namely the need for a close interaction between the research providers and customers to enable the transfer of knowledge and research, indicating a need for a relational approach. Nevertheless, research services are yet to receive attention from RM or services marketing researchers. Despite the increased relevance of UIRs, the technology transfer literature has retained a largely transactional, rather than relational, perspective. Hence, research is required not only to develop a theoretical foundation but also to inform management seeking to develop successful UIRs.The paper is organised as follows. First, the areas of business-to-business service relationships and technology transfer are reviewed, followed by a discussion of the concepts included in this study. Relationship success, key drivers and relevant antecedents are then described and propositions developed. Following this, a conceptual model and related hypotheses are presented. An outline of the methodology is then presented before the results are described, including a path analysis and hypotheses test, model re-specification and multi-group testing. A discussion of the findings and an extensive outline of managerial implications are provided in conclusion.\nUniversity-industry relationships: Business-to-business service relationships\nSuccess and key drivers of university industry relationships: Relationship success\nMethodology: A self-administered mail survey was conducted with key informants involved in UIRs in Australia. The researchers screened university websites and publications detailing university-industry linkage grants of the Australian Research Council (ARC), awarded between 2001 and 2003. Where appropriate, a snowball approach was utilised, asking academics and staff at industry liaison offices to indicate and/or contact colleagues knowledgeable in UIRs. Notably, the prevalent level of theory in this research is the group level. The review of ARC publications and qualitative exploratory findings showed that UIRs are primarily operationalised on a group level, namely between research groups and business units.Sampling procedure, frame and size\nResults: Data were analysed with AMOS 5 based on structural equation modelling (SEM) principles. SEM has taken the forefront for the analysis of complete models in recent times (Kline, 2005) by taking a confirmatory rather than exploratory or descriptive approach to data analysis (Byrne, 2001). Prior to analysis, all reverse-coded items were recorded, missing values replaced with maximum likelihood estimation (Byrne, 2001) and normality tested. While values of skewness and kurtosis below 1.351 and 2.219 respectively suggested slight to moderate univariate non-normality (Lei and Lomax, 2005), multivariate non-normality was suggested, given the overall value of 22.987. Hence, a range of procedures was implemented to prevent the impact of non-normality on the analysis. These include the use of the recommended normed fit index (NFI) and comparative fit index (CFI) (Lei and Lomax, 2005) for assessing the model fit and the application of the Bollen-Stine bootstrapping technique (Bollen and Long, 1993).Reliability was assessed by means of the Cronbach's alpha (a) and composite reliability. This was established for all measures of the overall sample as well as for the university and industry sub-samples, given that all a and composite reliability scores were above 0.7 (see the Appendix (Table AII)). The validity of the constructs was also tested. Convergent validity was ascertained by means of factor loadings and the average variance extracted (AVE). Furthermore, discriminant validity was analysed by relating the shared variance (l2) between constructs to the AVE score (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The shared variance, and thus the squared correlation between two constructs, was adequately lower than the AVE scores, demonstrating discriminant validity among constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981) (see the Appendix (Table AII)). Given the complexity of the model and the relatively limited sample size, composite scores were used as a means of data reduction (Rowe, 2002). A composite score was estimated for each multi-item construct based on a fitted one-factor congeneric measurement model, estimated with AMOS 5.Path analysis and hypotheses testing\nDiscussion: The RM literature has highlighted the interactivity and emotional content of relationships (Harker, 1999), underlining the importance of trust, commitment and communication/integration, for relationship success. Trust was confirmed as the strongest predictor of satisfaction, validating the significant focus of the marketing and UIR literature on this concept (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Irwin et al., 1998). The high uncertainty and risk inherent to research and research collaborations (Harman and Sherwell, 2002) may explain the significance of trust as a key driver of UIRs. The building of close, trusting relationships reduces perceived risk (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997), and also offers flexibility in operations and information exchange, providing a basis for research and discovery. Given the impact of trust on satisfaction, the lack of a significant link between trust and intention to renew was surprising and contrasts previous RM literature (Ganesan, 1994). Since neither trust nor satisfaction was shown to influence intention to renew, it would appear that decisions about the future do not necessarily depend on the affective conditions in the relationship. In line with the literature (Jap and Ganesan, 2000), our results showed commitment as consistently influencing satisfaction. The most prominent effect of commitment in the relationship, however, emerged in relation to intention to renew: commitment was the only fundamentally influential predictor of renewal.The third and final relationship characteristic, integration, was also shown to significantly affect satisfaction. Its importance stems from the relevance of knowledge transfer in research-oriented relationships, complicated by the obstacles and misunderstandings arising from different cultures and backgrounds (Cyert and Goodman, 1997). Considering the total perceived quality model, which originated in the Nordic School of Services, integration enables a research group to develop a relationship outcome that meets industry needs, in turn enhancing technical quality (i.e. the actual outcome) (Gronroos, 1984). Moreover, integration ensures the transfer of knowledge that industry staff needs to utilise the technology within the organisation (Plewa et al., 2005). Besides enhancing technical quality, integration improves the perceived functional quality, and thus the interaction process used to receive technical quality (Gronroos, 1984) by increasing the shared meaning and understanding between the groups. On the other hand, integration had little impact on intention to renew. This is consistent with Anderson and Weitz's (1989) results, suggesting that communication, or integration, support the present relationship but is of little or no consequence for long-term planning.The influence of trust on commitment and integration was established in the data, confirming previous research (e.g. Moorman et al., 1992; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Universities and industry entities operate in different environments, suggesting a high level of unfamiliarity and uncertainty in a developing UIR. The development of trust reduces perceived risk and encourages partners to commit and freely interact and share information. Support was also found for H4, that commitment significantly impacts integration (p<0.001). Devoting time and effort to maintain a relationship is likely to motivate active involvement in the process. Given the sparse attention given to this link in the literature, the positive path coefficient of 0.231 we found may warrant increased focus in this area.Our results demonstrated the strong and significant influence of organisational compatibility on trust, confirming the alliance literature (Sarkar et al., 2001). A high level of organisational compatibility is likely to facilitate understanding and empathy (Johnson and Cullen, 1996), in turn facilitating trust. Conversely, a lack of compatibility, or the clash of dissimilar organisational cultures, can lead to discomfort and hostility among groups (Chatterje et al., 1992) and inhibit the development of trust. The interrelationships between compatibility and the remaining relationship characteristics further highlighted this strong association. While only weak direct effects of compatibility on commitment and integration were shown, strong total effects by means of an indirect effect through trust emerged. The results also showed compatibility to positively influence the construct of personal experience.Surprisingly, our results showed a surprisingly weak influence of personal experience on UIRs: the only significant link emerged for commitment. These findings may relate to the construct of experience, which does not reflect the actual behaviour exhibited by the individual in a specific relationship. If championship behaviour is missing, a person's ability and willingness is insufficient to affect the development of trust or the active integration in the relationship. However, personal experience in UIRs may positively relate to the expectation of relationship continuity and the relationship investment, which does not require active championship behaviour. Hence, the link between experience and commitment may be justified.It may also be that experience is more relevant for relationship initiation than for its maintenance and enhancement. It was suggested that personal experience, and the reputation of an academic regarding previous or current relationships, serves as a foundation for trust in the UIR initiation stage (Plewa et al., 2005). Industry entities seek academics with previous engagement in UIRs, as these individuals were believed to understand the business environment and to appreciate industry needs and requirements (Plewa et al., 2005).\nManagerial implications: A number of managerial implications arise, relevant to parties involved in, or aiming to encourage, successful UIRs and other relationships uniting partners from differing environments, specifically in a service context. Before dealing with individual implications arising from the discussion, a general focus towards relationships should be established. Developing any interactive, trusting and long-lasting relationship is not possible if the organisational structure, culture or senior management oppose the idea of relationship building. Hence, management aiming at developing UIRs should be confident of their groups' ability and willingness towards building relationships with the other environment.Uncertainty is inherent to research and increased by confidentiality concerns when collaborating with another party embedded in an unfamiliar environment (Harman and Sherwell, 2002), implying a need for trust. This has a number of direct managerial implications. First, as trust develops over time (Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia, 2003), UIR development requires a long-term focus. Furthermore, industry entities appear to approach, and collaborate with, those research groups and academics that had previously demonstrated their ability to build relationships with industry entities (Plewa et al., 2005). A research group may thus position itself based on previous relationship experience. Following the attraction of a potential partner, trust should then be allowed to first develop through small-scale undertakings rather than directly considering high-risk projects.Compatibility of organisational cultures strongly related to trust and was seen to also influence commitment and integration. As it can be achieved by means of matching goals, objectives and operating philosophies, the deliberate consideration of these factors is required in the relationship initiation phase and should be repeated continuously, as goals change with the parties' environments and circumstances. Furthermore, structures and processes for knowledge dissemination between partners need to be established to encourage integration.Our results clearly indicate that groups aiming at the long-term continuation of a relationship should focus primarily on increasing levels of commitment. Besides valuing the relationship, they have to actively contribute to maintaining the relationship in order to achieve an ongoing affiliation. As the time and financial effort provided to a specific relationship may depend on the overall university or corporate strategy, processes should be put in place to determine the relationships that the organisation wants to retain and to empower groups to contribute to these relationships in their best possible way. Table IV outlines implications for relationships, and specifically UIR management.\nConclusion, limitations and future research: Combining the areas of RM technology transfer created a unique opportunity for this research and may provide a foundation for further development of UIR research. However, while this research contributes to marketing theory and practice, its results should be interpreted with caution in view of its limitations.First, this research focused on Australian universities and companies to eliminate national culture issues. Thus, the generalisability of our findings to other countries may be limited. Second, based on the restricted number of UIRs in Australia, cross-sectional data was used, incorporating a range of industry types. Relationships differ between faculties, departments and even research groups but the limited number of respondents did not allow a more differentiated analysis. Importantly, while respondents are likely to report on positive relationships, suggesting a potential systematic bias in terms of the dependent variable satisfaction (Hewett et al., 2002), our satisfaction ratings ranging from 1 to 7 suggest a good cross-section of current UIRs in Australia.Given the importance of UIRs in marketplaces around the world and a large number of relationships failing (Cyert and Goodman, 1997), further research in this area is clearly warranted. While this paper offers a starting point, future research is required to verify and extend its findings. Primarily, more research is required on UIRs and other business-to-business relationships spanning dissimilar organisational environments and cultures, examining individual relationships as well as networks. Particularly, given the exploratory nature of the re-specified model, future studies should validate our findings by testing our model with an independent sample. Considering the relevance of individuals suggested in the services, RM and technology transfer literature, the weak influence of experience on UIRs also deserves further enquiry. Considering the interrelationship between experience and trust identified in earlier studies (Feller et al., 2004), a comprehensive analysis of several characteristics of individuals should be conducted. Furthermore, following earlier discussion, the influence of experience on the initiation of UIRs should be tested.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of the paper is to analyse empirically research-oriented university-industry relationships based on the incorporation of relationship marketing (RM) and technology transfer theory.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper is based on an extensive literature review and initial qualitative research, a conceptual model is presented and tested using structural equation modelling methods. Analysis was conducted, and is reported, in three steps, including path analysis and hypothesis testing, model re-specification and a multi-group analysis comparing university and industry respondents.\nFindings: - Trust, commitment and integration were found to positively influence satisfaction and were confirmed as key drivers of successful university-industry relationships. While trust was the strongest driver of satisfaction, commitment emerged as the strongest predictor of intention to renew. The results also confirmed the proposed interrelationships between the relationship characteristics. Organisational compatibility emerged as positively influencing all relationship characteristics, indicating its relevance for university-industry relationships and suggesting its potential importance for other relationships crossing essentially different organisational environments. Surprisingly, only a weak influence of staff personal experience on commitment was found.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The results are limited to Australian relationships and by their cross-disciplinary nature. Furthermore, a potential bias towards positive relationships might exist in the data.\nOriginality/value: - The primary contribution of this paper lies in the development of a foundation for research in a new services business context by combining the established theory of RM with the emerging area of technology transfer. Building a thorough empirical basis for future research, the researchers anticipate the development of a comprehensive university-industry relationship research stream.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
UK initiatives to reduce antimicrobial resistant infections, 2013-2018	[ "UK", "Public health", "Antimicrobial stewardship", "Action plan", "AMR", "HCAI" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The UK has long had an active policy remit in the area of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with the first UK AMR Strategy and Action Plan published by the Department of Health (2000). Subsequent action in the UK was focused on development of infection prevention and control (IPC) and surveillance of healthcare-associated infections, namely, meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections and Clostridium difficile infections. This focus saw a decline in these infections of more than 75 per cent across the four devolved healthcare administrations in the UK (Bevan et al., 2014). This was delivered through targets and performance management of acute hospitals, focusing on improving hand hygiene, development and implementation of key care bundles (e.g. central venous catheter insertion and care) and reducing the use of certain antibiotics (e.g. quinolones and cephalosporins). An outline of the healthcare administrations and organisations within the UK are contained in Table I.\nThe development of the current AMR strategy: The Chief Medical Officer highlighted the importance of AMR in her 2011 annual report (Department of Health, 2012). The UK published a cross-government five-year AMR strategy (encompassing antibiotics) in 2013 (Department of Health and Defra, 2013). The overarching goal is to slow the development and spread of antibiotic resistance and to this end it has three strategic aims, namely, to improve knowledge and understanding of resistance, to conserve the effectiveness of existing treatments and to stimulate development of new treatments and diagnostics. These strategic aims are underpinned by seven key areas for action as follows:\nCurrent status of antibiotic resistance in the UK: In humans, the incidence of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae bloodstream infections increased from 2010 to 2014. The incidence of K. oxytoca, Pseudomonas spp., Enterococcus spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter spp. bloodstream infections remained constant, while the incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae bloodstream infections has declined, most likely related to the extended serovars covered in the vaccine (PCV13) introduced in 2010 (Guy et al., 2016). While the proportions resistant to key antibiotics (in 2014 non-susceptibility was 10.9 per cent to third generation cephalosporins, 18.8 per cent to ciprofloxacin 18.8 and 0.1 per cent to imipenem or meropenem) have remained constant in E. coli, the increased incidence of bloodstream infections means that more individuals have had a significant antibiotic-resistant infection. In addition, the increases in both incidence and antibiotic resistance observed in K. pneumoniae bloodstream infections means that the number of individuals with antibiotic-resistant infections has increased substantially in the last five years; carbapenem resistance has climbed from 0.4 to 1.3 per cent from 2010 to 2014 (Guy et al., 2016). Resistance in gonorrhoea and tuberculosis have remained stable, though they remain a significant threat, for example, there was an outbreak of azithromycin resistance in heterosexuals in the North of England in 2014 (Public Health England (PHE), 2016). The UK participates in all modules of AMR surveillance from humans in Europe coordinated by the European Centre for Disease Control, which allows comparisons to made between countries within the European Union.\nCurrent status of antibiotic use: Antibiotic prescribing is measured as the defined daily dose (DDD) of antibiotics per 1,000 inhabitants per day. In 2014, total antibiotic consumption was 22.6 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day; with almost 90 per cent occurring in the ambulatory setting (hospital outpatients, general practice, dental practice and other community settings), and is available on the European Centre for Diseases Control EARS-net (2015). In both primary and secondary antibiotic prescribing increased significantly. Between 2000 and 2014, primary care antibiotic prescribing rose by almost one-third from 14.3 to 20.9 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day. While this may relate to changes in antibiotic dose and duration recommended for the treatment of clinical conditions, and an ageing population with more complex health conditions, it also demonstrates the importance of action in this area.\nProgress on the national AMR strategy: The English Surveillance Programme for antibiotic use and resistance (ESPAUR) was established by PHE to provide operational leadership in this area in 2014 (Ashiru-Oredope and Hopkins, 2013). Since the launch of the AMR strategy, ESPAUR has established and improved surveillance data on antibiotic prescribing and antibiotic resistance, with a population coverage of both prescribing and resistance greater than 95 per cent; and developed improved access and use of surveillance data through the development of open access to healthcare professionals and the public to key AMR local indicators available at: www.fingertips.phe.org.uk\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the local, national and global actions from the UK to reduce the impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on human health.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Synthesis of UK government policy, surveillance and research on AMR.\nFindings: Activities that are taking place by the UK government, public health and professional organisations are highlighted.\nOriginality/value: This paper describes the development and areas for action of the UK AMR strategy. It highlights the many interventions that are being delivered to reduce antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistant infections.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving the corrective maintenance of an electronic system for trains	[ "Maintenance", "Functional analysis", "Railways", "Trains" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Nowadays, some of the most important railway companies in Europe have communication and control systems based on the TCN (Train communications Network) standard[1] in their trains. This allows the interchange of information and the train operation to be flexible and open to new functionalities and technologies like GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) and internet. However, this situation implies that a failure in a critical element of the communication and control system leaves the whole train out-of-service.Maintenance in a company affects significantly the total cost of his product, particularly in companies that manufacture critical communication systems. Thus, maintenance management becomes a key factor to take into account in the deployment of goals towards improvement in a world that demands increasing availability, quality and security and where the profit margins are being reduced continuously.Incorporation of electronics to the railway world\nFunctional analysis for maintenance: The Functional Analysis for Maintenance (FAM) is a qualitative tool designed to improve the performance of the corrective maintenance process simplifying and making more flexible the system's breakdown processing. Processing a breakdown involves locate the failure, find out the cause that provoked it, repair or change the affected components and put the system into operation again if possible.Therefore, the ultimate aim of the FAM is to minimize the time, resources and costs incurred in the process of re-establishment of the product's functionality after a breakdown happens during the normal course of its operation period.The FAM is applicable to every equipment or system that needs to be maintained, especially those where the application of the preventive maintenance is not feasible. The more the complexity of the equipment or system is, it becomes more difficult to solve the problem. Hence, the potential benefits of the application of the FAM are higher for complex equipments or systems, where the source of failure is more difficult to find.A correct use of the tool allows the manufacturer to consider new ways of managing the maintenance such as doing it from the distance or subcontracting it. These ways to manage maintenance are really appreciated when the product is sold abroad, because they make the maintenance of the equipment or system more accessible and easier to carry out even by non-qualified personnel.The FAM thoroughly studies and analyzes the functionality that the equipment or system must fulfill. Its strategy is based on the separation of the principal functions into primary functions, secondary functions, tertiary functions, and so on. This division finishes when the most basic functions (those which are carried out by repairable or interchangeable devices) have been analyzed. The FAM involves two steps: the design of the functional network and the functional study.Functional network\nApplication of the FAM to an electronic control and supervision system for trains: As it has been said previously, maintainability is presented as a key factor of the equipment or system in the railway sector, basically because of two reasons:1. the lack of availability of the train due to a failure provokes delays or stops in the programmed activity of the train, causing dissatisfaction to many users; and2. the team that carries out the maintenance is normally unique and belongs to the manufacturer of the train; it is in charge of the maintenance of all the devices and mechanisms that constitutes the train, even if they have not been produced by them.The FAM is a useful tool (external to the communication system) to locate and deal with failures of the provided equipment even when the maintenance team of the train does not have deep knowledge of the equipment in question. So it can be said that the FAM simplifies and optimizes the corrective maintenance.The FAM has been applied to the control and supervision system for trains. This system is installed all along the train and it is made up of a big amount of modules and other components.As it can be deduced from Figure 4, the corrective maintenance works in the presence of a failure that could cause a loss of functionality of the train can be difficult and take long time, due to the complexity and variety of the components of the system. This implies some drawbacks as delays and forced stops, customers' dissatisfaction, penalties, etc. and becomes worse if the maintenance team has no perfect knowledge of the product.Therefore, a software tool that aided the maintenance team to locate a failure would be very valuable when trying to minimize the time to put the train into operation again. This idea is shown in Figure 5.According to the explanation in the last section, the FAM involves the functional network and the functional analysis applied to this case study. The functional network with the most general functionality that the system must fulfill is displayed in Figure 6.The functional study identifies the functional failures and the effects they could cause along the network. It also sets the state of the controls in each case and the most simple and understandable way for the maintenance team to proceed.A web-based application with a friendly and easy-to-use interface has been created that searches the functional network automatically from left-hand side to right-hand side through a series of questions made to the user and then presents a list with the possible devices or mechanisms that caused the breakdown. It also gives specific instructions in order to re-establish its functionality if necessary. A generic example is represented in Figure 7.In addition, the application can gather information of the operation stage of the equipment or system. That information could be useful when it comes to dealing with the task of creating new designs: number of failures per device, accumulated incurred cost per functional failure, mean time of repair per functional failure, etc.Thanks to FAM, the maintenance team of the train receives a more in depth training, which gives them more autonomy when it comes to dealing with the corrective maintenance of the system. In the same way, the supplier company of the system has managed to improve the availability of the system, as well as to reduce the generated costs during its use and in consequence, to improve the competitiveness of the system and of the company in general.\nConclusions: Although this tool was initially developed to be used during the corrective maintenance of a communication system for trains, it can be proposed for the corrective maintenance of other systems or equipments.There is no perfect product or process and thus unexpected failures would continue to appear, though to a lesser extent. Thus, knowing when, where and how the failures happened is very important for those who work in the improvement of the reliability of the product or service. This is the field where FAM can be applied.The FAM is a useful tool for the improvement of the corrective management as regards to the following:* It's a tool that can be used in the maintenance of any system or equipment that requires maintenance, in particular those complex systems where preventive maintenance is not completely feasible.* FAM makes repairs easier and thus speeds up the search of the location of the failures and the causes that provoked them. This means a faster resolution of the problem, directly translated into an increase in the availability. Many times it means cheaper reparations.* It can be used as a generator of information about the operation stage of the product. This information based on experience could be very useful for the development of new designs.* It is a qualitative tool and it is very easy to use in companies.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to improve the availability of the trains managed by an electronic communications system. This is an important point because for a train controlled by a system like this, a failure in a critical component can cause the train to become inoperable.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A functional network was developed for the communication systems of trains. The network makes it clear how the product works and it helps to easily track a failure in the system. A functional study was also carried out. Finally, based on the functional network and the functional study a tool was built for the improvement of the corrective maintenance.\nFindings: - A new tool has been developed for communications systems for trains which simplifies and optimizes the corrective maintenance. It could also be used with other systems or equipment. It is especially useful for complex products where preventive maintenance is difficult to apply.\nPractical implications: - The availability of trains in service should be as close to 100 per cent as possible. Manufacturers of these systems are required to establish adequate maintenance criteria in order to care for the financial health of railway companies. FAM has been designed to help the maintenance team carry out the corrective maintenance of a communications system for trains, however it is a common tool that could be useful for the maintenance of other complex systems.\nOriginality/value: - The developed tool makes repairs easier and speeds the maintenance process improving the availability and savings costs. In addition it could be used as a generator of information and be useful for the development of new designs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Online retrieval history; how it all began: some personal recollections	[ "Worldwide web", "Information retrieval", "History" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: \"Rediscovery in the library may be a more difficult and uncertain process than the first discovery in the laboratory\" observed one of the most outstanding scientists of the nineteenth century (Rayleigh, 1885). Fate was particularly unkind to Rayleigh, in showing the truth of this. His definitive published treatise (Rayleigh, 1897) on the mathematical analysis of \"waveguides\" (unsung but critical to the success of many technological advances, e.g. fibre optics) was \"forgotten\". When the technology was needed it appeared that no background existed and much effort was expended in the early 1930s in the rediscovery of the hollow tube waveguide (Packard, 1984).\nBoolean logic: Although Boolean logic was at first unfamiliar to many of the early workers, it proved to be relatively easy to think of \"text\" as being capable of being searched in \"sets\" via Boolean operators. This became increasingly clear when Venn (1880) diagrams were used to present a search formulation in visual form. An early example of a training chart is shown in Figure 1 and similar charts proved to be of great value in helping the first \"test users\" (and also funding bodies and committees!) to appreciate this essential core of the new technique.\nConversion of text into binary digit strings: It has long been known that letters of the alphabet can be encoded as numerals, e.g. as in spy ciphers. But there is a particular advantage in encoding into \"Base 2\" as opposed to the usual decimal \"Base 10\" (although \"Base 2\" routinely serves well in some applications, e.g. Morse code, or the high pitch/low pitch of some drumbeat message systems). In \"Base 2\" only zeros and ones are allowed. Assume a set of 26 eight-blocks and arbitrarily allot them to the 26 upper-case letters of the Roman alphabet, and further assume that as part of a greater scheme of things all 26 blocks are numbered 01 at the left-hand end. An alphabet can then be built up by progressive incrementation, beginning at the far right thus:* 01000001=A;* 01000010=B;* 01000011=C;* 01000100=D; and* 01000101=E.And so on to 01011010=Z. Thus the simple word INFO would be represented by a string of 32 zeros and ones, and would seem to be very unwieldy indeed. But this string of 32 bits (binary digits) possesses one overwhelming advantage; because it is in digital form, it can easily be handled by computer.\nComputer searching of binary digit strings: Once the online pioneers had grasped how computers did what they could do so very, very quickly, they saw immediately how the computer could be an immensely powerful helpmate. Put briefly, it was just a matter of seeing a computer as simply a vast array of electronic switches each capable of being in the OFF or ON condition. A computer can thus be a paradigm for a machine to process binary streams comprising \"zeros\" and \"ones\", easily equating to strings of electronic switches which are either \"off\" or \"on\" - and which can be switched off/on at such incredibly fast speeds that millions of search strings can routinely be handled in less than a second.Since the search strings (sections (2) and (3) above) could clearly represent letters of the alphabet (i.e. text) the online library and information pioneers of the mid-1960s could see a glittering future, embodied in one disarmingly simple proposition:Text (in the form of binary digits) could be handled by arrays of electronic on-off switches (in the form of computers) at speeds so great that millions of \"matches\" (as in searching for a word/words) could be carried out in an incredibly small number of seconds.But how to build on this idea? Crusading enthusiasm had to be supported by funding and staff effort. Some developers had control over their own funds and staff effort, but others had to seek approval from funding bodies. Generally, members of funding committees soon understood the basic relationship between \"precision\" and \"recall\" (as usually defined at that time), and quickly understood how the iterative feedback nature of fast machine searching could \"move\" the relationship to a better part of the typical precision-recall chart (e.g. Hall, 1977a, p. 72). This led to another key proposition:The amazing speed of online searching would offer almost immediate iteration of search formulations, with the likely quite outstanding feature of easily making it possible for searchers to markedly improve final search outcomes.On grounds of improving \"efficiency\", this proved to be a decisively persuasive argument. Once approved there was usually little difficulty in obtaining computer run-time and enthusiastic programming support. Throughout the years of early growth, helpful articles began to appear in various journals, although it was not until 1977 that several dedicated journals appeared - Online (USA. from 1977), Online Review (UK from 1977), and Database (USA. from 1978). Also, from 1977, comprehensive textbooks began to appear, e.g. Hall (1977a).In the early years, progress along the \"learning curve\" was rapid. In North America, taking 1972 as a convenient (half-way) benchmark year, the ASIS Meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (May 1972) presented \"live\" displays of 12 online databases and/or systems, deemed by their various developers to be sufficiently robust as to face public demonstration (Table I).In Europe, again taking 1972 as the benchmark year, several systems were operational, e.g. ESA/RECON (Frascati, Italy), QUOBIRD (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and RIOT (Abingdon, England), with others under development.Several points can usefully be made about the systems operational in mid-1972:* All the available systems actually worked, although with varying degrees of retrieval efficiency (personal observation, present author).* Dial-up telecommunication links (via external plug-in modems) were common. In such cases routine, reliable service could be fragile due to loss-of-signal, and link performance was sometimes less reliable than the retrieval programs!* The wide range of \"topics\" indicated that there was interest not just from areas with hard, precise words/terms (as in science) but also from areas using \"softer\" terms. Indeed, as early as 1971 in the UK the POLLS (Parliamentary On-Line Library Study) had carried out early tests on online retrieval from a small database of social affairs literature (Negus and Hall, 1971).* Most projects were \"in-house\", a situation that would shortly change dramatically.* At least one system (DATA/CENTRAL) was already (1972) equipped with full-text searching, complete with adjacency/positional indicators and colour highlighting of desired fields.The years following 1972 saw even more vigorous growth and by 1977 there were some 65 projects in various stages of development; in Europe (32), in Japan (two) and in North America (31). Some of the principal bibliographic services then operating on a commercial dial-up basis were:* American Services: BRS (Schenectady), DIALOG (PaloAlto), MEDLINE (Bethesda), New York Times (New York), ORBIT (Santa Monica).* Canadian Service: CAN/OLE (Ottawa).* European Services: BLAISE (London), ESA-RECON (Frascati), MIC-MEDLARS (Stockholm).Looking specifically at databases, almost certainly the first sizeable database to run as a service rather than as an experiment was the NASA database, while the educational database ERIC was probably the first to be offered on a truly public-access basis. By 1976 there were at least 18 \"public access\" databases (Table II).But the time for experimental development was coming to an end, and by the late 1970s most funding bodies were beginning to see \"online\" in commercial terms. In many cases projects were allowed to terminate at the end of their period of funding support, but there was none-the-less a valuable spin-off in that they then released teams of people with valuable online knowledge ready to be utilised elsewhere.By 1977 Aslib's Online Sourcebook (Hall, 1977a) was able to sketch out an overview of the whole field and reported over 100 systems providing some degree of service to ordinary users. Over 30 million references were then available for online searching, with an update rate of over 5 million references per year.It is clear from the above that early progress was very rapid indeed. This was not unexpected - separate work by the National Science Foundation (\"Project TRACES\") had demonstrated that in many cases of major technological innovation perhaps as much as 80 per cent of what was needed in order to achieve completion was already known. And so it was with online information retrieval; as the late twentieth century developed all the essential pieces began to come together relatively rapidly thus allowing the creation of today's successful systems which owe so much to the earlier work of so many people, organisations and other disciplines. Solutions were found to many of the technical problems, and in cases where a service did not own the material to be put online then equitable financial arrangements were established. Additionally, patterns were beginning to emerge as to what users should pay for online access when the commercial phase was reached. There was no stopping further growth. Of course (like the systems of the past) there were a number of imperfections but online information retrieval as a reliable, robust working tool really had arrived!As online retrieval became a major force, more and more references were made available in online databases as indicated in Table III (Hall, 1986)[2].The numbers in Table III are very big indeed and like the \"national debt\" tend to lose meaning unless related to something meaningful. In this case a sense of scale may be gained by remembering that there are less than 2,000 hours in the normal working year, so anything that helps to cope with the avalanche of new information must be helpful!But there were of course various constraints on continuing growth, and from the early 1980s commercial factors began to exert a major influence. Many inevitable decisions affected both databases and operating online retrieval systems:* Databases. For the most part, databases survived and retained their integrity because they contained primary information. Some remained effectively in-house, while others migrated, often to the more successful of the commercial online \" host\" systems.* Online systems. It was clear that the 100-or-so systems of the 1970s could not all reasonably expect to survive in the pressurised world of financial discipline, and indeed many were amalgamated or were wound up. Some were spectacularly successful, e.g. several decades later (in the 1990s) the \"Dialog\" service alone was reported to offer access to over 900 databases containing 1.4 billion unique records.Unfortunately, the main thrust of this brief history takes the story no further than the early 1980s when the present author ceased to have much direct involvement in the online field. It must be for other much younger commentators to chronicle the exciting quarter century from the 1980s onwards.Looking back over the last 40-odd years from 1965, when virtually nothing remotely \"online\" existed, one must pay tribute to the online leaders of the past - and also to the mostly unsung tens of thousands of dedicated workers who have produced fantastic databases, great search programs, better computers, gigantic computer memories, incredible printers, the internet, the world wide web - and the whole panoply we so easily take for granted. Truly, today's users are benefiting from one of the great developments of the twentieth century - the move from what was almost a non-industry in the 1960s to one of the vital industries of the early part of the twenty-first century.\nWhat happened afterwards?: The brief memoir above deals primarily with the years up to about 1980 at which time the present author returned to his career path in nuclear physics. However, the following decades (from the early 1980s) saw major progress in many other technical fields and this section presents (from the personal viewpoint of the present author as an interested bystander) some modest reflections on various key upgrades and developments that took place in various related areas. These were vital because the library and information community could go only so far on its own.The user population\nBibliographies of online literature up to 1986: The history of the early years as recorded in print is formidable indeed - some 4,000 papers up to 1985. Fortunately for the serious researcher of that period of information science, there exist various bibliographies covering the years up to 1986, e.g.:* Hall (1977b), Aslib Bibliography No. 8: 1965-1976 - over 900 references.* Hall and Dewe (1980), Aslib Bibliography No. 10: 1976-1979 - over 1,000 references.* Hall (1986), Online Bibliographic Databases Directory - over 1,000 references.* Hawkins (1983), Online Information Retrieval Bibliography 1964-82 - over 3,300 references.* Hawkins (1984a, b) (update of above Bibliography, 1982-1984) - 930 references.Key early online developers\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to discuss the history of online searching through the views of one of its pioneers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents, and comments on, the recollections of Jim Hall, one of the earliest UK-based operators of, and writers on, online retrieval systems.\nFindings: - The paper gives an account of the development of online searching in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents the perspective of one of the pioneers of online searching.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Means-end chain approach for exploring the motivation of ready-to-drink tea consumers	[ "Product attributes", "Consumption motivation", "Means-end chain (MEC)", "Ready-to-drink (RTD)", "Tea beverages" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide because of its low cost, which is second only to water (Hazarika, 2013), and polyphenol content, which is associated with potential health benefits (Del Rio et al., 2010; Subramanian et al., 2014; Shinozaki and Harada, 2014). In contrast to coffee, which is perceived as a stimulant, tea is viewed by people in Eastern countries as a health drink (M2 Presswire, 2014). Therefore, drinking tea plays a prominent role in the lives of people of all ages and social statuses (Hazarika, 2013); moreover, two-third of the world's population drink tea (Kim et al., 2011; Jingxia and Zhaodan, 2012).\nLiterature review: Tea contains caffeine (Hewlett and Wadsworth, 2012), which can enhance alertness and mental functioning when consumed in moderation (Smith, 2002). Therefore, people typically drink tea when they feel sleepy in the afternoon and when they require a stimulant (Su, 2007). As people's health awareness has increased (Shinozaki and Harada, 2014), consumption of tea beverages has increased worldwide because tea polyphenols are beneficial to health (Wu and Wu, 1998; Subramanian et al., 2014).\nMethodology: Research sample and data collection\nData analysis and results: Content analysis\nDiscussion: One objective of the current study was to employ the MEC approach to explore the effects of the product attributes of RTD tea beverages and to determine how they motivate consumers to engage in purchasing behavior. Because of intense competition in the RTD tea beverage market, determining how consumers develop purchasing motivations is critical. This study provides empirical evidence regarding the motivation of RTD tea beverage consumers and indicates three salient findings regarding the attribute preferences of RTD tea beverage consumers. First, the taste and flavor of RTD tea beverages are the two dominant motivational attributes associated with such beverages being delicious to drink. In addition, the flavor and ingredients contribute to the degree of positive health benefits experienced. Furthermore, consumers associate the packaging of RTD tea beverages with convenience. Second, although brand is not a dominant motivational attribute, it builds consumer trust in RTD tea products. Third, fulfilling enjoyment is a critical end goal and perceived product value in motivating consumers to purchase RTD tea beverages.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Ready-to-drink (RTD) tea beverages are widely consumed worldwide and play a prominent role in people's daily lives, yet few studies have investigated the motivation of RTD tea beverage consumers as well as their underlying attitudes and desires. The purpose of this paper is to explore why these attributes are motivational factors by focussing on the attributes of RTD tea beverage products that motivate consumers to purchase RTD tea.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The attribute-consequence-value model of the means-end chain approach was employed to investigate consumer motivations for purchasing RTD tea beverages. Data were collected through a qualitative face-to-face survey of 153 RTD tea beverage consumers in Taiwan.\nFindings: The results indicate that consumers purchase RTD tea beverages because the taste, flavor, packaging, and ingredients (attributes) satisfy their desire to drink RTD tea and fulfill the benefits of being delicious to drink, possessing thirst-quenching properties, and possessing health-promoting properties (perceived consequences), thereby fulfilling their ideal goal of experiencing enjoyment (perceived product value).\nOriginality/value: The findings may serve as a reference for producers of RTD tea beverages regarding product development and marketing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Customer engagement with websites: a transactional retail perspective	[ "Online consumer behaviour", "Fashion", "Online retailing", "Customer engagement", "Websites", "Environmental psychology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Customer engagement (CE) has been attracting increasing attention in recent marketing literature and has been said to generate enhanced sales growth, superior competitive advantage, profitability and consumer value and to promote emotional connections/attachment, customer loyalty, trust, commitment and satisfaction (Hollebeek, 2011b; Kumar et al., 2010a; Kumar et al., 2010b; Bowden, 2009). The rationale being that engaged customers contribute to the firm's marketing function (Harmeling et al., 2017) play a role in generating product or brand referrals and/or recommendations, contribute to new product or service development, co-create experiences (Hollebeek, 2013; Brodie et al., 2011a; Kumar et al., 2010a) and make purchases (Maslowska et al., 2016).\n2. Customer engagement: 2.1 The definitions, dimensionality and focal objects of customer engagement\n3. Theoretical framework for the study (S-O-R): The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) has formed the basis for many studies conceptualising behavioural intention. The S-O-R model posits that the retail environment contains stimuli (S) that cause reactions or internal states in customers or \"organisms\" (O), which generate a response (R) that is often behavioural. Whilst environmental psychology research has long established that retailers can manipulate the atmosphere of the shopping environment to affect shopper reactions, it was Eroglu et al. (2003) who validated the relevancy of the framework to online shopping.\n4. Methodology: In light of the lack of extant research on CE with websites and based on the premise that CE is context specific (Dessart, 2017; Brodie et al., 2011b; Hollebeek, 2011b), this study took an overall exploratory approach within an interpretative research design. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to establish the website cues that drive CE as well as the nature of this engagement. Purposive sampling was conducted with participants selected on the basis of their age, gender and prior experience of shopping for fashion online: specifically, over-55-year-old women who have browsed and bought fashion and fashion-related items online. The propensity among researchers from all disciplines to use student samples as they are accessible, convenient and cost effective has attracted widespread criticism due in large part to the limited generalisability such samples afford (Bello et al., 2009). In fact, authors considering online customer shopping behaviour have identified the use of student samples as a key limitation within the extant body of research, citing the fact that students are most likely to be more computer literate than other age groups, more comfortable shopping online (Doherty and Ellis-Chadwick, 2010; Demangeot and Broderick, 2007) and therefore not representative of the population as a whole. Supporting this, Chiu et al. (2014) found that older customers possess significantly more barriers to shopping online than their younger counterparts; thus suggesting that if they experience CE with a website then younger customers will too. In response to this, our study identified over-55-year-old women as the target sample. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), over-55-year-olds are the fastest growing demographic group in the UK leading market analysts Mintel to identify this customer group as one that represents a significant opportunity for fashion retailers (Mintel, 2016). Women were selected as they are significantly more likely than men to shop for fashion online (Mintel, 2017). Having prior experience of browsing and buying fashion online was an important criterion as we believe that for participants to contribute effectively, they need to have had experience of shopping for fashion online so that they might then offer insight into whether this has led to a state of CE.\n5. Findings: This section presents the findings of this study. Individual website environmental cues that incite CE are identified and the nature of this relationship, in terms of the dimensions of CE that are stimulated and their manifestations, are determined. The influence that a customer's internal motivation exerts on the nature of CE they experience is also captured. Confirmation is provided that CE with transactional retail websites comprises of cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions. Furthermore, the findings allow conclusions to be drawn on the role that the website plays in the customer-brand engagement dyad.\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Theoretical implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to focus on customer engagement (CE) in the underexplored context of transactional retailing websites, providing insight into the drivers, manifestations and dimensionality of the construct. The website is viewed as a collection of environmental stimuli, and focus is placed on identifying the website environmental cues that promote CE.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This focussed study follows an exploratory research design. A total of 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with one segment group: over-55-year-old female online shoppers in the most commonly purchased product category online, clothing. The stimulus-organism-response model forms the theoretical framework.\nFindings: The unique findings identify that product-related environmental cues drive CE on a website, suggesting that CE occurs at the level of the product, as opposed to the website.\nResearch limitations/implications: CE with websites exists beyond the customer-brand dyad, with the website forming the third node in a triadic relationship between customer, brand (at level of the product) and website (at level of the product-related cues).\nPractical implications: This study reveals the relationship between website environmental cues and the manifestation of CE, providing managers with insight on how best to drive CE. Confirmation is provided that the website represents a vital touchpoint in the engagement journey of a retail customer.\nOriginality/value: Websites as a focal object for CE are markedly under-researched. This study empirically supports the relevance of considering CE in this context and reveals the influence online environments have on CE.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Influence of contextual factors on health-care leadership	[ "Leadership", "Organizations", "Structures", "Culture techniques", "National Health Service" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Over the years, the topic of leadership has inspired voluminous research and discussion about the characteristics and types of leadership and whether leaders are born or made. Less is known about how organizational structure, culture and climate influence leadership behaviour. The goal of this review is therefore to extend understanding of the influence of contextual factors on: power and influence; creativity and innovation; and leadership behaviour. The literature is discussed and reflected on from the perspective of a Physiotherapy Manager within a Children's Hospital NHS Trust.This review has been compiled following a search of seven electronic databases from 1999 to 2004. The databases searched were ProQuest, Emerald, Ingenta, InfoTrac, Medline, CINAHL and EBSCOhost. The search used the keywords \"leadership\", \"organization\", \"structure\", \"culture\", \"climate\" and \"health\". Papers were also checked for additional references.Northouse (2001) defined leadership as \"a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal\". There are many different definitions of leadership and controversy over whether leadership is a specialised role or a shared influence process (Yukl, 2002). The view of this paper is that leadership is a widely dispersed activity within organizations and that it resides not only at all levels of the management hierarchy but also among the non-manager members of teams (Hamlin, 2002).The author's experience of leadership is within the National Health Service (NHS), a large \"bureaucratic\" organization currently undergoing extensive modernisation. The NHS Plan (DoH, 2000) was published in July 2000 and its vision is to provide fast and convenient healthcare to a consistently high standard. A Modernisation Agency was set up by the government to lead the implementation of the ten-year plan and act as a \"centre for excellence\" in identifying and celebrating good practice in the NHS. The Agency also incorporates the NHS Leadership Centre which aims to \"deliver a step change in the calibre of NHS Leadership\" and with it a \"revolution in health care\" (DoH, 2000). Effective leadership is seen as the key ingredient in modernising the health service and providing better patient care and improved working practices for staff (DoH, 2003). Inevitably, the development and behaviour of leaders within the NHS will be influenced by the structure, culture and climate of the organization.Power and influence\nConclusion and limitations: The NHS has functioned through the years with a traditional approach to leadership, with power and decision-making situated at the top of the hierarchical tree. If it is to succeed in devolving power to frontline staff and creating new leaders to redesign services then it must adapt its structure, culture and climate accordingly.The literature indicates that an empowering environment is one that has a clear vision, provides access to information, gives support, provides resources, has a participative climate and provides opportunities for growth and development. There is also clarity of roles and managers have a wider span of control. Although position in the hierarchy is said to be the main source of power in a bureaucracy, and rules and procedures the main methods of influence, leaders of NHS organizations would do well to focus on increasing their expert and referent power. Doctors and managers struggle for supremacy within the NHS but professional leadership is learning to function within the bureaucratic system.Creativity is encouraged where there is open communication, shared values and goals, decentralised decision-making, low specialisation, abundance of resources and permission to take risks. The NHS collaboratives have begun to apply some of these principles and provide a forum for the development of new ideas to redesign services.The NHS has traditionally encouraged a transactional leadership style but the changing environment now requires leaders to be more transformational. Attention needs to be paid to work group contextual factors, particularly work-group size, work-group cohesiveness and organizational climate, as these relate to the quality of leader-member exchange.The current leadership debate has encouraged too much emphasis on the characteristics and types of leadership, and too little on the need for understanding the complex context in which health care leadership takes place. This review has extended understanding of the influence of contextual factors on: power and leadership; creativity and innovation; and leadership behaviour.The paper has drawn on literature from a wide range of organizations, cultures and settings and care is needed in applying these findings to the NHS. Theory that is developed in one culture may not be transferable to another culture, particularly where there are different values. Some researchers developed their theories following extensive study within a single organization but any theory of leadership should be evaluated in different organizational contexts if the results are to be generalised. The NHS is a complex, highly differentiated and changing organization. Despite many parts being bureaucratic, some parts may function closer to the organic model. An empirical investigation would need to be conducted in different NHS units before the influence of contextual factors on health care leadership can be fully understood.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - To extend understanding of the influence of contextual factors on: power and influence; creativity and innovation; and leadership behaviour.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The review has been compiled following a search of seven electronic databases from 1999 to 2004. The author also uses her experience as a physiotherapy manager within a children's hospital NHS Trust to reflect on some of the theories in the workplace.\nFindings: - While the literature is contradictory in places, some trends do emerge. Bureaucratic organizations can inhibit an empowering environment, as can those that are poor at disseminating information or communicating a vision. Hierarchical structures, high staff turnover and lack of resources are likely to stifle creativity and innovation. Organic structures tend to facilitate a more transformational leadership style, whereas bureaucratic structures encourage a more transactional style. The quality of leader-member exchange is thought to be related to work group size, work group cohesiveness and organizational climate.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Care is needed in applying these findings to the National Health Service as theory that is developed in one organisation or culture may not be transferable to another. The author suggests that an empirical investigation should be undertaken in different National Health Service units.\nOriginality/value: - This paper explores an aspect of leadership that is often neglected. Organizations that wish to nurture and develop their leaders and managers will need to be mindful of the environmental context within which this takes place.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Cause-related marketing for successful cross-border post-acquisition performance	[ "Country image", "MNE", "Cause-related marketing", "Cross-border acquisitions", "Repurchase intentions" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Nowadays marketers make a lot of investments each year in corporate advertising, corporate philanthropy, sponsorships, cause-related marketing (CRM) and public image studies, because they influence consumers' cognitive associations for a firm. Brown and Dacin (1997) demonstrated that corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) can have important influences on company and product evaluations (Nassivera et al., 2017). In particular, the former is related to the company's expertise in producing and delivering its outputs. For example, Grom has become known for its use of natural ingredients without flavourings, colours or emulsifiers. Its flavours and colours, therefore, come only from the seasonally available raw materials which, in turn, are produced by its suppliers without the use of additives. CSR reflects the organization's status and activities with respect to its perceived societal obligations; within the domain of CSR, the current study focusses on CRM, which plays a very important role since it is particularly relevant to customers (Demetriou et al., 2010).\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 Impact of acquirer's CRM activities and CA on consumer repurchase intentions\n3. Empirical study: An experimental field study on a sample of Italian consumers was performed in order to empirically test the aforementioned hypotheses. The participants were randomly assigned to one of eight CBA scenarios and provided with questionnaires that included information about a fictitious CBA in which one of eight different firms acquires an Italian firm with a strong corporate reputation. Fictitious firms were created to prevent any bias due to existing perceptions of a known firm and brand (Fong et al., 2013; Lafferty, 2007). We explained to the participants that the target firm has been operating in the confectionery sector for about 70 years with a brand (ITA) that is very popular in Italy as well as its products (which are entirely made and packaged in Italy). Scenarios 1 and 2 present the acquirer as a Chinese firm (low CI) with a good vs poor CRM and CA (both CRM and CA are good or poor); Scenarios 3 and 4 do the same for a French firm (high CI); Scenarios 5 and 6 present a Chinese firm with a good CRM but a poor CA vs a poor CRM but a good CA; and Scenarios 7 and 8 do the same for a French firm.\n4. Results: 4.1 Manipulation checks\n5. Discussion and conclusion: The current study adds to the limited body of knowledge on the effects of CRM on consumers' reactions in the context of CBAs. Generally, an MNE chooses a CBA to enter a new foreign market very quickly by acquiring the total market share of the target firm. As a consequence, a positive response of consumers to the CBA event is crucial in order to guarantee the success of the international expansion strategy.\n6. Managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research: The managerial implications are important for firms engaging in CBAs. Our findings indicate that senior executives first have to keep clearly in mind how crucial it is for an MNE to implement a good CRM in order to communicate its good reputation to all the key stakeholders and transfer it to the products/brands of the target firm. They have to communicate their cause-related initiatives to the local community and incorporate CRM as a primary component of the further development of the foreign brand. This is of paramount importance in order to maintain and sustain the competitive advantage in the host country after the acquisition. CRM may help acquiring firms to engage potential and existing host customers and to build relationships that will be very long-lasting. When an MNE expands abroad through a CBA, managers need to be especially conscious of the fact that they should plan strategically to enhance their image. Publicly displaying commitment to a cause regarding host community, environment protection or philanthropy, in whatever way they can, may induce positive feelings in the host consumers that, in turn, can affect their attitude towards the products from the target firm post-acquisition. Firms seeking to enter foreign markets should be aware that when they engage in CBAs, their abilities and their nationality matter to host consumers, but they can be influenced by good firm CRM activities in the host country. Before entering a new market, it is suggested that managers of MNCs conduct research and gain a clear understanding of how and why host consumers will view the actions of the acquiring firm and implement the CRM programme that will be viewed positively.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Building on the scant literature on cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) in the consumer perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the acquirer's cause-related marketing (CRM) on consumers' repurchase intentions of the products of the post-acquisition target. In addition, the study aims at analyzing the moderating role of acquirer's CRM on the relationship between corporate ability (CA) and country image (CI) on consumers' repurchase intentions of the products of the post-acquisition target.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on a sample of Italian consumers (n=351), the authors examined the roles played by the acquirer's CRM on consumer behaviour by considering an Italian target firm with a high reputation and comparing eight foreign acquiring firms with different combinations of CRM (poor/good), CA (poor/good) and CI (high/low).\nFindings: The authors found that CRM, CA as well as CI have a significant impact on Italian consumers' intention to repurchase the products of the post-acquisition target. Furthermore, it is shown that good CRM reduces the negative influence of a poor CA and a low CI on post-acquisition repurchase intentions and strengthen the positive influence, thus confirming the moderating role of CRM.\nOriginality/value: The research investigates, in the context of CBAs, the impact of the acquirer's CRM on the host country consumers' repurchase intentions after the CBA, which has not previously been examined. It can help managers to understand the conditions under which CBAs will be favourably evaluated.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Perceived credibility of blogs on the internet - the influence of age on the extent of criticism	[ "Blogs", "Conventional medicine", "Alternative medicine", "Credibility", "Medicine" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Medical information is one of the leading subjects searched for on the web. Nowadays, when information is accessible and available to almost everyone, a certain change has occurred in the perception of the \"superiority\" of the physician. When it concerns their health, people tend to look for information on the web in order to understand better their physical condition and they do not accept submissively the diagnosis and treatment given to them (Fox and Jones, 2009). Since a person's health usually is very important to him, the question whether he can rely on the information he receives on the web has great significance.During the last decade, medical and health-related information has become one of the main types of information that users search for on the web, as shown in several Pew Internet and American Life projects (Fox, 2008; Fox and Jones, 2009). The purpose of our study, therefore, was to examine how users perceive the credibility of information they find on various types of blogs in the field of health and what influences these perceptions. The users were asked to assess the credibility of information in the blogs. In the current study \"the information is highly credible\" means that the reader feels that she can rely on the information she receives, thus allowing her to believe it can contribute meaningfully to her quality of life, and in certain instances even to save her life. We compare perceptions about different genres of blogs. There are several blog genres, for example personal blogs similar to the pre-internet handwritten personal diaries, personal blogs communicating and commenting on information available elsewhere, commercial blogs that have a clear goal of profit-making, and blogs of news media companies that include commentary on current events.We believe this study is likely to have a practical contribution: the medical community that publishes information on the internet can make use of the conclusions of the study to learn how the characteristics of the source of the information influence its perceived credibility and what genre of blog has a higher probability of influencing the information consumers.\nLiterature review: Factors that influence the credibility of blogs and bloggers\nResearch questions: Previous studies (see Metzger, 2007) found a large number of factors that affect credibility assessment of online information in general and of blogs and blog posts in particular. Some of the previous studies reached contradicting conclusions (e.g. the effect of authoritativeness). Thus further studies are needed to better understand the perceived credibility of blogs, bloggers and blog posts. We decided to present medical information in the blog posts because of the popularity of looking for such information on the web (Fox, 2008; Fox and Jones, 2009).We followed the study outline of Flanagin and Metzger (2007). They studied the influence of the genre of the website and its verity on perceived credibility. They considered four web site genres: news organization, e-commerce, special interest and personal sites. We explored four blog genres:1. personal blog;2. blog of an expert;3. commercial blog; and4. blog of a non-profit organization.For blogs maintained by individuals, we considered blogs maintained by men and women. In addition we studied the influence of the type of medical information in the blog post (alternative or conventional). We are not aware of any previous studies that have explored the effects of the blog genre and of the medical approach (conventional versus alternative) on perceived credibility of the blog, the blogger and the blog post.More specifically, we asked the following questions:* What is the importance of the genre of the blog on credibility assessment?* How does information on the author of the blog influence the credibility assessment?* How does the type of information (conventional versus alternative medical info) in the blog post affect credibility assessment?* How does perceived credibility influence readiness to act upon the medical advice and the intention to continue reading posts from the blog?\nMethodology: Population and sample\nResults and discussion: Perceived credibility\nConclusion and recommendations: This study presented various aspects of the credibility of medical information in blogs as it is perceived by the users who read the blogs.The data indicated that medical information, and even more so, information about medications, are areas that arouse scepticism among readers. This, therefore, reduces their perceived credibility, although health is one of the main topics searched on the internet in general and specifically in blogs (Rieh and Danielson, 2007; Fox, 2008; Cohen, 2005; Fox and Jones, 2009). Moreover, we learned that perceived credibility of information depends, in many cases, also on the form or the manner the information is presented to the reader. It is easier for the reader to recommend information relating to alternative medicine, which is much less institutional, than to recommend innovations in the area of conventional medicine. It should be noted that most of the findings, including freely expressed statements, focused on the credibility of the message. The reason is clear - despite the importance of the writer of the message and his identity and of the blog as a platform for information, what reaches the reader is the message and the information it contains.It should be noted that the outcomes of this study are not directly generalizable. It is possible that if the study was conducted in a different place or in a different situation, the results would have been different. We recommend that further studies be conducted that will examine, over a long period of time, the issue of scepticism among other populations - such as a different age groups or other geographical locations. It would be useful to examine blogs dealing with other topics such as the perceived credibility of information on tourism, economics, cuisine and education.We hope the findings of our study will be able to assist medical blogs of all genres - from a personal blog to that of a company blog - to present information in the best way possible in order to achieve the highest perceived credibility. This should be done, of course, while respecting all the aspects of the ethical code of medical blogs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to describe a study that examined the perceived credibility of blogs on the internet and the medical information published in them as perceived by the readers of these blogs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of six blogs each with two posts were constructed, one on conventional treatment and the other on an alternative treatment of diabetes. In total, 361 participants viewed one blog each and filled in a questionnaire of the perceived credibility of the blog, the author of the blog and its message.\nFindings: - The results of the study indicate an attitude of scepticism and/or criticism of many aspects of the information in the blogs, together with the growing use of blogs to find information on medical topics. It seems that users apply scepticism as a way to deal with the lack of certainty as to the credibility of the information in spite of their desire and readiness to use this information.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The users who took part in the experiment did not actually have a real need for the health information provided in the blog posts. They only saw two blog posts in an artificial blog, and in order to fully assess credibility there is need for a longer-term interaction.\nPractical implications: - Findings from this study may help the health community to design messages that are perceived as credible by the public.\nOriginality/value: - The users in this study, unlike previous studies, were more critical of the information presented to them. One possible reason could be their older age.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The influence of KIBS-client interactions on absorptive capacity-building for environmental innovation	[ "Absorptive capacity", "B2B", "Client", "Knowledge intensive business services", "Environmental innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Firms are increasingly resorting to cooperation with external partners when implementing environmental innovations (Cainelli et al., 2015; De Marchi and Grandinetti, 2013; Del Rio et al., 2015). In particular, business-to-business relations are becoming a locus for information and competences about environmental innovations to be exchanged amongst partner firms (Fraj et al., 2013; Hofmann et al., 2012; Liu and Zhang, 2014). This study explores how resources and competencies about environmental innovation are transferred between firms in a B2B context. There may be specific challenges that firms encounter when implementing environmental innovations, including sourcing relevant competencies about environmental technologies or practices, which are often very different from the technology and market domains within which they usually operate (Cainelli et al., 2015; De Marchi and Grandinetti, 2013). The larger degree of novelty and uncertainty associated with environmental innovations also makes them more knowledge- and information-intensive than many other innovation types.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Elements of absorptive capacity\n3. Methodology: Investigating absorptive capacity requires to assess how firms capture value from external knowledge sources for their own business processes. In practice, this can be achieved by employing different methodological approaches. A quantitative approach typically relies on the analysis of large-scale data that link absorptive capacity to specific measures of (eco-) innovation activity and business performance more generally (Freel, 2016; Harris and Yan, 2019). Alternatively, a qualitative analysis, such as that used in this study, focuses on collecting observations and developing descriptions about the processes through which firms incorporate external knowledge into their own practices and operations and develop absorptive capacities for eco-innovation. In this study, an interpretive approach was undertaken to obtain rich descriptions about the elements characterising the KIBS-client interaction through the lens of both the service provider and the client and how these influence absorptive capacity for eco-innovation (Miles et al., 2014). With interaction a key focus for the study, matched pairs of KIBS and clients, within a given sector or industry, were sought. We focussed on the interaction between engineering consulting firms and tourism accommodation establishments and elaborate below on the motivations for selecting this sampling frame.\n4. Findings & analysis: The business interactions investigated between the engineering consulting firms and hotel-clients concerned the provision of environmental and engineering services, focussing on aspects related to energy saving and management, renewable energies and the management of water supplies. Table I identifies key elements of partner alignment and compatibility that influence the KIBS-client interaction; these are discussed in the sections that follow. The scope of the interaction ranged from the diagnosis and provision of pre-packaged solutions (such as for monitoring energy consumption patterns and implementing waste management strategies), to problem solving and collaboration that often involved the co-production of environmental solutions. As seen in Table I, there were several instances where the same hotel was connected with different engineering consulting firms.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: This study investigated how B2B interactions are mobilised to build absorptive capacity for eco-innovation. A dyadic perspective on the interaction is developed, considering the perspectives of both KIBS and their clients in order to obtain deeper insights about how elements of the interaction influence the client's absorptive capacity. These elements include the alignment of the partners' objectives around environmental behaviour, and the compatibility of the partners' resources and competencies to implement eco-innovations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Firms need to develop absorptive capacities to effectively source and exploit knowledge relevant to environmental behaviour for their own innovation activity. Business-to-business interactions can represent a significant route through which knowledge and resources about environmental innovations are transferred along the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms exploit business partnerships in order to build capacity for environmental innovation. In order to do so, it investigates two elements of B2B interactions - partner alignment and compatibility - and their influence on absorptive capacity-building.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a qualitative interview study of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) operating in the environmental goods and services sector and their clients involved in adopting environmental innovations. Matched pairs of engineering consulting firms and their clients - tourism accommodation establishments - were selected as a sampling frame in order to study the influence of partner alignment and compatibility on the exchange of environmentally relevant knowledge and competencies.\nFindings: The findings show that the synergistic attributes of business partners influence absorptive capacity-building and give rise to different patterns of interaction of KIBS with their client. The B2B interactions investigated are characterised by alignment along multiple objectives about the relevance of environmental behaviour. Furthermore, the compatibility of the partners' competences is a key determinant of environmental innovation outcome.\nPractical implications: The study highlights the role of managers in identifying and selecting those business partnerships that accrue greater potential benefit for accessing resources and competencies for eco-innovation.\nOriginality/value: The study contributes to the literature on absorptive capacity and innovation by demonstrating how B2B interactions - in this study, the interaction of KIBS with their clients - influence the capacity of firms to adopt environmental innovations which is an area of study that deserves further attention.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How system quality and incentive affect knowledge sharing	[ "System quality", "Attitude toward incentives", "Knowledge sharing", "Community of practice", "Incentives (psychology)", "Knowledge management", "Human resource management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Knowledge is a strategic advantage which helps organizations sustain as well as maintain their market competitiveness (Jantunen, 2005). Kakabadse et al. (2001) mentioned that knowledge has emerged as one of the key strategic assets of organizations. Wenger (1998) suggested for organizations to build up necessary policies and infrastructure so that knowledge can be effectively managed. Cross et al. (2003) further argued that although organizations may enhance networking for knowledge cooperation through a number of different ways, supporting community of practice appears to be one of the most effective approaches to achieve the effect. The term \"community of practice\" (CoP), which was first introduced in 1991 by Lave and Wenger, refers to a group of people having shared visions, questions or compassion through continuous activities (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Through CoP activities, people may acquire expert knowledge and obtain higher professional practices. As world wide web becomes more important every day, new social structures have been formed by increasing use of new technology (Rios et al., 2009). Virtual communities of practice (VCoP) has been utilized as a form of CoP which allows online information exchanges, and is at the same time different from other kinds of information system. As Rios et al. (2009) stated, VCoP is not just a group of people accessing a web site, but also a structure that allows participants to \"establish social relationship via the use of internet tools, allowing the formation of a communal identity and a shared sense of the world\" (p.481). The challenge in hand is how to encourage people to participate and become a part of this online social structure.Lam and Lambermont-Ford (2010) pointed out that the facilitation of knowledge sharing is a difficult task. They further suggested that despite the voluminous literature on organizational learning and knowledge management, the association between individual motivation and knowledge sharing remains largely unexplored and poorly understood. Literature indicates that technology plays an important role in online information exchange and knowledge management (Nishimoto and Matsuda, 2007). The effective use of technology ensures timely access and exchange of knowledge (Harrison and Daly, 2009). Additionally, O'Dell and Hubert (2011) suggested that the back bone of successful knowledge management is the cultivation of a knowledge sharing culture for which reinforcement of desired behaviors through rewards and recognition must in place. However, there has been a debate about the effectiveness of both reward and recognition mechanisms to motivate people to share knowledge for several years. Several authors (Finerty, 1997) argued that the reward or incentive rarely enhance long-term knowledge sharing.Due to the inconsistent voices of technology and reward on knowledge sharing, this study aims to examine the relationship between the VCoP participants' perceived system quality of the virtual community, as well as their attitude toward incentives provided by the VCoP in relation to their online knowledge sharing behavior. Furthermore, the individual as well as collective (i.e. joint) effects of VCoP system quality and attitude toward incentives on knowledge sharing is also analyzed.\n2 Literature review: 2.1 System quality\n3 Method: 3.1 Research structure and hypotheses\n4 Results: The Pearson analysis is able to identify a statistically significant correlation between VCoP system quality and knowledge sharing behavior as well as attitude toward incentives and knowledge sharing behavior (r=0.309-0.705, p<0.001 two-tailed). The following tests the hypothesis H1-H3 using multiple regression analysis.4.1 Individual effect of VCoP system quality and attitude toward incentives\n5 Discussion and implication: The present study adds to the literature on knowledge sharing by investigating the relationship between the quality of VCoP system, the community members' attitude toward incentives and knowledge sharing in an online CoP. The results showed that although the two dimensions (i.e. system quality, attitude toward incentives) have individual effect on knowledge sharing, when all six factors from the two dimensions joined together, only two factors of attitude toward incentives showed significant effect on knowledge sharing behaviors. More specifically, while comparing the individual and the collective effects of the two dimensions, it was noted that the influence of the VCoP system quality on knowledge sharing disappeared as the two dimensions joined altogether. The significant effect of system quality (X1) and information quality (X2) disappeared while the two dimensions (i.e. VCoP system quality, attitude toward incentives) jointed together to influence knowledge sharing behavior. Second, regardless whether standing along or joined together, service quality (X3) of the VCoP service quality dimension and material incentive (X4) of the attitude toward incentives dimension has no impact on knowledge sharing. Such findings suggest to VCoP managers that online services and material incentives are the least useful factors for promoting online knowledge sharing.Thus, this study confirms that VCoP system quality and the members' attitudes toward incentives have independently influenced knowledge sharing behavior in a context where human resource professionals voluntarily participated in a virtual community with aspirations to advance or contribute their professional knowledge and skills. The finding is in line with past studies which support the correlation between system quality (in a broad term) and knowledge sharing (Alvarez et al., 2010; Hew, 2009) as well as attitudes toward incentives and knowledge sharing (Taylor, 2006; Lin, 2007; Lam and Lambermont-Ford, 2010). However, since knowledge sharing is a complex process, some factors, such as motivation, attitudes, individual preferences, etc. are considered double-edged factors to knowledge sharing among individuals (Sondergaard et al., 2007). It is valuable that the present study examines the collective effects of these factors on knowledge sharing. To this end, the present study reveals that although VCoP system quality alone influences the community members' knowledge sharing behaviors, it no longer plays a critical role in the process of knowledge sharing when attitude toward incentive comes into the picture. This finding contradicts existing understanding of the importance of VCoP system quality on knowledge sharing, and implies that as long as an online system provides adequate functions as well as accurate, complete and useful information, the managers of VCoP should not invest too much time and effort on the system itself.The study also confirms that social incentives and activity incentives are stronger factors than material incentives for knowledge sharing. The results of this study suggest that the material incentive has no effect at all on promoting knowledge sharing in VCoP, which is consistent with Finerty's (1997) argument that reward seldom enhances long-term knowledge sharing. On the other hand, social and activity incentives were found to significantly affect knowledge sharing, independently and collectively, which is in line with the literature pointing out that individual contribution of knowledge in informal interactions is primarily based on the social exchanges (Bartol and Srivastava, 2002). Empirical evidence has suggested that intrinsic motivation, such as self-actualization, learning, and advancement of community are major motivators of informal knowledge exchanges (Faraj and Wasko, 2002). This study substantiates Farag and Wasko's argument which suggests the two reasons responsible for knowledge contributions in CoP are that people want to create relationship with others who have similar interests, and that people want to actualize their potential and learning. Bartol and Srivastava also pointed out that factors which build expertise and feelings of competence are most critical for influencing knowledge sharing behaviors within communities. The finding implies that in order to promote knowledge sharing behavior, VCoP managers must foster an online environment which provides a variety of social exchange opportunities for the members to interact, as well as challenging topics or tasks for the members to practice or advance professional knowledge and skills.We hope this paper is interpreted as a call for future empirical study on the collective effect of VCoP system quality along with other factors in knowledge sharing, which would be substantially enriched by additional empirical results. Even so, in the long run, the question of how to motivate people in the participation of online community members deserves greater attention.\n6 Conclusion and limitation: The study explores the condition of online system quality and the members' attitude toward incentives provided by the community as well as their effect on knowledge sharing, thereby empirically testing a theoretical model which is analyzed using the Pearson correlation analysis and multiples stepwise regression method. Similar models which discuss the association between what triggers individual motivation and knowledge sharing has been largely unexplored by prior researchers even though there exists numerous studies on organizational learning and knowledge management (Lam and Lambermont-Ford, 2010). The findings indicate that the system quality of a VCoP as well as the members' attitude toward incentives independently influences knowledge sharing behaviors, which are consistent with existing literature. This study also further examined the collective effect of both factors and found that the system quality of VCoP cease its effect on knowledge sharing as it competes against the members' perception on incentives. Although the present study finds system quality does not play a significant role in promoting online knowledge sharing, it is premature to conclude that the factor is inconsequential without further empirical evidence.Moreover, only social incentive and activity incentive can impact online community members' knowledge sharing behaviors. Clearly, achievement, advancement, enjoyment, and social interactions are major drives that would draw people to participate in VCoP as well as elicit their knowledge sharing behaviors. As James-Gordon and Bal (2003) pointed out, people should be given more responsibility over their self-development and job-related training in order to enhance their self-directedness. Jude-York (1991) argued that a proper culture for self-directed learning is necessary to trigger the members of the organization to become independent learners, which increases the possibility for them to participate in effective learning activities (Dolezalek, 2004), such as learning communities.Even though the empirical results of this study largely support the proposed research model, at least three limitations should be noted. First, the survey of the present study was distributed via the bulletin board of the VCoP and was available over a period of time. However, the research participants were recruited only by invitation that may lower down the reliability of the analysis results. Also, the sample may be skewed by the frequency of their visits. Second, since individual informants provide the empirical data, possible biases or preferences, such as learning habits, work habits, communication preferences, or social preferences, may affect the results. Third, since the data collection targets one particular online professional community, the characteristics and operations of this virtual CoP may be quite different from those in other areas or countries as well as from those in other subject domains. Hence, additional surveys and investigations may be worthwhile to discover the applicability of the present results in representing the general case. At the same time, the results for this report may provide a fundamental reference for virtual professional communities in other countries whose environments are similar to those in Taiwan.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Virtual communities of practice (VCoP) are seen as effective means to facilitate knowledge building among professionals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between system quality, attitude toward incentives and knowledge sharing in a VCoP. Additionally, individual and collective effect of system quality and attitude toward incentives on knowledge sharing are also examined.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This is an empirical study that targets a major community of practice in human resource management (n=366), utilizing a survey questionnaire distributed on the internet as the data collection instrument to test the relationship among the three dimensions.\nFindings: - The results indicated that: system quality and attitude toward incentives individually have demonstrated a significant effect on knowledge sharing behavior in a VCoP. Collectively, only factors within the attitude toward incentive dimension have demonstrated significant influences on the community participants' knowledge sharing behavior.\nPractical implications: - This study provides managers of VCoP with valuable information which aids in improving community members' knowledge sharing. That is, a successful VCoP is an online environment which provides a variety of social exchange opportunities for the members to interact, as well as challenging topics or tasks enabling the members to practice or gain professional knowledge and skills.\nSocial implications: - Regardless of the fact that knowledge sharing processes are becoming increasingly complex and diverse, providing various kinds of incentive is still crucial in eliciting people's engagement in knowledge sharing. Only reinforcing social exchanges and providing opportunities of self-growth will enhance knowledge sharing behavior.\nOriginality/value: - Knowledge sharing is a complex process. Literature indicated that some factors, such as motivation, attitudes, and individual preferences, are considered double-edged factors to knowledge sharing among individuals. The present study adds value by examining the individual and collective effects of these factors (i.e. the members' perceived VCoP system quality and attitude toward incentives) on knowledge sharing.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A surface electromyography controlled steering assistance interface	[ "Advanced driver assistance systems", "Human–machine interface", "Myoelectric control system", "Path-following", "Steering assistance system", "Surface electromyography" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Sometimes drivers have to steer sharply and rapidly at low vehicle speeds to maneuver in confined spaces such as narrow roads and crowded parking lots (Takada et al., 2013). However, rapid, two-handed steering subjects the shoulder of the driver to high forces that may cause injury. If the steering wheel is rotated to the right with two hands from 0deg to 65deg, with an average time of 0.268 SD 0.065 s, healthy supraspinatus and deltoid muscles are subjected to forces that could lead to muscle overload (Pandis et al., 2015).\n2. Related work: Steering assistance has been implemented in production automobiles in the form of power steering systems (Shimizu and Tokunaga, 2015). Power steering relies on a control scheme in which the driver rotates the steering wheel with assistive torque from the power steering system (Takada et al., 2013). Some vehicles use electric power steering (EPS), whereas other vehicles use an alternative form of steering assistance called \"active front steering\" (AFS) that automatically decreases the steering ratio when vehicle speed decreases[1][2][3] (Kumar, 2012; Li et al., 2014). Both EPS and AFS have been developed to improve steering portability at low speeds.\n3. Design of the steering assistance system: One design objective of the steering assistance system is to enable hands-free steering wheel rotation to prevent decreased steering portability when a vehicle travels at low speeds of 30 km/h or less or at parking speeds near or equal to 0 km/h (Dinh and Kubota, 2013; Sharp and Granger, 2003). Hands-free rotation also meets the design objective to reduce the risk of shoulder injury resulting from rapid two-handed steering (Pandis et al., 2015).\n4. Experimental methodology: The objective of the experiment was to validate the path-following accuracy of the sEMG-controlled interface with a driving simulator. If the use of the interface was associated with a path-following accuracy that was at least comparable to the use of the game steering wheel, then the sEMG-based HMI would be successfully validated.\n5. Results and discussion: Based on data from the experimental trials, the path-following accuracy of a simulated automobile was calculated for a U-turn, 90deg turn and 45deg turn (Figure 5). Drivers in Group B used the game steering wheel and the slow-turning sEMG-based HMI to complete the scenarios (Table I). The results for Group B showed a statistically significant difference, namely, that the slow-turning sEMG-based HMI was significantly less accurate than the game steering wheel when performing a U-turn [Figure 9(b)]. There was no significant difference, however, in the case of the 90deg and the 45deg turns. Therefore, H1 was rejected because the sEMG-based HMI was comparable to the game steering wheel in most of the scenarios (Section 4.2).\n6. Limitations: Given that the average age of the test subjects was 23 years, the results were relevant to regular driver's license holders between the ages of 20 and 24 years, who comprised about 51 per cent of the nearly 9,000,000 regular driver's license holders in Japan as of 2015[7]. Given that some age groups were not represented by the test subjects, the total population of regular driver's license holders in Japan could have been more accurately represented by recruiting a group of test subjects with an age distribution that was close to that of the total population.\n7. Conclusions: An sEMG controlled steering assistance interface with a maximized SWR of 720 deg/s was found to have path-following accuracy that was at least comparable to a game steering wheel. The validation of this accuracy was conducted with a driving simulator that enabled drivers to complete a U-turn, 90deg turn and 45deg turn. The median lateral errors of the game steering wheel and the sEMG-based HMI indicated that a faster SWR was associated with greater path-following accuracy. The difference in path-following accuracy between the interfaces was statistically significant in the case of the U-turn, with the sEMG-based HMI being more accurate. Thus, future studies could incorporate the U-turn as a means of distinguishing the accuracies of interfaces with varying SWRs.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Two-handed automobile steering at low vehicle speeds may lead to reduced steering ability at large steering wheel angles and shoulder injury at high steering wheel rates (SWRs). As a first step toward solving these problems, this study aims, firstly, to design a surface electromyography (sEMG) controlled steering assistance interface that enables hands-free steering wheel rotation and, secondly, to validate the effect of this rotation on path-following accuracy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 24 drivers used biceps brachii sEMG signals to control the steering assistance interface at a maximized SWR in three driving simulator scenarios: U-turn, 90o turn and 45o turn. For comparison, the scenarios were repeated with a slower SWR and a game steering wheel in place of the steering assistance interface. The path-following accuracy of the steering assistance interface would be validated if it was at least comparable to that of the game steering wheel.\nFindings: Overall, the steering assistance interface with a maximized SWR was comparable to a game steering wheel. For the U-turn, 90o turn and 45o turn, the sEMG-based human-machine interface (HMI) had median lateral errors of 0.55, 0.3 and 0.2 m, respectively, whereas the game steering wheel, respectively, had median lateral errors of 0.7, 0.4 and 0.3 m. The higher accuracy of the sEMG-based HMI was statistically significant in the case of the U-turn.\nOriginality/value: Although production automobiles do not use sEMG-based HMIs, and few studies have proposed sEMG controlled steering, the results of the current study warrant further development of a sEMG-based HMI for an actual automobile.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The effect of hedonic and utilitarian values on satisfaction and behavioural intentions for dining in fast-casual restaurants in Iran	[ "Iran", "Purchase intention", "Customer satisfaction", "Fast food", "Hedonic values", "Utilitarian values" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Most people eat out every now and then. Given the numerous dining-out options provided, consumers can now choose to eat in a variety of full-service or fast food restaurants. Behaviour of consumers with regards to food purchase in most emerging economies, including Iran, has significantly changed due to an increase in the per capita income, global interaction, information and communication technologies, and education (Ali et al., 2010). Fast food has become one of the fastest growing industries globally, including Iran. However, the alarming rise of obesity, which is associated with an increased risk of multiple health problems including disability, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some of the most common cancers, has concerned healthcare professionals about the growing habit of fast food consumption. Some journalists have proposed a link between the exponential growth of the fast food industry and the epidemic expansion of obesity in the world (Schlosser, 1998).The latest survey on obesity in Iran was conducted by International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) during 2005 and found that 27.9 per cent of men and 29.3 per cent of women (aged 15-64) were overweight, while 9.1 per cent of men and 19.2 per cent of women (aged 15-64) were obese. In 2005, 33.7 per cent of adults were at risk of developing metabolic syndrome and eight million Iranians suffered from this syndrome. Previous studies indicate that almost 2 to 3 million Iranian individuals have type 2 diabetes and at least 4 million adults live with hypertension. The growing obesity trend in Iran has been associated with the greater availability of fast food coupled with a low activity lifestyle.\nValues, satisfaction and consumers' behavioural intentions: Consumption can be categorised into two types depending on the level of pleasure it can cause, which creates a distinction between hedonic and utilitarian consumption (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Strahilevitz and Myers, 1998; Dhar and Wertenbroch, 2000). The former group focuses on the \"shopping's fun side\" (e.g. Bloch and Bruce, 1984; Hirschman, 1984; Sherry, 1990), while the latter depicts the theme of \"shopping as work\", which accounts for distressed consumers experiencing the \"dark side of shopping\" (e.g. Fischer and Arnold, 1990; Sherry et al., 1993). Some researchers have discussed about the trend towards convenience and linked it with the changes in consumer values. For example, Goldsmith et al. (1995) found weak but significant relationships between various items in the List of Values (Kahle, 1983) and a pro-snacking scale. Nonetheless, many consumption activities stimulate both hedonic and utilitarian values. Pettijohn et al. (1997) found quality, cleanliness and value as the three most important attributes in fast food restaurants, while atmosphere and menu variety were relatively unimportant. Values are representative of the important and desirable end goals. Perceived value of the service has been noted as one of the most influential measures of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Sweeney et al., 1996; Parasuraman, 1997; Patterson and Spreng, 1997; Cronin et al., 2000; Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000; Eggert and Ulaga, 2002). Convenience is specifically important in meal preparation and consumption as it saves time and energy for professional ambitions and personal success (Botonaki and Mattas, 2010).\nMethods: Subjects and procedures\nDiscussion and conclusion: This study had three major findings. First, hedonic and utilitarian values both significantly influence customer satisfaction, which consequently cause a significant influence on behavioural intentions of consumers. Second, similar to the previous studies (Eroglu et al., 2005; Babin et al., 1994), utilitarian value has a greater influence on customer satisfaction than hedonic value. Third, customer satisfaction acts as a partial mediator in the link between hedonic/utilitarian value and behavioural intentions. This suggests that the higher the utilitarian and hedonic values of a customer after dining in a fast-casual restaurant, the higher his satisfaction level, which would consequently result in his higher intention to eat in a fast-casual restaurant.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study seeks to examine the influence of hedonic and utilitarian values on customers' satisfaction and behavioural intentions for dining out in the context of fast-casual restaurants in Iran.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 379 surveys were collected (342 deemed usable) from respondents who had experienced dining out in a fast-casual restaurant at least once within one month prior to the survey collection time. A research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the research hypotheses.\nFindings: Results of the study revealed that both hedonic and utilitarian values significantly influenced satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Besides, satisfaction was also found to have a significant positive influence on behavioural intentions. The study also showed that utilitarian value has a more powerful influence on the behavioural intention of customers in the context of fast food restaurants.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study pertains to the sample which is collected from a limited section of the society with high level of education. This study helps to expand the body of literature on the behaviour of young customers in developing countries. Besides, the current study has also contributed to theory by examining the usefulness of two distinct structures of consumer service values, namely hedonic and utilitarian.\nPractical implications: This study expands the understanding of owners/managers in the food and hospitality industry about the influence of distinct value types on customers' satisfaction and behavioural intentions.\nOriginality/value: This study examined two distinct structures of consumer service values on the behavioural intentions of customers from a developing country. Since the structure of the fast food industry is different from most other countries, in that none of the giant fast food chain restaurants operate in Iran, the results of this study can provide invaluable insights from a different perspective.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Director identity in pre- and post-crisis Iceland: effects of board life stage and gender	[ "Gender", "Directors", "Economic change" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Good corporate governance is crucial to the effective and ethical functioning of large corporations. Individual board directors play two key roles, as:\nThe Icelandic context: crisis and corporate governance: Iceland's small economy of 320,000 inhabitants and approximately 30 listed companies came to global attention in September 2008 with the collapse of country's three major banks (Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing). Prior to the crisis, Icelandic banks engaged in extremely risky speculation that involved considerable conflicts of interest due to lending to owners and related parties (Sigurjonsson and Mixa, 2011; Vaiman et al., 2011). Although activities greatly expanded bank balances and contributed significantly to Iceland's macroeconomic book which peaked in 2007, the speculation introduced serious systematic risk. The Financial Supervisory Authorities and the Central Bank failed to detect this risk and the banks were not required to deleverage. Furthermore, the banks failed to secure their liquidity in foreign currency and engaged heavily in purchasing their own shares to keep the stock prices up. The rapid loss of liquidity and market funding resulted in the collapse of all three major banks in Iceland during the second week of October 2008 (Baldursson and Portes, 2013).\nTheoretical background: Social identity theory\nData and methodology: We chose a qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding about directors' interpretations of their responsibilities as well as their role identification. We sought to gain insight into the individuals' experience as board members and how they thought about their roles and how they acted to fulfill them. Interviews were semi-structured and followed a protocol which was identical for all interviews both in the pre- and post-crisis setting. When analyzing the data, we looked for patterns of similarities and differences across individuals and sub-groups. While the generalizability of our findings is very limited, the semi-structured approach enabled us to uncover thoughts and ideas that might not have emerged in a more structure setting.\nFindings: We report the findings according to the themes we identified during the analysis of the interviews. Taking advantage of the qualitative nature of the study, we construct our propositions based on the themes and constructs emerging from the data.\nDiscussion: This study examined how directors' identities may be shaped by the gender composition of the board and by board life cycle stage. While pre- and post-crisis settings had little effect on members of mature male-dominated boards, we found evidence of effects on newly established gender-balanced boards. With respect to director role identity, we uncovered gender differences within the mature (male-dominated) board director group, although these were strongest pre-crisis, when males did not identify with the monitoring role and females did not identify with the resource provision role. However, post-crisis, new directors were very clear on how their unblemished reputations and lack of connections to the wrong-doers added legitimacy to their boards. In terms of relational identity with the CEO role, we found that male directors who were CEOs identified strongly with this role and were less reluctant to identify with their monitoring role. We also uncovered gender differences in the social identity of board members across the pre- and post-crisis mature boards, where women seemed to be \"directors on approval\" on these male-dominated boards. On new gender-balanced boards, a cohort effect seemed to be taking place, as there was increasing group cohesion and fewer gender differences in directors' identification with their roles.\nConclusion: Before concluding, we wish to acknowledge several limitations of our study that are in summary on one hand based on context and the other on the methodology. First, Iceland is a very small country with a very small business community. In addition, Iceland experienced an extremely severe crisis, unrivalled in any other developed or developing country in modern times. Furthermore, Iceland has a rather unique set of corporate governance codes, for example, prohibiting the CEO from being Chair or even sitting on the board. It is therefore possible that our results are not generalizable to other countries. Future research should examine directors' roles in other countries and provide country comparative analyses. Second, while we clarified the role of board life cycle stage and gender, future research should examine other possible explanatory factors, such as directors' specific background experience in a particular industry or political affiliation. Third, we realize that the methodology and very limited sample size in this study limits the ability to generalize from our findings. The propositions we offer can be used in different contexts to further validate the constructs of our findings.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how directors' roles and social identities are shaped by gender and board life stage, using pre- and post-crisis Iceland as the setting. Recent theoretical work suggests the importance of directors' monitoring and resource provision roles at certain board life stages; however, there is limited empirical evidence of directors' identification with these roles as well as social role identification as a member of the board.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors contribute empirical evidence from interviews with 23 corporate directors in Iceland on individual identification with the director role of monitoring and resource provision, relational identification with the CEO role and social identification as a member of the board.\nFindings: Prior to the crisis, male directors identified more strongly with resource provision and with their social roles and less strongly with monitoring roles. Compared to their male counterparts, pre-crisis female directors identified more strongly with monitoring and did not identify with their social roles. After the crisis, mature boards' male director role identities were little changed; male directors continued to identify with resource provision and social identification, rather than monitoring, roles. Compared to pre-crisis, post-crisis female directors described greater identity with their resource provision roles and reported that male directors resented their attempts to fulfill their monitoring roles. In post-crisis, newly formed diverse boards, male and female directors reported very similar role identities which reflected balanced monitoring and resource provision roles, for example providing the board with ethical individual identities and unblemished reputations. The findings of this paper indicate that board composition and life cycle stage might have more impact on director identity than a pre- or post-crisis setting. These findings suggest implications for theory, practice and future research.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides further empirical evidence of the roles male and female directors identify with on corporate boards. Its originality lies in the context of the board work in terms of newly formed and mature boards, before and after the financial crisis, with differing gender composition (male-dominated and gender-balanced boards).\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Improving weekend review for trauma and elective orthopaedic patients in the post-operative period	[ "Clinical governance", "Quality", "Health care quality", "Clinical leadership and culture", "Surgery", "Management of clinical performance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Weekend surgery carries a higher mortality than weekday surgery, with complications most commonly arising within the first 48 hours (Cavaliere et al., 2008). There is a perceived reduced ability to identify complications at the weekend, which has been reflected in popular media and somewhat influenced patient perceptions of weekend services. Early signs can go undetected in the absence of thorough early patient review, particularly in the elderly with multiple co-morbidities and atypical response to sepsis (Wester et al., 2013). SIRS criteria have poorer sensitivity for detecting organ failure in this group (Wester et al., 2013), rendering vital signs-based early warning scoring systems unreliable as the sole indicator of decline.\nMaterials and methods: This project is a completed closed loop audit.\nResults: During Phase 1 of the project before implementation of change, 26 patients' notes were reviewed over a four-week period which revealed that 54 per cent of patients in this group were seen post-operative Day 1.\nDiscussion: There is an extensive discussion in the literature regarding the \"weekend effect\" with a difference of opinion regarding the effect of weekend operating on morbidity and mortality across many specialties, and various contributing factors attributed where inferior outcomes are reported.\nConclusion: A significant proportion of complications occur in the first 48 hours post-operatively, therefore diligent regular review of all patients after surgery, and in particular the elderly is essential.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Weekend surgery carries higher mortality than weekday surgery, with complications most commonly arising within the first 48 hours. There is a reduced ability to identify complications at the weekend, with early signs going undetected in the absence of thorough early patient review, particularly in the elderly with multiple co-morbidities. Weekend working practices vary amongst UK hospitals and specialties. The weekend effect has been a prominent feature in the literature over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the number of patients undergoing weekend surgery who receive a Day 1 post-operative review and improve this outcome by implementing an effective change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It was observed that not all patients undergoing surgery on a Friday or Saturday at the authors' District General Hospital were receiving Day 1 post-operative review by a clinician. A retrospective audit was carried out to identify percentage of patients reviewed on post-operative Day 1 at the weekend. A change in handover practice was implemented before re-audit.\nFindings: In Phase 1, 54 per cent of patients received Day 1 post-operative reviews at the weekend against a set standard of 100 per cent. A simple change to handover practice was implemented to improve patient safety in the immediate post-operative period resulting in 96 per cent of patients reviewed on Day 1 post-operatively at re-audit.\nOriginality/value: This study confirms that simple changes in handover practices can produce effective and translatable improvements to weekend working. This further contributes to the body of literature that acknowledges the existence of a weekend effect, but aims to evolve weekend working practices to accommodate improvement within current staffing and resource availability by maximising efficiency and communication.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An assessment of the sustainability of Living Labs in Kenya	[ "Sustainable innovation", "Living labs", "Innovation ecosystem", "Innovation lab", "Innovation space", "User-driven innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: A Living Lab is a user-centered, open innovation ecosystem, that operates in a territory that can be regional, national or global, integrating concurrent research and innovation processes (Schumacher, 2013; Salminen, Konsti-Laakso, Pallot, Trousse, & Senach, 2011). A Living Lab is a place where experts work, deploy, develop and test in the living environment (Veeckman, Schuurman, Leminen, & Westerlund, 2013). The Living Lab concept is guided by the principle of co-creation, exploration, experimentation and evaluation of innovative ideas, scenarios, concepts and related technological artifacts in real life, which involve user communities not only as observation subjects but also as a source of creation. Living Labs tend to function at the low and mid-level innovation levels, use context based experience to develop new products and services, and are focused on exploration and exploitation (Almirall & Wareham, 2011).\n2. Related works: 2.1 Sustainability of living labs\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Results and discussion: 4.1 Response rate\n5. Conclusion: To address the issue of sustainability of Living Labs in Kenya, several measures must be taken to contain the likely deteriorating capability of their growth and future sustainability. The type of innovations and strategies put in place by the labs to ensure their sustainability significantly influences the sustainability of the labs. Living Labs are prepared to survive in the future. This is evident as some of the labs have strategic plans on how to pursue future environment, developed ways of choosing right people to incubate, identified the types of skills required, identified the variety of innovations and their location to ease accessibility.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: There has been a high rate of failure among the Living Labs in Kenya resulting in the expected outcomes not fully realized. This paper aims to assess the sustainability of Living Labs in Kenya.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the four capital method of sustainable development evaluation framework, data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from innovators, users and employees among the 25 living labs in Kenya.\nFindings: The research found that some innovators are not familiar with the living labs, the living labs are innovative and prepared to survive in future, some labs have strategic plans on how to pursue future environment and have developed ways of choosing right people to incubate, inability to get enough funding from the host organizations and limited knowledge on the supervision level of the operations. A model is proposed that can be generalized to other living labs in developing countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study was done in Nairobi where most of the living labs are situated.\nPractical implications: The study concludes by emphasizing on the user involvement during innovation process. There is need to expand the capacities of living labs to accommodate more people to ensure more innovations are supported at a time. The senior managers in charge of the living labs should increase the level of supervision to ensure that the labs are effective in their incubation efforts and institutionalize support of the host organization to the labs to ensure continued growth and expansion.\nOriginality/value: The findings of this study are of value to research community, the decision and policymakers as it seeks to document the current status of the living labs in the Kenya\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Multigenerational classrooms in higher education: equity and learning with technology	[ "Equity", "Higher education", "Learning and technology", "Multigenerational learners" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: When examining the current college classroom, it is becoming more common to see the same space inhabited by people from multiple generations (NCES, 2015; Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005; Wager, 2005). Students attending higher education rose 23 percent from 2000 to 2010 and this increase is projected to continue further with another increase of 12 percent by 2025 (NCES, 2015). In a 2017 NCES report of those attending higher education, students 35 and older accounted for 19 percent of the part-time enrollment at public four-year institutions, 34 percent of the part-time enrollment at private nonprofit four-year institutions and 40 percent of the part-time enrollment at private for-profit four-year institutions (NCES, 2017). These participation rates and the trends they show translate directly into classrooms featuring significantly larger populations of older adult students learning alongside their younger peers (Melick, 2014; Wager, 2005).\nProblem: Today, the ubiquitous use of technology in the college classroom has led to use of technology for a variety of purposes including communication, coursework, information storage and research. For learners that grew up surrounded by technologies and experiencing it from early years in school, the integration of technology in the learning process may be expected (Greig, 2009). However, for learners that grew up when there was little technology in the classroom, the expectations in current classrooms may be overwhelming. Learners who lack experiences with technology in the classroom, may be at a disadvantage when considering the opportunity to learn with technology as they will have significant differences in their knowledge and skills. Providing access to the same instructional content and technology resources may not mean equitable opportunity (McLaughlin, 2010). Taking generational characteristics into account is important when designing instruction and teaching, as failure to consider the needs of learners from different generations may result in an inability for all learners to be equally successful (DelCampo et al., 2011). Other problems that can result from not considering students' generational characteristics could include students having a less than favorable learning experience and attrition issues. Therefore, we argue that by providing learners with the opportunity to access instructional content using technology does not mean there is equality in learning opportunity. Rather, learners who lack the knowledge and experience of their peers can encounter significant differences in their equity in learning.\nPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the classroom. Although, the authors do recognize that experiences and access to educational technologies may also be a result of socioeconomic status and other known cases of digital access issues, this paper is focused on challenges that are the result of generational experiences. Through writing this paper, the authors hope to create awareness to help improve equity in learning opportunity and assist educators in understanding the needs of the current multigenerational classroom.\nStructure: The structure of this paper is as follows: we first present our methodology, including our research questions, then we respond to the questions using the literature, and lastly, we discuss our findings. For the purposes of this paper, we will discuss equity in the higher education environment as striving toward providing students with the opportunity to achieve equal levels of success (McCowan, 2016). While this paper will focus primarily on equity in the USA' higher education system, considerations toward equity in higher education can also be found in other countries (Le and Miller, 2005).\nMethodology: In order to address the purpose of this paper, which is to understand the potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the classroom, we asked the following questions:\nWhat is equity in education?: To begin the conversation about equity across multiple generations in higher education, we first define the idea of equitable learning in education.\nHow does digital technology come into play when discussing equity in education?: Digital technology\nWhich are the most prominent generations in our college classrooms and what are their learning experiences with technology?: To begin our discussion of the students from various generations in our classrooms, we will first define what generation means. Then we will review the four most prominent generations represented in our classrooms and their learning experiences with technology.\nMost prominent generations and their learning experiences with technology: In this section we present the four major generations that are found in college classrooms and a general review of their experience with technology.\nWhat are students of different generations finding when they return to school?: Unlike a few decades ago when the average student attending higher education was a young adult, usually 18-24-years-old, today, people from multiple generations fill college classrooms (NCES, 2015; Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005; Wager, 2005). Adult learners, previously referred to as \"non-traditional learners,\" are choosing to attend college in large numbers. In fact, the largest increase among students has been adult learners 35 and older (NCES, 2017). As adults of different generations are attending college for the first time, returning to college or earning their first degree (see Table II), and many are finding the classroom is different than they experienced when attending school in their formative years. Today, digital technologies are used in classroom instruction and students are expected to use various digital technologies to complete instructional tasks.\nDo people from different generations have equity in their opportunity to learn while using technology in higher education classrooms?: As some learners are returning to school, they are finding digital technologies are used in classroom instruction and they are expected to use various digital technologies to complete instructional tasks. In this section, we will discuss digital divide and the lesser known generational digital divide, also known as the technology age gap and its impact on equity of learning for learners returning to college.\nGeneration and the digital divide: Although there has been significant research that shows that there are generational differences and preferences based on experience, whether generational membership is a cause for the digital gap for some individuals has only been minimally researched and very few research studies have been completed in higher education. Kim and Kim (2001) investigated potential causes of the digital divide and found that generation is a factor that leads to the digital divide. However, they found that it is one of several factors that can lead to the divide, including gender, generation, class and region. Therefore, an individual that is a member of several of these categories, may experience a larger gap than others.\nThe Generational Digital Divide and Learning in Higher Education: It can be challenging for people to understand that age can be a factor of the digital divide. However, as learners bring their knowledge and experiences into the classroom (Knowles, 1980), and this knowledge and experience is important for learner satisfaction and success, older learners may be at a disadvantage if they have not kept up with new technologies as these technologies were invented (McMullen, 2016) creating an age-related divide. Therefore, as access to technology has increased, the digital divide is changing to an inequality based on knowledge and skills (Blau, 2002). The result of this lack of access or inequity is what is known as the generational digital divide. The generational digital divide (also known as the technology age gap) refers to the gap in exposure to technologies by age (Livingstone and Helsper, 2007; Salkowitz, 2008). For institutions of higher education and adult learners, this is troublesome as some adult learners may struggle with technology used in classrooms today, therefore feeling separated from their peers and they may choose to withdraw from their programs. McMullen (2016) writes that unfortunately, \"technology has an obsoleting impact on those without the proper skills and, with the speed at which the technology changes, it is very difficult - near impossible for some - to keep current\" (p. 1). McCoy (2010) wrote that online adult learners have lower self-efficacy scores when asked about the tools they are using in their courses. The effect of lower self-efficacy is that adult learners are more hesitant to enroll in online classes, they may have lower retention rates and they report lower levels of course satisfaction if they lack technology support (Allen and Seaman, 2013; Beaghan, 2013; Melick, 2014).\nDiscussion: With non-traditional students being drawn from Generation X and Baby Boomers, the possibility of a multi-generational classroom in the traditional higher education setting has increased over the years (NCES, 2015). There are several differences that set generations apart from one another and these are based on the shared experiences and events of particular generations (DelCampo et al., 2011; Howe and Strauss, 2007). These differences carry over naturally into the higher education environment, especially as students are expected to self-regulate their learning. One of the key differences we see between members of generations is the knowledge and experiences with technology and how they interact with technology (DelCampo et al., 2011).\nWhat can educators do?: To facilitate generational equity in their course, instructors can begin with assessing their students' characteristics and needs and their course to meet the needs of a multigenerational classroom. The authors have five questions that instructors can use to assist in identifying potential concerns and improving generational equity within their classrooms:\nConclusion and future research: This manuscript focuses on the available literature and research that explores both generational characteristics and equity in the classroom. While these topics can intersect meaningfully, there is limited research specifically dedicated to this topic. Additional research is recommended, in order to more fully explore how to best serve different generations that wish to pursue higher education.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the classroom. The authors hope to create awareness to help improve equity in learning opportunities and assist educators in understanding the needs of multigenerational classrooms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In a narrative review of the literature, the authors present the current findings of the literature on generations in higher education and concerns for equity in learning opportunities.\nFindings: It is commonplace in undergraduate programs for learners of multiple generations to attend classes together and research has shown that historical context and generational experiences affect the values, attitudes and learning preferences of each generation. Therefore, higher education institutions should be aware of the demographic profile of their students, as well as the external populations from which they may recruit students, to ensure they are cognizant of the needs of these populations and can provide equality in learning opportunities.\nPractical implications: To assist with the needs of this changing student population, university leaders must consider generational characteristics to ensure equity in learning opportunity. Specifically, university leaders and educators in the classrooms will need to adapt and adjust for a changing student population providing instruction that meets the needs of multiple generations of learners, often within one classroom.\nOriginality/value: Often when we think of diversity in the classroom we think of age, gender, race or even culture. Today we must add diversity in generations. Unlike other equity issues in education such as access (McLaughlin, 2010), educators may not be considering the equity in the design of their instruction to provide equitable learning experiences based on a learners' knowledge and skills established by their experiences with technology. The lack of knowledge and skills a learner has with technology based on their experiences may create barriers to their ability to understand and complete instructional content involving technology (Wager, 2005). To ensure all learners can be successful, educators should strive to provide equality in learning opportunities when designing instruction including technology.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Determinants of online hotel room prices: comparing supply-side and demand-side decisions	[ "Customer reviews", "Hotel room pricing", "Machine learning models", "Star rating" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the emergence of revenue management practices for perishable products in the 1980s, the hospitality sector, in general, and the lodging industry, in particular, has utilized these practices at a wide scale (Hanks et al., 2002; Erdem and Jiang, 2016). In contrast to cost-plus pricing approaches, which do not take into account the value that consumers assign to a good or service (McMahon-Beattie, 2002), revenue management practices are envisioned as essential instruments to optimally match the supply and demand (Vinod, 2004; El Haddad, 2015). In the hotel industry, the demand-side view of revenue management includes determining the perceived value of hotel rooms from the customer's perspective (Choi and Mattila, 2004). The literature suggests that a consumer's perception of a hotel room's value is considered to be one of the most vital factors in influencing purchase intention (Oh, 2000; Choi and Mattila, 2004; Book et al., 2016). From supply-side perspective, price is one of the key components of the revenue management tools. In this context, the \"right\" price for hotel rooms is defined as the price that buyers think is fair (i.e. price is in line with their perception of the value of the hotel), while simultaneously maximizing hotel revenue (Stanislav, 2014).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Determinants of price\n3. Methodology: This section starts by describing the data set used for the supply-side analyses, followed by the explanation of the demand-side data set. The machine learning regression models and performance metrics used in this study are subsequently described.\n4. Findings: The section starts by presenting the results of the linear models and then presents more advanced machine learning methods. Using the data set compiled from Trivago, Table I illustrates the stepwise regression procedure for predicting hotel prices using star rating, customers' rating and number of reviews. Stepwise regression involves iteratively adding predictors to the model while evaluating the model's performance to measure the effects of various predictors and to find the best subset of the input variables. To provide insights into the relationships among the variables, two-way interaction terms are also included in the models. From the results, it appears that interaction terms can improve the performance where the best model (i.e. model 9) includes all two-way interactions and results in adjusted-R2 of 0.39 (up from 0.32 for the model with no interaction term). According to the results, interaction terms are especially useful in describing price variations of five-star hotels where the coefficients are statistically significant in most models.\n5. Discussions: Considering RQ1, the results showed some inconsistencies between supply- and demand- side determinants of online hotel prices. More specifically, while star rating was found to be the most influential determinant of price for both sides, customer ratings had a much more significant weight on influencing hotel perceived prices for the demand-side. In fact, for consumers, star ratings and customer ratings were almost equally as important (relative significance 100 versus 92.87), while at the supply-side, the significance of star rating was more than twice the significance of customer ratings (relative significance 100 versus 46.17). Considering the positive correlations between consumers' perceived prices and their willingness to pay (Oh, 2000; Book et al., 2016), this suggests an opportunity for hotels to capitalize on high customer ratings more aggressively. Except for five-star hotels, the results suggest that high customer ratings have not been effectively reflected in the hotel prices. Figure 4(b) provides a clear picture on this issue where consumers' perceived prices were shown to be more than $50 above the actual prices when customer rating was above 8.5. Moreover, the influence of customer ratings on the perceived price was shown to be non-linear where the increase in the perceived price was more significant when average rating exceeded 7.5. The situation, however, was completely different for five-star hotels where the asking prices seemed to increase sharply as customer ratings passed 8.5. This is clearly depicted in Figure 1 and is confirmed by looking at the positive and statistically significant coefficients of interaction terms for star and customer ratings in Table I. Although the results shown in Figure 4(a) clearly suggest that for five-star hotels, the asking prices are considerably higher than consumers' perceived prices, high-rated luxury hotels may be asking for such high premiums to signal quality (Stanislav, 2014) and exclusivity (Blal and Sturman, 2014) to their customers. Finally, the relative influence of the number of reviews was found to be insignificant, which implies that hotel managers should focus more on providing quality service to their guests to increase their rating (ideally above 8) without necessarily aiming for a high number of reviews.\n6. Conclusions and future research: 6.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of hotels' star ratings and customer ratings on online hotel prices from both supply- and demand-side perspectives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To compile the supply-side data, a Web crawler was designed and implemented to read online prices and characteristics of available hotels from Trivago. Demand-side data were compiled from surveys conducted using the Amazon Mechanical Turk portal. Data were analyzed with an array of advanced machine learning regression models.\nFindings: The results show that while a star rating is the most important predictor of price from both supply- and demand-side perspectives, customer rating influences the price much more significantly on the demand-side. Customers showed a tendency to overestimate the room price of three- and four-star hotels and underestimate the price of five-star hotels. Customers placed a heavier weight on customer ratings when estimating prices particularly when the average rating was above 7.5 (out of 10). The study also confirms the strong effect of price adjustment for customers when they were exposed to the prices of other similar hotels. Finally, the study examines the impact of demographics on the perceived hotel value. Age, ethnicity, education and income are shown to be the most significant demographic characteristics.\nOriginality/value: The results are valuable from a research perspective because they demonstrate how to price rooms more effectively based on their perceived value from consumers' perspectives. From a practical standpoint, the findings provide useful managerial tools for pricing in competitive environments.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The value of librarians for clinical and health governance (a view from Europe)	[ "Evidence-based practice", "Knowledge management", "Clinical governance", "Organizational learning", "Information technology", "Organizational development for effective clinical governance" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Governance of healthcare organisations requires many different competencies, including methods of locating evidence of best practice, integrating best evidence into care pathways, auditing of clinical practice, handling of complaints, adverse event analysis and proactive risk management. Few healthcare practitioners have the complete set of those competencies; therefore, they often need support and training from other professional staff. Librarians traditionally play important roles both in locating best evidence and in training others, and although new roles of libraries are emerging, it has been difficult to identify what activities they undertake to support clinical and health governance (C/HG) and how to evaluate their impact.\nMethod: In its broadest sense, clinical governance is an organisation-wide approach to continuous improvement of healthcare quality by all the individuals who are involved in a patient's care. Usually, it is presented to comprise the following seven components: patient and public involvement, staffing and staff management, clinical effectiveness and research (EBP), using information and IT, education and training, risk management and audit. Based on literature search (PubMed, Google Scholar, EmeraldInsight, European Association of Health Information and libraries (EAHIL) conference abstracts and EAHIL journal) and job descriptions (available on the internet), a list of library activities types related to each component of clinical governance was constructed.\nResults: In total, 83 participants from 25 European countries completed the survey. About one-third of them provided examples of their activities in support of specific components.\nDiscussion: In this section, the survey results are analysed by library activity types related to each component of C/HG, the activity types with highest percentage for each component are highlighted, and some examples provided by respondents are included. The charts present percentage for each type of activity (using the numbering from Table I). (For full results, please contact authors).\nConclusions: No previous comparative research has been undertaken before examining the activities and tasks libraries undertake to support C/HG. Libraries in healthcare organisations provide services to a number of stakeholders, e.g., healthcare practitioners/specialists, patients and members of the public, researchers and decision makers. With responses from 25 European countries, we have identified C/HG components in which librarians are involved, with examples that the majority of libraries support clinical effectiveness and research, education and training, patient and public involvement, partnership engagement, participation and consensus, using IT and information, formulating strategic direction, generating information and intelligence, etc. Half or nearly half support other aspects of clinical governance, formulating policy/strategic direction. Many also support risk management, audit, transparency, organisational adequacy/system design, accountability and regulation. What is clear is that librarians in health and hospital libraries do not only provide services and products within the library environment, but have greater engagement and participation in wider activities of their organisations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Governance of healthcare organisations and health systems requires many different competencies, with a great emphasis on evidence and information governance, which are traditional fields of librarians' expertise. However, stakeholders are unaware of how health and hospital libraries are contributing with specific activities and what are the trends in library support for health/clinical governance in Europe, mainly because traditional methods of measuring impact are restricted to specific library activities or are not showing direct impact long term. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A model combining components of clinical and health governance (C/HG), related library activity types, and the possible impact was developed based on a literature review and tested by a European expert panel. A web-based survey was offered to the members of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) to offer further insight into activities and examples of contribution to C/HG.\nFindings: Librarians from 25 European countries participated in the survey. The model proves that librarians in Europe are involved in supporting most identified components of C/HG, with examples of clinical effectiveness and research, education and training, patient and public involvement, partnership engagement, formulating strategic direction, etc.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors were unable to cover the roles of libraries in all European countries in this paper, but dialogue and research will continue within the EAHIL group.\nOriginality/value: No such comparative research has been undertaken before, looking at what activities and tasks libraries undertake to support C/HG. This research has highlighted valuable services and tools that can be replicated in libraries across health care organisations and at the same time promote libraries and librarians as significant actors in organisational governance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Beyond the unidimensional collective leadership model	[ "Social networks", "Performance", "Collective leadership", "Committees" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Attention to collective leadership has increased significantly in the past two decades. Collective leadership is a dynamic process that involves multiple individuals collaborating in leadership toward the attainment of their common goals (Pearce and Conger, 2003). Challenging the assumption that the leadership role must be carried on by a single individual. While multiple models of collective leadership in the literature are often considered interchangeable, differences among these models deserve attention in order to advance our understanding of this construct (Fitzimmons et al., 2011; House and Aditya, 1997). Some of these differences are conceptually subtle but important enough to suggest that collective leadership exists in multiple forms, each with a unique pattern of leadership assignment and transfer. A deeper understanding of the collective leadership pattern is necessary to elicit desired group outcomes at the individual and group levels, select group members with the necessary skills to generate these dynamics, and to develop training programs that foster effective dynamics of collective leadership.\nPatterns of collective leadership: The literature on collective leadership evidences the existence of two main groups of models attending to the characteristics of the leadership pattern. The first subset of models describes collective leadership as distributed leadership roles. They involve the fragmentation of leadership into a set of roles or behaviors that are performed by multiple individuals in a coordinated fashion. In other words, models within this first category describe collective leadership as a division of leadership labor (Bales, 1954; Burke, 1967; Gibb, 1954; Gronn, 2002; Waldersee et al., 1995). Early works within this first group proposed a division of the leader role into two roles necessary for the group's effectiveness: the task leader, who provides the team with guidance to complete the task effectively, and the social leader, who provides others with support and helps generate harmonious environments. This division of labor responds to the challenge a single individual may face when providing the group with direction and also support. Bales (1954) found that emerging leaders in leaderless teams were typically effective task leaders, but it was difficult for them to effectively juggle task and social leader behaviors (Bales, 1954).\nA social networks two-dimensional model of collective leadership: Recent reviews on the evolution of shared leadership academic emphasize the potential of social network analysis to provide detailed analysis and gain understanding of collective leadership patterns in groups (Denis et al., 2012; Murase et al., 2012). This methodology generates rich depictions of a group's leadership pattern at different levels of analysis, being particularly beneficial for the analysis of dynamics of collective leadership. In this paper, we use social networks to operationalize the two dominant views of collective leadership described above as two separate dimensions: leadership sharedness, which we define as the extent to which multiple group members share a particular leader behavior, and leadership distribution, which we define as the extent to which there is a division of leadership labor in the group. In particular, this paper addresses a gap in the literature by operationalizing a team's division of labor or leadership distribution (House and Aditya, 1997; Gronn, 2002; Mayo et al., 2003).\nCollective leadership behaviors: In order to understand the effectiveness of alternative collective leadership patterns, multiple leader behaviors should be studied. Early scholars relied on dichotomous theories of leadership, such as Benne and Sheets' (1948) task and maintenance membership roles - which they acknowledged were leadership roles (Bales, 1954; Burke, 1967; Waldersee et al., 1995). More recently, theories of collective leadership that incorporate more categories of leader behaviors have been developed. Some of these theories have been based on observation (Barry, 1991) while others have been based on existing theories of leadership. Examples are Bass and Avolio's (1990) concepts of transactional and transformational leadership, Yukl and Lepsinger's (1990) managerial practices survey, and House's (1996) reformulated path-goal theory. Leadership behaviors contained in existing leadership models have been used to operationalize collective leadership by Bowers and Seashore (1966), Ensley et al. (2006), Hiller et al. (2006), and Pearce and Sims (2002).\nA social networks analysis of the leadership pattern: Social networks depict leadership patterns using graphs - one for each leader behavior - where nodes represent group members and ties between these nodes indicate the amount of leadership influence exerted by one person upon other group members (ties point at the person who exerts influence). The networks used for this paper are valued, what means that a tie has an associated value that expresses the level of influence of a node on others in the network. Networks are also directional, where the direction indicates which of two linked nodes influences the other. The two dimensions proposed for the model, leadership sharedness and leadership distribution (see Table I), are based on a fundamental property of the node: degree-based centrality, which assesses the extent to which others in the network perceive an individual to be influential. Degree-based centrality is measured as the sum of values of all ties that link this person to each of his or her peers (Freeman, 1979). The degree-centrality of any node in the network i using a given leadership behavior j is noted as C\nCollective leadership and committee performance: The two-dimensional model is applied in this paper to the study of collective leadership pattern influence on committee performance. Despite of the abundance of committees in all types of organizations and despite the unique characteristics of this type of group, committees have received little attention from previous research. The frequency of meetings varies strongly from committee to committee but it is usually low, ranging from weekly to every few (sometimes many) months. This characteristic makes it questionable to extrapolate results from research focussed on groups with more frequent interaction such as consulting teams (Carson et al., 2007), project teams (Hoch et al., 2010), change management teams (Pearce and Sims, 2002), sales teams (Mehra et al., 2006), top management teams (Ensley et al., 2006; Pearce et al., 2003; Waldersee et al., 1995), social development teams (Pearce et al., 2004), and work teams (Hiller et al., 2006).\nMethods: Sample and data collection\nResults: There were high and significant correlations among the densities of the four leader behaviors, all greater than 0.60 (see Table III). Values over 0.80 were found for the correlations between charismatic leadership and directive leadership densities and between charismatic and participative leadership densities. This result suggests that the level of mutual influence among committee members is similar across different leader behaviors. The values of density for all leader behaviors were comparable to those obtained by prior empirical research (Carson et al., 2007).\nDiscussion and conclusions: Our study advances prior collective leadership literature in several ways. First, we proposed a model of collective leadership that incorporates multiple dimensions of social networks, which facilitates empirical comparisons of the effectiveness of different dynamics of collective leadership in groups. Second, our results demonstrate that leadership density is a significant moderator of the relationship between leadership centralization and performance. Thus, our study advances prior literature that used either density or centralization to operationalize shared leadership by showing that both measures are complementary and, together, they advance our understanding of the internal dynamics of collective leadership. Finally, our results demonstrate that equal participation is often beneficial for committee performance. In the particular case of charismatic and supportive leadership, however, equality is not sufficient to drive committee performance, but it is members' equally strong contributions to these leader behaviors what has a positive impact on this group outcome.\nLimitations and future research: The small sample size of this study may have negative effects on the results obtained in the study by lowering the power of its statistical analyses (Schwab, 1999) and can render significant but inaccurate parameters (Kelley and Maxwell, 2003). Additionally, the low ICC(2) may have affected the validity of the aggregation of individual-level centrality values to the team level for the four leader behaviors studied. These results indicate, however, that a significant portion of the variance resides between teams in the variables studied and are comparable to others in the literature (Hirst et al., 2009). A final limitation of the study is the low variance of the distribution that may be responsible for the lack of support for H5. The low values of leadership distribution in the sample result from the high values of sharedness across behaviors. Future research would benefit from a more diverse sample of teams that provides greater leadership pattern diversity.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: A theoretical analysis evidences the existence of multiple patterns of collective leadership and serves as foundation for the proposal of a two-dimensional model of collective leadership, which evaluates leadership sharedness (the extent to which leadership roles are shared by group members), and leadership distribution (the extent to which different leadership roles are permanently assigned to group members). The relationship between these dimensions and committee effectiveness is further tested.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A social networks methodology is used with a sample of 28 committees. Two complementary network properties (centralization and density) are used to operationalize leadership sharedness and a new measure is developed to operationalize leadership distribution. Stepwise regressions test the relation between collective leadership dimensions and performance.\nFindings: The model proposed advances the understanding of collective leadership's internal dynamics and facilitates empirical comparisons of the effectiveness of various forms of collective leadership. The highest committee performance was found in groups where members contribute equally to charismatic and supportive leadership but only when these equal contributions were high. In collective directive and participative leadership, however, equality of contribution was associated to higher performance independently on the strength of members' contributions. No relationship was found between the distribution of leadership roles among group members and committee performance.\nResearch limitations/implications: A small sample size may have reduced hypothesis testing power. The intraclass corrections (ICC(2)) were lower than recommended. Finally, results cannot be extrapolated beyond committees, which have very unique characteristics due to their low typical interaction.\nPractical implications: Organizations can improve committee performance by ensuring high and equal participation of members in their group's leadership through training and selection. Enhancing participation of all members in leadership requires special attention to women and members of minorities, that are typically attributed less leadership influence and whose commitment to the group may be hurt by lack of involvement.\nOriginality/value: The two-dimensional model proposed goes beyond previously published models in exploring several aspects of collective leadership internal dynamics by advancing the understanding how different aspects of collective leadership patterns affect group performance.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Employment effects of union-bargained minimum wages: Evidence from Sweden's retail sector	[ "Employment", "Collective bargaining", "Labour-labour substitution", "Minimum wages" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Minimum wages in Sweden and the other Nordic countries are not regulated by law, but are subject to industry-wide bargaining between employers and trade unions. Since the coverage of collective agreements is high, the negotiated minimum wages effectively serve as wage floors, much in the same way as a statutory minimum would. Minimum wage structures are highly complex, with different rates depending on, for example, age, occupation and experience. Negotiated minimum rates in the Nordic countries are among the highest in the world, both in absolute terms and in relation to median wages. In 2006, the Swedish minimum wage bite for unskilled workers in selected industries ranged between 61 and 71 per cent of median wages in the private sector, while the bite reached 63-73 per cent in Norway and 56-57 per cent in Finland (Skedinger, 2008).\n1. Minimum wages in the retail trade: In the Swedish retail sector, minimum wages for manual workers are determined in collective agreements between the Commercial Employees' Union (Handelsanstalldas forbund) and the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel). The agreements specify contractual wage increases as well as minimum wage levels at the industry level for various categories of workers. Since minimum wages are never bargained over at the firm level, it seems reasonable to assume, as a first approximation, that these rates are exogenous to the firm in its decisions to hire and fire. With the high level of centralization of wage bargaining in Sweden, the situation is thus similar to a system with statutory minimum wages, the main difference being that minimum wages are industry specific rather than nation-wide.\n2. The data and the sample partition: The data set has been obtained from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Naringsliv) and covers all member firms of the employer organization the Swedish Trade Federation over the period 1998-2008. There are 13,000 member firms with a total of 300,000 employees in the Federation, implying a coverage of about two-thirds of all employees in Swedish retail (Svensk Handel, 2011). The industry accounts for 12 per cent of all employment in Sweden. The firms are bound by the collective agreements signed by the Federation and these cover all employees, regardless of union membership.\n3. Econometric specification: For workers within each group k (Below, Treatment, Control and High) with increasing minimum wages, the interacted variables I\n4. Econometric results: Table II shows regression results for the impact of minimum wage increases on employment among manual workers. Excluding 2007-2008 from the analysis means that the estimation period is restricted to 2001-2005 (i.e. accounting for separations up to 2006). All individuals have been assigned to one of the four groups \"below\", \"treatment\", \"control\" and \"high\", with the latter as a reference category. The group dummies are interacted with the increase in minimum wages, as in Equation (1). Of particular interest is the test whether the coefficients for the treatment and control groups are equal, that is, if b\n5. Conclusions: This paper has examined the effects of increases in union-bargained real minimum wages on separations and hours worked in the Swedish retail sector during 2001-2005. The econometric framework relies on the identification of workers affected by minimum wage increases, depending on their position in the wage distribution and contrasts outcomes for these workers to those for a control group of workers, with slightly higher wages.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of collectively agreed increases in minimum wages for manual workers on employment transitions and hours.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The econometric approach relies on the identification of workers affected by minimum wage changes, depending on their position in the wage distribution and contrasts outcomes for these workers to those for unaffected workers, with slightly higher wages.\nFindings: The analysis suggests that separations increase as minimum wages increase and that substitution between worker groups in response to changes in minimum wages is important in retail. In general, though, hours do not change much as minimum wages increase.\nResearch limitations/implications: Analyses that deal with employment consequences of increasing minimum wages but disregard hours may exaggerate the overall decline in employment to the extent that job losses are concentrated among low-paid, part-time workers.\nPractical implications: With union-bargained minimum wages, unions and employers need to carefully consider the effects of increasing rates on employment.\nSocial implications: The findings that there is a trade-off between higher wages among the low-paid and employment loss and that employment to some extent is reshuffled between individuals should be important from a welfare perspective.\nOriginality/value: The literature on employment effects of minimum wages is large, but very few studies are concerned with union-bargained minimum wages. The assumptions of the econometric model are tested in a novel way by imposing fictitious minimum wages on lower-level non-manuals in the same industry, with turnover characteristics similar to those of manuals but covered by a different collective agreement with non-binding actual minimum wages.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Comparative welfare state impacts on work quality and job satisfaction: A cross-national analysis	[ "Job satisfaction", "Employment", "Government policy", "Individual psychology", "National economy", "Social policy", "Welfare", "Sociology" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since Happock's seminal work on the topic in 1935, job satisfaction has continued to generate interest across disciplines, from psychology (Argyle, 1989) and sociology (Kalleberg and Loscocco, 1983; Hodson, 2002), to economics (Freeman, 1978; Hamermesh, 2001), management sciences (Hunt and Saul, 1975), and public administration (Durst and DeSantis, 1997; Wright and Kim, 2004; Jung et al., 2007). The interest in job satisfaction, as much for researchers as for practitioners, is due to several reasons. Satisfied workers are more productive (Appelbaum and Kamal, 2001), deliver higher quality of work (Tietjen and Myers, 1998), and improve a firm's competitiveness and success (Garrido et al., 2005). Conversely, unsatisfied workers are more frequently late for work, absent from work, and motivated to leave the firm (Blau, 1994; Lee, 1998).Additionally, many researchers have suggested an increasing importance in the role that our work plays in our everyday lives, with most able-body individuals spending at least one-half or more of their waking hours in the workplace (in one form or another), and with the landscape of work in the US and across the world changing dramatically over the past 15-20 years in response to economic shifts, technological advances, and an increasingly global economy (Handel, 2005; Jamison et al., 2004). As work plays an increasingly significant role in our lives, and as different workplaces are unique - each with its own particular set of characteristics, it is important to understand what it is about the workplace that impacts our lives and how these characteristics impact a worker's overall job satisfaction.The vast cross-disciplinary literature exploring work quality and job satisfaction has linked worker experiences to many individual, organizational, and social outcomes, yet this research has largely failed to shed much light on why cross-national differences in worker satisfaction persist over time. An often accepted job satisfaction model, commonly considered to be widely generalizable across a wide variety of cross-cultural and cross-national contexts, actually appears to have a lack of applicability across countries (Westover, 2011, 2010a, b; Taylor and Westover, 2011; Westover and Taylor, 2010).The core questions driving this research are:RQ1. What are the empirical cross-national differences in job satisfaction?RQ2. What are the causes behind these differences?Cross-cultural researchers would suggest that any such differences would all be due to cultural differences between countries (House et al., 2004). However, the limited research that explores work quality characteristics and job satisfaction from a cross-cultural perspective has largely failed to show how countries with similar cultural orientations still experience significant differences and how countries with different cultural orientations still experience similarities (House et al., 2004).The question remains, what are the causes of these country differences. More specifically, what are the key country-level contextual and global-macro variables driving these country differences in job characteristics and perceived worker satisfaction (which is of increasing relevance in the age of an ever more globalized economy and hyper-competitive global marketplace)? Existing research cannot answer these and other related questions.\nLiterature review overview: The conceptualization of job satisfaction\nDescription of data: This research utilizes non-panel longitudinal data[1] from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP: Work Orientations modules I, II, and III:, 1989, 1997, 2005[2] - various survey questions on job characteristics and job quality). The International Social Survey Program Work Orientations modules utilized a multistage stratified probability sample to collect the data for each of the various countries with a variety of eligible participants in each country's target population[3]. The Work Orientations module focuses on the areas of general attitudes toward work and leisure, work organization, and work content[4]. Variables of interest in the data collected by the ISSP are single-item indicators (i.e. with a single survey question for job satisfaction, interesting work, job autonomy, workplace relations, etc. on a Likert scale). For the purposes of this study, the units of analysis are individuals within the separate sovereign nations. In addition to examining one large sample including all respondents from all participating countries, a separate sample for each country is also examined to determine which job characteristics best predict job satisfaction in that particular country and then make cross-national comparisons (Westover, 2008a, b, 2010a, b, 2011; Taylor and Westover, 2011)[5].With 11 countries included in 1989, 26 countries included in 1997, and 32 countries included in 2005, it is important to note where the study countries fall within the broader world context (272 world countries identified by the CIA World Factbook for 2005). Table I shows the countries included in each wave of the study. In 1989, the 11 countries participating in the study were primarily western European nations, in addition to the USA, Israel, and Hungary. In 1997, the number of participating countries/geographic regions increased to 26, with several more former Eastern Bloc nations - in addition to Hungary - participating, a greater number of European countries participating, as well as nations from the Asia participating for the first time. Additionally, Canada joined the USA as the only other North American country participating in the study. In 2005, the number of participating countries/geographic regions again increased, this time to 32 nations, with a handful of the 1997 nations dropping out and more European, Central American, and Asian countries participating. Once more, in 2005 South Africa became the only nation from the African continent to participate.\nOperationalization of variables: This research follows Westover's (2008a, b, 2010a, b, 2011) job satisfaction model (based on Kalleberg's (1977) findings and Handel's (2005) study) for conducting a cross-national comparison of job satisfaction and the perceived importance of intrinsic and extrinsic job quality characteristic variations across countries (Spector, 1997; Sousa-Pouza and Sousa-Pouza, 2000; Munoz de Bustillo Llorente and Fernandez Macias, 2005; Westover, 2008a, b, 2010a, b, 2011). Handel (2005) characterized 12 variables from the General Social Survey into intrinsic and extrinsic job quality factors. Ten of the 12 variables used by Handel are available for all countries in each of the three waves of the International Social Survey data used for this study and are outlined below.Key job quality characteristics related to job satisfaction\nMethodological description: Statistical methodology\nHypotheses: There are various possible explanations for why and how job satisfaction and its work determinants can differ cross-nationally, based on national contextual factors. One of these explanations is embodied in the comparative welfare state literature. There has been a great deal of academic work from a variety of theoretical schools over the past several decades that have examined the nature and role of the welfare state in the global economy (Pampel and Williamson, 1989; Skocpol, 1988; Weir et al., 1988; Wilensky, 1981; Helco, 1974; Epsing-Andersen, 1985; Hicks and Swank, 1992; Korpi, 1983; Stephens, 1979a, b) and the relationship between varieties of capitalism/production regimes and welfare state regimes (Scruggs and Allan, 2006; Hall and Soskice, 2001; Huber and Stephens, 2001; Kitschelt et al., 1999). The various measures of welfare state size and reach utilized in these studies also help to better understand cross-national differences in welfare security measures and policy that impact working conditions and workers' attitudes about their job, where workers in countries with a relatively greater level of welfare state safety net provisions experience less concern over extrinsic work rewards and conditions than those without such provisions (Scruggs and Allan, 2006; Hall and Soskice, 2001; Huber and Stephens, 2001; Epsing-Andersen, 1990). Furthermore, workers in countries with a relatively greater level of welfare state safety net provisions experience less concern over extrinsic work rewards and conditions than those without such provisions (Scruggs and Allan, 2006; Hall and Soskice, 2001; Huber and Stephens, 2001; Hall, 1999; Epsing-Andersen, 1990; Pampel and Williamson, 1989; Skocpol, 1988; Weir et al., 1988). For example, Epsing-Anderson's (1990) and Huber and Stephens (2001), among others, have found that in countries with a greater level of welfare state safety net provisions, workers had less concerns regarding such workplace issues as long working hours and dangerous working conditions, job security, pay, and benefits. Based on the different needs fulfillment models (that put first-level importance on basic \"existence\" needs) of Maslow (1943), Alderfer (1972) and Herzberg et al. (1959), this would lead to the logical conclusion that workers in countries with a comparatively lower level of welfare state safety net provisions and worse working conditions would be more greatly motivated and satisfied by extrinsic workplace factors, while workers in countries with a comparatively higher level of welfare state safety net provisions with better working conditions would be better able to move beyond the various extrinsic \"existence\" needs and move toward the more \"self-actualization\" and \"personal fulfillment\" intrinsic needs.Thus, the two hypotheses are as follows:H1a. In countries with greater levels of welfare state safety net provisions, intrinsic work characteristics and work relationships will be most salient to workers and provide the most predictability in overall perceived job satisfaction.H1b. In countries with lower levels of welfare state safety net provisions, extrinsic workplace characteristics will be most salient to workers and provide the most predictability in overall perceived job satisfaction.\nResults: Descriptive statistics\nConclusions: Discussion\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The vast cross-disciplinary literature exploring work quality and job satisfaction has linked worker experiences to many individual, organizational, and social outcomes, yet this research has largely failed to shed much light on why cross-national differences in worker satisfaction and its determinants persist over time. The purpose of this paper to: empirically test (using various bivariate descriptive procedures and comparative OLS regression) significant, cross-national differences in job satisfaction and its determinants; and explore the reasons for these cross-national differences, moving beyond the research of social psychologists and organizational behavior researchers, to also include import macro cross-national factors that directly influence these differences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - In this research, the author applies and extends Handel's Post and Neo-Fordist framework for understanding job characteristics and job satisfaction, using non-panel longitudinal data from the International Social Survey Program (Work Orientations I, II, and III:, 1989, 1997, 2005 - survey questions on job characteristics and job quality) and various welfare state country-contextual variables.\nFindings: - OLS regression results of job satisfaction by country show that for countries with relative higher levels of welfare state safety net provisions, intrinsic work characteristics provide greater overall predictability in overall perceived job satisfaction. Once more, extrinsic work characteristics generally have greater salience and predictability in overall perceived job satisfaction in countries relatively lower levels of welfare state safety net provisions. Furthermore, the results clearly show that regardless of country level of welfare state safety net provisions, intrinsic work characteristics add the most overall predictability to perceived job satisfaction of workers within the study countries. Finally, an often accepted job satisfaction model, commonly considered to be widely generalizable across a wide variety of cross-cultural and cross-national contexts, actually appears to have a lack of applicability across countries.\nOriginality/value: - What are the key country-level contextual and global-macro variables driving these country differences in job characteristics and perceived worker satisfaction? Prior research could not answer this question. However, this research is the first and only empirical inquiry to look at the relationship between macro welfare state country-contextual factors and job satisfaction. Like many work attitudes, job satisfaction is a dynamic construct that changes in response to personal and environmental conditions. Finally, monitoring job satisfaction over time and in different contexts allows one to better examine and understand the salient factors that affect job satisfaction.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Matching expectations for successful university student volunteering	[ "Volunteering", "Psychological contract", "Learning", "Universities", "Student volunteer management", "University student volunteers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: University student volunteering is a broad term used to encompass many activities: leadership of student clubs and student government; taking on roles in university open days, orientations and graduations; and volunteering with community and other organisations. Host organisations taking on responsibility for student volunteers involve them in a range of activities. Students may be volunteering in a host organisation as a result of a learning-related activity; as part of a civic engagement on behalf of the university; involved in a self-directed activity with the aim of gaining experience and/or enhancing their employment prospects; to make a contribution to the community, or because they were asked. The engagement of universities with the community via their students has been found to pay dividends for all parties. Most of the research undertaken with respect to university student volunteering has focussed on the student and the university, with limited attention being paid to host organisations and the management and administration of the programmes other than in an indirect sense (Littlepage et al., 2012).\nUniversity student volunteering in Australia: Australian universities were slower than their North American and British counterparts in taking up volunteering as an integral part of learning, at least in a more formal sense (Esmond, 2000). Student volunteering from the perspective of student clubs and associations can be traced back to the origins of, for example, student unions (UWA Student Guild, 2013) and to sporting organisations and clubs managed and run by students across a range of universities (ECU Student Guild, nd).\nPrevious research on hosting university student volunteers: There is a wide variety of research on university student volunteering and related activities. A scan of this literature, however, identified just a handful of articles considering the host organisation dimension. A number of these involved a team at Indiana University in the USA, who identified the importance of the host organisation in campus/community partnerships particularly with respect to service learning (Gazley et al., 2013; Littlepage et al., 2012).\nMethod and approach: This study relied on a qualitative approach within the interpretivist paradigm. The emergent approach allowed for inclusion of the voices of stakeholders, and the employment of both inductive and deductive analysis (Creswell, 2013). The multi-stage data collection included a desk audit of programmes in place and an extensive suite of 60 interviews across six different Australian universities, their students and organisations who host their students. A theoretical sampling method (Birks and Mills, 2011) was applied in recruiting individuals from each of the stakeholder groups. Host organisations were identified as including: community organisations who host student volunteers, organisations who are multi-institutional student-led-and-organised groups (e.g. AIME, Oaktree Foundation) and student-led institution-based organisations (e.g. photography club, drama club, sustainability garden group). Students also volunteer for universities in activities such as open days and orientation. In each host organisation the person with responsibility for the management or organisation of student volunteers was invited for interview. Data on host organisations were also elicited from the interviews conducted with students, with university representatives at both the institutional and programme levels and from peak organisations representing major stakeholders.\nUniversity student volunteer and host organisation types: Unsurprisingly university students are seen by volunteer involving organisations as potential volunteers, given the range of skills, flexible time and energy associated with the average age of university students. What emerged from the data is that this source of volunteers offers great benefits to host organisations as well as students and universities, but there are some complexities of which all stakeholders need to be aware. One element which emerged was language in use.\nExpectations and disappointment: The interviews provided clear evidence from all parties that university student volunteering can lead to a range of benefits for students, host organisations and universities with good planning and clear communication. These benefits include increased knowledge, self-awareness and experience for students and additional assistance for host organisations. There was also evidence of negative outcomes when there was poor management of the programme, and expectations of any party were not met. Mismatched expectations led to the creation of myths about university student volunteers, including the notion that students are unreliable and that they are, in the view of managers, \"hard work\". Unmet expectations appeared to be derived from incongruity in the reasons for hosting, costs, time commitments and preparation required with those unmet expectations producing disappointment and discouragement.\nExpectation management: Interviews with managers of volunteers, student leaders, peak bodies and students provided evidence that was confirmed by programme level managers in universities: where the expectations of the parties are not clearly articulated, and students and hosts are not adequately prepared, university student volunteering has the potential to fail to meet the expectations of at least one of the parties to the relationship. The evidence was also clear, however, that there are steps which can be taken by all parties to minimise the chances of mismatched expectations. Preparation and planning, and quality communication which clearly articulates expectations and identifies possibilities for these to be met were cited by interviewees as the basis for practical and satisfying university student volunteering outcomes. This is consistent with the literature on the role of the psychological contract in volunteer management (Nichols, 2013; Stirling et al., 2011; Vantilborgh et al., 2012). One clear aspect of this is that the reasons for the student is volunteering will influence the nature and type of psychological contract in operation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of expectation formation and matching for university student volunteers and their hosts.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research involved a multi-stage data collection process including interviews with student volunteers, and university and host representatives from six Australian universities. The project team undertook an iterative process of coding and interpretation to identify themes and develop understanding of the phenomenon.\nFindings: University student volunteering has the potential to fail to meet the expectations of at least one of the parties to the relationship when the expectations of the parties are not clearly articulated. Universities operating volunteer programmes have an important role in facilitating expectation formation and matching, minimising the chances of mismatched expectations.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study confirms the operation of a psychological contract for university student volunteers and organisations who host them which is consistent with other research in volunteering demonstrating the importance of matching expectations.\nPractical implications: The paper identifies the importance of expectation formation and matching for hosts and students, and highlights the role of universities in facilitating matchmaking.\nOriginality/value: This paper contributes to the growing body of research on the role of the psychological contract in volunteering, in particular in university student volunteering and host organisations.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Role context change and actionable career knowledge for practicing managers	[ "Skills", "Career development", "Career satisfaction", "Managers", "Psychological contracts" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Managerial role requirements, with slight variations, have been well documented and categorized into highly accepted taxonomies existent over some 100 years (Dubrin, 2012; Schor et al., 1995). However, the relevancy of the underlying managerial roles has been impacted by voluminous contextual changes over time suggesting that the relevance or utility these long-standing and seemingly immutable cataloging of roles has also fluctuated (Hoffman et al., 2013; Dierdorff et al., 2009; Tett et al., 2000). Contemporary managers must contend with erratic global competition, accelerating technology advances, societal shifts and uncertain careers (Hoffman et al., 2013; Syrett, 2016) driving individuals to increase their level of personal independence from traditional organization relationships. These contextual factors cause added concern as psychologists have long noted that having a meaningful job, by broad definition, is one of the most important factors in the identity, well-being and satisfaction of individuals (De Vos et al., 2011; Fugate and Kinicki, 2008; Gowan, 2012; McArdle et al., 2007), and also affects organizational outcomes (Fugate et al., 2004).\nManagerial role requirements and practice usefulness: Work roles have generally been defined in terms of organization responsibilities and business-specific requirements (Ilgen and Hollenbeck, 1991). Individual interests and the motivational context of role requirements are noticeably minimal in role frameworks. Requests for taxonomic refinement have been numerous (Campbell et al., 1970) with Henry Mintzberg (1973) largely credited for advancing the role categorization in his widely accepted observational role research. This research supported and triggered numerous related studies (see Table I), yet other researchers have continued to lament that organization-driven role frameworks may not reflect the changing context of contemporary work, that the right work may be not be executed, and that past role definitions may be less relevant (Fells, 2000; Yukl, 1989).\nManagerial needs and business education in a changing environment: The practice relevancy of managerial roles as taught in business schools has been criticized specifically reflecting a continuing disconnect in the interplay between organization and personal efficacy (Hoffman et al., 2013; Syrett, 2016; Way et al., 2017). This potential role gap is especially troublesome as the teaching of historic and questionable role pedagogy is predominantly promulgated in the management texts and curriculum of business schools. This is a contentious, but meaningful issue where traditionally espoused managerial role requirements may have achieved academic accuracy, but have done so at the expense of pragmatism and practice utility which are central components of a quality business education (Bennis and O'Toole, 2005; Rousseau, 2012). More specifically, we are interested in exploring the expansion of roles that reflect the concept of employability as a mutually beneficial role requirement. Employability refers to the proactive adaptability and marketability of individuals to move not just vertically within a function, but between functional areas and also between organizations and industries (Gowan, 2012). The development of certain employability skills or role requirements such as entrepreneurship, alliance building and networking are likely to serve both the employee and the organizations (Hoffman et al., 2013). Thus, role requirements inclusive of employee interests fosters an alliance between an organization and the individual making both more competitive.\nMethod: Participants\nData analysis: First, we sought to gather insights directly from respondents as the study required an exploration of perceived managerial relevancy. We chose to use Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), a recognized and growing methodology within the social sciences to help extend the insights of complex human experience (Polkinghorne, 2005). This semi-structured interview approach encourages a broader area for exploration than can be captured with traditional forced-choice or variable testing. CQR is particularly well-suited for investigating non-fixed social interactions, such as the context of this study, where multiple personality traits and motivational nuances may be exercised by subjects influenced by the fluctuations of time and circumstances (Churchill, 1999; Denzin and Lincoln, 2002; Hill et al., 1997; Omair, 2010; Sue et al., 2009). This procedure entails a question and answer interaction with the participant.\nResults: Practitioner relevancy scores on roles\nDiscussion: Role relevancy findings\nImplications: Managers\nLimitations and future research: The strengths of this study include the empirical testing of traditional role relevancy, use of social science methodology in the identification of emerging role categories, and utilization of a relatively large and representative managerial sample in which to capture perceived relevancy. However, there are several limitations and opportunities worthy of mention. First, our examination relied on a general model of 17 managerial role requirements, one that appears applicable across all scenarios. Yet some researchers have noted that a generalist model may have practical limitations being dependent upon work context and human factors (Tett et al., 2000). Although our findings may be indicative of a broad need for improved role relevancy, future meso-level research should consider more carefully the nuances of types of organizations, occupations and cultures (Rubin and Dierdorff, 2009). Another limitation of our study and opportunity for future research would be to explore the effect and dependencies between age, gender and tenure within organizations upon perceived role requirements. Future studies might also consider examining performance outcomes in relation to role relevancy where some leading researchers have noted a lack of empirical information (Fells, 2000). Finally, a next step in our research would be to investigate the ranking of roles and role combinations which are influenced by complex and potentially dissimilar work environments, context and individual skills and motivation. Despite the limitations, our results for improving role relevancy and alternative frameworks are promising and should be explored in future studies.\nConclusion: This study examined the 17 roles and role requirements as defined by DuBrin (2012) which were an extension of Mintzberg's (1973) 10-role framework from the perspective of practicing managers. It brought into focus whether historic academic research and definitional accuracy derived from an academic and organizational perspective have overshadowed real world application given the numerous contextual changes that have occurred not only since the 1970s, but since Fayol's (1916) rather similar Functions of Management framework. The results demonstrated that the traditional role taxonomies as currently taught in business schools have sub-optimal role relevancy or practical utility in today's market as perceived by managerial practitioners. Thus, our study demonstrates that the traditional role requirements reflect a skewed organization-driven taxonomy limited by its emphasis on somewhat dated managerial work behaviors at the exclusion of important emerging role requirements and skills that are of significant personal interest to employees.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevancy of traditional managerial role frameworks as perceived by practicing managers, and to identify emerging role requirements or skills required for career success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach was conducted including survey research, empirical analysis and semi-structured consensual qualitative research interviews with 259 managers from 200 organizations.\nFindings: This study demonstrates a widening gap between entrenched organization role constructs and emerging practice-driven role skills. The empirical analysis indicated little to moderate relevancy of traditional role constructs by practicing managers while follow-up interviews revealed new role requirements driven by contemporary market realities and changing managerial motivations. The findings suggest that inclusion of new practice-driven role requirements or skills are likely to be mutually beneficial and influence career success.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings may limit the ability to generalize without further comparative analysis in similar/dissimilar economies.\nPractical implications: Individuals will benefit by the inclusion of revised role requirements and policies that are designed to support employee-driven needs and \"employability\" skills that are more consistent with a careerist orientation. The organization will also benefit by having a more highly skilled workforce in key areas of competitive advantage including networking, innovation and opportunity identification.\nOriginality/value: The value of this examination is twofold. First, it extends the understanding of the diminishing relevancy of traditional managerial roles within a context of major global and social transformation. Second, it underscores the growing importance of \"employability\" skill sets and capabilities for managerial career aspirants facing new market realities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Putting diversity to work: An empirical analysis of how change efforts targeting organizational inequality failed	[ "Power", "Diversity management", "Change", "Critical diversity", "Organizational-level analysis" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Occasioned by increasing workforce mobility and migration, diversity in the workforce has become a prime concern for organizations. However, in an era of pervasive diversity, we face paradoxical outcomes of policies and initiatives targeting organizational diversity (Benschop et al., 2015; Ghorashi and Sabelis, 2013). While practitioners and researchers seldom question the importance of organizational diversity, how to achieve the necessary change to ensure more equal workplaces is much less obvious (Janssens and Zanoni, 2014). On the one hand, diversity management scholars promote generalized and de-politicized activities which in practice show a variation in terms of the extent to which they incorporate the promised forms of inclusiveness (cf. Dobbin et al., 2011; Jonsen et al., 2011). On the other, critical diversity scholars focus on minority experiences of discrimination and inequality in the context of historical and societal influences (cf. Gotsis and Kortezi, 2014; Van Laer and Janssens, 2011). This predominance of generalized and de-contextualized diversity research has left the organizational level largely unexplored (cf. Holck et al., 2016; Zanoni et al., 2010). Consequently, there is little knowledge of why diversity change initiatives often fail and why they succeed when this occurs (cf. Ahmed, 2007; Benschop et al., 2015; Janssens and Zanoni, 2014).\nDiversity research: The field of diversity management has been dominated by a social-psychological approach that stems from research on organizational behavior. This line of research assumes that negative in-group/out-group dynamics are the product of majority individuals' biases as well as tendencies for stereotyping, to be corrected through universal human resource management initiatives such as sensitivity training, networking to prevent minority isolation and objective rules regulating recruitment, promotion, etc. (Janssens and Zanoni, 2014; Oswick and Noon, 2014). The established research field of diversity management has been criticized for a generalized, de-contextualized and de-politicized approach, which does not capture the full range of diversity issues organizations have to deal with (Dobbin et al., 2011; Gotsis and Kortezi, 2014; Holck et al., 2016).\nMethods: This study applies an intervention-based approach that critically engages with diversity practitioners to explore the fate of change efforts targeting inequality in a particular organizational setting. Interventions offer the possibility to experience the complications of a change process and give the study a \"participatory bent,\" as the participants and the researcher as a type of participant affect the research process (Gotsis and Kortezi, 2014). This study is therefore positioned in an interpretative tradition that acknowledges the co-constructed and relational nature of fieldwork and research (Ghorashi and Sabelis, 2013).\nEmpirical findings: Change efforts to alter task distribution productive of a skew hierarchy\nConcluding discussion: Studying change efforts in CopCorp uncovers how diversity initiatives are embedded in the organizational setting and draws on societal discourses on difference. These findings emphasize the benefits of an organizational-level study in contrast to current diversity research predominantly grounded in de-contextualized, generalized and abstract studies (Jonsen et al., 2011; Ghorashi and Sabelis, 2013; Gotsis and Kortezi, 2014; Zanoni et al., 2010). This situated study demonstrates how the prevalence of generalized and de-contextualized research fail to assess and hence redress the often tacit, organizational \"underbelly\" of power battles related to privilege, disadvantage and resistance. As a consequence, challenging organizational practices of inequality must address these power relations, as argued by critical scholars, albeit in their localized setting; in CopCorp, empowerment of hitherto disadvantaged minority employees involved a showdown with organizational collaborative and task distributive practices that perpetuate an unsound ethnical hierarchy.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore why a diversity agenda in favor of equal opportunities failed despite apparent organizational support and commitment to diversity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawing on data from a municipal center, this study inquire into how organizational dynamics of power and hierarchy influence change efforts to alter practices of inequality. The study is positioned within critical diversity research and structured around an analysis of the researcher's fieldwork experiences.\nFindings: The analysis examines into why change efforts failed despite organizational approval of a diversity agenda, open-mindedness toward change and legitimacy in regard to diversity. Paradoxically, change efforts designed to alter the status quo were, in practice, derailed and circumvented through power dynamics reproducing organizational inequality.\nResearch limitations/implications: A single case study in a particular type of organization constrains the generalizability but point to new directions for future research.\nPractical implications: This study aims at sensitizing researchers and diversity practitioners alike to the organizational embeddedness of diversity initiatives. Accordingly, change efforts must necessarily address diversity in a situated perspective and as intersecting with key organizational power dynamics gaining impetus from macro discourses on diversity and difference.\nOriginality/value: Few critical diversity scholars engage with practitioners and reflect on the impact of their studies. In doing so, this paper contributes by developing diversity research, exploring the limitations and possibilities for increasing its relevance and impact.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Meeting the food waste challenge in higher education	[ "Experiential learning", "Sustainability", "Food environment", "Food waste", "Food service", "Food intervention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Reducing food waste is a key objective for meeting sustainability goals of organizations around the world including the United Nations, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Definitions of food waste and its corresponding measurement vary across the literature (Bellemare et al., 2017). This research examines food waste as the loss of edible food due to decisions made by retailers and consumers (Bloom, 2010). Consumers and retailers play a major role in generating food waste and are equally part of the solution. Retailers contribute to food waste by overstocking, while consumers generate food waste by failing to consume purchased food (Buzby and Hyman, 2012). These contributions to food waste could potentially be avoided through changes in business practices and consumer behaviors. Approximately 31 per cent of all food in the USA or 133 billion pounds of the 430 billion pounds of the available food supply at the retail level is wasted (Buzby and Hyman, 2012).\n2. Methods: 2.1 Study design\n3. Results: 3.1 Total food waste measurements\n4. Discussion: This study implemented an experiential learning project in an institution of higher education with the objective to address a major sustainability challenge of reducing food waste while building student capacity to lead transformational change in the food system. Study findings demonstrate that edible waste represented the largest source of food waste in the study site university dining hall. As this edible waste is avoidable, additional food environment interventions and management plans are called for to reduce food waste, including food service business practices and efforts to influence consumer food behavior. In particular, efforts to influence consumer food behavior are called for based on this study's finding that post-consumer food waste was over 75 per cent greater than pre-consumer food waste during both the pre- and post-intervention periods. While the 17 per cent reduction of total food waste following the intervention targeted at changing consumer behavior was not statistically significant, it points to the potential of food environment strategies to reduce food waste. Survey findings of student diner attitudes toward food waste highlight that students are concerned about food waste and would care more about this issue if they knew how it impacts the costs of their meals. Stakeholder reflections regarding the experiential learning project indicate the rewarding aspects of applying academic content to address a sustainability challenge on their own university campus while building their own ability to participate in efforts to transform the food system. This project can inform the management of large food service operations while building student capacity toward transformational food system change.\n5. Conclusion: Students of higher education are future leaders who will address the society's most pressing challenges and advance the society in more sustainable directions. The preparation of students through the development of curricula and learning opportunities in higher education has tremendous opportunities in building student capacity to develop, implement and evaluate innovative solutions to address sustainability challenges. This study highlights the opportunity of building student capacity to lead transformational change in the food system through an experiential learning model for reducing food waste in an institutional setting.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing sustainability solutions. An experiential learning project was implemented as part of two university courses in a buffet-style university dining hall with the objective to reduce food waste while building student capacity to contribute to transformational food system change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Partnerships were developed with university dining services. Students were trained to conduct a needs assessment in a university dining hall through food waste measurements. Students were facilitated through the process of applying baseline data on food waste to design, implement and evaluate a multi-component food waste intervention that consisted of offering reduced portion sizes, use of smaller serving utensils and educational messaging. Participant reflections were elicited to evaluate the effectiveness of the experiential learning experience.\nFindings: The food waste intervention led to a 17 per cent reduction in total food waste, with a large portion of waste attributed to post-consumer plate waste. While the reduction in food waste was not statistically significant, it highlights the potential for food service operations to address food waste through reduction techniques while providing students an experiential opportunity that meets multiple learning objectives including systems thinking, collaboration and motivation for leading change in the food system.\nOriginality/value: This study highlights the opportunity of building student capacity to address sustainability challenges through an experiential learning model for reducing food waste in an institutional setting that other educators can adapt.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Explicating industrial brand equity: Integrating brand trust, brand performance and industrial brand image	[ "Brand image", "Commitment", "Brand loyalty", "Brand performance", "Brand equity", "Corporate brand" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Business-to-business markets are evolving and transforming worldwide due to global economic and market changes (e.g. Beverland et al., 2007; Hur et al., 2014). Competitive pressure has increased and firms face challenges from domestic and international firms alike (Cretu and Brodie, 2007; Melewar and Nguyen, 2015). Technological advancements, high-capacity information exchange and new supply chain management models all fuel the changing competitive landscape (e.g. Davis et al., 2008). In addition, the differentiation of business-to-business products is fading as firms return to compete merely on pricing (Hinterhuber, 2004) and personal relationships (Han and Sung, 2008), consequently, eroding profits (Keh and Xie, 2009). The various cost reduction measurements adopted by firms, such as low-cost production and technology, exacerbate the problem and create generic markets with little differentiation (e.g. Kotler and Pfoertsch, 2007).\n2. Industrial brand equity: what it is, its antecedents and outcomes: Although the awareness of the role of branding in marketing operations is increasing among industrial marketers, the question of how industrial brand equity is achieved still remains (Chi-Shiun et al., 2010). As this study explores the drivers and outcome of industrial brand equity, we first define what we mean by industrial brand equity.\n3. Research methodology: 3.1. The study's context and data collection\n4. Data analysis and hypothesis testing: The study utilized a two-step SEM approach (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988), using the latest version of AMOS 20, by the default method - Maximum Likelihood - to test the measurement model's validity and reliability (in step 1) and the nomological validity of the proposed theoretical model (step 2). The study also executed an item parceling procedure (Bandalos and Finney, 2001) on the brand performance construct. Following a partial aggregation procedure (Bagozzi and Heatherton, 1994), items were combined to create five indicators per factor. For example, the research combined 25 items measuring five dimensions of brand performance (represented as a latent construct), namely, product quality, service quality, price, competence and distribution), by averaging, to create five indicators of brand performance. By employing this procedure, the number of variables is reduced and hence the model's degree of freedom is kept reasonable. Hence, instead of having a full total disaggregation method where it is necessary to individually estimate all constructs of brand performance (product quality, service quality, price, competence and distribution), we run them as partial aggregation (the summation of each construct's items) and represent it in the second order manner as proposed by Bagozzi and Heatherton (1994). The technique is beneficial in a study of small sample size, provides a more stable parameter estimation and more importantly, it retains the idea of a single underlying factor such as the brand performance construct in the current study (Bagozzi and Heatherton, 1994). In addition to reducing random errors, the technique will also simplify a complex model and simultaneously maintain the concept of multiple indicator measurement (Garver and Mentzer, 1999). Prior to combining items, five items from the developed 25 in brand performance were deleted due to low or insignificant loadings that highly correlated with other items with high modification indexes (MI). West et al. (1995) caution researchers that before conducting the parceling procedure and items are combined, the validity and reliability must be dealt first, as \"it must be conducted within a set of one-dimensional items to avoid obscure rather than clarify the factor structure of the data.\" Once the measurement model is acceptable, the analysis then proceeds to \"the Step Two Approach\" known as the full structural model.\n5. Discussion: 5.1. Theoretical implications\n6. Conclusion and future research directions: The findings of this research provide insights to management personnel, system manufacturers and suppliers. Effective tactical approaches and brand strategies can be formulated via the information available from our research. Based on our framework, we report brand performance as the main generator of brand equity, while industrial brand image has little impact on brand equity. We also find brand trust is a strong mediator variable between both brand performance and industrial brand image, with brand loyalty and customer commitment. Although industrial brand image may not play a direct role as regards behavioral response, the construct is vital as, together with brand performance, it shapes brand trust.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore brand equity from multiple perspectives (tangible and intangible) and their joint consequences, namely, on industrial buyers' brand loyalty and their long-term commitment. The aim is to provide a more comprehensive framework of the buyer's behavioral response in the business-to-business context by integrating both trust elements and industrial brand attributes (brand performance and industrial brand image). In addition, the study explores the mediation effects of trust and brand attributes on industrial buyers' responses such as loyalty and long-term commitment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a survey approach, the study includes respondents working in the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) industry in Malaysia, and data are collected in the industrial air-conditioning segment. The research model was tested with SEM.\nFindings: Findings show that brand performance and industrial brand image directly affect brand trust but with different effects on buyers' commitment and loyalty. Interestingly, industrial brand image only mediates the responses via brand trust, while brand performance has a direct effect. Thus, both brand performance and industrial brand image build buyer trust. But in this context, it is brand performance rather than industrial brand image that influences long-term commitment and loyalty. The study concludes that in the HVAC industry, brand performance, industrial brand image, buyer trust, industrial loyalty and commitment build brand equity.\nOriginality/value: Significant research reveals that, in business-to-business contexts, brand equity depends on the supplier's brand trust and attributes of the brand such as brand image and brand performance. While useful in guiding a supplier's or industry's brand strategy, the study of both brand trust and brand attributes has led to only a partial explanation of the supplier's or industry's brand equity. The present research explores industrial brand equity, focussing on tangible assets (performance) and intangible assets (brand image), and their joint consequences.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Beyond reciprocal: the role of platforms in diffusing data value across multiple stakeholders	[ "Hospitality services", "Big data", "Multiple stakeholders", "Value diffusion" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: As consumers, more of our lives are spent in digital environments where our behaviors are recorded in big data sets (Hofacker et al., 2016). Credit cards or other payment systems capture every transaction. Websites capture every browsing behavior and mobile devices can track our movements. Indeed, nearly every behavior in a digital environment leaves behind a trace record of the action, time and often even the location of the behavior. When combined, these data traces create large databases chronicling customer behaviors.\n2. The process of data value co-creation: Figure 1 shows a process for how data create value for four types of stakeholders. Two of these stakeholders are always present: consumers and service providers. Consumers generate data and service providers collect and analyze it in proprietary, first-party databases. For example, in the case of a hotel chain, the service provider likely has a record of every time a customer stays at a hotel property, the check-in and check-out dates, the number of rooms purchased, the price paid, etc. It may also have a database of clicks on its website, recording which hotels a consumer has viewed, photo gallery views, offers purchased, etc.\n3. Moving from reciprocal value to nth value through super platforms: Historically, the concept of value enhancement and value sharing with multiple partners within trade networks was practiced in almost all parts of the world. Value enhancement through sharing with multiple partners is as old as trade itself. Networks of expertise allowed trade to expand by attracting and sharing value with skilled partners, which enhanced the expertise of the network, allowing it to flourish. For example, the wine growing regions in France became recognized for their unique skill in producing high quality wine. To serve this network, multiple skilled contributors were attracted to that region with the prospect of gaining partnership in the shared value from the wine growing region's network.\n4. Discussion: Building and managing an extensive portfolio of value-driven partner relationships comes with numerous challenges for all parties (Johnson and Selnes, 2004; Gummesson, 2002; Gronroos, 1997). Within the context of a platform, relationships co-exist in multiple directions and magnitudes; however in most cases, the business-to-business relationship exists to enhance value in only a bi-lateral nature. The business platform that comes into existence through partnerships draws in and exchanges value from each stakeholder in a complex web of interactions and relationships with a goal of creating new capabilities for the network (Gammoh and Voss, 2013; Lambe et al., 2002). This unique symbiotic network is nurtured through data that is created by end users (customers) who represent another set of partners that initiates the creation of data that is valuable for the network of partner within the platform. Thus, there is a wider context of interdependence between partners within the platform in the creation of value.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of platforms in diffusing data value across multiple stakeholders.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Seminal theoretical and managerial work has been critically examined in order to justify the need for improving/extending the contemporary understanding of the data value creation process.\nFindings: The results suggest that existing frameworks and conceptualizations of reciprocal data value provide incomplete understanding of the role of platforms in data value diffusion.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper provides service researchers with a better understanding of the role of platforms in data value diffusion. Future research can develop and validate new frameworks that reflect the proposed extended/improved view of data value creation.\nPractical implications: Service and hospitality managers will be able to more effectively manage the role of platforms in data value diffusion. Specifically, this paper proposes that, in order for data to become a source of competitive advantage, there must be a symbiotic relationship among all the stakeholders of the data ecosystem.\nOriginality/value: The authors discuss how data creates value for different stakeholders in the hospitality industry.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
From training program to workplace: How learning transfer can be influenced	[ "Training", "Organizational support", "Supervisor support", "Transfer intention" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The level of importance businesses ascribe to learning and development is evidenced in the huge amounts spent on employee training programs. Given the degree of this expenditure, it is obviously not unreasonable for organizations to expect a sizeable return on their investment.\nThe importance of transfer intention: Effective management of its human resources can increase the proficiency of any firm. Training is a vital aspect of the process as it offers a proven means of enhancing the knowledge, skills and capabilities of the workforce. However, the impact of this 'strategic tool' is often questionable given that training course outcomes are not guaranteed to transfer back into the workplace. Companies must therefore endeavor to identify individual characteristics and contextual factors most able to positively influence the transfer process.\nIndividual characteristics: As far as any individual is concerned, intent is only one element of the package though. The closely-related psychological state of motivation is equally critical. In this context, a lack of motivation to learn would seriously hinder the prospects of training and development goals being achieved. An obvious knock-on effect of this would be a much lower probability of intention and actual transfer of skills and knowledge between the respective learning and work environments. But a markedly contrasting outcome is feasible when motivation levels are high, not least because the employee would more fully connect with the training content.\nSupport can make a difference: When it comes to key facets of the environment, support from within the company is widely acknowledged as being hugely significant. Support can and does come in various forms. In this instance, research has identified what they term 'structural' and 'functional' support as especially useful.\nSome actions firms should take: Does supervisor support always directly affect transfer intention? This remains subject to debate as evidence thus far is inconclusive. The actual training context might well be a determining factor here. For example, what about applying learned knowledge and skills? If it is not possible to perform this task within a certain timeframe, then transfer intention might diminish. Firms must therefore:\nComment: The review is based on: \"Support, training readiness and learning motivation in determining intention to transfer\" by Eun-Jee Kim, Sunyoung Park and Hye-Seung (Theresa) Kang, published in European Journal of Training and Development. Knowledge acquired in a training environment can significantly enhance firm performance. Various individual and organizational factors are identified as having considerable scope to positively impact on employee intention to transfer such knowledge to the workplace and actual transfer behaviour.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: The performance of any organization benefits considerably when employees obtain and utilize new knowledge from within a training context. Intention of employees to transfer such knowledge and actual transfer behaviour can be significantly increased by the influence of various individual and contextual factors.\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" } ]
Role of informal mentoring in the career success of first-line bank managers: A Nigerian case study	[ "Mentoring", "Careers", "Banking", "Nigeria" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The choice of a career is the most vital occupational choice an individual makes in life because it is an influential determinant of career success (Melamed, 1996) and an opportunity of being engaged in a satisfying and productive activity (Breidenbach, 1988). Theories of careers (Schein, 1977; Holland, 1985; Feldman, 1988) suggest that when individuals decide to pursue a career, they anticipate inherently enjoyable activities at work and a successful career. A successful career implies the achievement of valued effects and specific results desired by an individual in his or her career. Many employees invest time, energy and huge resources in their careers but still end up with negative results (Moorhead and Griffin, 1989). The most obvious explanation of this problem in the banking sector is the fact that most bank employees change their employers and move frequently from one bank to another in search of desired results in their career. Unmet expectations can bring harrowing experiences for an individual as he or she suffers from \"career stress\" and shows high levels of job dissatisfaction, high job mobility and poor work performance (Ivancevich and Matteson, 1980). For this reason alone, a general empirical investigation of career success should be a source of concern to a close observer of careers in the banking sector.\nMethod: Setting\nResults: The first stage of the analysis examined relationships among variables used in the present study. The results in Table III indicate that informal mentoring was significantly and positively related to career success (r=0.65, p<0.01).These results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that informal mentoring significantly predicts career success among first-line bank managers in Nigeria. They also show that education and work experience were significantly related to career success (r=0.19, p<0.01 and r=0.18, p<0.05 respectively) while age was not (r=0.02, p>0.05). Further analysis to establish the unique contribution of informal mentoring to career success was carried out using the hierarchical multiple regression analysis. In this analysis, career success served as dependent variable while informal mentoring and control variables such as education, work experience and age were independent variables. The results of the analysis are presented in Table IV.The first hierarchical regression analysis examined the role of education, work experience and age in career success to control for their effects. Thus, education, work experience and age were entered in the first step. Results in Table IV showed that only education and work experience account for a significant proportion of the variance in career success (b=0.17, p<0.01 and (b=0.17, p<0.01 respectively). Age did not significantly contribute to career success (b=0.02, p>0.05). In the first step, control variables jointly account for significant variance in career success (R2=0.06, p<0.01). When informal mentoring was entered in the second step, R2 increased to 0.41 (p=< 0.01) to indicate a significant change in R2 (DR2=0.35, p<0.01). Thus, informal mentoring accounts for a significant proportion of variance (b=0.64, p<0.01) in the career success of first-line bank managers. The results showed that when informal mentoring was introduced in the second step, the significant relationship between education and career success, and that between work experience and career success in the first step became insignificant (b=0.04, p>0.05 and b=0.01, p>0.05 respectively) while age had no relationship at all with career success (b=0.00, p>0.05).\nDiscussion: The present study examined the role of informal mentoring in the career success of first-line bank managers in Nigeria and found a strong link between the variables. The finding that informal mentoring is significantly related to career success and accounted for a significant proportion of variance in career success (b=0.64, p<0.01), agrees with existing literature (Cox and Nkomo, 1991; Fagenson, 1989; Whitely et al., 1991; Turban and Dougherty, 1994). The significant positive impact of informal mentoring on career success implies that employees with high levels of informal mentoring are more successful in their career compared to those with low levels of informal mentoring. A plausible explanation for the finding can be found in the argument that since learning and development are tied together in mentoring (Kurlander, 1997), career success seems a sure outcome. A mentoring relationship is thus comparable to learning situations like operant conditioning and social learning conditions. Regarding operant conditioning, an employee is, perhaps, able to reproduce appropriate behavioural routines necessary for career success that he or she acquires from experienced and successful mentors. Similarly, social learning theories stress that relationships such as mentoring generate quality interactions among individuals and create opportunities for learning through direct experience and observing the other interacting members. All of these probably make proteges well cut out for success.The practical implication of the relationship between informal mentoring and career success is that the possibility of a successful career can be predicted. This has useful and far-reaching implications that stakeholders in the banking sector should address for career management practice. One of the questions that evolved from the finding is how mentoring could be tailored for all employees to avail themselves of its benefits. Obviously, an intervention is warranted to encourage informal mentoring and improve its quality. Organizations can foster informal mentoring by training senior members of staff to be good mentors and by providing opportunities for exchanges between senior and junior employees. They could also sponsor workshops, conferences and discussions relevant to mentoring and design work schedules such that free periods exist for senior executives to interact with junior employees. It would benefit organizations immensely if the knowledge and skills passed on to junior employees by senior executives are evaluated. This will make it more likely that mentoring thrives, enhance its quality and entrench effective mentoring into the system of reward and promotion in an organization.Stakeholders would also need to pay some attention to the finding that educational qualification and work experience play significant roles in career success when informal mentoring is absent. The link between educational qualification, work experience and career success confirms previous results (Dreher and Bretz, 1991; McClelland and Franz, 1992; Parasuraman and Greenhaus, 1993; Powell and Butterfield, 1994). Work experience and personal investments in education probably provide reasonable proficiency skills to deal with particular situations in one's career. Organizations would therefore need to encourage qualification-bearing courses and training to update knowledge and experience. Although this could enhance career success, it should not be a replacement for specific programmes aimed at fostering informal mentoring. This is because findings of the present study show that informal mentoring made the biggest contribution to career success. The benefits of educational qualifications and work experience became insignificant when informal mentoring was introduced.A serious concern of banks in Nigeria nowadays is to ensure that they retain their highly qualified workforce. However, if employees do not obtain favourable outcomes in the careers they pursue, they may not perform well and may even choose to leave. Organisations are therefore interested in making sure that employees have successful careers. The findings of this study will go a long way to facilitate the attainment of this objective. Luckily, mentoring is a variable which organizations in the banking sector could exert some degree of influence on through intervention. It is recommended that organizations in the banking sector seek the assistance of industrial/organizational psychologists in the design of appropriate intervention for their employees. This will ensure that they use appropriate strategies that would be most effective in the attainment of career success. One contribution of an organisational-based behaviour study such as this is improved productivity. This is even more important when the desired career outcomes have been linked to effort, and effort to performance in the prescribed roles. It is expected that the findings of this study will help to achieve the objectives of certain national programs, campaigns on training, development and productivity in the Nigerian work environment. It will also improve career management decisions of organisations and make Nigerian employees more productive. This will justify the large sums of money organisations spend in managing employees' careers.Though, this study extends our knowledge concerning the role of informal mentoring in career success of first-line managers in Nigeria, it is not without limitations. First, the present study utilized self-report measures of the predictor (informal mentoring) and outcome (career success) variables. It is possible therefore that response of participants might not accurately reflect these variables, thus creating avenue for alternative explanation of results of the study. Second, it is exploratory; further research is needed to confirm its finding in the Nigerian work environment. Third, all the variables examined in the study accounted for 41 per cent of the variance in career success, indicating that 59 per cent is yet to be ascertained. It is recommended that future studies incorporate equally relevant variables that might account for the unexplained variance in career success. Lastly, virtually any research conducted in a specific setting, such as is obtained in this study, has the problem of generalization. It may be argued that the findings of this study are subject to organization-specific factors and thus are not likely to be generalized. It can be contended, however, that this does not undermine the theoretical contribution and practical implications and relevance of the findings of this study, which have obvious implications for organizations in Nigeria and the world at large. A more extensive study with a larger geographical spread is however useful and recommended to find out if the current findings can be supported with objective measures from a wider domain.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This study seeks to examine the role of informal mentoring in career success in an African work environment.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Data were collected from 510 first-line bank managers through a survey of ten banks in four central business districts of Lagos State, Nigeria.\nFindings: - Results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that informal mentoring accounts for a significant proportion of the variance (b=0.64, p<0.01) in career success. Informal mentoring increased R2 from 0.06 to 0.41 (p<0.01), indicating a significant change in R2 (DR2=0.35, p<0.01).\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings are based on self-report measures from respondents in the banking sector. This underscores the need for further research with objective measures from a wider domain.\nPractical implications: - An intervention is needed to make informal mentoring thrive, enhance its quality and ensure career success.\nOriginality/value: - There is a paucity of literature relating mentoring to career success in the Nigerian and, indeed, the African work environment. This study addresses this gap in literature and corrects the inappropriateness of generalising from foreign cultures to the Nigerian society.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge sharing through inter-organizational knowledge networks: Challenges and opportunities in the United Arab Emirates	[ "Middle East", "Knowledge sharing", "Innovation", "Knowledge management", "United Arab Emirates" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The fast growth of new companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) region and the increasing diversification of operations by many large local corporations have created a situation where businesses are not effectively sharing internal learning and experience. Effective knowledge management (KM) that includes a range of practices to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge within a company, could provide a vital resource for organizations as they move forward.Many firms in emerging markets are increasingly aware of the advantages of sustaining the process and sources of generating new knowledge (Pisano et al., 2007); and that the collective value of knowledge assets increases with sharing (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Prior research has shown that external opportunities such as consortiums and industry clusters (Porter, 1998; Todt et al., 2007; Muller, 2002; Brette and Chappoz, 2007) do have a significant impact in helping various companies seek new innovative ways to enhance their knowledge and in return improve their organizational performance. As firms recognize the limitations of what can be done in isolation, many have already formed collaborative initiatives like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Senge et al., 2007). Moreover, the need to innovate has led companies to tap various external sources, such as industry clusters, networks, consortiums, technological, and science parks. On the cost side, such open business models (Chesbrough, 2007) leverage external knowledge resources to save time and money in the innovation process. Meanwhile, on the revenue side firms could generate different streams of income by participating in other market segments through licensing fees, joint ventures, and even spin-offs.Recent years have seen the UAE region experience significant local and foreign investment in infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology (IT), tourism, and hospitality-related industries. However, local businesses have been very traditional and conservative in terms of integrating KM approaches into their business processes (Al-Shammari, 2008; Bontis, 2002; Daghfous and Barkhi, 2009; Hutchings and Weir, 2006). This could be due to the fact that local businesses usually have difficulties in locating the knowledge that resides within the organization because of increasing scale of operations. Therefore, there is an inability in local businesses to locate, transfer, and share knowledge that could help in innovation.The purpose of this study is to examine companies in the UAE with years of practice and considerable understanding of running a business in the region in order to find out the degree at which companies recognize KM as a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and how they apply it, what techniques or tools used to practice this concept and what the role of knowledge networks is in this region if they do exist. In addition, the study shows how decisions, behaviors, and practices are made in 13 different companies (local and multinational) regarding sources of knowledge, innovation, and external learning opportunities. These companies will be analyzed based on their level of involvement in knowledge-sharing activities with external sources, internal organizational innovations, and the barriers and benefits of joining knowledge network. Finally, our findings and conclusions will be used as a basis for proposing several recommendations for the industry that illustrates the KM process within the UAE.\nLiterature review: There exist many different perspectives on knowledge in the literature. Some researchers view knowledge as an object (Carlsson et al., 1996; McQueen, 1998; Zack, 1998) whereas others look at knowledge as a process (Schubert et al., 1998). In the IT literature, knowledge is often defined as authenticated information (Dretske, 1981; Machlup, 1980; Vance, 1997; Fahey and Prusak, 1998; Stewart, 1998). In general, knowledge can be described as a state of knowing that constitutes facts, concepts, principles, laws, casual relationships, insights, judgments, intuition, and feelings (Carlsson et al., 1996; Schubert et al., 1998; McQueen, 1998; Zack, 1998; Koenig and Srikantaiah, 2004).In order to remain on top and maintain a competitive edge, companies must have a good strategy to retain, develop, organize, transfer, and utilize their resources. This requires systematic KM, which has a significant influence on a firm's strategy formulation and implementation (Grant, 1996; Conner and Prahalad, 1996; Zander and Kogut, 1995). KM is normally perceived as management intention to create, transfer, and interpret new knowledge within the existing knowledge to improve decision making and increase innovation of the organization (Brown and Duguid, 2000; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). New knowledge is often created, shared and justified through interaction with the environment, as well as through social and collaborative processes (Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Bhatt, 2001). It involves generating new process or replacing existing process within the organization's tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka, 1994). It is therefore important for organization to consider the conditions and environments that facilitate new knowledge creation.If an organization wants to increase performance of knowledge creation and also leverage knowledge, then knowledge transfer is necessary (Vance and Eynon, 1998; Hansen et al., 2005). Knowledge transfer is the process in which a unit of an organization is impacted by the experience or the know-how of another unit. It is described as the activities that are concerned with the generation, use, application and exploitation of knowledge, and other capabilities outside the organization environments (Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Knowledge transfer can be practiced in two areas: externally or internally. Companies usually engage themselves in external knowledge-transfer activities such as training sessions, workshops, seminars, consulting, research and development (R&D) activities, university courses, conferences, trade shows, government extension programs, and consortiums. On the other hand, companies also engage themselves in internal activities of knowledge transfer such as in house training sessions, mentoring and departmental reporting. Such activities contribute to knowledge transfer since they add value of the organization (Hansen et al., 2005).There are several enhancers that would lead to accuracy, efficiency and speed of knowledge transfer. An example would be a liaison where a person is located in a certain business division and rotates amongst other divisions to asses business practices, look at other ways of performing business processes, represents to them his/her own experience and business solutions, and transfers this knowledge back to his/her own original division to generate new knowledge and come up with new ideas to suite his/her division's needs and overall business requirements (Schwartz, 2007). Another example of knowledge transfer, sharing, and generation enhancers are assignees, seminars, workshops, training, and technical support since they involve sharing of expertise, experience, and skills of others (Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Schwartz, 2007).Earlier studies have shown that many organizations already achieve significant benefits through knowledge-sharing activities, for example, Toyota (Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000), Texas Instruments, Dow Chemical (O'Dell et al., 1999; Shin, 2004), Ford (McDermott and O'Dell, 2001), IKEA (Jonsson and Elg, 2006), and Zara (Hines, 2004; Mazaira et al., 2003). These authors also discussed some key enhancers for sharing knowledge, namely competitiveness, visibility, and flexibility. In addition, some literatures give good overview of the barriers and enhancers for knowledge sharing (Hansen et al., 1999; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Szulanski, 2003; Brown and Duguid, 2000, 2001; Davenport et al., 1998; Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Hansen, 1999; Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000; O'Dell and Grayson, 1998).It has become common for most knowledge-intensive organizations to participate in collaborative innovation network (Chesbrough, 2003). Innovations (product, process, organizational, or strategic) are increasingly involving a multitude of networks of knowledge-driven organizations. The extensive literature on industrial clusters, science and technology parks, knowledge marketplaces, communities of practice, and R&D consortia has provided significant evidence of the benefits of such knowledge networks (Al-Shammari, 2008; Brette and Chappoz, 2007; Bush and Tiwana, 2005; Chen and Choi, 2004; Chesbrough, 2003; Daghfous, 2004; Daghfous and Barkhi, 2009; Desouza et al., 2003; Geragthy and Desouza, 2005; Hospers, 2003; Hutchings and Weir, 2006; Kafentzis et al., 2005; Lave and Wenger, 1998; Muller et al., 2002; Pisano et al., 2007; Scheel, 2002; Warkentin et al., 2001).There are very few industry clusters, knowledge networks, and consortiums in the UAE region. One network that has been quite active and growing in Dubai, UAE is the Supply Chain and Logistics Group (SCLG). The objective of the SCLG is to provide education and seminars to the participating individuals on an international scope through partnerships and alliances. An example of a consortium that exists here in Dubai, UAE is the Dubai Health Care City (DHCC). DHCC is a center of excellence for medical services specialists, medical education, and life science research and technology implementation in health care services in the Middle East. Currently, Dubai is implementing \"Mohammed Bin Rashid Technology Park\", reinforcing Dubai's role as the primary regional technological and scientific hub. Its main objective is to support local, regional and international technological and business advancements. As for industry consulting, there are two prominent groups in the area. The first example is the Gulf Organization of Industrial Consulting (GOIC). GOIC is based in Doha where it provides client-focused research, information, and consulting services for industrial companies such as in chemicals, metals, petrochemicals, engineering, and food sectors. The second example is the Institute of International Research (IIR) Middle East which is based in Dubai. The IIR organizes industry-focused conferences, seminars, specialized training programs, and industry exhibitions.\nMethodology: The case study approach is used because the concepts under study are abstract and the boundaries of this phenomenon are still unclear. This approach is sometimes described as interpretative research (Klein and Myers, 1999). According to Benbasat et al. (1987), this approach involves only a contemporary set of events with no experimental control or manipulation. One of the main benefits of this method is that researchers can move far beyond traditional type of questions such as \"what\", \"how often\" or \"how many\" to probing questions on what was done and how (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Gummerson, 2008).Research sample and data collection\nResults and analysis: within and cross-case analysis: From the interviews, we try to explain whether companies in the UAE implement the concept of KM and analyze their recognition of its importance when it is embedded in their departments and processes. In addition, the study focuses on how these companies generate, codify and transfer their work-related knowledge and find out whether these companies participate in any of the well-known consortiums such as customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), KM or total quality management (TQM) consortiums.We first look at knowledge-sharing activities that includes both external sources of knowledge and internal organizational innovations within the healthcare, insurance, hotel, IT, and family business industry. We then, compare these activities among the industries to explore and identify potential differences. In addition, we compare the result of our exploratory investigation of the perception of the local versus multinational companies with respect to the expected benefits and concerns about participating in an SCM, CRM or similar knowledge networks.Knowledge sharing in healthcare industry\nDiscussion and implications: The concept of KM is still not well received in the companies that we interviewed. It is viewed as a capital-intensive investment that requires more than just the availability of human capital and the requisite infrastructure. All of the local companies interviewed seem to be aware of the importance of various best practices, but they still consider KM as a secondary approach to organizational success. They seem satisfied with the available knowledge. They do not show significant interest and focus on implementing new techniques or methods to create and generate new knowledge. In addition, most of the companies interviewed are also concerned about confidentiality of their knowledge, on how much of it requires disclosure of classified information and how much of that is open and reveal. In general, they do not trust the network.Implications for research\nLimitations and future research: Our study provides a foundation for further research on inter-organizational knowledge sharing in the UAE. However, this study has certain limitations such that its results may not be applicable to other industrial sectors not covered in this study. The study only covers five local companies and eight multinational companies in the health, hotel, IT, and insurance industries. Moreover, we relied solely on the perception of a few interviewees (key players in the companies) rather than getting a bigger number of representatives from the companies. In addition, we could also apply the use of quantitative data such as the usage of the company resources for KM-related activities.This research may be expanded in a number of different directions. First, this research may be expanded by using additional data by including more companies covering a wider range of industries. Another direction is to add quantitative method to enrich the approach taken here. Alternatively, future research could develop conceptual models based on the qualitative evidence presented in this paper. More case studies of exemplars and best practices would also be helpful in building normative implications with respect to knowledge networks implementation in this region and the underlying structure of government-industry-university collaboration in the Middle East. However, these cases should be complemented with quantitative empirical research that seeks to operationalize key variables and test the proposed conceptual models.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the business sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) based on their level of involvement in knowledge-sharing activities with external sources, internal organizational innovations, and the barriers and benefits of joining knowledge networks. Subsequently, the findings are used as a basis for proposing several recommendations on managing knowledge in the UAE businesses that could result in higher levels of motivation and productivity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An exploratory investigation is done by in-depth interviews with the employees of five local and eight multinational companies in the UAE.\nFindings: - The paper finds that the concept of knowledge management (KM) is still not well received in this region. Most of the companies interviewed are concerned about confidentiality of their knowledge, and the presence of competent and trustworthy partners in such KM structures.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings provide a foundation for further research on inter-organizational knowledge sharing in the UAE. However, this study has certain limitations such that its results may not be applicable to other industrial sectors not covered in this paper, or to other regions.\nOriginality/value: - By using the case study approach with in-depth interviews, this paper provides more reliable understanding of inter-organizational KM in the UAE. It fills the gap of previous research on the subject.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Document-based approach to improve the accuracy of pairwise comparison in evaluating information retrieval systems	[ "Information retrieval", "Document-based evaluation", "Information retrieval evaluation", "Pairwise comparison", "Significance test" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: To date, an overwhelming large number of evaluation approaches appraise the accuracy and effectiveness of an information retrieval (IR) system by using Cranfield paradigm, which is a system-based evaluation method. An overview of a system-based experiment using a test collection is depicted in Figure 1. It is worth noting that in large-scale IR evaluation experimentation, the researchers use system-based evaluation approaches instead of user-based evaluation method due to the high number of human participants and retrieval systems required. Such requirements make the user-based evaluation method time consuming and costly (Moghadasi et al., 2013). Besides, it would require a controlled environment in running the experiments and a very carefully designed experiment (Voorhees, 2002). The system-based evaluation method deploys a test collection which includes a document corpus, a batch of predefined users' information requests, known as queries, and the relevancy judgments pointing out which document is related to what topic (Carterette et al., 2006; Moghadasi et al., 2013). The Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) prepares the essential infrastructure for voluminous evaluation of text retrieval systems; namely, reusable test collections in couple with the large sets of relevance judgments. According to the time consuming and costly part of preparing relevance judgments that should be carried out by human assessors, judging the whole document corpus is hardly possible. Hence, pooling method is used through which each query is submitted to the participant IR systems, also known as runs, and a set of top k retrieved documents by each run is chosen for further assessments. After all, the IR systems effectiveness is defined as the ability of retrieving most relevant documents to a user's query (Carterette and Voorhees, 2011) which is evaluated over a set of topics via expedient evaluation measures. However, the existence of intrinsic noise such as different levels of difficulty for the chosen topics and documents corpus as well as human errors as part of the assessors' judgments in the evaluation is not ignorable. Hence, using statistical significance tests plays a main role in detecting IR algorithms or systems which truly have better performance rather than by chance. Significant improvements can be observed via a powerful and accurate statistical test, even if that improvement is small (Smucker et al., 2007).\n2. Methods used for evaluating IR systems: In the last 20 years, IR analysis procedure has been experiencing a noticeable development. Re-usable, high quality test collections mainly created by TREC, in couple with correlation coefficient of system rankings as well as utilizing significance tests to distinguish the real improvements of IR algorithms from those acquired by chance, are three main underlying reasons for these developments (Carterette et al., 2006; Cormack and Lynam, 2007; Sakai, 2006; Sanderson and Zobel, 2005; Smucker et al., 2007, 2009). Accordingly, this section is mainly focussed on these three categories as discussed in the following.\n3. Pairwise comparisons experimentation: Pairwise systems comparisons\n4. Experimental design and results: The proposed method is experimentally evaluated on TREC 9 Web track collection, where 50 topics 451-500 are used and the overall number of documents is 70,070. This TREC data sets statistics is listed in Table II. There are 105 systems that participated in this TREC, but, after the initial phase of the experiment, data cleaning, just 103 systems are considered for the rest of the analysis. This selection is taken part due to data inconsistency in the discarded runs. For instance, the number of retrieved documents for all topics was beneath our experiment expectations. Hence, the total number of paired wise comparisons of the 103 systems will be 103x102/2=5,253. Three varying depths for retrieved documents were considered in this experiment with depth, k=100, 500 and 1,000. Each depth implies the number of documents to be selected for the experiments. For instance depth, k=100 indicates that the top 100 retrieved documents will be selected.\n5. Conclusion: IR systems evaluation has been in the centre of attention due to its viable role in finding the best retrieval algorithms or systems in IR research field. Refinement of the ranking systems and enhancing the results quality is achievable through a systematic evaluation mechanism. Even after a proper system evaluation, there is a need to be assured of the obtained results. Utilizing statistical tests is widely used in this stage. However, the current significance tests are based on averaging the systems scores that leads to incur data loss. In this paper, a new approach that considers the systems retrieved documents instead of average systems scores as a measurement unit is proposed. The experimental results obtained from two applied tests, namely t-test and Mann-Whitney, indicate an improvement in detecting how likely the difference between systems is significant. Moreover, increase in the experiment sample (documents) size leads to a boost in the power of the tests. There are still a lot of works remaining for future studies to validate this novel approach by performing more experiments on different document depths and more various TREC data collections.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to have more accurate results in comparing performance of the paired information retrieval (IR) systems with reference to the current method, which is based on the mean effectiveness scores of the systems across a set of identified topics/queries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the proposed approach, instead of the classic method of using a set of topic scores, the documents level scores are considered as the evaluation unit. These document scores are the defined document's weight, which play the role of the mean average precision (MAP) score of the systems as a significance test's statics. The experiments were conducted using the TREC 9 Web track collection.\nFindings: The p-values generated through the two types of significance tests, namely the Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney show that by using the document level scores as an evaluation unit, the difference between IR systems is more significant compared with utilizing topic scores.\nOriginality/value: Utilizing a suitable test collection is a primary prerequisite for IR systems comparative evaluation. However, in addition to reusable test collections, having an accurate statistical testing is a necessity for these evaluations. The findings of this study will assist IR researchers to evaluate their retrieval systems and algorithms more accurately.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
How to enhance supplier performance in China: interplay of contracts, relational governance and legal development	[ "Supply chain management", "Contractual definability", "Contractual enforceability", "Relational governance", "Legal development", "China" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Whereas the Chinese emerging market is a key supply base of components for manufacturers, its underdeveloped legal institutions lead to significant challenges for effective supply chain management (Wang et al., 2016a; Wu and Jia, 2018). For example, the intervention of local or regional government officials often blurs the legal recourse for disputes between supply chain partners; and the frequent changes in rules and laws complicate the management of supply chain activities (Shou et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2020). Facing such challenges, how could manufacturers utilize proper governance mechanisms, such as contracts and relational governance, to manage supply chain relationships and foster performance?A review of extant literature reveals two significant research gaps. First, while contracts and relational governance are widely used mechanisms, debate exists on whether they complement or substitute each other in fostering performance (see Cao and Lumineau, 2015 for a review). The substitution camp highlights the contradictory nature of contracts and relational governance (Ghoshal and Moran, 1996; Huber et al., 2013), whereas the complementarity camp underscores the limits of each mechanism, such that their collective use can generate additional benefits (Li et al., 2010; Poppo and Zenger, 2002; Wang et al., 2011). To resolve the complements-substitutes debate, prior efforts look at the structure of contractual and relational governance, predicting that different aspects of contracts may complement or substitute for different types of trust (Liu et al., 2009; Ryall and Sampson, 2009). Lumineau and Henderson (2012) propose that contracts are not simply tools for transaction enforcement but are also the framework that guides exchanges. Accordingly, it is critical to examine the multidimensional nature of contracts when addressing the complements-substitutes debate.Second, although prior literature well recognizes the critical role of institutional forces in supply chain management, limited research has explicitly examined their influences (Cao and Lumineau, 2015), leading to the call for more research to understand how institutional forces affect the efficacy of supply chain management mechanisms (Kauppi, 2013; Ketchen and Hult, 2007). Echoing this call, Zhou and Poppo (2010) posit that legal enforceability weakens the effect of contracts on relational reliability; Shou et al. (2016) find that firms deploy contracts only if the legal system is complete; Bai et al. (2016) show that legal enforceability supports the use of different types of contracts. However, underexamined is how legal institutions alter the joint impacts of contractual and relational governance on performance (Cao and Lumineau, 2015; Handley and Angst, 2015).To address these research gaps, we distinguish between two facets of contracts, contractual definability and contractual enforceability, examine how they interact with relational governance differently, and then assess how the development of legal institutions (i.e. legal development) moderates the joint effects of contractual and relational governance on supplier performance. We argue that contractual definability complements yet contractual enforceability substitutes relational governance in affecting supplier performance. Moreover, legal development weakens the complementary effect but strengthens the substitutive effect (see Figure 1). These propositions receive strong support from a combined dataset of secondary data and a survey of 224 paired buyer-supplier relationships in China.\n2. Theory and hypotheses: 2.1 Governance mechanisms in supply chain management\n3. Method: 3.1 Sampling and data collection\n4. Analyses and results: 4.1 Hypotheses testing\n5. Discussion: 5.1 Research implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Given the pivotal influence of institutional forces, an important yet underexplored question in supply chain management literature is how contractual and relational governance jointly affect supplier performance under weak legislative environments. This study tends to solve the debate by distinguishing contractual definability from contractual enforceability and by considering the contingent role of legal development in China.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a combined dataset of secondary data and a survey of 224 buyer-supplier dyads in China, this study examines how contractual definability and contractual enforceability interact with relational governance differently in driving supplier performance, and assesses the contingent role of legal development.\nFindings: This study finds that contractual definability complements yet contractual enforceability substitutes relational governance in affecting supplier performance. Moreover, legal development weakens the complementary effect but strengthens the substitutive effect.\nOriginality/value: The study firstly enriches supply chain management literature by classifying the roles of contracts into contractual definability and contractual enforceability and showing their differential interplay with relational governance. Second, the study contributes to the complements-substitutes debate by revealing the shifting role of legal development. Third, the research enriches the understanding of supply chain management in the Chinese market.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Factors affecting memorability of service failures: a longitudinal analysis	[ "Restaurants", "Service recovery", "Service failures" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Service failures commonly occur in the restaurant industry because of the inconsistent nature of the services and the inevitability of human error. Service failures, which cause negative emotions, may result in memorable negative experiences for the customers (Weun et al., 2004). Researchers in the field of memory have noted that individuals are likely to vividly remember emotional information (Dewhurst and Parry, 2000; Kensinger and Corkin, 2003). For example, previous studies have found that emotional events (both positive and negative) are most often associated with field memories in which an individual \"sees\" the event from his or her point of view. Specifically, Levine and Bluck (2004) and Kensinger and Schacter (2006) noted that a negative valence led to a stronger memory than did a positive valence. Individuals who had a negative experience of an event remembered it with more detail and accuracy than did those who had a positive experience. Similarly, Christianson (1992) found that negative emotional events are retained more vividly than ordinary events that occurred at the same time in the past. Flashbulb memories, where individuals believe that they have maintained an almost photographic memory of an event, provide an extreme example of these findings (Brown and Kulik, 1977).\n2. Literature review and hypotheses development: 2.1 Type of service failure\n3. Study 1: method: 3.1 Design and materials\n4. Study 1: results: 4.1 Sample characteristics\n5. Discussion: Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that the type of service failure and service recovery exhibited significant main effects on the memory of negative service experiences. First, individuals showed a higher likelihood of vividly recalling a core service failure than an interactional one. This result provides support for previous research findings that individuals are less likely to forgive core failure (Mattila, 1999). Second, in support of memory researchers who contend that high levels of arousal facilitate memory formation and retention (Kensinger and Corkin, 2003), the results showed that subjects who received service recovery mitigated their negative arousal levels and were less likely to remember the negative experiences than those who did not receive any recovery. Third, the results also provided full or partial support for the significant influence of the better-remembered service failures on behavioral intentions. Individuals who experienced core service failures and no remedies displayed a higher intention of engaging in negative future behaviors, such as switching and spreading negative WOM, than their counterparts (Table III). In the memory literature, researchers also identified the significant influence of (un)familiarity on memory. Therefore, we next examined the influence of (un)familiarity in Study 2 by controlling the aforementioned influences by focusing on two service failures in the same category (i.e. procedural service failure) that resulted in equal arousal levels.\n6. Study 2: method: To identify the effect of frequency of occurring, as well as recovery effects, a scenario-based experiment was conducted. A 2 x 2 between-subjects design manipulating frequency of occurring (high vs low) and recovery (provided vs un-provided) was used. To determine frequently and infrequently occurring service failures in a restaurant setting, we reviewed previous studies that reported the frequency of occurrence of different service failures. Previous studies conducted in different countries used samples of various national groups; to avoid possible cultural influences, we focused specifically on studies that used populations identical to that of this study (Liu et al., 2001; Tsai and Su, 2009; Warden et al., 2007). Additionally, to avoid the effect of magnitude of service failure, we took great care to select service failures that had the same degree of severity. Slow service and the disorderly delivery of food were, therefore, selected as the study stimuli. These two service failures differed only in frequency of occurrence. For example, in a study evaluating the seriousness of different service failures using a seven-point Likert scale, Warden et al. (2007) reported that individuals rated the severity of both slow service (5.6) and disorderly service (5.66) as more or less equal. Moreover, the frequency of occurrence differed significantly. In one study conducted in a franchise restaurant setting, slow service accounted for 13 per cent of failures, whereas disorderly delivery of food accounted for 0.9 per cent (Tsai and Su, 2009). Liu et al. (2001) also reported that slow service occurs significantly more often than disorderly delivery (19.3 vs 2.34 per cent).\n7. Study 2: result: 7.1 Sample characteristics\n8. Discussion: Contrary to our predictions, the results show that frequency of occurring has no influence on an individual's memory of that failure. Rather, individuals remembered frequently occurring service failures better, especially in the first follow-up stage. Furthermore, this result is consistent in terms of the examination of behavioral intentions. Although the group differences were not statistically significant in most cases (except for switching behavior in the first follow-up), participants experiencing slow service showed a higher rate of negative behavioral intentions. In support of the findings in Study 1, service recovery significantly influenced switching and negative WOM behavioral intentions.\n9. General discussion: The aim of the current study was to investigate the service failures that are likely to be better remembered in a casual dining setting. Previous researchers have not examined the influences that lead to better memorability of a service failure. The current study focused on the effects of different service failures, recovery condition and frequency of occurring. Study results are summarized in Table VI. The following sections discuss both theoretical and practical implications drawn from the study results.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This study aims to identify the influences that lead to better memorability of a service by focusing on type of service failure, recovery condition and frequency of occurring.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study used a quasi-experimental design in which customers answered questions about a restaurant they had recently patronized and then evaluated experimentally generated failure and recovery scenarios. Two follow-up contacts were made (by phone and e-mail) to assess their memory of the imagined service failures stimulated by the scenarios. Participants were asked how clearly and vividly they could recollect the service failure and to indicate their behavioral intentions at the time of recall.\nFindings: The type of service failure and the subsequent recovery efforts significantly affect whether negative service experiences are memorable. Specifically, individuals showed a higher likelihood of vividly recalling a core service failure than an interactional one. Moreover, service recoveries were found to be helpful in decreasing the memorability of service failures, and that they were effective in decreasing the resulting negative customer behavioral intentions (i.e. switching behaviors and negative word-of-mouth). However, frequently occurred service failures did not significantly influence the memorability of the failures.\nPractical implications: The current study suggested what characteristics of service failures and situations lead to strong memorability and significantly affect future behavior. Thus, the findings provide important implications for avoiding and handling the failures that trigger strong memorability.\nOriginality/value: Previous researchers have emphasized on the importance and urgency of preventing critical service failures. However, it is still unclear what type of service failures and/or factors are critical ones. The current study expands the knowledge by incorporating service failures with memory and investigates the characteristics of memorable service failures, which are likely to be remembered more vividly.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
UK REITs don't like Mondays	[ "Calendar", "REITs", "UK", "Anomaly", "Returns", "Monday" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Market commentators note that certain days-of-the-week perform better than others (see inter alia, Wang, 2010; Cannold, 2013a, b). Such assertions are also confirmed in a number of academic studies (see inter alia, Fama, 1965b; Godfrey et al., 1964; Cross, 1973; French, 1980). What it suggests is that some predictability exists depending on time periods that occur at different moments throughout the year (Cho et al., 2007). These somewhat irregular patterns of abnormal stock returns are known as \"Calendar anomalies\" (French, 1980; Gibbons and Hess, 1981; Ziemba, 2012; Nawaz and Mirza, 2012; Zhang and Jacobsen, 2013).\nPrevious studies: Equities markets\nData: Although REIT structures vary across the world, they generally allow for the company to avoid paying income tax in exchange for distributing most, if not all, of its income to shareholders through dividend payments and have restrictions on their trading and development activities. In contrast, REOCs, like any other company, are subject to income tax but are unrestricted in their ability to trade and develop assets (Graff, 2001; Benz, 2012; Brounen and de Koning, 2012).\nMethodology: To study the potential calendar effects on daily returns, this research project considers the full sample and also pre- and post-2007 periods. This particular separation allows testing index performance pre and post UK REITs regime (Baum and Devaney, 2008).\nResults: Table III reports the mean returns, standard deviations and KW estimates for each sample period. The overall KW values do not reject the hypothesis. As tempting as it could look from the Returns (per cent) column in Table II, as well as Figure 4, there is just not enough evidence to confirm the claim that certain days of the week generate greater/poorer returns. The visual analysis does indicate that returns on Tuesday and Wednesday for all three indices are greater than returns during the rest of the week-days with Monday being the least profitable. However, the KW test estimates disprove existence of the day-of-the-week in UK REITs.\nImpact of outliers on results: Calendar anomalies attract the attention of practitioners and academics because they open up the possibility of predicting, at least in part, the dynamics of security prices and so allow investors to potentially develop trading strategies that achieve abnormal returns. But if it can be shown that any significant calendar anomaly results are driven by only a few outliers this would imply that any trading strategy would not be economically viable. For instance, Maberly and Pierce (2004) show that if only two outliers (October 1987 and August 1998) were accounted for the so-called Halloween effect identified by Bouman and Jacobsen (2002) proved to be insignificant. Significance of outliers in the data also connotes with Taleb's (2008) \"Black Swan\" theory. According to Taleb, financial markets are prone to an impact of the highly improbable events. His estimates suggested that by removing the ten biggest one-day corrections from the S&P 500 index values over the 50-year period, the returns doubled compared to an original series. This therefore suggests that it is important to test the day of the week effect identified for UK REITs after removing the effect of outliers.\nConclusion: The presence of calendar anomalies has been documented in financial markets. The acknowledgement that return anomalies exist in the trading of various assets contradicts the EMH. As such, these variations in the performance of various assets have become a subject of extensive research programme internationally. However, there were few studies examining calendar effects for REITs with the majority of them investigating the US market. This research study was therefore set to tests variations in the performance of UK REITs series.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) returns on the different days of the week differ from each other.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It uses European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA)/National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) UK index daily closing values (GBP) and its two sub-indices FTSE EPRA/NAREIT UK REITs and non-REITs as dependent variables. It employs Kruskal-Wallis tests and dummy-variable regression to test the hypothesis.\nFindings: The overall findings provide evidence that return anomalies exist in the UK REITs.\nPractical implications: Thought significant, the absolute returns differences are modest for investors to gain superior returns in UK REITs. However, by recognising the day-of-the-week effect, investors can buy/sell UK REITs more effectively.\nOriginality/value: This research brings updated evidence of the contested calendar anomalies issues in REITs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Manufacturing systems engineers' judgment call: Insights from the University of Cambridge's learning laboratory	[ "Manufacturing systems", "Education", "Action learning", "Learning" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: What separates the successful manufacturing systems engineer from the merely learned one? According to analysis from the University of Cambridge's engineering learning laboratory, the answer would have to be \"judgment.\"\nThe attributes manufacturing systems engineers need: In setting up the learning laboratory processes to develop the next wave of engineers, Cambridge has focused on knowledge, skills, learning, and that missing ingredient - judgment:* Knowledge is needed in two main areas - technical knowledge and managerial knowledge. However, while most universities focus on the \"mode 1\" academic, discipline-based knowledge, Cambridge also pays due attention to \"mode 2\", the practical, trans-disciplinary, difficult to assess variety.* Skills are required for the learner to progress up the hierarchy of competence: novice to advanced beginner, then competent, proficient and expert. Yet being an expert is not enough. Skills of synthesis are needed when, for example, managing stakeholders from corporate employees, to customers, shareholders and the local community. Providing a few bolted on lectures on management themes just doesn't cut it.* Learning is a progressive process, much of which can't be taught in traditional ways. The process of \"action learning, developed and championed by Reg Revans (himself a Cambridge man), and used to startling effect in the past by GE at its Crotonville leadership development centre, provides first principles on how learners can take responsibility and \"learn by doing.\"* Judgment is an absolute requirement when designing systems. Just having knowledge alone is not enough. Judgment can't be taught in lectures. It can only be acquired by practice.Inside Cambridge's learning laboratory for manufacturing system designCambridge's learning laboratory provides an industrial environment for students to both put learning into action, and learn from taking action. To be eligible they will have completed a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng) degree and be completing the Master's program. The aim is to help them gain the mode 2 knowledge, skills and judgment they need to design and build manufacturing systems.A task is set, students elect their own managers, technical \"experts\" are on hand in an advisory capacity only, and student teams must design and build a finished system to a planned deadline. A required element is that formal \"staff\" appraisals are undertaken by and for participating students. How this is done is for the students to decide. This year the identified criteria were zeal, effectiveness, teamwork, timeliness and communication.Technical support and briefings are provided, but students must master technical areas, for example PLC programming, Petri-nets and ladder logic, and robot programming. Time with experts can be booked, and clinics are available. Health and safety too is a concern, and risk assessments carried out and vetted by staff. However, the students are otherwise in charge of their own destiny.It's a Master's program, so student assessment is a major ingredient. This is carried out at the team level and the individual level.For the team assessment criteria are:* timely completion of the project;* dynamic organization of the tasks;* teamwork and communications between team members;* daily tidiness and cleanliness;* ability to select appropriate problem solving methods; and* quality of resulting documentation.Individuals are assessed based on:* technical contribution;* effort and time spent on the project;* team working skills;* participation in document presentation; and* reflections on their activities and resulting learning.It is clearly a popular option with the students for its real-world feel, and the sense of achievement completing a live project provides.\nThe wisdom of Socrates: While some consider there to be nothing new under the sun, there are clear benefits to be seen from the good sense realism of the Cambridge approach. From a teaching point of view the role is transformed into one of helping students make the transition from dependent to independent learner. Academic and support staff provide both technical and moral support, evoking the \"we shall overcome\" spirit of the human rights movement.The learning approach promoted is firmly in the Socratic tradition - that of getting out there and asking questions. Over millennia it has been proven to be effective.Now Socrates was an intelligent man whose life was once summed up thus: Socrates; Greek philosopher; went about asking questions; they poisoned him.His legacy though is a lasting one.\nComment: This is a review of \"Developing knowledge and skills in engineers: a learning laboratory\" by K.W. Platts. It is a pragmatic paper dealing with an important topic, key to manufacturing competitiveness. It is heartening to see action learning, albeit in a highly modified form, being used to good effect in developing engineers - moving away from a \"knowledge in\" approach to their education to one of \"knowledge in action\" with a team working dimension. The article has significance to educators and employers alike.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Scans the top 400 management publications in the world to identify the most topical issues and latest concepts. These are presented in an easy-to-digest briefing of no more than 1,500 words.\nFindings: - What separates the successful manufacturing systems engineer from the merely learned one? According to analysis from the University of Cambridge's engineering learning laboratory, the answer would have to be \"judgment.\" The next question - how to instill the judgment of Solomon into the next generation graduating from the universities?\nPractical implications: - Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.\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" } ]
Board diversity and corporate risk: evidence from China	[ "Board diversity", "Relation-oriented diversity", "Task-oriented diversity", "Corporate risk", "Chinese firms" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, board diversity has received considerable attention among policymakers, researchers and corporations. To promote diversity, most of the countries have passed legislation to ensure the presence of female directors on corporate boards (Smith, 2014). Most of the studies in the literature have considered gender diversity as the only important attribute of board diversity (Anderson et al., 2011; Carter et al., 2003; Minton et al., 2014), leaving behind the fact that indeed board is a group of people, and it has many diverse attributes such as age, tenure and education. Therefore, most of the prior studies are limited to considering only a single attribute of board diversity. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by considering many facets of board diversity. Specifically, we consider four diversity attributes of a board that are age, gender, tenure and education. We further quantified diversity attributes into relation-oriented dimensions such as age and gender, which are considered as surface-level differences, and task-oriented dimension, such as tenure and education, which are considered as job-related differences.\n2. Hypotheses development: In the context of the organizational demography approach, upper echelons research dominates in the literature (Pfeffer, 1983) and primarily investigated the nexus between top management team (TMT) members' demographic characteristics and organizational outcomes by using quantitative large-sample methods. Although there are many studies on TMT heterogeneity research has revealed contrary results, and the question of whether TMT heterogeneity is beneficial for firms remains open (Cannella et al., 2008). The empirical findings on the impact of TMT demographic diversity on corporate performance vary from positive (Barsade et al., 2000; Carpenter, 2002), through non-significant (Ferrier, 2001; West and Schwenk, 1996) to negative (Michel and Hambrick, 1992). Furthermore, Nielsen (2010) thoroughly reviews the empirical studies on TMT heterogeneity and suggests that the clarity about the analysis both theoretically and empirically is still an issue, and doing comprehensive analysis is encouraged while investigating the nexus between TMT diversity and organizational outcomes.\n3. Sample and methodology: 3.1 Sample selection\n4. Empirical results: 4.1 Descriptive statistics\n5. Conclusion: This study investigates the impact of board diversity on corporate risk. The board diversity attributes are quantified into task-oriented diversity (tenure and education) and relation-oriented diversity (age and gender). The findings show that both task-oriented and relation-oriented diversities are associated with corporate risk. The results indicate that board diversity improves efficiency and performance and thereby reduce corporate risk. These conclusions are consistent after controlling for endogeneity issues.\nAcknowledgement: We acknowledge two limitations. First, this study tests the assumptions in an emerging market setting, and possibly the results can be different in other economies. Second, although this study used four different dimensions of diversity but excludes other dimensions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study shows how overall board diversity influences corporate risk-taking. Board diversity is quantified into task-oriented diversity (tenure and education) and relation-oriented diversity (age and gender). Further, this study tests whether the association of board diversity and corporate risk varies across state-owned firms (SOEs) and non-state-owned firms (NSOEs).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors used a sample of Chinese listed firms over the period 1999-2017. The results are estimated using the fixed-effects model. To deal with the endogeneity problem and single model bias, the authors use a dynamic model, i.e. two-step generalized method of moment's model.\nFindings: The results show that both task-oriented and relation-oriented diversity reduces corporate risk. Further, the authors document that overall board diversity reduces risk-taking across different types of firms, that is, SOEs and NSOEs. These results are consistent after controlling for endogeneity problems.\nPractical implications: The results provide implications for enhancing corporate governance practices by considering overall board diversity as an important factor influencing corporate decisions. The findings suggest that policymakers and shareholders should consider different diversity attributes important for the composition of a board, which can enhance board outcomes.\nOriginality/value: Most of the prior studies considered only one dimension of diversity, and therefore, have overlooked the overall board diversity. Unlike prior studies, this study considers four board diversity attributes - age, gender, tenure and education, and further tests their association with corporate risk. Further, this study also examines the effect of overall diversity on corporate risk in SOEs and NSOEs.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Conceptualizing context in entrepreneurship education: a literature review	[ "Policy", "Learning", "Entrepreneurship education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Context is intuitively recognized and theoretical argued as important to entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011; Welter et al., 2016). However, there is less agreement on what constitutes context, as it can be conceptualized at several levels and through various elements (Zahra et al., 2014). Entrepreneurship research has argued for organization of context across five categories (Goodman and Whetten, 1998; Welter, 2011) - historical, temporal, institutional, spatial and social. These categories are evident across the comprehensive spectrum of literature over the past 50 years, for example, illustrating links between national, regional and institutional culture and entrepreneurial potential (Autio et al., 2014; Mueller and Thomas, 2001; Shrivastava and Kennelly, 2013), entrepreneurial activity influenced by spatial conditions and local, social and economic milieu (Garofoli, 1994; Munoz and Cohen, 2017), temporal interplay of context and action (Moroz and Hindle, 2011; Solymossy and Hisrich, 2000) or opportunity as conditioned by the entrepreneurs' interaction with their context (Gartner, 1985) and role in the social structure (Greenwood and Suddaby, 2006; Jack and Anderson, 2002).\nKey issues from entrepreneurship education literature reviews: Entrepreneurship education has been the subject of review studies for over two decades, with the journal Education and Training in particular providing a main forum (see e.g. Blenker et al., 2014; Henry and Lewis, 2018; Matlay, 2006; Matlay and Carey, 2007; Mwasalwiba, 2010). Context or contextualization has often been raised as an influential variable during these review studies. Context in these reviews have included both human and non-human actors (Latour, 2005) constituting the who, what, where and when of entrepreneurship educational context, henceforward described as context elements. The context elements addressed in the reviews can be divided across three sociological phenomena levels: the macro level, which are national context elements; the meso level that are regional and university specific context elements; and finally the micro level, which are the course specific elements. The earliest review (Gorman et al., 1997) capturing the ten previous years stresses the need for further studies on educational content and markets for education. In relation to context, these reviews draw attention to expanding multiplicity, both in terms of expansion across different university (ex. meso) and country (ex. macro) settings (Matlay, 2006), disciplines (ex. meso) and educational objectives, methods, content and assessment practice (ex. micro) (Mwasalwiba, 2010). Blenker et al. (2014) address methodology issues, seeking an integrative framework to try and improve how entrepreneurship is researched, aiming for better generalizability across contexts. Henry and Lewis (2018) provide a systematic review of previous entrepreneurship education reviews, noting once again that there is still a lack of generalizability in entrepreneurship education research not only because of limited conceptualisation and small samples, but also because of the range of different contexts: geographic institutional and programmes (again exemplifying macro, meso and micro levels). Naia et al. (2014, 2015) further found that best practices could be identified for a specific context, but there is no evidence that these practices could be extended to provide a universal approach. Similarly, theoretical grounding was contingent to the study context. Overall, the reviews emphasize key issues of concern in terms of weaknesses in methodology and theorization that undermines generalizability.\nMethodological approach: To answer RQ1 a systematic literature review collects all the different current perspectives on context, which inform the construction of a holistic understanding of context. A systematic literature review approach provides a stringent and prescribed methodology that allows researchers to make sense of large bodies of information (Petticrew and Roberts, 2006). This approach enables not only an overview of the literature but addresses what works and what does not. In this paper, the literature review is used to identify the partial and arbitrary descriptions of context in the current body of literature to inform an overarching understanding of the phenomena, putting together the pieces of the puzzle. In line with previous relevant systematic literature reviews (Henry and Lewis, 2018; Mwasalwiba, 2010; Tranfield et al., 2003), our design used a multiple keyword search to independently identify literature, followed by staged analysis to classify publications according to first general and then more specific criteria, while not excluding work based on methodological type.\nFindings from the literature review: When examining who is framing the discussion of context in entrepreneurship education, one journal in particular, Education and Training, is dominant. Given its position relative to review of entrepreneurship education literature, it is not surprising that Education and Training is the dominant forum of the published work (33 of the 232 published works) addressing context in entrepreneurship education. The next 12 journals each published between three and nine articles (see Table AI). Discussion about context in entrepreneurship education did not commence until 1993. In comparison, context in entrepreneurship in general has been debated in journals since 1970, illustrating the difference in the maturity of the fields.\nBenefits and challenges with integrating context in entrepreneurship education: At all levels, context elements can either limit or enable entrepreneurial activities, entrepreneurial opportunities and motivation for becoming entrepreneurial (Welter, 2011), all essentially influencing the prerequisites for entrepreneurship education. Preconceptions of purpose, process and definitions are all shaped by context (Zahra et al., 2014). Most educational designs are tailored by educators to move the students towards the educators' preconceptions, but if the gap between the preconceptions of the educator and his or her students is too large, it will be a very difficult task, and a challenging journey for the students to take (if they even are open to doing so) (Seikkula-Leino et al., 2010; Williams Middleton and Donnellon, 2014).\nDiscussion: Drawing from the findings of the literature review, we put forth four main assertions: context in entrepreneurship education is arbitrary; context in entrepreneurship education is both documented and diffuse; educators have a limited span of control in relation to context elements; a lack of ceteris paribus in entrepreneurship education.\nMaking sense of context in entrepreneurship education: To operationalize context in relation to entrepreneurship education, Table IV provides questions for educators interested in designing with context when developing their learning processes. Some context elements will be within the educator's span of control and can therefore be applied directly into the educational design and delivery. Other context elements are outside the span of control and may therefore constitute \"framing factors\" to which educators must adhere, adapt or slowly adjust over time. In either case, part of the educator's role in entrepreneurship education is as a mediator of context for the students in their learning process.\nConclusions and implications: In this paper, a systematic literature review was conducted to answer the question: \"what constitutes context in entrepreneurship education?\" Analysis found that context in entrepreneurship education can be described at multiple levels and be categorized in relation to multiple elements. As suggested in in Table III, context elements can be identified across three levels, macro, meso and micro. These findings align with previous research addressing context in entrepreneurship literature in general (Welter, 2011). More specifically, key themes were identified which prioritized context elements at the different levels, such as country/national description at the macro level, university at the meso level and student/student activities at the micro level. Given that context is a complex phenomenon, structuring the perspective through sociological phenomena levels and in relation to the \"who, what, where and when\" frame enables researchers and practitioners to better identify and address the constituting elements.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Context impacts the design and practice of entrepreneurship education, but there is limited focus on context in entrepreneurship education literature. The purpose of this paper is to review the entrepreneurship education literature to understand how context has been addressed, derives contextual elements from prioritized literature and explores how context can be adapted to and designed with in entrepreneurship education.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review is undertaken to explore context in entrepreneurship education literature. Context entrepreneurship education yielded 239 items. After refinement, 232 entrepreneurship education associated publications were reviewed by the team of authors. Using selection criteria, 26 prioritized publications were analyzed and categorized according to a theoretical framework.\nFindings: Context has been addressed both conceptually and empirically, quantitatively and qualitatively, and can be categorized across three sociological phenomena levels - micro, meso and macro. Within these levels, more specific context elements emerge from the entrepreneurship education literature. The findings assert that while context is highly influential in relation to entrepreneurship education, it is arbitrarily described, and holds a variety of documented and diffuse elements. Educators have a limited span of control in relation to context elements, however, for the most parts elements can be adapted to or designed with. Finally, due to the influence of context it is difficult to identify a universal best practice of entrepreneurship education because there simply is no ceteris paribus.\nResearch limitations/implications: Contextual elements which emerged from the literature consider various subjects, spaces, structures and networks. Context is complex and has had limited treatment in entrepreneurship education literature, thus additional analysis and experimentation is necessary.\nPractical implications: Context shapes understanding and influences learning. Addressing entrepreneurship education across three levels - micro, meso and macro - and through four framing questions - who, what, where and when - guides educators in how context influences and can be used when designing education.\nOriginality/value: The paper gives new insight into how context is addressed in entrepreneurship education literature, and how this can influence educational design.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Critical appraisal of health claims: science teachers' perceptions and practices	[ "Health education", "Schools", "Qualitative methods", "Evidence-based practice", "Science", "Health media" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Adolescents obtain health information from various sources, including popular media like the internet, social media, television, and magazines (Ettel et al., 2012; Fergie et al., 2013; Jimenez-Pernett et al., 2010). Research suggests that adolescents pay little attention to the credibility of sources and health claims presented (Gray et al., 2005; Kortum et al., 2008). In the PISA 2009 digital reading assessment, only 26 per cent of Norwegian 15-year old students were able to identify that a blog containing personal and anecdotal evidence was the least credible source of medical information (Frones and Narvhus, 2012). The absence of appraisal skills is worrying because health claims in the media may influence actions and behaviour among adolescents (Begoray et al., 2009; Gray et al., 2005; Ybarra and Suman, 2008). Adding to this concern are the numerous reports of claims based on tentative and incomplete evidence rather than a systematic review of available research (Bomlitz and Brezis, 2008; Glenton et al., 2005; Schwitzer, 2008). Thus, it could be argued that building appraisal skills should be an aim of adolescent health education in schools (Manganello, 2008; Steckelberg et al., 2009).\nMethods: Study context\nFindings: One main theme, \"unexploited opportunities for teaching critical appraisal\", and the following sub-themes were identified: \"inattentive to the relevance of critical appraisal\", \"limited competency in critical appraisal\", \"prioritise facts over critical appraisal\".\nDiscussion: This study explored lower secondary science teachers' perceptions and reported practices related to teaching critical appraisal of health claims for promoting evidence-based health decisions in daily life. The findings indicate that science teachers may not properly prepare students to engage critically with health claims in real-life situations, despite having opportunities to do so. Several interconnected factors may explain why the opportunities remain unexploited, including priorities towards \"teaching the facts\" and limited competencies among teachers to handle uncertainty and conflicting claims. These barriers have been recognised in previous studies (Bryce and Gray, 2004; Ekborg et al., 2013; Jarman and McClune, 2002; Kachan et al., 2006; Klosterman et al., 2012; Levinson and Turner, 2001). Our findings identified issues that extend the discussion to critical appraisal skills around health, and this has implications for health education in science classrooms.\nConclusions and implications: The study findings indicate that science teachers do not take advantage of opportunities for teaching critical appraisal of health claims. Many teachers emphasised the importance of critical appraisal in student-centred activities like project work and in-depth studies, yet these issues rarely appeared in their descriptions of the content of the teaching. This suggests that appraisal skills was an object of learning but not an object of teaching. This problem is of particular concern in an educational setting. It is undesirable to have students engage in information seeking activities if they are left unequipped to find their own way outside the classroom. If teachers' accounts are the norm in science classrooms, it is doubtful whether students achieve the scientific literacy desirable to make informed decisions about which health claims to trust and which to reject.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Critical appraisal skills are necessary to navigate the numerous contradictory and pseudo-scientific claims in the popular media. Health and science education in schools is essential for promoting these skills in students. The purpose of this paper is to explore lower secondary school science teachers' perceptions and reported practices related to teaching critical appraisal of health claims.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Interpretive description strategy guided the study process. A purposeful sample of 25 Norwegian teachers was interviewed individually or in groups. Interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method.\nFindings: One main theme, \"unexploited opportunities for teaching critical appraisal\", and three sub-themes were identified: \"inattentive to the relevance of critical appraisal\", \"prioritise facts over critical appraisal\", \"limited competency in critical appraisal\". Teachers' descriptions of science sessions devoted to health education uncovered important opportunities for teaching critical appraisal of health claims. However, teachers did not appear to seize opportunities because they seemed inattentive to the relevance of teaching critical appraisal, they reported to prioritise teaching health content knowledge, and teachers themselves revealed limited expertise in assessing health claims critically.\nPractical implications: The findings suggest that science teachers need support to take better advantage of the links between health and science education to enhance students' critical appraisal skills.\nOriginality/value: This study adds depth to the understanding of issues and challenges faced by science teachers regarding critical appraisal of health claims, which is an important aspect of health education schools.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
To follow others or be yourself? Social influence in online restaurant reviews	[ "Social influence", "Dining experience", "Cognitive effort", "Online status", "Review variance", "Restaurant online review" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Online reviews become increasingly popular as an important source of word of mouth (WOM) (Zhang et al., 2019). Much extant literature assumes that online reviews provide an unbiased perspective on consumers' product experiences (Hu et al., 2011). However, Moe and Schweidel (2012) and Schlosser (2005) argued that, when making one's own rating decision, an individual tends to take into consideration opinions expressed by past consumers on review pages and then adjust their own evaluations accordingly, which implies that consumers' online review ratings are possibly socially influenced. According to the anchoring effects in judgment, self-presentation and social conformity theories, online reviewers prefer to consider other consumers' extant opinions when providing their own ratings (Adomavicius et al., 2013). Yet, previous literature offers limited understanding regarding the social influence process of consumers' online review behavior, especially the factors that may influence (i.e. strengthen or weaken) this process. The literature on experience-oriented hospitality products is especially scarce.\n2. Literature review: Recent literature suggests that a consumer's subsequent review can be influenced by prior reviews he/she reads (Lee et al., 2015; Schlosser, 2005; Wang et al., 2018), which may bias online product review ratings. Moe and Trusov (2011) noted that an online product rating is composed of the customer's actual consumption experience and social influence from prior reviews. Some literature suggests that subsequent review ratings tend to imitate prior ratings, similar to a herding effect (Adomavicius, et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2013). Other scholars reported that subsequent reviews tend to be differentiated from prior review ratings, demonstrating a differentiation effect (Hu and Li, 2011; Moe and Trusov, 2011). To address this contradiction, researchers have recently begun to examine the diverse impacts of prior review ratings given that reviewers and reviews are heterogeneous. Relevant literature is summarized in Table I, organized and classified by factors affecting the social influence process of online reviews (e.g. reviewer characteristics and review characteristics).\n3. Research hypotheses: 3.1 Impact of prior reviews on subsequent review ratings\n4. Research method: 4.1 Data\n5. Empirical results: 5.1 Main results\n6. Conclusion and discussion: 6.1 Conclusions\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Online reviews are often likely to be socially influenced by prior reviews. This study aims to examine key review and reviewer characteristics which may influence the social influence process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Restaurant review data from Yelp.com are analyzed using an ordered logit model and text mining approach.\nFindings: This study reveals that prior average review rating exerts a positive influence on subsequent review ratings for the same restaurant, but the effect is attenuated by the variance in existing review ratings. Moreover, social influence is stronger for consumers who had a moderate dining experience or invested less cognitive effort in writing online reviews. Compared to reviewers classified by Yelp as \"elite,\" non-elite reviewers appear more susceptible to the social influence of prior average review rating.\nPractical implications: This study provides guidelines for mitigating the social influence of prior reviews and improving the accuracy of online product/service ratings, which will eventually enhance business and the reputation of online review platforms.\nOriginality/value: The findings from this study contribute to the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature and social influence literature in terms of the bidirectional nature of social influence on eWOM.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Implementation of benchmarking concepts in Indian automobile industry - an empirical study	[ "Process improvement", "Benchmarking", "Indian auto companies" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Indian automobile industry is emerging as the fastest growing sector of Indian economy (Pillania, 2008). Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM, 2010) has reported that total turnover of Indian automobile industry was US$38.238 billion in the financial year 2008-2009 and is likely to grow by 12-15 percent in 2011-2012 over 2010-2011. India's passenger cars and commercial vehicles industry is the seventh largest in the world, with an annual production of 3.17 million units in 2010. Interestingly, India is set to overtake Brazil to become the sixth largest passenger vehicles producer in the world in 2011-2012. According to Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises (MHIPE, 2006), Government of India, Indian automobile industry is expected to reach up to US$145 billion by 2016. Similar growth has been observed among Indian auto-component manufacturers as well. Auto Components Manufacturing Association (ACMA, 2011) has reported a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24 percent within the Indian auto component manufacturing sector for 2005-2010, and a turnover of US$26 billion in the year 2010-2011. Moreover, only eight out of 1,000 people own a car in India, which highlights vast opportunities for the growth of automobile industry in India (ACMA, 2011). Fine et al. (1998) also state that the growth rate in auto sales in developing countries is now much higher than in the developed nations. However, to fully avail the future opportunities, Indian automobile industry needs to deal with certain challenges.\n2 Literature review: Benchmarking has come a long way from simple innovative adaptations to the present systematic approach of implementation, with targeted goals and standard procedures. Bogan and English (1994) quote many historical examples of innovative adaptations. In 1950, Toyota was just a small car manufacturer meeting demands of Japanese domestic car market. By adopting and improving on the production and inventory system borrowed from the USA, Toyota was able to capture 23 percent of the US auto market in 1983 and has become a leading car manufacturer today.\n3 Research approach: Considering certain limitations and constraints such as access to data and other resources, it was realized that multi-method research approach is more appropriate to generate relevant information (data) and observations of desired range and depth. Therefore, we decided to perform an email survey followed by direct case studies. While the survey provided investigation of status and acceptability of benchmarking concepts in Indian auto industry, case studies enabled a more detailed exploration of the relevant issues regarding types and processes of benchmarking being practiced; information about effectiveness of benchmarking; benefits gained; and problems faced while implementing benchmarking.\n4 Survey analyses: The initial survey included 20 large companies and 28 SMEs. To start with, participating companies were asked whether they were familiar with the term \"benchmarking\". Response to this question showed that 86 percent respondents were aware of the term benchmarking, and interestingly the remaining 14 percent, which were oblivious of benchmarking, belonged to the SME category. Further, the survey results showed that 63 percent of companies studied have used benchmarking in some way or other. This shows that benchmarking has now gained popularity among Indian auto companies. However, it is a relatively new concept for SMEs. Majority of the participants showed an increased awareness regarding benchmarking as a performance and productivity improvement tool. This growing awareness can be attributed to the abundance of literature regarding benchmarking on internet, augmented competition, globalization, and formation of benchmarking clubs, forums, etc.\n5 Case study: Three case studies were undertaken to follow up the survey, from a viewpoint of revealing benchmarking implementation issues thoroughly. Details of benchmarking implementation issues for all the cases are shown in tables in subsequent sections.\n6 Cross-comparison of cases: A cross-comparison of the cases studied has been presented in this section for understanding why some companies were more successful in implementing benchmarking efficiently compared to others. Cross-comparison also provided an insight into the areas where large companies and SMEs differ as far as adoption of best practices is concerned.\n7 Conclusions: The goal of the present study was to find and investigate status of implementation of benchmarking concepts in Indian automobile industry. It was found that 86 percent of the companies studied were aware of the term \"benchmarking\". All companies unanimously accepted benchmarking as an effective performance improvement tool, and were in favor of benchmarking as far as productivity improvement was concerned. Existence of benchmarking teams in a large number of automobile companies directly implies that benchmarking has been accepted in a much more formal way now. The high ratio of deployment of performance and process benchmarking in comparison with strategic benchmarking reveals the facts that a majority of Indian automobile manufacturers still see benchmarking as a tool to compare product attributes, quality attributes, operations, and processes. Further, benchmarking in Indian automotive industry is in its primary stage, which still needs much more commitment from top management for its proliferation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to present existence comprehensive analysis of state of implementation of benchmarking concepts in Indian automotive companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research is carried out through a mixed method of research approach comprising of a survey of 300 auto companies in India. Out of 300, 48 valid responses together with three additional case studies were used in the data analysis. Inclusion of case studies was aspired to get deeper insight into the issues pertaining to adoption of best practices, and subsequently the implementation of benchmarking activities.\nFindings: Benchmarking has been unanimously accepted as an effective performance and productivity improvement tool by Indian auto companies. However, Indian automobile manufacturers still see benchmarking as a tool to compare product attributes, quality attributes, operations, and processes. Moreover, it has been perceived as being less applicable at strategic level. Results also show that benchmarking is in its primary stage in the Indian automotive industry, and it still needs much more commitment from top management for its proliferation. Lesser significance is given to competitor benchmarking due to the fear of losing competitive advantage, and the problem of confidentiality. Reasons identified in this study for not using benchmarking include \"lack of human resources\" as most important, followed by \"financial constraints\", and \"lack of internal expertise\".\nResearch limitations/implications: Research results should be generalized and reproduced with a larger sample size. Owing to the scarce application of benchmarking in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), separate study should be carried out to find ways to encourage benchmarking implementation in Indian auto component manufacturing SMEs.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides insight into the extent of implementation of benchmarking concepts in Indian automobile industry. This study is the first attempt to understand propagation of benchmarking concepts, exclusively among Indian auto companies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The role of strategic purchasing in dynamic capability development and deployment: A contingency perspective	[ "Survey", "Dynamic capabilities", "Contingency perspective", "Knowledge scanning", "Strategic purchasing" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In a growing number of organizations, recognition by senior management of the criticality of purchasing has led to far greater involvement in a range of strategic activities, including new product/service development, process improvement, and high-level planning (Chen et al., 2004). The boundary spanning and knowledge channeling nature of strategic purchasing (Hult et al., 2000; Zhang et al., 2011) may allow such involvement to be translated into dynamic capabilities and in turn improved performance (Grant, 1996; Teece et al., 1997). Yet, the impact of the change in purchasing's role on dynamic capability development and deployment remains empirically underdeveloped.\n2. Conceptual framework and hypotheses: 2.1 Dynamic capabilities and competitive advantage\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Survey instrument\n4. Results of analysis: We present the results in two steps, first for the measurement model, and then for the path model.\n5. Discussion: The dynamic capabilities perspective has developed the resource-based view by arguing that the continuous transformation of resources, and more specifically knowledge resources (Grant, 1996), creates a unique capability that permits the generation of superior value (Sirmon and Hitt, 2009). In this study, we have focused on knowledge scanning as a dynamic capability, its enablers and performance outcomes. We have done so in the purchasing context, where strategic purchasing is shaped by two sequential dimensions - purchasing recognition and purchasing involvement. Purchasing, being a boundary spanning and knowledge channeling function, can prevent an organization from becoming ossified and mismatched with their environment, through its abilities to scan the environment and select, transmit, and interpret information originating in that environment.\n6. Conclusion, implications, and directions for future research: Whilst there is an increasing shift towards strategic purchasing in many organizations, there remains a paucity of empirical research examining how the increasing recognition of purchasing affects dynamic capability development and performance. In this paper, we have used SEM of data collected from 309 firms to demonstrate empirically that higher purchasing recognition leads to higher purchasing involvement in strategic cross-functional activities, and that this leads to increased dynamic capabilities, in the form of knowledge scanning. We have also confirmed that higher levels of knowledge scanning lead to improvements in cost and innovation performance for the purchasing function. From a contingency perspective, our study provides compelling empirical evidence that the positive influence of purchasing recognition on purchasing involvement, of involvement on knowledge scanning, and of knowledge scanning on both facets of performance is significantly stronger for service-based firms than for manufacturing-based firms. Finally, emerging from our analysis, we have evidenced a return or re-enforcing effect of performance on dynamic capability enablers, which can be explained from learning and path dependency perspectives. This return effect applies to the link between cost performance and purchasing involvement and only for the subset of manufacturing-based firms.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on research into the impact of two sequential dimensions of strategic purchasing - purchasing recognition and purchasing involvement - on the development and deployment of dynamic capabilities. The authors also examine how such dynamic capabilities impact on both cost and innovation performance, and how their effects differ for service as opposed to manufacturing firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors test hypotheses using structural equation modeling of survey data from 309 manufacturing and service firms.\nFindings: From a dynamic capability perspective, the analysis supports the positive relationships between purchasing recognition, purchasing involvement, and dynamic capability in the form of knowledge scanning. The authors also find support for the positive impact of knowledge scanning on both cost and innovation performance. From a contingency perspective, data supports hypothesized differences caused by industry, whereby service-based firms experience stronger positive linkages in our model than manufacturing-based firms. Finally, emerging from the data, the authors explore a re-enforcing effect from cost performance to purchasing involvement, something that is in line with the dynamic capabilities perspective but not typically addressed in operations management (OM) research.\nOriginality/value: The research offers a number of theoretical and managerial contributions, including being one of a relative few examples of empirical assessment of dynamic capability development and deployment; examining the enablers of dynamic capability in addition to the more commonly addressed performance effect; assessing the contingency effect of firm type for dynamic capabilities; and uncovering a return (re-enforcing) effect between performance and enablers of dynamic capabilities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Knowledge structures of a health ecosystem	[ "Health ecosystem", "Knowledge flows", "Complexity", "Health care management", "Finland", "Health services sector", "Knowledge transfer", "Complexity theory" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Public health organizations are often considered as static, tradition-guided and isolated from competition (Porter and Teisberg, 2006). However, these assumptions seem not to hold in the 21st century. Modern health organizations and systems are dynamic. System structures are in a continuous state of change - individual organizations compete, co-operate and create value in close interaction with their customers (e.g. Nordgren, 2009). This dynamism of health systems has challenged management approaches that are still largely based on reductionist perspectives (McDaniel and Driebe, 2001; Kernick, 2004). Integrating the existing structures is not an adequate approach; a more thorough questioning of the underlying principles is called for (Kernick, 2004; Mitleton-Kelly, 2003). The ecosystem metaphor provides one possible way of conceptualizing service systems and understanding their inherent dynamics (Royston and Dick, 1998; Kernick, 2004).Another starting point for this paper is the increased knowledge-intensity of health services. Structural changes and also the increased role of information as a policy instrument have led to a fragmentation of knowledge and expertise within health systems (e.g. Grone and Garcia-Barbero, 2001; Shortell and Kaluzny, 2006; Laihonen, 2009). Decentralization of decision-making and division of tasks and responsibilities alternate with centralization, which is driven by rationalization efforts. Altogether, hierarchal working methods as well as strictly predefined organizational functions are challenged by the requirement for openness and dynamism of the environment (see Isosaari, 2011). Co-operation and interaction at all levels of the system are called for. New kinds of policy instruments are also needed, or at least the balance between the existing instruments has to be reconfigured. In the Finnish context so-called information steering has increased its importance as a public policy instrument. This refers to the provision of information that helps service producers to develop their own operations (Stenvall et al., 2007).From the two perspectives described previously this paper views the Finnish health care system as a knowledge system and pays special attention to knowledge flows connecting system participants. The paper explores the applicability of complexity thinking for adopting systemic perspective and gaining new insights for health care management. The objective is to compose a conceptual basis for capturing the dynamics of health systems. This objective is approached by ascertaining what kind of knowledge structures enable knowledge-based development of the health system. Analysis of a regional health ecosystem in Finland implies that this approach provides some new insights for health care management. It complements the ideas of integrated care (e.g. Kodner and Spreeuwenberg, 2002; Vondeling, 2004) by highlighting the dynamic nature of health systems. In practice, this underlines the importance of interconnections and the respective knowledge flows. The contribution of the paper originates first from a practical description of the regional health system as an ecosystem and second, the recognition of knowledge flows that enable and support the development of a system. From the theoretical viewpoint, the empirical examination strengthens many of the conceptual ideas presented in complexity literature. The paper also advances ecosystem thinking by concretizing the highly conceptual and abstract idea of a health ecosystem.The sections of the paper are organized as follows. First, the next section concerns the theoretical basis of the paper and briefly elaborates some basic concepts of complexity theories and summarizes the existing literature on the health ecosystem approach. In section three a Finnish regional health care system is described and analyzed in the light of the theoretical approach. Finally, a discussion and some concluding remarks are presented.\n2. Theory: 2.1 Complexity theories\n3. A practical illustration: a regional health ecosystem in Finland: 3.1 Empirical context and data\n4. Discussion: the contribution of an ecosystem view: The definition of health ecosystem emphasizes interconnections and the dynamic nature of health systems (Kernick, 2004). From the practical illustration presented previously it could be concluded that these connections really are critical success factors for the development of health systems. The opening up of the Finnish national health system drove municipalities away from a long prevailing equilibrium and necessitated questioning of the existing structures. Without any external steering five municipalities ended up forming a federation that is currently providing health services for the whole area. It could be argued that the result of this process reaches beyond the idea of integration. This development was enabled by close interaction between the five municipalities and required knowledge sharing and transfer between different levels of the system.At the operative level, service integration necessitates transfer of patient information through shared information systems. Another level of knowledge flows can be detected when managers of the system utilize information to support their decision-making. A diverse set of knowledge sources is available and a managerial challenge is to recognize the most relevant information. The information available can be categorized into internal and external information. Internal information refers to information provided by organizations' operative information systems. External information is essential from the viewpoint of learning and continuous development. Yet another perspective on the flow of knowledge can be gained by analyzing municipal decision-making. Furthermore, political interests at the local and regional levels are steered by the national level interests and health policies. Thus, regional and national level information steering has to be taken into account when creating a knowledge strategy for local health organizations. As a conclusion, the management of the knowledge flows described previously seems to be a strategic task not only for individual organizations but also for the wider health system.An important notion relates also to the development of modern health systems, which seems to be a bottom-up process rather than a process that could be managed from the top. When health services are organized locally it is necessary for the national level authorities to build up such knowledge structures that encourage efficient and effective service production at the local level. Such thinking complements the more traditional approaches of integrated care that have mainly focused on bringing previously unconnected services together more as an administrative initiative than a natural development. Naturally, a critical analysis of the ecosystem framework calls for caution. In the case of health services it is not reasonable to leave the responsibility totally on the local level. There is still a need for national policies that guide operations towards democratically defined objectives.This paper utilized a health ecosystem as an interpretation framework, or a lens, through which, the real world health system was observed and analyzed. The paper invoked the basic idea of Royston and Dick (1998) that by concentrating on the changing and evolving nature of real world systems the ecosystem approach enables us to see and understand how institutions and individuals co-evolve: that is, mutually construct and develop their own environments - and their own roles within a wider environment. Based on the practical illustration the ecosystem view helps us to better understand the individual events observed in health systems. Some of the advantages in this were detectable in the practical example described previously. The approach gives names to the phenomena that we might not even be able to detect with the traditional ways of interpretation. The actual development of FSTKY is in line with the conceptualizations made in the ecosystem literature (see Kernick, 2004). The strength of the ecosystem view seems to lie in its dynamic approach - its understanding of the co-evolving nature of the system and the interconnectedness of value creation.From the practical viewpoint, one driver of co-operation between systems' agents is the fragmentary nature of knowledge (i.e. the diversity of the health system). This has increased the need for efficient knowledge flows between the agents and the search for more suitable and productive operational models. Although this importance of knowledge transfer within the system is familiar from the more traditional approaches (see integrated care), the ecosystem approach puts special emphasis on questioning the existing boundaries (e.g. between primary health care, specialized health care and social services) and highlights the role of enabling knowledge structures. To be able to re-organize, the complex system needs information, so it is important to analyze and develop those information and knowledge structures that the system uses for gathering the needed information. This is an important implication for policymakers as well as for health care managers. The provision of system-level measurement information, the creation of a shared value-base and objectives, clearly defined system roles and every other means that encourage local and regional organizations to actively develop their operations are needed. The best possible outcome for local needs may not be found by pushing from the top.Nevertheless, the application of the ecosystem approach is far more complicated than the simple notion of its potential. Currently there are only few tools that could enable the application of this kind of methodological and philosophical discussion in managerial work. Application still lacks those groundbreaking ideas and examples that would explain how the promising principles would be put into specific terms and utilized in practice.\n5. Conclusions: This paper began by hypothesizing that modern health systems are transforming towards a health ecosystem, which is a conceptual setting that focuses on dynamics and interconnections of the system. Interconnections were equated with knowledge flows between actors, which led to an assumption that the underlying knowledge structures of the complex service system play an important role from the viewpoint of system performance.The paper reviewed the literature on health ecosystems and the key concepts that have been linked to this approach. The theoretical understanding of the conceptual basis was complemented with a practical illustration of a regional health care system in Finland. This illustration confirmed that bottom-up organizing processes and interconnections (i.e. knowledge flows) really are an inherent characteristic of modern health systems. From this perspective, the hypothesis about the nature of health care system was confirmed. Although one case illustration is obviously insufficient to validate the approach, it still points in some promising directions for future research. Furthermore, in its current state the health ecosystem is far from being a rigid interpretation framework. The concepts of this framework are ambiguous and their linkages are still poorly understood. Nevertheless, the ecosystem view suggests that the focus of health system management should be transferred from individual actors to their relationships and to the performance of the whole system to provide efficient and effective service. This seems a reasonable proposition especially from the viewpoint of an individual service user.Knowledge flows as the concrete manifestations of the organizational linkages provide management something concrete to grasp. In this paper, knowledge flows were seen as the enablers of self-organization, co-evolution and emergence of new order, and therefore it is argued that without efficient knowledge transfer processes the system cannot evolve and produce efficient and effective services. This logic leads to the conclusion that knowledge management could offer those practical concepts and tools that would help us to concretize and operationalize the key elements of ecosystem approach. Interconnectedness and interaction could be approached as knowledge transfer processes. Interaction is a key element of the complex system and therefore, by studying the concrete embodiments of interaction one could increase the understanding of the system.In light of the discussion presented some managerial and policy implications can be pointed out. First, at the system level the role of national information steering, that is, information provision by the national level actors, needs to be sharpened. In the prevailing situation, health systems are horizontal, self-organizing and co-evolving entities whereas public policy is traditionally enforced vertically and by relying on formal supremacies. The contradiction between these two extremes is obvious and poses a threat to efficient service provision. The main question arising from this is how to support self-organization and co-evolution and at the same guarantee the fulfillment of civil rights.Second, an interesting theme that requires further research is the fragmentary nature of information and knowledge. Tensions between different professional groups and organizations cause delays and misunderstandings in knowledge transfer thereby complicating the provision of seamless services. Shared information systems or at least clearly defined interfaces between the administrative functions and information systems are a prerequisite for the development of a wider health ecosystem. Knowledge sharing and fluency of knowledge flows should be enforced at all system levels.Third, health promotion and preventive care are closely connected to knowledge transfer processes and the capabilities of health specialists to transfer their expertise to other spheres of authority. Although this paper focused purely on health services, the future applications of the ecosystem approach should obtain a wider focus where other administrative branches are also taken into consideration (e.g. education and social services). This raises a question of how to enhance employees' willingness to co-operate with specialists in other fields of municipal and governmental decision-making.Finally, it would be extremely important to understand more thoroughly how a rigid service system, such as the health care system, would be most efficiently able to respond to the challenges posed by the external diversity or complexity of contemporary society. From the viewpoint of knowledge-structures the development efforts, at least in Finland, have focused mainly on information systems instead of the system-level analysis and creation of a national level understanding of the role of knowledge in service provision. In addition to information systems, individuals' attitudes and capabilities, working methods and networks should be taken into account when pursuing improvements and the correct ways to organize future health care. Therefore, in order to improve the productivity and effectiveness of health services, it would be important to explore the knowledge-based foundations of the service system in greater detail. Concentrating only on a certain system level or to a certain administrative function leads to sub-optimization.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to hypothesize that modern health systems are transforming towards what has been called a health ecosystem in complexity-based health care literature. It has been argued that complexity arises from the interconnectedness, which in this paper is equated with knowledge flows between actors. The paper seeks to discuss the possible implications of a health ecosystem approach to health system management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper is conceptual in nature but the transition towards a health ecosystem is illustrated with an example of a regional health care system in Finland. The case description and related analysis presented are based on qualitative data gathered by interviewing leading office-holders, by process modeling and by observing management group meetings.\nFindings: - Conceptually, a health ecosystem seems to have potential for the system-level analysis of the health care system. The discussion concludes that management of knowledge flows should be a strategic management function for individual health organizations as well as for the wider health system.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study focuses on a Finnish health care system. The operations and structures of health care services and systems vary in different areas and countries.\nPractical implications: - The practical illustration of the health ecosystem provides a reminder that health care systems are dynamic and largely based on interaction between different actors. The approach provides new strategic insights for the development of health care systems by concentrating on interrelationships and knowledge flows.\nOriginality/value: - The literature has suggested that the ecosystem metaphor offers useful insights for the development of health care systems. Nevertheless, this approach has not been thoroughly studied so far. This paper makes a contribution by presenting a practical illustration of the framework and in light of this discusses the possible implications for health care management.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The OHS regulatory challenges posed by agency workers: evidence from Australia	[ "Labour", "Recruitment agencies", "Occupational health and safety", "Employment", "Australia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Labour leasing or temporary agency work refers to the practice whereby workers engaged by a third party firm (as an employee or independent contractor) are supplied to undertake tasks for other \"host\" employers on a temporary basis. A variety of terms are used to describe leased workers, some specific to a particular country or industry, including labour hire, body hire, agency workers, on-hire workers, temps, top-up team and peak period people.In industries like construction and agriculture the use of \"body hire\" agents can be traced back more than 100 years. Nonetheless, over the past 20 years labour leasing has expanded dramatically in Europe, North America and Australasia in terms of the number of firms supplying labour, the number of workers supplied and the range of occupations involved (encompassing everything from labourers and clerical staff to drivers, miners and skilled professionals like nurses and engineers). Numerous small operators characterise the industry, but some firms, like Manpower and ADECCO, operate globally and are major employers in their own right.While it appears that most temporary employees are still hired directly by their employers, agency workers represent an increasingly significant component of the contingent workforce. As far as we are aware, the OECD, ILO and other such international bodies do not produce international data on the prevalence of labour leasing, possibly due to definitional inconsistencies (such as distinguishing labour leasing firms from employment agencies and whether to include firms that lease workers on an informal or occasional basis) and because many countries do not include agency work in their annual labour force statistics. Nonetheless, available statistics in the European Union and countries like the USA and Australia indicate that agency work had grown rapidly to constitute around 5 per cent of the workforce in the USA (by 1994) and Australia (by 2001) and around two million workers or 1.2 per cent of the EU workforce by 1999 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995; Storrie, 2002). The growth of agency labour can be seen as part of a more general shift to contingent work arrangements in response to competitive pressures associated with globalisation, public sector reforms that increased the demand for \"outside\" labour and private sector downsizing/restructuring.In the past decade labour leasing has attracted attention from government agencies and academic researchers (see, for example, Peck and Theodore, 1998; NSW Labour Hire Task Force, 2001; Storrie, 2002). Leased labour entails a triangular relationship between the worker, the temporary work agency and the host employer Generally the contractual relationships are between the agency and the worker and the agency and the host, with no contractual relationship between the host and the worker. These relationships result in a complex overlap in terms of managing the employment relationship and workers meeting the expectations of two \"masters\", with a consequent blurring not only of legal responsibilities for occupational health and safety (OHS) and other employment conditions \"but also the definition, constitution and implementation of the employment contract defined in psychological and social terms\" (Rubery et al., 2002, p. 645). Several studies have found that human resource management functions have been transferred to the temporary work agency, and the use of temporary workers has been associated with a shift to \"hard\" human resources practices of short-term cost-cutting and discipline (Storey, 2001; Connell and Burgess, 2002). Other studies have examined the wage rates, working conditions and attitudes of temporary agency workers (Dietz, 1996; Allach and Inkson, 2004).Labour leasing poses challenges for employment, social security and taxation laws because these presume ongoing employment arrangements and the triangular relationship (between agency workers, their agency and host employers) complicates regulatory oversight (Vosko, 1997; Stanworth and Druker, 2000). Even within the same jurisdiction, the allocation of legal responsibilities between the temporary work agency and host employer can vary according to the legislation establishing specific labour standards (industrial relations, OHS and workers compensation) or the circumstances of particular work arrangements. In some areas, like OHS, legal responsibility is often shared, leading to confusion as well as deliberate attempts by interested parties to obfuscate or confuse the distribution of their responsibilities.Responding to problems of ensuring regulatory coverage and compliance with labour standards, as early as the 1960s a number of European countries sought to restrict or impose conditions (via licensing requirements) on the use of agency labour (Veldkamp and Raetsen, 1973). These measures had limited effects and were revised in the context of the increasing pre-eminence of market-driven policies within the European Union (Stanworth and Druker, 2000). Recent recognition that agency workers (especially those lacking scarce skills) were vulnerable to exploitation (such as failing to receive statutory pay and overtime entitlements) has sparked new regulatory measures, though again questions have been raised with regard to their enforcement (Stanworth and Druker, 2000). In Australia a similar pattern is evident. Licensing requirements for employment agencies were removed as part of the 1980s regulatory reform process but in the past five years increasing consideration has been given to imposing tighter controls on labour hire activities.One of the most significant problems raised in connection with agency labour has concerned OHS. There is growing evidence that agency workers are at greater risk of injury than other workers undertaking the same tasks and that they are more likely to be denied adequate protection under OHS legislation (including inspectoral activities) and workers' compensation/rehabilitation laws (see, for example Kochan et al., 1994; Butler et al., 1998; Foley, 1998; Hebert et al., 2003; Silverstein et al., 1998, 2002; Fran,ois and Lievin, 2000). For example, in an analysis of workers' compensation claims for disorders of the upper extremities in Washington State between 1987 and 1995, Silverstein et al. (1998) found temporary help agencies were in the top 10 high-risk industries after 1989. Similarly, a Quebec report (Hebert et al., 2003) analysing compensated work-related injury/illness absence for different industry sub-sectors (1995-97) found labour hire headed the list of the ten subsectors identified with the highest prevalence of compensated absence. Findings of research undertaken in Australia, most notably an analysis of workers' compensation claims in the state of Victoria by Underhill (2002), are consistent with the international studies just mentioned.While the adverse OHS effects of other contingent work arrangements (like subcontracting) have drawn responses from government, labour hire/agency work has been singled out as warranting particular attention. In Australia, for example, it has been the subject of a number of government inquiries (see, for example, New South Wales Labour Hire Task Force, 2001; Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into Labour Hire Employment in Victoria, 2004; Maxwell, 2004; Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, 2005). Indeed, virtually all state OHS authorities now produce guidance material on labour hire and most state workers' compensation agencies have introduced specific labour hire premium rates.In this paper we will therefore focus on regulatory issues raised by agency labour in connection with OHS legislation.\nMethodology: Research data in this paper are drawn from three sources. First, a research project undertaken in 2001-2 for WorkCover New South Wales (the state government OHS agency) on the prevention and workers' compensation challenges posed by changing work arrangements (Quinlan, 2003). The WorkCover NSW project covered state, territory and federal OHS jurisdictions and entailed meetings with tripartite industry reference groups (IRG's) together with focus group and individual interviews (using a semi-structured interview schedule) with 63 OHS regulatory staff and 40 senior employer/industry and union representatives. Interview material was augmented by an examination of OHS statutes and government agency documents (codes, guidance material, information bulletins, and internal and public reports).Second, the study draws on interviews and workplace visits conducted with over 80 inspectoral staff working for four jurisdictions (Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia) in 2003-4 as part of a research project on the shift to process standards in OHS legislation (the Process Standards project). As part of the project, inspectors were asked questions about changing work arrangements, and issues concerning the use of leased workers also arose during workplace visits (for which detailed notes were kept).Third, a detailed search and analysis of court proceedings relating to labour hire firms and host firms under OHS legislation was undertaken.\nAn overview of regulatory problems: The current legal framework\nConclusion: The Australian OHS statutes impose significant obligations on labour hire agencies in relation to leased workers, and courts determining liability and penalties in OHS prosecutions start from the position that labour hire agencies and host firms have equal responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of labour hire workers. These obligations require labour hire agencies and host firms to conduct proper inductions, engage in hazard identification, establish risk assessment and control processes, and ensure the proper instruction, training and supervision of workers placed with host firms. Our evidence, however, suggests that these obligations were often not being met and, indeed, the logistical and other difficulties of controlling risks associated with widespread labour leasing was effectively leading to special pleading for lower OHS standards.Regulators have responded to these problems by producing guidance material on the legal responsibilities of both host and labour hire firms, commissioning research, establishing tripartite taskforces, initiating campaigns, prosecuting labour hire firms and host employers for OHS breaches following serious incidents, and establishing workers' compensation premiums specific to the industry. It is, however, doubtful whether these responses will be sufficient to curb problems given the difficulty of \"educating\" duty holders in a context where there are numerous small operators (amongst whom there is considerable turnover) and labour hire is but one of range of issues (including others related to workplace change) with which agencies must contend. For their part, unions have sought to stimulate a more effective regulatory response by issuing their own guidance material (e.g. ACTU, 2000a); establishing labour hire activist networks and hotlines (to report regulatory breaches); trying to insert OHS provisions on labour hire in awards and industrial agreements; calling for more vigorous enforcement; and pressing for additional regulatory controls - most notably the compulsory registration and licensing of all labour hire operators.Overall, notwithstanding the existing legislative protections, our analysis leads us to conclude, as Forde and Slater (2005) have observed with regard to the position in Britain, that there is a compelling case for further regulation of labour leasing based on the significant disadvantages these workers experience. With regard to OHS, this regulation should be proactive (to address the rapid turnover of operators and the need for risk assessment), ensure minimum employment standards are observed and better safeguard leased workers' capacity to raise OHS issues with their host employer and agency.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this research is to analyse the problems for occupational health and safety (OHS) regulators posed by agency work/leased labour (also known as labour hire in Australasia), using Australian evidence.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The analysis is based on an examination of prosecutions involving labour hire firms along with other documentary records (union, industry and government reports and guidance material). The study also draws on interviews with approximately 200 regulatory officials, employers and union representatives since 2001 and workplace visits with 40 OHS inspectors in 2004-2005.\nFindings: - The triangular relationship entailed in labour leasing, in combination with the temporary nature of most placements, poses serious problems for government agencies in terms of enforcing OHS standards notwithstanding a growing number of successful prosecutions for breaches of legislative duties by host and labour leasing firms.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Research to investigate these issues in other countries and compare findings with those for Australia is required, along with assessing the effectiveness of new enforcement initiatives.\nPractical implications: - The paper assesses existing regulatory responses and highlights the need for new regulatory strategies to combat the problems posed by labour.\nOriginality/value: - The OHS problems posed by agency work have received comparatively little attention. The paper provides insights into the specific problems posed for OHS regulators and how inspectorates are trying to address them.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An empirical investigation of implementing Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education Institutions	[ "Service quality", "Lean six sigma", "Higher education", "Quality excellence", "Empirical analysis", "Case study" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The evolution and maturity of research in the area of service operations has created many new perspectives to the core production-oriented operations management field which was associated solely with manufacturing sector till 1980s (Johnston, 1999). One such important area of increasing interest has been \"Service Quality.\" Increasing customer demands, competitive pressures and rising operational costs have created a compelling reason for this cause. Service organizations have been adapting several Quality practices including total quality management (TQM), Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to improve their service levels and to impart the culture of continuous improvement for effective customer service and cost reduction. Significant contributions have been made by researchers on these subjects across various service sectors including healthcare, banking and financial services, hospitality services, airlines and information technology services (Sunder et al., 2018; George and George, 2003). However, the research focus on quality practices for higher education services is apparently low (Gosling and D'Andrea, 2001). Though literature shows evidence of the application of TQM and Lean methods in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), there are several drawbacks and limitations identified with these practices in the context of HEIs (discussed in Section 3). LSS, which is a relatively a new quality practice, has apparently overcome the limitations of its predecessors. LSS today is widely applied in different service sectors; however, it is still at nascent stages of research in the area of higher education services (Sunder, 2016a; Antony et al., 2012).\n2. Theoretical background: This section is presented in two sub-sections to provide a background about the higher education sector and an overview about LSS.\n3. Why apply LSS in HEIs?: During the last two decades, quality excellence in higher education has received greater attention than before. There are a number of suggested approaches for quality excellence in HEIs which have been denominated in different ways. An overview of relevant literature shows evidence, which include TQM (Barnett, 1992), continuous improvement and strategic quality management (Seymour, 1993), Lean thinking (Moore et al., 2007; Balzer, 2010), Six Sigma (Sunder, 2014) and LSS (Antony et al., 2012). Many HEIs have embarked on the quality excellence journey through Lean continuous improvement. Literature shows evidence of existence of the term \"Lean University\" and examples of HEIs adapting Lean for continuous improvement (Comm and Mathaisel, 2005). Many HEIs like the University of St Andrews, Cardiff University, Nottingham Business School, Warwick Business School, etc., have published their success of Lean deployment (Radnor and Bucci, 2011). Alongside the success stories, the Lean methodology has been criticized by many researchers due to the following limitations (see Table I).\n4. Methodology: Case study research was chosen to empirically explore the applicability of LSS implementation in HEIs. According to Yin (2003), a case study method is used to illuminate a particular situation, to get a close in-depth and first-hand understanding of it. The advantage of the case study method is it helps to make direct observations and collect data in natural settings, compared to relying on the derived data (Bromley, 1986, p. 23). Yin (2003) describes three types of case studies: exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. Exploratory research is appropriate here as very little is known in the academic literature about LSS for HEIs, unlike its implementation in other services.\n5. Case study 1: improving the utilization of the central library: This case study was undertaken in a reputed Indian university which offers integral education to the students. The university has four huge campuses with a complete residential system, offering a wide variety of courses including Business Administration, Arts, Science, Technology and Economics at undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD levels. The institution puts a lot of emphasis on its level of customer service toward students and other stakeholders, as an integral part of its mission, vision and values. The case study focuses on the Central Library of the university. The four-floor building houses nearly 100,000 volumes of books and 350 academic journals. The total personnel count of the campus in which the library is located is 730. It includes 620 students (both undergraduate and post-graduate), 40 research scholars and 70 teaching and administrative staff. As part of the conversational interviews held with the faculty members, it was found that students' perceived value of the library could be enhanced through an LSS project. This, being an important part of a student's academic life, is considered as a candidate for process improvement.\n6. Case study 2: increasing customer satisfaction in the university computer center: This case study is about the LSS project which was undertaken in the university computer center in one campus of an international university for higher education. The university has a great presence across geographies (seven campuses) with more than 6,000 students. The computer center is an important part of the academic process at the campus as it is used by students and faculty members across various departments. The total strength of the campus is 870. This includes students, research scholars, faculty and non-academic staff. The hardware resources of the Computer center include 65 desktops, 6 laptops, 8 servers and heavy duty printers and scanners. The center has air conditioning facility and ergonomically designed furniture. The center is managed by one manager and four attendants, serving various computer software and internet related requirements of multiple university departments.\n7. Lessons learned and takeaways: The cases-studies presented here are used to infer these key learnings. Hence, strong generalizations are better avoided. However, the novelty, value and adaptability of LSS are underscored through this study, which will also serve as a resource for practitioners and researchers concerned with improving service quality in HEIs:\n8. Conclusion: The application of LSS in HEIs which is an emerging topic in the academic research is examined by this study. Upon empirical investigation we confirm that LSS is applicable in HEIs. The major advantages of applying LSS in HEIs include - being an enabler to meet accreditation requirements; serving as a template for problem solving; promotes total involvement leading to quality excellence; helps in establishing quality measures; makes processes visible and transparent; to obtain information on the voice of the internal and external customer; and in identification and reduction of hidden costs (Simons, 2013). Due to the uniqueness of higher education services, compared to other service sectors, LSS needs to be looked up not merely as a service quality practice, but a comprehensive paradigm shifts in HEIs by transforming the ways of working in various academic and administrative processes. Since this study is apparently first of its kind, empirical application of LSS in the real-time context of HEIs, strong generalizations are not applicable. However, this study serves as a novel platform for future academic research to ponder in the directions set.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the applicability and implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). LSS is considered as the most recent service quality practice which has proved its success in manufacturing and service sectors. Though there is plenty of literature available with regard to the application and benefits of LSS in services sectors (like Banking, healthcare, information technology sectors, etc.), there is apparently no evidence in the literature about the implementation of LSS in HEIs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A five-phased approach is followed. A multiple case-study method is used in this paper to explore this implementation of LSS in two select international University colleges. LSS toolkit comprising of define-measure-analyze-improve-control phases is used for the execution of the projects. Featuring student teams in LSS project management adds novelty to the approach.\nFindings: The paper empirically validates the application of LSS in HEIs. Further, it highlights the practical challenges and benefits of LSS in the HEI setup. An in-depth empirical analysis of LSS toolkit application, LSS change management and using student teams in LSS project management are the highlights of this paper. The paper concludes that LSS is applicable and could provide positive benefits to HEIs.\nResearch limitations/implications: LSS application in HEIs is perhaps a new research area, which is at its nascence and upcoming in the researchers' community. Hence, this paper would serve as a platform and provide directions for future scholars to ponder on the subject.\nPractical implications: Since the cases are executed in the real-time setup of HEIs, the paper has several practical implications. First, the academia and practitioners' collaboration in executing projects adds novelty. Second, the involvement of student teams from project selection to execution brings in practical perspectives alongside the academic education. Several other key lessons learned and benefits of LSS in HEI setup are presented as part of the paper.\nOriginality/value: LSS has been successful in the past few decades in the manufacturing and service sectors. However, its application in HEIs was very nascent, and few researchers even doubted its relevancy of application in HEIs. This study illustrates its importance and application to the higher education sector which is a highly responsible area of the service sector, for imbibing quality excellence, serving as an excellent resource for researchers and higher education professionals.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Perceived efficacy of sustainability strategies in the US, Italian, and Spanish wine industries: A comparative study	[ "Italy", "USA", "Surveys", "Wines", "Spain", "Survey research", "Environment" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The global wine industry, which is composed primarily of small-medium enterprises (SME), has survived numerous environmental jolts during its long evolution in the Old World (Europe) and relatively shorter existence in the New World (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, and the United States). Wine businesses today confront survival threats from the natural world such as rising energy prices, water scarcity, mounting concerns about chemical exposure and climate change (Guthey and Whiteman, 2009; Hertsgaard, 2010). Mitigating these threats involves many different actors and institutions in the winery owner or manager's decision to formalize a business case for sustainability. Stakeholder pressures can drive adoption of sustainable practices, which, in turn, can result in product innovation, pollution prevention and stewardship of natural resources (Berns et al., 2009; Carrillo-Hemosilla et al., 2010).\nLiterature review: Wine industry overview\nMethodology: To collect information on winery sustainability practices, e.g. sustainability defined, potential impacts, strategies, possible challenges and benefits, and the value in environmental practices, a survey instrument was designed based on an adaptation of a sustainable practices questionnaire for CEOs of Fortune 500 global businesses that had earlier been developed and tested by Berns et al. (2009). As the survey instrument was to be administered on-line via Survey Monkey, 16 winery owners who attended the November 2010 Green Wine Summit in Santa Rosa, California, agreed to pre-test the survey in its web-based format upon receiving guarantees of anonymity. Minor adjustments were subsequently made to some questions to increase clarity and understanding and to somewhat reduce questionnaire length. Pre-test results were excluded from the final sample. The questionnaire was translated by the research team members in Italy and Spain. The survey opened in all country locations in late November 2010, closing in late April 2011. Respondents were guaranteed anonymity; completed surveys were kept disguised by a number.\nResults: Sample\nConclusions, implications for practitioners and future research: While prior cross-country studies relating to sustainability strategies in the wine industry have been mixed, a consistent commitment to sustainability was found among wineries from the three countries in this study, USA, Italy and Spain. This cross-country study finds that wineries from all three countries seem very aware of sustainability issues and acknowledge the importance of being environmentally mindful. There were similarities in implementing sustainability in practice - over 50 per cent of the respondents from each country had either been sustainable from the start or had recently adopted sustainable practices, answering our first research question. Wineries across the countries were also consistent in adopting a business case for sustainable practices - with approximately 25 per cent of the respondents from each country indicating their wineries had adopted a business case for sustainable practices. While there can be a number of reasons associated with not adopting a business case, this study did not address the \"why not\" beyond those who had responded that \"they had tried, but adopting a business case was too difficult to develop and continue\" (Gabzdylova et al., 2009; Hughey et al., 2005; Manktelow et al., 2002).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This purpose of this investigation is to compare the perceptions of competitive advantage through cost leadership and differentiation with sustainable practices of wineries from the USA, Italy and Spain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data are collected via self-report web-based surveys in California, Tuscany and Catalonia in 2010-2011 during a severe economic downturn in the wine industry.\nFindings: Of the 260 respondents among the three country samples, over 75 per cent are family-owned and family-managed. Respondents indicate who has implemented a clear business case for an Environmental Management System (EMS) and who has not. Benefits and challenges of implementing sustainability practices are also addressed.\nPractical implications: A comparable percentage of respondents across the three countries indicated a \"clear business case for EMS\". Wineries in all three countries perceive that they have competitive advantage through implementation of EMS and commitment to sustainable practices. Top perceived benefits for respondents from the USA and Italy are focused on cost reduction strategies, while top perceived benefits for Spanish respondents are focused on differentiation strategies.\nOriginality/value: Activities that create competitive advantages for wine businesses in different countries are understudied; this research bridges that gap.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Scoping an agenda for future research into the professions	[ "Globalization", "Legitimacy", "Professions", "Experts", "Tax", "New audit spaces" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The study of the accounting profession looms large in interdisciplinary accounting research, where it is an enduring cornerstone of the field. Many studies have explored the development of the accounting profession, the growth in power and importance of the Big Four accounting firms and the working lives of those employed therein (Anderson Gough et al., 1998, 2000; Grey, 1998; Cooper and Robson, 2006; Suddaby et al., 2007; Seabrooke and Tsingou, 2015). Interdisciplinary accounting's long-standing interest in professions is resonant with the recent reanimation of interest in professions and elites across the social sciences, due in no small part to the rediscovery of the agency of professionals in broader social processes (Arnold, 2005; Carruthers and Halliday, 2009; Dezalay and Garth, 2010; Scott, 2008; Hwang and Powell, 2009). After all, \"professionals and professional service firms are key advisors, analysts, defenders, and developers of the major institutions, such as markets, organizational forms, and business practices, that underpin our economies\" (Muzio et al., 2013, p. 699). Current research within the distinct but related research fields of interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting, sociology of the professions and the professional services firm all seek to explain developments and changes to professions and professional work.\nGlobalisation: Globalisation is one of the master concepts of our times and, rather than being viewed as a \"thing\" or an \"entity\", is best characterised as a process that comprises \"increasing global connectivity and increasing global consciousness\" (Robertson and White, 2007, p. 64). Ritzer (2007) defines globalisation as \"an accelerating set of processes involving flows that encompass ever-greater numbers of the world's spaces and that lead to increasing integration and interconnectivity among those spaces\" (p. 1). The processes of globalisation involve a complex interplay between the national context and transnational environments, which creates local hybrids and forms of institutional duality (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2015). Professions can reflect the broader forces of globalisation set in train from outside of the nation state or remain obdurately on the path dependencies embarked upon historically from within the nation state. Annisette and Trivedi (2013) highlight the latter process vividly in their study of migrant accountants from India struggling to construct careers in Canada; they document how the local professional institute was able to maintain occupational barriers in the face of government migration policy.\nLegitimacy, the state, sensemaking: According to Held et al. (2010) we are living in the age of the hydra-headed crisis, whereby across the spectrum of society various serious challenges are faced. For instance in the context of the UK over the last few decades the city of London, banks, politicians, the media and the police have all experienced major crises (Jones, 2014). The age of deference towards authority and experts is long gone and once trusted professions are treated with scepticism by the public (Mueller et al., 2015). Over two decades ago, Giddens (1990) presciently noted the paradox that as society becomes more reliant on expert systems concomitant is an increasing scepticism towards experts. What Giddens means is that large parts of our lives are mediated through man-made expert systems - for instance, architecture, computer science, aviation, economics, medicine - with which most people will engage while simultaneously having little knowledge. Giddens evinces that allied to this greater reliance on expert systems is a general scepticism about the expert who is in some way a representative of the system[1].\nTax, the Big Four and the state: Addison and Mueller (2015) continue with the theme of state intervention. The site of their study is the Public Accounts Committee of the British House of Commons. In 2013, the Public Accounts Committee launched an investigation into tax avoidance and called various high-profile corporations and the Big Four to Parliament to answer questions about their tax planning activities. The Public Accounts Committee's interest in the topic was widely covered in the media. Tax and the avoidance of it, probably for the first time in a generation, was being framed as a moral issue in the UK (Toynbee and Walker, 2015). Addison and Mueller (2015) seek to understand how the tax advice profession is framed rhetorically. Their study explores the interactions between the committee and the representatives of the Big Four who are called to appear before the committee in their capacity as major providers of tax avoidance advice. Addison and Mueller's analysis reveals two rhetorical frames that stand in stark opposition to one another: first, a negative view of the Big Four whereby \"the Big Four abuse their oligopolistic position and insider knowledge\"; and second, a more positive view of the Big Four whereby \"professionals have to operate within market competition, which highly constrains their actions\". They characterise this as a \"framing contest\" where, \"the competing rhetorical framings allow us to make sense of, or frame, the existing arrangements in very different ways\".\nReform at the revenue: While the previous paper analysed tax as an issue in a public forum, Currie et al. (2015) turn their attention to the British Inland Revenue (HMRC) itself. They present a study of organisational change within the HMRC, which corresponds closely to the central tenets of new public management (NPM). A particular emphasis of the change programme at the HMRC was a drive to make the organisation more customer focused, thus departing from its traditional regulatory emphasis to become \"an enabling organization\". This had direct implications for the tax inspector profession. The focus of Currie et al.'s study is on the role transition that occurred for senior professionals, requiring them to go from senior practitioners to hybrid managers who were able to blend traditional regulatory concerns with a strong customer orientation. The identification of a hybrid has resonances with many other professions that blend different logics (Blomgren and Waks, 2015; Miller et al., 2008; Nooredegraaf, 2015).\nLife in the Big Four: Increasing amounts are known about life in Big Four firms. Anderson-Gough et al. (1998, 2000, 2001, 2006) broke new ground in getting to grips with the working lives of trainee accountants in the north of England. As if on the parade ground of a military barracks, their young, upwardly mobile trainees were heavily socialised into what it was to be a good professional; the importance of serving the client, looking professional and adhering to strict time discipline were instilled in them. Their study told us much about the socialisation process but in spite of its Foucauldian couture, tended towards a conception of power that owed more to its repressive face, rather than the Foucauldian predilection for positive power. The question is why highly marketable individuals choose to stay in an environment that is challenging and sometimes difficult? For instance, in their studies of Sky Accounting, Kornberger et al. (2010, 2011) document the challenging environment for those at manager level in the Big Four.\nSmall time, small town accounting: For entirely understandable reasons most research on contemporary accountants has focused on the Big Four Firms. They are dominant in symbolic and material terms and transcend national boundaries. The story of accounting over the last three decades is arguably the story of the Big Four. If we accept that accounting, following Suddaby (2010), has accrued greater status, it is firmly located in the Big Four. High-street accountants cannot claim similar gains in power. Larson (1993), in her seminal analysis of the North American architecture profession, draws attention to the uneasy co-existence between high end, prestigious architecture firms and small, modest provincial architecture practices. While on many counts the two groups are antipathetic, they also rely on each other: it is useful for a small town architect to be part of the same profession as an award winning, world famous architect while a high-end architect benefits from the profession being present in provincial towns and used on comparatively small jobs. While there is much that divides elite practitioners and their more modest colleagues, on certain topics their interests coalesce.\nThe new professionals?: Thus far, this AAAJ special issue has concerned itself with accountants, Williams and Pollock (2015) venture into the territory of a \"new profession\" or body of expertise in their study of market analysts in the technology sector. Their paper outlines the role of industry analysts who provide research on technology, which is readily consumed by enterprise technology buyers and producers alike. Industry analysts have gained considerable prominence in the technology sector over the last three decades and according to Williams and Pollock are the \"single most important validators of IT products\". Williams and Pollock focus on Gartner, the leading firm in the sector.\nNew audit spaces: The seminal work of Michael Power (1997) demonstrated how the principles of financial audit travelled far beyond the confines of commercial accounting practice. We are now accustomed to a myriad of different types of audits and checking across a range of different domains. Indeed, the creation of new audit spaces has offered considerable scope for the audit profession to expand its jurisdictions further. This can be seen in the fields of sport (Andon et al., 2014), government (Radcliffe, 1998), sustainability (O'Dwyer et al., 2011) and education (Wedlin, 2007).\nConclusion and future directions: Professions play a central role in organising society through the framing of issues and proffering of solutions. The great issues of our time become understood through a range of different forms of professional knowledge. As Suddaby et al. (2015, p. 53) state, \"how claims to professional expertise can be made and who has authority to make them\" are critical issues. This AAAJ special issue seeks to engage with these questions and in doing so presents a panoramic view of the professions in general and accounting more specifically. In this conclusion we will reflect on some central themes for the future study of professions.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper is premised on the understanding that professions remain central means of institutionalising expertise in society. A summary of major issues that are prominent in recent studies of the professions is presented in order to inform the paper's central objective which is to scope out an agenda for future research in the area. The paper aims to discuss this issue.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a desk-based study informed by, but not limited to, the other papers appearing in this special issue.\nFindings: This paper identifies and summarises a number of central themes: globalisation and neo-imperialism, the role of the state in professional projects, the rise of tax avoidance as a moral issue, the implications of tax professionals moving from the public to the private sector, the study of small-scale accounting firms, the rise of new expert groups and the emergence and implications of new audit spaces.\nResearch limitations/implications: The value of this paper is in bringing together a number of important but eclectic themes to scope out an agenda for the future study of the accounting profession and expert labour more broadly. The paper questions whether the term profession is still meaningful in a context where many professions have been re-made in the image of commercialism; it suggests that a focus on experts might be more apposite.\nOriginality/value: In scoping out an agenda this paper calls for greater attention to be paid to: examining the role of experts and their role in some of the major crises of the times; exploring how professions have often undermined their own legitimacy; understanding better the relations between professions and the state; the extent to which the next generation of partners will behave very differently to the current incumbents; the way in which digitalisation opens up new vistas of expertise; and in investigating the position of different expert groups in relation to societal elites. The paper reiterates that major societal issues are framed through various forms of expert knowledge and as a corollary it is essential to engage with experts and the implications of their proposed solutions.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Davenport and Prusak on KM and big data/analytics: interview with David J. Pauleen	[ "Knowledge", "Knowledge management", "Big data", "Analytics", "Business intelligence" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport were at the forefront of the emergence of knowledge management (KM) in the mid-late 1990s. Their book Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (1998) was critical in setting the direction of KM. Their subsequent work, together and separately, encompassed a number of areas related to KM, including storytelling, information ecology, social capital and more. Tom Davenport has more recently published in the areas of analytics and big data, with articles in Harvard Business Review (HBR) and the recent book, Big Data @ Work (2014).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport have long been leading voices in the knowledge management (KM) field. This interview aims to explore their views on the relationship between KM and big data/analytics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An interview was conducted by email with Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport in 2015 and updated in 2016.\nFindings: Prusak and Davenport hold differing views on the role of KM today. They also see the relationship between KM and big data/analytics somewhat differently. Davenport, in particular, has much to say on how big data/analytics can be best utilized by business as well as its potential risks.\nOriginality/value: It is important to understand how two of the most serious KM thinkers since the early years of KM understand the relationship between big data/analytics, KM and organizations. Their views can help shape thinking in these fields.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Sustainability disclosure through virtual community: the case of the wine sector	[ "Sustainability", "Engagement", "Virtual community", "Wine sector" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The increasingly complex challenges that the wine industry has undergone (Civera et al., 2018) and the profound transformations that companies are currently facing (Vrontis et al., 2016; Bresciani, 2017) have generated a change in the nature of innovation, sustainability and responsibility. In the process of corporate sustainability, the guiding principle is the systemic integration of the economic, environmental and social dimensions (Epstein and Roy, 2001; Kleine and Von Hauff, 2009). The key challenge is represented by the need to align the different objectives that emerge from the several perspectives involved in development issues, so as to make sustainability a key element of the company's value proposition and competitiveness (Porter and Kramer, 2011). In fact, sustainability is not a trend but a development line, a \"driver of business\" (Schaltegger et al., 2013) that impacts on the company's business model, processes and products (Hubbard, 2009), as well as on the territory where companies operate (Barile et al., 2016; Saviano, 2016).\nLiterature review of engagement in online communities: In the last decade, managers and researchers have shown interest in the way online communities can stimulate users to engage in more collaborations, promotions and purchases (Algesheimer and Dholakia, 2006; Ma and Agarwal, 2007). Members of an online community benefit from access to more knowledge and experience than can be found in traditional social networks (Constant et al., 1996). Many previous studies have conceptualized online communities as discussion forums for strangers whose identity revolves around professional interests (Chiu et al., 2006; Wasko and Faraj, 2005), specific personal interests (Ma and Agarwal, 2007) or simply one large set of general interests (Bateman et al., 2011). Although interactions occur between subjects who are not bound by particular interpersonal ties, the members nonetheless share a sense of belonging to the community, develop their own rituals and traditions and feel a sense of obligation toward the other members (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). In other words, the creation of a community derives from the need for socialization (relationship community), for access to information of common interest (community of interest) or to satisfy both objectives (learning community). In particular, the CoPs are a \"groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis\" (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 4). In CoPs, members thus have informal relationships, share common practices (Aggarwal et al., 2006) and help each other solve problems. CoPs are formed by knowledge, people, organizational processes and infrastructure (Pan and Leidner, 2003) in which members engage in several initiatives, from problem solving to knowledge sharing (Hew and Hara, 2006). In this sense, members develop a unique perspective on the domain of interest by helping to improve knowledge, procedures and methods (Wenger et al., 2002), create a mutual ground, a mutual intellectual identity (Cortese and Wright, 2018) and a proper community knowledge orientation, made up by theoretical concepts and practical direct experiences which constitute mutual engagement (Chen and Hung, 2010).\nConceptual framework: Research objectives and hypothesis\nMethodology: Sample\nFindings: The factors are interpreted using the correlation matrix for each of the dimensions. The matrix shows the relationship between the decision of share knowledge oriented toward the disclosure of sustainability and economic, social, and environmental motivations.\nDiscussion: Engagement is the key to efficient and effective participation in virtual environments (Ray et al., 2014); when it refers to knowledge sharing, it needs to be nurtured by a motivational system. In this study, the perspective adopted is that the disclosure of sustainability requires a multidimensional approach, around which a model has been built and tested empirically. This type of approach is fundamental in the wine sector, as wine by its nature is multidimensional. It has social values that link to agricultural and production traditions shared by local businesses, the result of rules and trust consolidated over time (Maizza et al., 2017). It includes economic values linked to a process of value creation that simultaneously involves brands and the territory to which they belong (Scorrano et al., 2019). Finally, it takes on environmental value, such as the protection and regeneration of natural resources, as the agricultural vocation of a territory becomes essential to the image of the territory and its products (Maizza et al., 2019).\nConclusion and managerial implication: Engaging stakeholders through a constructive dialog can became an instrument to facilitate sustainability (Seow et al., 2006). The virtual community, as digital innovation, can became a facilitator of dialog if it ensures actor engagement (Storbacka et al., 2016).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to observe how the motivational engagement system of the consumers should be established so that communities of practice became a driver to reducing the informative asymmetries of sustainability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper proposes a conceptual framework called connection, discussion and influence (CDI), along which the motivational dimensions to disclose sustainability can be formed. The framework has been tested on 200 firms in the Italian wine industry. A correlation analysis proved to be suitable for identifying groups of representative variables representing the engagement motivations that characterize participation in sustainability-oriented virtual communities.\nFindings: The findings of this paper suggest that the pro-social behavior represented by the exchange of knowledge oriented toward sustainability is enhanced by the engagement of online community members. This happens when the online community is structured so as to activate a virtuous circle between CDI.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is the interviewees do not actually participate in a virtual community, but have only been asked if they would be potentially interested in participating in one, and about the importance they give to specific motivations.\nPractical implications: The paper provides important reflections for companies operating in the wine industry that have been called to intervene in the disclosure of sustainability.\nOriginality/value: The virtuous circle described here is the main contribution of the paper, as it can serve as a driver for managers of virtual communities that choose to disclose their idea of sustainability to reduce informative asymmetries and to engage consumers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Experiential learning - its place in in-house education and training	[ "Experiential learning", "Workplace learning", "Education", "Training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Enterprises must be interested in the quality of their products and services, so as to become competitive and prosperous. In order to achieve this, they have to decide on the appropriate workforce. In addition, given that in the modern context of globalization, changes are made in a fast and decisive way, enterprises should offer continuing education to their workforce, so that employees meet the requirements of social and technological changes.By the term \"in-house training\", we refer to the training offered within an enterprise, which completes and promotes the professional qualifications and skill of employees, in combination with the need to reform/upgrade the operations and products of the enterprise or firm.The present essay tries to determine the concept of experiential learning, the reasons for using experiential learning, as well as proposing that the educational methods by which adults learn should be based more on their experiences to enable them to participate more effectively in the development of their own in-house education programs.\n2. The meaning of experiential learning: In its simplest form, experiential learning is learning achieved through the appropriate use of experience. In other words, experiential learning is a form of learning by doing.In an attempt to give a definition of experiential learning, we would say that it is a process by which learners are invited to live and conscientiously understand their own reflections, feelings, actions and reactions to a particular situation. This can be achieved either by simply sharing one of their experiences relating to a cognitive object or by participating in the representation of a given situation - real or imaginary - which is introduced by the educator in the form of a fact or incident, etc. and which is offered, so that participants can understand more deeply all parameters of the situation and develop their relevant abilities.According to the theoretical model of Lewin, learning, change and development are better promoted through a process, which begins from an \"experience\" and is followed by the collection of data and observations derived from this experience. Then, these data are analyzed and conclusions are used as feedback for those individuals who lived the experience, so that they change their behavior and choose new experiences.\n3. Reasons for using experiential learning in in-house education and training: The reasons that make in-house education and training of employees necessary are related both to the external and the internal environment of an enterprise. In particular, these reasons are the following:* Continuous advances in technology - that require new knowledge, new skills and application of new methods and processes to perform work.* Divergence between theory and practice - which characterizes the Greek educational system.* Mergers and acquisitions of enterprises - that require new job positions, new organizational culture and different content of work.* Changes in working methods - with which various in-house problems are dealt.* Continuous change in conditions - that requires job positions with a new or even a different content (for quality, variety, personal service and new products or services).* Redesigning of operations and organizational changes - that require new competencies, increased duties, a different and a new content of work.\n4. Educational methods of experiential learning: For the effective application of experiential learning principles, the active involvement of learners in all stages of the learning process is essential in order for them to be led both to practice and reflection on what they have done).a. Educational techniques conducted in class\n5. Conclusions: Experiential learning forms a key tool by which it is possible to achieve the goals and objectives of in-house education and training. It is based on the fact that learners make use of their experiences and with the contribution of appropriate participative educational techniques, it provides opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that can be related to real working and social environments.Planning educational activities through experiential learning is a laborious process that requires particular attention in order not only to make activities effective, but also to provide learners with strong and useful experiences. Experiences should be accompanied by appropriate reflection, which in turn should lead to new experiences and consequently to a new learning cycle.Especially in the field of in-house development activity, the greatest advantage of experiential learning is the sharing of knowledge, as adults have important and varied experiences, which, if used in an appropriate way, can offer all participants a wide range of opportunities to learn, regardless of their sex, age, working environment, socio-economic and cultural characteristics.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Intense competition, rapid technological changes and modern aspects of management force any enterprise to put emphasis on their personnel and invest in their training and education. In terms of in-house education and training, experiential learning is chosen to be analyzed in this particular paper. The paper aims to present experiential methods developed by trainers during the process of carrying out in-house training programs with the aim of motivating trainees to learn through participative experiences and simultaneously adopt for their part another way of thought, action or behavior. It also seeks to examine the reasons why experiential learning is important and the conditions under which this kind of knowledge can be effective.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper presents a general review of a range of experiential learning methods.\nFindings: - The paper results in a useful checklist for developers and trainers to assess the level of experiential learning they are currently offering.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides definitions of the three types of experiential learning and identifies the key reasons for including these types of developmental activities in any trainers portfolio of approaches.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Hypertension and diabetes management: a policy perspective from Ghana	[ "Diabetes", "Ghana", "Management", "Policy implementation", "Hypertension", "Policy formulation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Health policy researchers in Africa have paid considerable attention to the content of health policies and their impact on societies, but little research has addressed the process of policy development and implementation (Omar et al., 2010). While the technical suitability or appropriateness of the content of health policies is important, it is also essential to consider health policy processes themselves as these affect health program choice and implementation (Agyepong and Adjei, 2008). To some researchers, the policy development process is as crucial as the content of policies since this affects subsequent decision making and actions, and may determine the effectiveness of policies once introduced (Sutton, 1999).\nConceptual underpinnings: health policy, policy formulation and policy implementation: Managing HT and DM calls for the adoption of appropriate health policies. Health policy denotes \"courses of action that affect that set of institutions, organizations, services and funding arrangements of the health care system in a country\" (Palmer and Short, 1994, p. 23). Health policies therefore encapsulate actions or desired actions taken by public, private or voluntary organizations that impinge on the health of a population. According to Palmer and Short (1994), health policy is distinct from other policies because of the unique role and influence of the medical profession, the complexity of health service provision and the difficulty in differentiating good health services from poor services. Health policy, however, only exists within the wider context of public policy generally, particularly economic and social policy.\nThe context of health policy formulation and implementation in Ghana: In the 1980s, Ghana began work on a general health sector reform, key aspect of this being decentralization of health systems. Sakyi's (2008) evaluation suggested that the decentralization process was evident in the rearrangement of the internal systems of the health sector as a response to over-centralization in the governmental apparatus. However, it was not until 1997 that the current policy arrangement underpinned by this decentralization process was fully implemented. The passage of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Teaching Hospitals Act, 1996 (Act 525), was integral to this change. As part of the decentralization scheme, the primary responsibilities of the MOH were the formulation of policy and the determination of priorities for the health sector while the GHS was to take responsibility for the development of implementation guidelines for the regions and districts (Bossert et al., 2000). Thus, the MOH, which prior to the decentralization policy was responsible for both policy formulation and implementation, delegated powers and functions to the newly established GHS, which took charge of implementation of policies formulated by the MOH. This arrangement underpins the formulation and implementation of all health policies in Ghana including policies for managing HT and DM. This study assesses how policies for managing HT and DM have been developed and implemented in Ghana.\nResearch methods: Study design\nFindings of the study: Characteristics of the sample\nPolicy development: How the process starts\nPolicy implementation: Participants explained that the mandate of the MOH ends at policy formulation as policy implementation rests with the agencies and especially the GHS. The GHS is responsible for preparing the implementation plan, with representatives from other agencies also involved. However, for MOH respondents, this is a major challenge that hinders implementation. A respondent from the MOH explained:You know, since the ministry's mandate ends at formulation, the agencies are then supposed to fix the implementation aspect and do the implementation plan and work with it. That is where the gap is, policy and practice. You see, how can the MOH formulate a policy and does not do much in implementation. The implementation drops [...] and that link is weak.\nPolicy response: The findings suggest that policy responses can be summarized into five categories: policies and resolutions; NCD control program; funding; education; and treatment (see Table III). All nine policy makers interviewed stated that the requisite policies have been developed for managing HT and DM in Ghana. Documentary evidence show that an NCD policy was drafted in 2012, and an NCD strategy which provides the overall roadmap for HT/DM management and other NCDs in Ghana followed shortly. Other policies and regulations have been enacted to manage risk factors. Tobacco Control Regulations (Legislative Instrument 2247) and Smoking Cessation Clinical Guidelines (Government of Ghana, 2016) were launched in May 2017; a National Alcohol Policy has been launched to regulate the production, distribution, sale and consumption of alcohol (MOH, 2016); and a Nutrition Policy has been established to scale-up evidence-based nutrition interventions for managing HT/DM and other conditions (MOH/GHS, 2013). The findings reveal that Ghana has adopted and ratified several national and international policies and resolutions in order to respond effectively to NCDs (MOH, 2012) as shown in Table III.\nDiscussion: Study participants connected the agenda-setting process to health needs, implying that HT and DM agenda has been influenced by the rising disease burden and the need to control these conditions. This is consistent with what prevails in other countries such as Uganda, where issues on the health agenda are usually propelled by the need to address significant gaps in routine performance (Omar et al., 2010). In Liberia and Burundi, the health policy agenda is influenced by pressure from opposition parties, often resulting in hasty decisions by leaders (Meessen et al., 2011). Agenda-setting on health policies has also been influenced by pressure from public opinion as recorded in Zambia (Omar et al., 2010), and the role played by international donor agencies, as was the case in Liberia, where such agencies are very influential (Meessen et al., 2011). Since donor agencies rarely focus on HT/DM and chronic diseases, most African countries are yet to prioritize chronic disease management on the health agenda (Aikins et al., 2010).\nStrengths/limitations of the study: The use of interviews, documents and focus groups in this study enabled triangulation of information, giving credibility to the findings of the study. However, the study focuses only on the views of a few respondents from selected stakeholder organizations. There are, however, several stakeholders in the management of HT and DM who, for purposes of time and resources, were not considered but whose input could have illuminated study findings and conclusions. Therefore, generalizations and conclusions from this study must be made with caution.\nConclusion: This study was conducted to examine policy and response to the management of HT/DM from the perspective of the Ghanaian health sector. The responses of the 44 participants from different stakeholder categories and data from documents show broad issues on HT/DM policy development, implementation and response effort. Some key lessons and implications are worth noting.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess policy and management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors conducted 26 key informant interviews with policy makers, payers, providers and participants from advocacy groups associated with the management of hypertension and diabetes both at national and district levels in Ghana; conducted focus group discussions with a total of 18 hypertensive and diabetic patients; and analyzed documentation detailing activities that have been undertaken in response to the management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana. The authors then conducted a content analysis after combining the three sources of information.\nFindings: Using a stepwise policy process, the Ghanaian health sector has developed overarching policies and strategies on management of diabetes, hypertension, other non-communicable diseases, tobacco, alcohol and nutrition-related issues. Availability of funds and over-concentration on communicable diseases are the main barriers to the implementation of policies. Besides, response of the health sector to address the problems of hypertension and diabetes is focused more on clinical management than prevention; while the structures and processes to manage diabetes and hypertension is available at all levels of service delivery, more needs to be done on preventive aspects.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study in Ghana to combine individual interviews, focus groups and document analysis to review policy development, implementation and response activities on the management of hypertension and diabetes. The authors believe that the evidence from this research will inform future policy initiatives on hypertension and diabetes management in Ghana.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
An instrument for the self-appraisal of scientific research performance	[ "Measurement", "Research", "Performance appraisal", "Scientific management" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Performance evaluation systems include elements such as appraisal measures and approaches for analyzing results which help in determining progress towards predefined objectives and assist in identifying areas for future improvement (Purbey et al., 2007). As an element of performance evaluation systems, the use of multi-source feedback (including self-appraisals of performance) in the USA and the UK is growing (Fletcher and Baldry, 2000), while expanding the use of such systems in developing economies is also under consideration (Costigan et al., 2005). Despite this apparent increase in the use of multi-source feedback there is some reluctance in the use of self evaluation of ability which has evolved from historical beliefs that individuals may lack the objectivity and reliability needed to provide information on their own ability, and where self-appraisals are provided, they may be subject to considerable error due to a respondents desire for self-enhancement (DeNisi and Shaw, 1977; Levine et al., 1977). More recent studies across various cultural groups still report quite poor levels of agreement between self and peers or supervisors ratings of job performance (Costigan et al., 2005; Jaramillo et al., 2005), which serves to reinforce such views. Additionally examination of the correlation between self-appraisals of performance and more \"objective\" measures of performance have also shown poor correlations (Pransky et al., 2006).While results are generally consistent in their findings of low to moderate correlations between self and others ratings it is important to recognise some of the limitation of many of these studies. The issue of restricted range is an important one. As measure variance increases so to will the correlations between the measures increase. This suggests the need for representative or random sampling in studies examining the relationship between self and other ratings. Unfortunately such selection techniques are infrequently used (Mabe and West, 1982). Other consideration such as the reliability of measures used, personal factors of the participants, such as intelligence levels, achievement status, and locus of control have also been found to influence the perceived accuracy of self-appraisals (Mabe and West, 1982). Additional factors such as lack of public information, the identification verses anonymity of the rater, poor self esteem, and the degree of likelihood that a favourable self-report will lead to personal gain, are also thought to influence the likelihood of self-enhancements, and consequently contribute to low inter-rater reliabilities (Schlenker, 1980).Despite these concerns the uses of self-appraisal systems continue, and the value of including self-appraisal data as part the larger performance appraisal system is encouraged (Abu-Doleh and Weir, 2007). In addition to the evaluative purposes to which self-appraisals of work performance are put there is a growing secondary use as developmental tools. Increasingly researchers are highlighting the importance of incorporating self-appraisal data into the performance management systems employed in organisations.Performance evaluation systems are a fundamental component of the application of human resource processes (Smith et al., 1996). Campbell and Lee (1988) argue that utilising self-appraisals as developmental tools will improve job performance. Indeed the use of \"360-degree\" feedback from peers, superiors and subordinates can act as crucial contributors to an individuals diagnosis of their developmental needs (Parry and Sinha, 2005; Van Der Heijden and Nijhof, 2004). While the process of self assessment in and of itself may not lead to direct performance improvement (Andersen et al., 2004), the success of employee development is based on effective needs assessment, and effective use of self-appraisal systems contributes significantly to that assessment (Alimo-Metcalfe and Lawler, 2001; Parry and Sinha, 2005))Evaluating research performance\nMethodology: Measurement construction\nConclusion: The current study presents a measure of research performance based on a scientist's self-appraisal of their research profile and performance. The development of this instrument originated from a need for a measure of research performance that would allow for the comparison of individual scientific performance between individuals and across scientific disciplines, and as such it met these requirements. Initial findings, though limited, offer some evidence of the SARPP as a valid self-appraisal tool.The instrument is reported to have reasonable face validity and has been found to exhibit moderate criterion validity and representative reliability within the limits of its examination. Results are in line with reported examinations of the relationship between self-report measures of performance and objective performance criteria (Jaramillo et al., 2005).Participant feedback on the use of the instrument has been positive, with possible future uses including professional development planning for research scientists, organisational development for research institutions, as well its use as a convenient measure of individual research performance for non-critical research purposes, as was originally intended. It is important to recognise that depending on whether they are used for the purposes of performance evaluation, development or purely for research purposes error and bias may be more or less likely in self-report evaluations of performance feedback (London and Wohlers, 1991). As identified in the literature review, the success of employee development is based on effective needs assessment, and effective use of self-appraisal systems contribute significantly to that assessment (Alimo-Metcalfe and Lawler, 2001; Parry and Sinha, 2005). Results from the current study suggest that the SARPP could be usefully employed as a tool in the collection of data to support needs assessment and personnel development. Even allowing for possible bias and error in the self-appraisal process its use as a basis for discussion on performance issues still highlights its value (Inderrieden et al., 2004), and the use of such measures in facilitating performance feedback and assisting in the establishment of future goals that can result in performance improvements (Stansfield and Longenecker, 2006).It should also be noted that many of the intervening variables that are thought to moderate the relative accuracy of self-report measures of performance are of particular interest when considering a sample of research scientists. For example, relative accuracy in assessing ability has been linked with experience in the evaluation of that ability (Hodgson and Cramer, 1977). Evaluation of research in the form of the peer review process is a common occurrence for research scientists and is likely to lead to an improved ability to self-appraise performance. Similarly Mabe and West (1982) suggest that factors such as intelligence, which is expected to be high among a population of predominantly PhD qualified participants, should increase the likelihood of accurate self-appraisals.Weakness of the SARPP should not be overlooked. While the instrument may serve as a focus for reflection and self-evaluation it must be recognised that ratings on their own do not communicate sufficiently detailed information to guide performance improvements. In order for development to be likely, participants in the evaluation need to recognise specific shortcomings or weaknesses and where changes need to occur (Van Der Heijden and Nijhof, 2004). With this in mind the SARPP may be useful as one aspect of a self-appraisal system that more completely looks at scientists performance across a number of important work areas and responsibilities. Thus allowing for greater flexibility in accounting for variables relating to individual differences, such as personal circumstances, differing research styles, differing research methods and strategies within and between disciplines, and a disciplines dependence on funding (Wood, 1990).The correlation of aggregated SARPP scores with RAE departmental scores in this study is also problematic as it does not allow for the examination of relationships at the level of the individual for which the instrument is most likely to be used. Further research is encouraged, to examine individual responses to the SARPP and objective performance criteria, as well as the examination of paired self and supervisor ratings, and self and peer ratings on the SARPP. Importantly this will allow for comparisons of self and others ratings at the institutional, national and international levels; only international level ratings were able to be examined in any meaningful way in the current study.The cultural context in which the current data is collected is also important. The scientific community is generally viewed as an international community. However, the majority of participants in the current study have come from a single national group and further research is necessary to determine if scientists from differing nations vary in the relative accuracy of their self-appraisals.It should also be noted that the original 13 participants whose communications and conversations were utilised in the initial development of the SARPP were all scientists. As such their thoughts and perspectives on issues of performance measurement in science can be seen to come from a distinctly \"scientific\" perspective. There are of course other stakeholders interested in the performance of scientists and science and this measure does not purport to measure their perspective on performance in science. This relatively narrow focus is both a strength and weakness of the proposed instrument in that it offers a measure uniquely focused on scientists' perception of performance criteria while ignoring the performance criteria that other stakeholders in the science domain might view as important. While the instrument is limited in scope and focus it is hoped that it can contribute in a useful way to performance appraisal systems for scientists. It is also hoped that this instrument will stimulate further interest in the development of additional measurement approaches to supplement a more complete appraisal system for research scientists.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to present findings related to an instrument for the self-appraisal of scientists' research performance, and highlight the suitability of self-appraisal instruments for members of the scientific community.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - An examination of the literature on self-appraisal and the measurement of scientific research is presented. The initial development of the instrument employed qualitative methods through interview and discussions with PhD-qualified scientific researchers (n=13). A quantitative investigation of the usefulness of the instrument was then conducted on a sample of biological and chemical research scientists (n=270). Results were compared with an existing performance measure and examined for representative reliability.\nFindings: - Results suggest that the instrument may be a reliable measure of research performance when used in a non-critical context.\nResearch limitations/implications: - While the instrument shows promise, further research is needed to examine aspects of inter-rater reliability. Additional research is also needed to further examine relationships between it and other measures of research performance at the same level of analysis. While the usefulness and validity of this instrument at the \"international level\" has been examined, further research is needed to examine the relative validity and reliability of the instrument at the \"institutional\" and \"national\" levels.\nPractical implications: - The instrument provides a useful and cost-effective tool for use in the performance appraisal process of research scientists, and for use in focusing discussion on performance for developmental purposes. It is also useful as a research tool for the timely and cost-effective measurement of research performance at an institutional, national and international level.\nOriginality/value: - The paper presents an original paper and pencil instrument for the appraisal of scientific research performance at an institutional, national, and international level.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Microenterprises: how they interact with public procurement processes	[ "Public procurement", "Small to medium‐sized enterprises", "Ireland", "Public sector organizations", "Channel relationships" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: At the global level scholars and policy makers increasingly debate the barriers and opportunities for small firms to participate in and contest public procurement markets (Kidalov and Snider, 2011). The rationale for improving access to small and medium enterprises (SME) lies in their ability to create employment and provide innovative solutions in the form of novel processes and products (McKevitt et al. 2012). The importance of small firms to the European Union (EU) in general and to Ireland specifically is beyond question. For example 99 per cent of all European businesses are, in fact, small, medium- enterprises.Although greater access to public markets by small firms is widely espoused (DoF, 2010; DETE, 2009NPS, 2012) it is unclear how a policy goal of value for money conflicts with this (DoF, 2005). For example the current literature suggests small firms experience barriers with the tender process. Tendering is a critical albeit intermediary step in a three-step public procurement process. How small suppliers interact with the process, and whether interaction is associated with bid outcomes is less understood. The remainder of the article is structured as follows. First a process-view of the public procurement process is outlined. This suggests existing literature is limited in range given the problem domain is defined as transactional-tendering to the exclusion of relational-engagement between buyers and sellers. It is argued that in order to advance the research agenda a process view of public procurement and how small firms interact with the process is necessary. Second, the methods section documents the decisions taken in the design of the research. This includes the development of a questionnaire that captures the procurement process from the perspective of suppliers. The collection and analysis of data supports the claim that micro enterprises interact with procurement processes in different ways, and that interaction patterns are assocated with bid outcomes. Finally we present our findings as a typology of four interaction patterns and discuss the implications of the research.\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Public procurement process\n3. Method: Detailed information about the larger project from which the data reported here are drawn is provided in National Procurement Service (2012). We provide a brief summary here. In 2012 we collected data from micro-enterprises using the standard EU definition (European Commission, 2005).3.1 Sample\n4. Results: Key objectives of the research were to explore how microenterprises interact with the public procurement process and to determine whether interaction patterns are associated with different bid outcomes.Data were subjected to principal components analysis (PCA) using SPSS v. 18. All measures were tested for internal consistency and all Cronbach alphas exceeded the 0.70 level recommended by Nunnally (1978). The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin value was 0.78, exceeding the recommended value of 0.6 (Kaiser, 1970, 1974) and the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity (Bartlett, 1954) reached statistical significance, supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix.Factors were determined using a combination of decision rules: Theoretical rationale, eigenvalues greater than 1, the scree plot, and high loadings with the absence of cross loadings (Ford et al., 1986). A scree test was performed and this also supported a three-factor solution.To aid interpretation of the three components, Varimax rotation was performed. The three-component solution explained a total of 72 per cent of the variance, with Component 1 (27 per cent), Component 2 (25 per cent) and finally, Component 3 (21 per cent). Extracted factors were examined and named based on an analysis of the instrument items, which loaded on each one (Table III).Component 1, the variables satisfying evaluation criteria to receiving feedback on submitted bids appear as a group. Component 2 is most strongly related to the set of variables influencing buyer needs prior to tender to promoting goods and services prior to tender. Finally Component 3 has a group of variables including receiving performance appraisal from the buyer throughout the contract phase to receiving feedback on submitted bids. Therefore the first component has high loadings on questions related to reacting to tenders, the second component focused on influencing buyer needs prior to tender publication whereas the third component is most likely incumbent suppliers who prioritise delivery of contract conditions and feedback.In order to answer RQ1 the final cluster centres contained variables in z-scores. These were computed as the mean for each variable within each final cluster (Table IV). The final cluster centres reflect the characteristics of the typical case for each cluster. There were significant relationships between the clusters and six independent variables (Table V). A typology is used to categorise each of the four clusters and explore the similarities and differences of interactions with public procurement processes (Figure 4). Interaction patterns are explained borrowing from dating parlance.Third wheel (n=245) is a metaphor for an individual whose presence is perfunctory to a couple. Firms are characterised by below average - and negative - scores for the three factors. Key characteristics of the cluster was the dominance of construction firms and sole traders. The cluster had the highest percentage of respondents for whom bidding was a minor role (44 per cent) Likewise relevance and experience of bidding to their role was low. The negative coefficient for reactivity (-1.52) may relate to the fact that below threshold contracts dominated the cluster, 46 per cent of all contracts were below the 25,000-euro threshold. Below threshold contracts do not have to be advertised on eTenders and instead buyers can solicit quotes from a range of suppliers.Speed date (n=508) is a mechanism for like-minded individuals to meet many potential partners in a short period of time. The firms' display above average pro-activity (0.73) and moderate complacency (0.47). The cluster was dominated by limited liability companies and healthcare firms. In contrast to \"third wheels\" proactive engagement is evident by participation in meet the buyer events and reduced preference for below threshold contracts. The ability to engage with the public sector may be explained by experience of bidding and responsibility for bid management resting with teams as well as this being a major/sole part of an individual's role.Casual date (n=355) is getting to know a new person without a commitment to not meet others. Individuals rated the managing existing contracts (0.50) of equal importance to reacting to new opportunities (0.50).Proactive engagement given below average importance (-1.03). For example only 5 per cent of firms attended meet the buyer events. The experience and organisation of bidding was similar to speed dates however the high weighting of complacency suggests the presence of incumbent suppliers. Therefore priorities for this cluster was perhaps to perform according to existing contract provisions and react in order to maintain supply contracts. The percentage of new firms may explain why cluster 3 were less complacent than cluster 2.Blind date (n=273) is positive response to an invitation to interact with a person unknown. For example reacting to tenders (0.62) and proactive engagement was second only to speed dates (0.25). The conditions that support proactive engagement are similar to speed dates with responsibility for bidding resting with teams in addition to bidding being a major/sole part of his or her role.In order to answer RQ2, we evaluated differences among the four clusters on median bids successfully competed for in the last three years. A Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted to correct for tied ranks, this was significant X2 (3, N=1381)=9.250, p<0.05. Therefore the null hypothesis of equal medians cannot be retained. Inspection of Table VI reveals that cluster 4 had the highest score followed by cluster 2.Follow-up tests were conducted to evaluate pair-wise differences among the four clusters, controlling for Type I error. The results of these tests indicated a significant difference between cluster 1 and 2* and 1 and 4**. The median difference in the number of bids successfully competed was greater for speed dates (cluster 2) than third wheels (cluster 1) and for cluster 4 (Blind dates) than third wheels (cluster 1).The first claim is that being proactive and complacent (speed date) is better than being neither (third wheel). Speed dates included relatively inexperienced firms, who are willing to market themselves through proactive engagement with buyers. Hence the prospect of a contract may come via recommendation through other buyers.The second claim is that to be reactive and proactive (blind date) is better than being neither (third wheel). Blind dates reacts to opportunities including tender alerts via portals. Although the initial interaction may be through a formal tender or \"blind date\" the prospect of a long-term relationship or marriage is better than not reacting at all.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The purpose of this research was to provide a better understanding of how small firms interact with public procurement systems. Our model of the public procurement process and how micro-enterprises interact with this process provided much needed conceptual clarity. This paper demonstrates that the problem must be first viewed as a process of buyer seller interaction at the dyadic level.Our study supports and extends the argument that - even within a sub class - of small firms are not a homogenous group (Martin and Staines, 1994) and illustrate that small firms use divergent strategies when competing for procurement contracts. It is therefore important for small suppliers to view procurement as a process rather than a tendering exercise. Clearly buyer-seller frictions remain despite the fact that the purchasing and marketing are basically comparable activities, facilitating exchange transactions and relationships with external parties (Biemans and Brand, 2006). That marketing or pre-tender engagement is a deficiency experienced by micro-enterprises is, however, a cause for concern.For public buyers and managers pre-tender engagement may facilitate the proactive identification and selection of appropriate suppliers, what is known as reverse marketing (Leenders and Blenkhorn, 1988). However to be effective SMEs need to move beyond the tendency to use reactive marketing (Carson and Gilmore, 2000). However micro-enterprises in particular may have limited scope to pick and choose strategies for engagement and have limited influence over procurement processes. While the existing literature maybe buyer-centric it must be acknowledged too that buyers and their respective organisations create the conditions necessary for pre-market engagement. As such it is important to be alert to how buyers interact at the dyadic level. The lack of engagement may be reflective of buyers as much as a deficiency of small suppliers. The evolution of EU procurement and a current trend in Ireland toward frameworks suggests a displacement of close relationships in favour of arm's length \"transactional\" approaches. It should be noted too that underlying social relations are still important especially once contracts are awarded. This creates considerable tension in procurement processes[1].Governments across the EU fund training to help up-skill small firms. However third-party training interventions focus on stage two of the procurement cycle, i.e. the completion of bid documents. As our research demonstrates completing bid documentation is only one part of the procurement process. As such there are currently knowledge gaps that may be addressed in training seminars and also gaps in supplier skills (what to do) and competence (how do to it). Therefore existing supports appear inadequate to help close the gaps in buyer-supplier engagement. Moreover, existing procurement competency frameworks do not address buyer-supplier engagement. Taken together, the evidence suggests a different support is required to develop buyer-supplier engagement. Further research could assess the potential for buyer-supplier mentoring. There is merit to further explore how and to what extent the process and outcomes of mentoring may remedy current weaknesses in buyer-supplier engagement.The research has a number of limitations. Although the number of respondents is larger than comparable studies the small firms studied are domiciled in Ireland and the use of a non-probability sample makes the generalisability of the findings limited. Whether the sample deviates from the population in relevant variables should also be borne in mind. The scope of our study is restricted to micro-enterprises only. The measure of success used in our instrument was self-reported and thus may suffer from respondent bias. It is also important to state that while the patterns we observed in the data are robust we cannot definitively say \"why\" small firms behave in different ways. The clusters may simply be picking up the fact that supplier behaviour varies because procurement practices in the public sector vary between types of products and services. Deterministic modelling should be used in future studies to isolate and measure the effects of buyer supplier interaction.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to explore how micro-enterprises interact with public procurement systems. The paper seeks to give public procurement managers a better understanding of how micro-enterprises approach the procurement process.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The sample consists of microenterprises competing for public procurement contracts in Ireland. The data are firstly submitted to principal component analysis to identify a set of factors that represent the public procurement process. This is later used to create four distinct clusters which describe how suppliers interact with the process.\nFindings: - A typology of four interaction patterns is generated from the data. This shows that small firms weight the three phases of the procurement process differently. The data support and extend the argument that small firms are not a homogeneous group and illustrate that small firms use divergent strategies when competing for procurement contracts.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The practical implications of the research include the need to assess the potential for buyer-supplier mentoring in order to develop relational competency in public procurement. The firms investigated are domiciled in Ireland and therefore generalisability of the findings may be limited. The scope of the study is restricted to micro-enterprises only.\nOriginality/value: - The paper demonstrates that pre-tender engagement is a necessary condition for small suppliers to achieve above average bid outcomes. The paper offers insights to public buyers, teams and managers as to the importance of engaging with suppliers to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Safety education impact and good practice: a review	[ "Safety education", "Injuries", "Children", "Review", "Safety", "Safety training" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children aged 5 to 19 years in Europe (World Health Organisation, 2008; World Health Organisation, 2010). Moreover, they are a major cause of ill health and disability (British Medical Association, 2001; World Health Organisation, 2010). However, not all children are at equal risk, as the magnitude of this public health problem varies considerably according to the risk factors of socio-economic group, age, gender, cultural and ethnic group, and country and neighbourhood (Roberts et al., 1998; Department of Health, 2004; Towner et al., 2005; Laflamme et al., 2009). The great variations in injury rates between these different groups are but one reason for suggesting that there is scope for improvement (Towner et al., 2005).Injury prevention activities can be categorized into three general approaches; education, environmental modification and enforcement (Cliff, 1984; Christoffel and Gallagher, 1999). These approaches can be targeted at whole populations or groups in particular settings or at high risk individuals. A number of reviews have evaluated the effect of safety education on injury prevention (for example, Turner et al., 2004; Kendrick et al., 2007; Duperrex et al., 2009; Shah et al., 2009). However, these reviews have focused either on particular injury mechanisms such as dog bites or on injuries in particular settings such as the home.In January 2008 McWhirter (2008) published a review of evidence that assessed the contribution that safety education could make to help children and young people to stay safe primarily in formal educational institutions (www.rospa.com/safetyeducation/policy/Info/review-se-report.pdf). This review of safety education was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now Department for Education) and published jointly by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Personal Social Health & Economic education (PSHE) Association. The review generated ten principles for effective practice which were developed using both the evidence reviewed and well known theories.McWhirter's (2008) ten guiding principles of effective safety education are:1. Encourage the adoption of, or reinforce, a whole school approach, within the wider community.2. Use active approaches to teaching and learning (including interactive and experiential learning).3. Involve young people in real decisions to help them stay safe.4. Assess children and young people's learning needs.5. Teach safety as part of a comprehensive personal social and health curriculum.6. Use realistic and relevant settings and resources.7. Work in partnership.8. Address known risk and protective factors.9. Address psychosocial aspects of safety, e.g. confidence, resilience, self esteem, self efficacy.10. Adopt positive approaches which model and reward safe behaviour, within a safe, supportive environment.The principles are in line both with a seminal document of the new public health, the World Health Organization's Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (World Health Organisation, 1986) and health promotion theory (Ewles and Simnet, 2003; Tones and Green, 2004; Davies and Macdowall, 2006).In this paper, McWhirter's (2008) review is updated and the relevance of the ten principles to the final set of included studies is considered. The aim of the literature review was to search for recent evidence of the impact of safety education for children and young people provided in schools, safety centres and in other settings on unintentional injury rates and also on changes in knowledge, behaviour, risk and skills in terms of injury avoidance.The objectives were to:* Identify evidence of the impact of safety education offered to children and young people in schools, safety centres and other settings on unintentional injury rates.* Identify evidence of the impact of safety education for unintentional injuries offered to children and young people on change in knowledge, behaviour, risk and skills to avoid an injury.* Identify examples of good practice of unintentional injury safety education provision for children and young people in schools, centres and other settings, where good practice is defined as relating to the 10 principles of practical safety education.* Identify examples of good practice of evaluation of unintentional injury safety education provision for children and young people in schools, centres and other settings.\n2. Methods: For this review, studies of interest involved participants aged 18 years and under who received safety education for unintentional injuries and where the effects of the education are evaluated. The safety education was delivered in schools, safety centres, and other similar appropriate settings. The primary outcome of interest was unintentional injury rates. Secondary outcomes of interest were a change in knowledge, behaviour, attitude, risk and skills for avoiding unintentional injuries and measures used to assess these outcomes. Only literature published in English was included in this review.Study designs of relevance to the review included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-RCTs (e.g. quasi-randomised controlled trials), controlled before and-after studies (CBAs) and observational and cohort studies. The following databases were searched: Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, ERIC, British Education Index, PsycINFO, Harbour View Injury Prevention and Research Center and the Cochrane library. Search terms used included categories for participants, interventions and outcomes. The search string used for database searches was (children/young people) AND (safety education/programmes) AND (evaluation/assessment/effectiveness) AND (knowledge/behaviour/attitudes/risk/skill)) OR (injury rates). Search terms used were adjusted according to the database searched.\n3. Results: A total of 495 titles were found from the initial search and imported into a reference manager programme (see Figure 1). Following a scan of titles and abstracts and deletion of further duplicates, 76 papers remained and were considered of potential relevance. Following a more detailed assessment of these 76 papers, 11 papers were considered relevant and retained. One of the 11 papers (Collard et al., 2010) described a study of interest but the results had not been published at that stage so a search for this particular paper was performed later. Thus a total of 12 papers were included in the review. The papers are summarized in Table I, and limitations of the studies and the generalisability of the findings to the UK are considered. The 12 papers were grouped according to objective and are discussed in greater detail in the following sections.3.1 Objective 1\n4. Conclusions: This literature review aimed to identify evidence of the impact of safety education offered to children and young people in schools, safety centres and other settings on unintentional injury rates and on change in knowledge, behaviour, risk, and skills. In addition the review aimed to identify examples of good practice of unintentional injury safety education provision and evaluation for children and young people in schools, centres and other settings.A total of 12 papers were included in the review. The included papers cover a range of topics including home safety and use of all terrain vehicles; pedestrian safety was the most common topic. While the majority of papers described the effect of an intervention on injury prevention, several described the development of an injury prevention programme and one provided an overview of pedestrian injury prevention programmes.In terms of the objectives, no papers provided evidence of the impact of safety education on injury rates. Seven papers provided evidence of the impact of safety education on knowledge, behaviour, risk and skills. The results from these papers show that safety education does increase children's safety knowledge (Blake et al., 2008; Hotz et al., 2009a). In terms of pedestrian safety training younger children show a greater increase in knowledge post training than older children. Safety education changed children's behaviour with children receiving training more likely to demonstrate safe home-based and pedestrian behaviours than children not receiving training (Bart et al., 2008; Kennedy and Chen, 2009). However, increased knowledge as a result of training did not always translate into a change in behaviour (Collard et al., 2010) and safety education was not shown to change risk taking behaviour in children (Kennedy and Chen, 2009).Evaluation of safety education is frequently reported as a change in knowledge (Hotz et al., 2009a; Kennedy and Chen, 2009; Collard et al., 2010) or self reported behaviours (Collard et al., 2010) assessed using questionnaires. Assessing observed behaviour in a real situation post education is likely to more accurately reflect children's behaviour; Blake et al. (2008) asked children to demonstrate correct wearing of a cycle helmet while Bart et al. (2008) required children to demonstrate road crossing skills in a real road environment.Several papers provide examples of good practice in terms of safety education provision. Schooley (Schooley and Kelly, 2008) uses a realistic setting, a home hazard station, to provide safety education (see McWhirter's (2008) ten guiding principles of effective safety education listed earlier. Kimberlee (2008) describes work which entails active approaches to learning (principle 2) whereby children analyse and photograph their usual walk to school route.The importance of involving children in real decisions to keep them safe (principle 3) is illustrated in Kimberlee's (2008) work where it is clear that children identified risks to themselves that other partnerships had not identified. Similarly when choosing posters to provide guidance to young drivers, young people made a different choice to adults as to which would be the most effective (Gaines and Vitale, 2009). By surveying adolescent users of ATV, Burgus et al. (2009) was able to assess the learning needs of young people and identify issues requiring attention in future training (principle 4). Thus the views of young people are essential for a successful safety education intervention.The need to work with multiple agencies (Kimberlee, 2008; Hotz et al., 2009a) (principle 7) and adoption of a wider school (Collard et al., 2009) or community approach (Kimberlee, 2008) to provide safety education is likely to increase the effectiveness of safety education (principle 1).Of the 12 papers reviewed, only one describes a study based in the UK. However, the interventions and evidence of many of the studies are appropriate and applicable to the UK. The mobile home hazards station (Schooley and Kelly, 2008) is a method of providing home safety education in a realistic setting that can be easily moved to where needed and adapted as appropriate to different settings. Similarly it appears that the study by Blake et al. (2008), testing correct wearing of helmets, could readily be implemented by other countries and the findings from both these studies can be applicable to the UK. Both Burgus et al. (2009) and Gaines and Vitale (2009) describe methodologies which could be adopted to identify risky behaviours taken by children and young people and to design pertinent injury prevention resources, respectively. Two of the pedestrian road safety training studies (Oxley et al., 2008; Bart et al., 2008) used simulated sessions for training and while the methodology may be easily adapted for use in other countries, further research is needed to ensure that skills learnt in a simulated environment are transferred to the real environment. The pedestrian training programme tested in the study by Hotz et al. (2009a) used researchers to train the trainers which may make it difficult to deliver the programme wider in practice. The study by Collard et al. (2010) produced newsletters to impart safety education to parents, and to children also to some degree. This programme would be difficult to transfer to those communities where low reading ability is a problem. While the study by Kennedy and Chen (2009) is time intensive, there are no indications that the intervention could not be implemented elsewhere and the findings generalisable to the UK.In conclusion, this review has identified a range of papers which provide evidence both of the impact of safety education on a change in knowledge, behaviour, risks and skills and of good practice in terms of evaluation. Several papers describing the development of safety education programmes provided examples of good practice in terms of education provision which can be adopted by providers of safety education to children and young people. No papers provided evidence of the impact of safety education on injuries.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - The aim of this literature review was to examine recent evidence of the impact of safety education for children and young people on unintentional injury rates and to update an earlier review. Evidence was sought that linked safety education for children and young people in schools, centres and other settings with changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and reductions in injury. The relevance of ten principles of effective safety education to the papers was considered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A range of bibliographic databases was searched for potentially relevant papers. Titles and abstracts, and then full copies of papers were examined and retained if considered relevant.\nFindings: - From 495 potentially relevant papers, 12 papers were retained that met the aims of the review. The papers covered a range of topics including home safety, use of all-terrain vehicles and pedestrian safety. While the majority of papers described the effect of an intervention on injury prevention, several described the development of an injury prevention programme. Several papers provided evidence of the impact of safety education on knowledge, behaviour, risk and skills. No papers provided evidence of the impact of safety education on injury rates.\nPractical implications: - The importance of involving children in designing successful safety education interventions is key. Working with multiple agencies and adoption of a broader community approach is likely to increase the effectiveness of safety education.\nOriginality/value: - The review illustrates the value of applying the ten principles of effective safety education to designing unintentional injury prevention interventions for children and young people.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The unspeakable truth of accounting: On the genesis and consequences of the first "non-glottographic" statement form	[ "Foucault", "Clay-tablet accounting", "Languaging-in-general", "Non-glottographic writing", "Translatability" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: before writing? The accounting statement as first visible-sign statement: Writing in the strict sense of the word, the technology which has shaped and powered the intellectual activity of modern man, was a very late development in human history. [...] The first script, or true writing that we know was developed among the Sumerians in Mesopotamia only around the year 3500 BCE. Human beings had been drawing pictures for countless millennia [...] and various recording devices or aides-memoire had been used by various societies: a notched stick, rows of pebbles, other tallying devices such as the quipu of the Incas [...] and so on. [...] However [...] the critical and unique breakthrough [...] was achieved within human consciousness not when simple semiotic marking was devised but when a coded system of visible marks was invented where a writer could determine the exact words that the reader would generate from the text. With writing or script in this full sense, encoded visible markings engage words fully so that exquisitely intricate structures and references evolved in sound can be visibly recorded exactly [...] and can implement production of still more exquisite structures and references, far surpassing the potentials of oral utterance(Ong, 1982, pp. 83-85).Thus, does Walter Ong in his still germane Orality and Literacy summarise the significance of \"the critical and unique breakthrough\" which is \"writing\": a writing that is unlike older supplements to orality, such as pictures and tally-sticks; a writing which engineers an internal transformation in how we think, which for him is at the level of \"human consciousness\", such that we must posit a fundamental \"contrast between orality and literacy\" whose study is \"largely unfinished business\" (Ong, 1982, p. 156).\n2. The accounting statement as object of analysis for critical accounting and translation studies: We propose to consider the working of the system in more detail below. But we do so seeing this as a significant issue for \"critical accounting\" to consider, insofar as here we have a first historical instance of how accounting as statement, and not just as practice, can be constitutive of ways of thinking and acting, and of ways of coordinating the world. In that respect we draw on, and also begin to think beyond, an earlier definition of accounting's key attributes as set out in Ezzamel and Hoskin (2002), in a study that also begins from the study of this early accounting, and also seeks on that basis to develop a more general \"base-line understanding of accounting\":First, that accounting is a practice of entering in a visible format a record (an account) of items and activities. Secondly, that any account involves a particular kind of signs which both name and count the items and activities recorded. Thirdly, that the practice of producing an account is always a form of valuing: (i) extrinsically as a means of capturing and representing values derived from outside for external purposes, and defined as valuable by some other agent, and (ii) intrinsically, in so far as this practice of naming, counting, and recording in visible format in itself constructs the possibility of precise valuing(Ezzamel and Hoskin, 2002, p. 335, original emphases).\n3. From clay-token and clay-tablet accounting practice to the construction of the first \"naming and counting\" statement: We have suggested above that the distinctive aspect of the accounting statement in both its clay-tablet and earlier clay-token form is that it names and counts, and also that it names not only the objects that are then counted but also the subjects implicated in the naming and counting process. We have also noted that there is a progression in token accounting beyond the kind of counting found in tally-sticks (which count without naming via their visible marks whatever object is being counted) since now the shaping of clay into different forms meant that, different items or objects could be variously both named and counted. Thus, clay tokens were able to make new kinds of valuing statement, since they \"always functioned as linguistic-numerical signs, i.e. each token both named and counted a specific quantity of a particular designated item (e.g. 'one jar of oil')\" (Ezzamel and Hoskin, 2002, p. 341). Or as the historian of mathematics Jens Hoyrup (2009) puts it, the tokens \"had to represent both the kind of thing they stood for and the quantity involved\" (p. 24, author's emphasis).\n4. Defining new problematics: or conceptualising the accounting statement as \"non-glottographic\" and \"naming and counting\" statement form: We wish now to bring alongside the radical observations of Harris, Damerow and Hyman concerning the inadequacy of thinking languaging in terms of a progression or evolution from speech to (glottographic) writing, the observations of one other conceptualisation of the problematic of langage which \"thinks\" the statement in a comparable manner. This is the analysis developed by Foucault (1972/2002) in The Archaeology of Knowledge at a point where he is posing the general question of \"Defining the Statement\" (pp. 89-98), given that he has already posited the statement as the most appropriate starting point in seeking to understand \"languaging-in-general\".\n5. From new \"form of veridiction\" to first mode of \"managing via accounting\"? The constitution of the first \"space/time/value dispositif\": Ought/is or is/ought statements potentially promote a discourse of norms; and in the Mesopotamian records there is already some evidence that there were forms of accounting for labour which had such norming effects on workers and their family units. For instance, Englund refers to accounts where groups of labourers appear to be counted and differentiated, as number terms are combined with sign combinations designating \"labourer\" and other signs designating personal names and also giving gender and ages. He also notes that pigs and cattle are assorted in similar accounts, with pigs differentiated by age and cattle by gender. Then labour rations for the young are allocated via a counting sign, N8 \"which usually qualifies a half [...] of some unit counted in the sexagesimal or bisexagesimal systems\". Englund (2011) suggests that this may relate to \"an apportioning of rations to children of productive age of approximately half that of adults, as was administrative labour practice in later periods\" (pp. 46-47).\n6. The accounting statement as \"simulacrum\": Our point of departure here is not Baudrillard's version of the simulacrum as modern extension of and move away from the real, but what Foucault has to say on a modern literary development; this is Klossowski's articulation, in Foucault's analysis, of a simulacral form of narrative writing in his books.\n7. Conclusion: the accounting statement as problem of and for translation: The accounting statement as non-glottographic form of naming and counting (and perhaps also as simulacrum) cannot be treated simply as a problem in or of glottographic translation. The constraints (and so strengths) of the naming and counting format - and in particular its constant articulation of ought/is dynamics - pose a serious practical and also conceptual problem of translation, namely, how to translate a translation practice that has had a traditional focus on speech and glottographic statement forms to engage with a statement form which has, conceptually, remained invisible and unnamed.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate accounting as first visible-sign statement form, and also as the first writing, and analyse its systematic differences, syntactic and semantic, from subsequent speech-following (glottographic) writing forms. The authors consider how accounting as non-glottographic (and so \"unspeakable\") writing form renders \"glottography\" a \"subsystem of writing\" (Hyman, 2006), while initiating a mode of veridiction which always and only names and counts, silently and synoptically. The authors also consider the translation of this statement form into the graphs, charts, equations, etc., which are central to the making of modern scientific truth claims, and to remaking the boundaries of \"languaging\" and translatability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: As a historical-theoretical study, this draws on work reconceptualising writing vs speech (e.g. Harris, 1986; 2000), the statement vs the word (e.g. Foucault, 1972/2002) and the parameters of translation (e.g. Littau, 2016) to re-think the conceptual significance of accounting as constitutive of our \"literate modes\" of thinking, acting and \"languaging in general\".\nFindings: Specific reflections are offered on how the accounting statement, as mathematically regularised naming of what \"ought\" to be counted, is then evaluated against what is counted, thus generating a first discourse of the norm and a first accounting-based apparatus for governing the state. The authors analyse how the non-glottographic statement is constructed and read not as linear flow of signs but as simulacrum; and on how the accounting statement poses both the practical issue of how to translate non-linear flow statements, and the conceptual problem of how to think this statement form's general translatability, given its irreducibility to the linear narrative statement form.\nOriginality/value: The paper pioneers in approaching accounting as statement form in a way that analyses the differences that flow from its non-glottographic status.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
British out-of-hours primary and community care: a review of the literature	[ "Community care", "Medical practice", "Job satisfaction", "Social care facilities", "United Kingdom" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: British primary and community care saw major changes in 2004 following implementation of the new general medical services (nGMS) contract. A number of innovative primary care services emerged; their aim, among other things, was to \"take over\" out-of-hours (OoH) care from general practitioners (GPs) wishing to \"opt out\". The number deciding to relinquish OoH care was sobering - only 3 per cent of GPs intended to continue providing OoH services. The number of younger GPs who saw OoH work as exploitation and the growing proportion of female medical practitioners working part-time were other reasons why change was inevitable. This new policy, therefore, set out to solve several issues and tensions - primarily GP workload and re-imbursement as demand for OoH care grew (Ainsworth, 1998; Dale and Salisbury, 1999; Dover, 1996; Forrest, 2004; Hallam, 1997; Lattimer et al., 1998; Lewis, 2004; NHS Confederation, 2003).A practice of four GPs could expect 1,000 OoH calls annually, ranging from patients with life threatening conditions to frivolous requests. An interim solution to rising workload and practitioners, reluctance to work unsocial hours were GP co-operatives (the more common) and deputising services, which co-ordinated OoH primary care. These organisations, varying in size from ten to 400 GPs, were important stepping-stones to the new OoH services (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; Raising, 2000; Hallam and Cragg, 1994; Mills and Hunt, 2004; Winkler, 1994). However, as co-operative and deputising services developed so OoH services changed. Telephone advice grew and home visits fell (Jessopp et al., 1997). Against expectations, patients were satisfied not least because 70 per cent could expect to see or speak to a healthcare professional within an hour of calling their local OoH service (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; Dover, 1996; Winkler, 1994).Clearly, there was scope and justification to formally develop GP co-operative/deputising services. Consequently, in 2004 Primary Care Trust (PCTs) managers became responsible for commissioning and delivering integrated, seamless OoH services from appropriate providers (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; DH, 2003a; Forrest, 2004). As PCTs extended their roles and responsibilities, set by the Department of Health (DH) and monitored by Strategic Health Authorities (StHAs), they were accountable for OoH service efficiency and effectiveness, which included old and new services such as: primary care and walk-in centres, accident and emergency departments (A&Es) and minor injury units (MIUs), paramedic teams, palliative care services, mental health and social care units, pharmacy and dentistry services (Carson, 2003; Lade, 2003; Lewis, 2004; Mills and Hunt, 2004; NHS Confederation, 2003). Despite their daunting commissioning and provider responsibilities, Carson (2003) felt that PCT managers had an opportunity to improve OoH services; notably modernising the primary and community care workforce. In his major review for the DH, he recommended that:* Out-of-hours service should be accessed via a single telephone call to NHS Direct (described later) enabling call handlers to appropriately refer callers.* The quality of OoH services should be monitored and providers deemed successful were to be accredited. Primary Care Trust managers were expected to commission only accredited services.* Patient records should be integrated electronically so that different providers could see the \"state of play\" (see also DH, 2003a).* Managers were to review OoH service staff numbers and mix. Opportunities should be taken to extend workers' roles so that staff skills are used fully.* Remuneration to OoH service providers needed to be equitable and appropriate.Clearly, the OoH component of nGMS meant large-scale structure and process changes with unknown effect on outcomes and outputs. Unsurprisingly, the DH was keen to assess changes.\nMethod: The aim of this literature review was to highlight OoH service issues that managers need to consider if services are to be modernised and improved. Almost 140 (the full annotated bibliography is available from the author) mainly British OoH service publications were analysed from which seven themes (in rank order) were extracted:1. Nature and value of OoH services (addressed substantively by 31 per cent of 137 publications).2. Out-of-hours activity (26 per cent).3. Efficiency and effectiveness (17 per cent).4. Service demand (16 per cent).5. Staff numbers and mix (8 per cent).6. Methods of studying OoH services (1 per cent).7. Information management and technology (1 per cent).The empirical publications ranged from small-scale to large surveys and trials. Few, however, used common methods for measuring service structures, processes, outputs and outcomes, which makes meta-analysis difficult. Nevertheless, the seven themes not only paint an important picture but also raise new questions.\nNature and value of services: The two main driving forces for reforming OoH services seem to be: a one-stop access point designed to provide efficient, effective and timely patient services; and a service in which professionals work together (DH, 2000).NHS Direct\nOut-of-hours activity: Another theme emerging from the literature was the number of researchers exploring or intending to study OoH activity before and after the April 2004 change. Clearly and encouragingly, benchmarks were being established so that variations in OoH service demand and supply could be compared (Brogan et al., 1998; DH, 2000).Call rates\nEfficiency and effectiveness: Service efficiency and effectiveness was a thin (addressed substantively by 17 per cent of the publications) but growing element in the OoH literature. A distinctive range of sub themes emerged. Ideal OoH services are sustainable, acceptable, affordable and integrated, while coordination, communication, removing duplication, prioritising calls supported by protocols are important processes for achieving accessible OoH services well suited to the patients' needs (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; DH, 2000; Dudman, 2003; NHS Confederation, 2003). As a measure of importance, the quality of new OoH services was addressed from the outset. For example, all OoH service providers were expected to meet national quality standards, and were to be accredited every three years by PCT staff. The structures, processes and outcomes forming OoH quality specifications in service level agreements between the commissioners and providers were expected to include:* service structure and staffing;* networks and links;* call analysis;* clinical urgency, response and completion times;* clinical record content and confidentiality;* clinical details passed to the patient's GP by the next working day;* complaints handling;* quarterly patient satisfaction surveys;* untoward incidents; and* modernisation and contingency plans.Several accreditation outcomes are possible: three-year approval; one-year approval; and not accredited with immediate remedial action (DH, 2000; DH, 2003b; NHS Confederation, 2003; NatPact, 2004). Jessopp et al.'s (1997) study showed that providers had some way to go before these expectations would be met. Only half of the co-operatives measured service standards and only one third had a service specification. Salisbury (1997a) noted that patient satisfaction, an important OoH service quality issue, didn't always feature in quality assurance programmes.First contact\nStaff number and mix: Staffing issues were addressed substantively by 8 per cent of the publications reviewed, spanning both supply (recruitment and retention) and demand (staff numbers and mix). Two topics stood out: staff safety and the consequences of pairing practitioners; and job satisfaction. Carson (2003) and the NHS Confederation (2003) recommended that all OoH providers re-examine the way staff are used; especially capitalising on nursing efficiency and effectiveness. New ways of working are needed if staff are to be used to their full advantage. One policy published around the same time as nGMS, Liberating the Talents (DH, 2002), sets a framework in which managers might modernise their primary and community care workforce generally: first contact; chronic disease management (more relevant to OoH care); and public health practitioners.Staff numbers\nEducation and training: Although a smaller section of the literature, importance was attached to staff development contingent on status and role. The main aims seem to be achieving competent practitioners, safe and reliable services (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; Lade, 2003). Moreover, increasing the range of nursing duties such as telephone triage and advice broadens experience, which adds an important extra dimension - likely to influence recruitment and retention. A suitably educated nurse might rotate through various services thereby building a multi-skilled workforce (DH, 2000). Clearly, education and training is important, but as elsewhere, authors raised shortcomings that are limiting efficiency and effectiveness. Lewis (2004) for example, underlined the nGMS contract's catalytic effect on nurse prescribing, but nursing shortages, outmoded formularies, lengthy and demanding education/training were impeding the aim of providing OoH patients with their medication at the time of their consultation.\nInformation management and technology (IM&T): Understandably, OoH service managers are exploiting IM&T to develop their services. The literature covers two main areas: electronic patient records (EPRs); and call handling software (easily the largest). As raised earlier, successful 24-hour primary and community care relies on practitioners accessing up-to-date records. Information needs to flow promptly between all in-hours and OoH staff (Dale and Salisbury, 1999; DH, 2000). How well or how badly EPRs are working could not be determined from the literature and seems to be an area ripe for work.Prior to call-handling software, professional judgement was used to decide if an OoH consultation was needed (Court et al., 1996). NHS Direct, now a gateway to a wide range of databases and links to other agencies, stimulated the development of decision support software now consisting of hundreds of protocols. The software enables staff to not only handle the majority of OoH calls using advice alone without recourse to GPs but also quickly recognise potentially life-threatening conditions. These developments have been evaluated and researchers conclude that outcomes are as safe and effective as traditional, professional judgement decisions. However, nurses with ten or more year's experience tended to be more consistent. Other findings show that software is simple to use, low cost and efficient since it offers callers convenient access to professional healthcare. Self-care is not only encouraged but also carers can be supported and reassured. Importantly, software may be preventing unnecessary A&E attendance although data are conflicting, and some patients are likely to remain unhappy and complain about remote diagnosis (Dale et al., 1998; DH, 2000; Mangan, 2000; NHS Confederation, 2003).\nConclusions and recommendations: Since earlier reviews, OoH service knowledge has moved on. Some anxieties before the nGMS contract was implemented have not surfaced, while others such as workforce capacity and inappropriate A&E attendance are undiminished. The following recommendations may not only help to ease OoH service difficulties but also enhance efficiency and effectiveness:* Although demand for OoH primary and community care is rising, the public seem not to be fully aware of service pressures, notably the value of alternative primary care centres (in the broadest sense). Media campaigns and web-based information tied to NHS Direct are mechanisms by which the public can be enlightened.* Patients seem reluctant to try alternative primary care services. Once experienced, on the other hand, satisfaction is good. Some OoH services such as WiCs and MIUs are under-used, and since patient satisfaction is at least stable, PCT managers should capitalise of these services. However, vulnerable groups such as the young, old and those in deprived areas could easily be underserved and should not be allowed to slip through the net.* Activity data are getting old and there are inconsistencies (notably OoH contact rates) possibly because data collection in the past has been unsystematic. Also, some of these data relate to services that are defunct. Refreshing data sets with agreed, defined categories using large surveys and trials could be one way of updating and strengthening the information on which managers and practitioners evaluate and modify their services. Without new studies and analyses, some OoH services will continue to be perceived as expensive adjuncts to traditional primary care.* Workforce capacity remains a problem as the NHS workforce \"greys\". Managers have successfully recruited new and old staff, but owing to unsocial hours and safety anxieties (a major issue), OoH work is likely to be a \"tough sell\". Primary care centres diminish some of these threats while offering interesting and satisfying work - another reason for their development. Broadening OoH staff mix, extending practitioner roles and competence-based education and training are other workforce planning and development issues. Algorithms and data for determining the size and mix of the OoH workforce are poor, and another area needing attention.* Quality assuring OoH services, despite lip service in the literature, appears to be on the \"back burner\". Not only have PCT managers appeared to have postponed formal accreditation but also quality specifications are only slowly evolving. If the Healthcare Commission doesn't separate OoH service monitoring from its broader PCT performance oversight role then there are alternative third-party accreditation systems, such as ISO 9001 2000, which have good track records. These QA activities are important since getting service right first time can reduce demand.* One IM&T problem is unresolved - live patient records. Developing a secure patient record that can be accessed by in-hours and out-of-hours practitioners is an important goal. Consequently, up-and-coming broader NHS IM&T strategies should not lose sight of this issue.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This out-of-hours primary and community care services (more recently called unscheduled care) literature review sets out to build on the foundations set by earlier publications by examining old and fresh issues after the new General Medical Service contract was implemented in 2004.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Almost 140 publications were located, including a range of theoretical and empirical publications.\nFindings: - A total of seven themes emerge - varying from the most frequently discussed (service nature and value) to the least examined (information management and technology).\nOriginality/value: - Analysis not only underlines service problems and tensions noted previously but also generates new insights, which cannot be ignored if services are to be developed. Consequently, several recommendations are made.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A method for evaluating business models implementation process	[ "Performance", "Key performance indicators", "Business model", "Evaluation of the process", "Framework for implementation", "Implementation process" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: A high level of uncertainty continues to mark the world economy and despite some encouraging signs in the USA and Japan, global output and world trade are severely affected by the general lack of confidence and by the signs of an incipient slowdown in economic activity in a number of emerging countries (ICE, 2013). In this context, the global economy changed the traditional balance between customer and supplier and new communications and computing technology, the establishment of reasonably open global trading regimes mean that customers have more choices (Teece, 2010). According to Arguden (2010), trust is the foundation of sustainable development and as the world continues to get smaller our mutual interdependence increases and we all need to be able to mobilize others' resources and goodwill to achieve success. Mobilizing others' resources can only be achieved through gaining their trust. Therefore, the ability to gain the trust of global financial markets and all the stakeholders in the value chain is becoming the key to success. This requires consistent, responsible, accountable, fair, transparent, and effective organizational structure, decision processes, and people.\nMotivation: The business model has also been the subject of a growing number of practitioner-oriented studies. While there has been an explosion in the number of papers published, and an abundance of conference sessions and panels on the subject of business models, it appears that researchers (and practitioners) have yet to develop a common and widely accepted language that would allow researchers who examine the business model construct through different lenses to draw effectively on each other's work (Zott et al., 2011).\nShort review of business model: According to Magretta (2002), business models, though, are anything but arcane and, they are, at heart, stories - stories that explain how enterprises work. A good business model answers Peter Drucker's age-old questions: who is the customer? And what does the customer value? It also answers the fundamental questions every manager must ask: how do we make money in this business? What is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost?\nWhy do business models fail?: In the literature there are examples of problems with business model implementation. Knab and Rohrbeck (2014), almost four years after the working group project, show a document analysis reveals that the German smart energy market is still at an early stage of its development. While various pilot projects (often heavily co-funded by governmental sources) are taking place, the actual implementation rate of business models is rather low. From the 21 generic business models generated in 2010, only five had been fully implemented by February 2014. Only one out of these five models has been implemented by incumbents and new entrants simultaneously (case 5), while the remaining 80 percent have been pioneered by new entrants. In each case, the pioneering new entrant was a start-up who specialized on the particular business model (Knab and Rohrbeck, 2014):\nRIBM: The RIBM developed here must consider the following:\nCase study: The choice of the company was due to the possibility, which was envisioned, since their owners wanted support to study potential changes, which allow a reorganization of the business. As this was a small enterprise, which is struggling to support with the existing financial system, it was found that the university would be important to this type of technical support and therefore fulfill a part of its social function.\nAnalysis and discussion: Some of the reasons why business models fail were observed in the case study conducted for this work, evaluating the bibliographic references. If analyzed from the point of view of Lauritzen (2014) there was a lack of a better alignment between the customer segment and the value proposition. That is, it became clear to the managers of AZDO that some products in its portfolio did not generate any demand, or had a low level of consumption. In the view of Osterwalder (2012) such a problem can be characterized as offering irrelevant compared the need of the target customer. As a result it was clear that there was an excess of products in the company portfolio, confirming one of the business models of failure reasons mentioned by Lindgardt et al. (2009).\nLimitations: This work was developed in a small business (small restaurant) and with a small team (two members of which were the owners of the enterprise and the external member was a widely experienced consultant and professor). In this case, the business complexity level and number of processes involved are much smaller when compared with a mid-size or large company. Another factor that contributed to mitigating the problem is that the enterprise had a well-structured report once the owners had made annual analysis and discussed how to improve and expand the business. It is relevant to note that the two owners of AZDO have a degree (from the best university in town) and take care of all administrative and management activities in the business. When considering mid-size or large companies, this situation is totally different: many people working in administrative tasks (many of who have no college or university education). Thus, the team will be comprised of some good members and other members who will have poor background. The result is a team that will face a lot of difficulty with the development and implementation of the action plan.\nConclusion: In this paper we presented aspects that affect business performance in business environment (innovation, globalization, technology, communications, new economy). We made a brief review of business models (definition, components, and importance to the business). And, we showed some reasons why business models fail (alignment between value proposition and customer segment (value proposition); business model financial viability (costs and revenue); environmental constraints not fully integrated with the design of the business model (environment); business model execution (management), etc.) and made some considerations about the implementation of business models.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the reasons why business models fail, while also identifying the features necessary to develop a method that enables the evaluation of the implementation process of the business model, and is able to help in its development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The proposed method (roadmap for implementation of business models - RIBM) is composed of nine steps, and seven initials conditions (limitations). Such conditions reduce its complexity (e.g. performance management system is defined in the company).\nFindings: Some reasons why business models fail (alignment between value proposition and customer segment (value proposition); business model financial viability (costs and revenue); environmental constraints not fully integrated with the design of the business model (environment); business model execution (management), etc.) and made some considerations about the implementation of business models.\nResearch limitations/implications: This work was developed in a small business (with a small team and the external member). The business complexity level and number of processes involved are much smaller when compared with a mid-size or large company. Another factor that contributed to mitigating the problem is that the enterprise had a well-structured report once the owners had made annual analysis and discussed how to improve and expand the business.\nPractical implications: In this application, RIBM showed a potential tool to minimize flaws in implementation processes of business models.\nOriginality/value: The business model concept is relatively new in the literature. And because of its strategic importance has been the target of all major schools in the area. This work, in particular, deals with the question-related failures that occur in the process of implementing business models.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Effectiveness of the Dual Approach Program to promote sexual abstinence in Thai early female adolescents and improve parent-daughter sexual communication	[ "Adolescent health", "Health promotion", "Parent–daughter communication", "Sexual health education" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nBackground: Over the past two decades and across multiple countries, sexual behavior patterns have continued to change with earlier ages of sexual debut, increasing numbers of multiple partners, decreased condom use at sexual debut and rising prevalence of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)[1-6]. These changes are more pronounced among female adolescents than males[7]. Correlates associated with engaging in sexual intercourse include increasing age, male gender, poor school attendance/performance and poor parental relationships/communication patterns[8-11]. According to Thai survey data, the prevalence of sexual intercourse among adolescent's ranges from 10 to 18.2 percent, depending on the age of the survey participants[10-12]. A report by the Department of Disease Control of Thailand has shown the rate of STIs in adolescents to be 143.44 per 100,000 youths[13]. It has further been posited that increased economic prosperity and exposure to western media in Thailand has eroded traditional religious and cultural values. Consequently, adolescents experience increased sexual awareness, key gaps in knowledge about sexuality-related topics, limited parental input and increased risk-taking[14].\nMethods: A quasi-experimental research design was used to test the effectiveness of the Dual Approach Program with both adolescents and parents. The outcome measures for the adolescent girls included sexual abstinence cognitions, attitudes toward sexual abstinence, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. For parents, the outcome measures were parent-daughter sexual communication behavior scores on a modified Parent-Puberty Child Sexual Communication Questionnaire[42]. The researchers compared baseline measures to measures at different post-program time periods, depending on group assignment (Group 1: Control Group; Group 2: Adolescent Program Only (AP); and Group 3: Dual Approach Program (APP)). Sealed envelopes were provided to all participants for collecting questionnaires.\nResults: A total of 40 parent/daughter dyads from Groups 1 and 2 and 42 dyads from Group 3 attended all sessions and completed all questionnaires. The attrition rate was 2.4 percent. Most students were 12 or 13 years old (95 percent of the girls in all groups), first-born children and living with both parents. The researchers found no differences among the demographic characteristics of the three groups of girls (by age, grade point average or family status), nor across the groups of parents (by age, gender, marital status or education). The average parental age across the groups ranged between 41.7 and 43.9 years. Three-quarters of the parents who participated in this study were mothers. Most of the parents worked outside the home and approximately one-third of each group lived below the nationally defined poverty line.\nDiscussion: Improvements in sexual communication between parents and daughters in Group 3 and the statistically significant positive changes in three of the four domains of sexual abstinence cognitions in the adolescents suggest that the Dual Approach Program was more effective than a program targeted only at adolescent girls. The researchers developed the Dual Approach Program based on the theory of planned behavior[38] and applied the program to increase parent-daughter communication and improve daughters' sexual abstinence cognitions. Furthermore, the program provided a structure for the sessions and yielded significant positive changes over time. From our data, the researchers were not able to assess which of the elements of the parent program were responsible for the improved scores. Some previous research[17-19, 21-23] with early adolescents highlighted the positive impacts of similar types of program components, including discussion, role playing, education with games, videos and practicing skills. Other studies that relied on lectures, discussions and demonstrations were ineffective in improving knowledge[46], preventing sexual risk behaviors[17] or improving attitudes about using condoms and pills[47]. Combining all of these strategies and providing active discussion through interactive strategies such as brainstorming, interview games with peers and home-based practice assignments to communicate with daughters proved to be effective for the parents in this study. It is possible that the use of multiple strategies and activities appealed to the broadest range of parental preferences and made the program more adaptable across families, and perhaps across countries and cultures. In addition, the researchers believe that the generalizable strength of the intervention lies in providing a simultaneous parallel program. Previous studies[31, 48, 49] on parental involvement in sexual health programs did not include a parallel daughter program and, therefore, were not able to examine the potential direct effects on daughters' sexual abstinence cognitions as reported by the present study. The data obtained by this study provide supportive evidence that simultaneously supporting parents' sexual communication behaviors may contribute to positive changes in positive attitudes, subjective norms for behavior and perceived behavioral control as described in the adolescent component of the dual program.\nConclusion: The Dual Approach Program was more effective in improving parents' sexual communications with daughters and also improved daughters' sexual abstinence cognitions in terms of subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and intention for sexual abstinence compared with the Adolescent Program alone. The increasing rates of risky sexual behaviors in early adolescents are alarming, so the development of successful educational programs is a priority. Parallel-group education programs for parents and adolescents employing multiple interactive teaching and learning strategies should be considered. Although not a component of this initial study, the establishment of more open communication between parents and daughters may have positive sexual health outcomes into later adolescence, irrespective of whether the daughters remain sexually abstinent or not. The specific strategies could be adapted by gender, culture or age, but the overall concept of creating a family environment where parents are comfortable and confident about discussing sexuality with sons and daughters bodes well for the future of adolescent sexual health.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of abstinence-based sexual education programs delivered in parallel to Thai parents and their early adolescent daughters to promote sexual abstinence and improve communication regarding sexual topics between them and their parents.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A quasi-experimental design included groups of parent/daughter dyads; Group 1 (controls) (n=40), Group 2 Adolescent Program (n=40) and Group 3 Adolescent Parent Program (APP) (n=42). Outcome measures included parent-adolescent communications and adolescents' sexual abstinence cognitions and intent to abstain from sexual behaviors, measured at five and nine weeks post-programs.\nFindings: Generalized estimating equation analyses indicated that the dual program (APP) was more effective in increasing parental communication with their daughters compared with Group 1 (p-value<0.05) and only the daughters in the APP program reported more positive subjective norms, sense of perceived behavioral control and intent to abstain than did Group 1 (p-value<0.05).\nOriginality/value: The overarching goal of supporting the development of family environments where female adolescents are able to talk about sexuality is essential for adolescent sexual health promotion. The data provide further evidence that a dual program with simultaneous parent and female adolescent interactive activities over three sessions is superior compared with programs that target either the parents or the adolescents only. Hence, further replication with more parent-daughter dyads and then within more diverse cultures and populations is warranted. Developing and testing a similarly structured program for parents and sons is also required.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Information systems security from a knowledge management perspective	[ "Knowledge management systems", "Information systems", "Greece" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Information Systems (IS) security has become a major concern for modern enterprises and organizations, as most organizational activities, nowadays, depend heavily on information and communication technologies. In response, a plethora of tools and mechanisms have been developed, covering almost every aspect of IS security. However, the actual effectiveness of current security solutions has been seriously questioned, as the volume of security related incidents and consequent financial losses continues to increase in magnitude, as well as in severity. Security tools and mechanisms have a limited effectiveness for the reason that security is primarily a \"people issue\", as well as an \"organization issue\" (Hinde, 2003). Under this perspective, the importance of IS security management in the context of the organization becomes evident.IS security management aims to minimize risks that information systems face in their operation. It involves several activities, such as planning, designing, implementing, monitoring, reviewing, and improving (BSI, 2002). The above activities require specialized expertise and one of the challenges faced by modern organizations is to acquire and manage expert knowledge in the area of IS security.Another important challenge is to effectively communicate vision, rules, and guidelines to employees and other stakeholders. Currently, security policies are used for this purpose. However, policies are static documents that reflect the technical and organizational context at the time of their creation.In addition, eliciting and processing feedback is particularly significant for the activities of monitoring, reviewing, and improving the IS security management system. Currently, most feedback is received through logging mechanisms that produce a large volume of raw data, while management requires information with a high proportion of human value added. Auditors often provide such quality feedback, which, however, is rarely utilized as a valuable knowledge asset.Finally, successful security management largely depends on the involvement of users and other stakeholders in security analysis, design, and implementation, as well as in actively defending the IS. However, most stakeholders lack the required knowledge of IS security issues that would allow them to play an important role in IS security management.The elicitation, processing, and communication of relevant knowledge emerges as a common theme in all the aforementioned IS security management issues. Consequently, resolving the above issues would require the establishment of effective knowledge management (KM) practices. Nevertheless, the KM aspect of IS security has been mostly ignored both by research and industry. Security information lies scattered throughout the organization, knowledge creation and diffusion remain an ad hoc process and tacit knowledge of security experts is in most cases preserved as their personal property.We argue that KM would have a major positive impact on the effectiveness of IS security management. KM systems are used to capture and store organizational actors' knowledge and make it available to others. A KM system handling IS security knowledge would support IS security managers in strategic planning, tactical decision making, as well as in daily operations.At present, the field of IS security knowledge management remains largely unexplored. This paper aims to:1. bring to light the knowledge dimension of IS security;2. determine what constitutes IS security knowledge and where it originates from; and3. explore the potential of an IS security knowledge management system.After the introduction, the following section presents the current practice in security knowledge acquisition and dissemination and exhibits the aims of our research. In the third section we illustrate the methodology of our research and in sequence we present the results of field research. Then, we introduce a model of IS security knowledge, which has resulted from a secondary analysis of the data collected through field research. Finally, the potentials of an IS security knowledge management system are explored and the conclusions of the paper are presented.\nCurrent practice: Schools of thought in KM\nMethodology: Field research\nSecurity practices and sources of IS security knowledge: The outcomes of field research are given in Table II. For each level of abstraction within the organizational boundaries, we identify practices targeting to enhance security and we attempt to identify the possible sources of exploitable knowledge. At this point it is worthwhile to make a distinction between security practices that aim to prevent security incidents (proactive security) and those that aim to detect them after they have developed (reactive security).At the most abstract level we have placed the policy document, which represents the IS security policy of the organization and integrates security requirements with business requirements. Security policies are not always recorded in a corresponding security policy document and quite often they are implicit and not strictly expressed. Security policies often emerge from a risk analysis study and the documentation that has been produced in the process of analysing risks includes vital information, especially in cases of emergency, such as recovering after a security incident.Another popular security related practice at the middle organizational layer is IS auditing. In order to conduct an audit, certain data are necessary and also a series of important reports is provided after the audit is completed. Audit reports constitute valuable knowledge assets for a security officer. At the lowest layer, and usually the one that is of prime interest, we identify sources of technically exploitable data, such as firewall access lists, operating system logs and alerts, etc.Table III presents a different view of IS security knowledge that of independent security experts. An independent expert is constantly changing organizational environments, which are often associated with totally different security needs. Gathering information and obtaining knowledge of the organization they are studying is essential for the success of their work. They focus, mainly, on organizational culture, structure, needs, and perception of risk.ISO 17799 (ISO, 2000), the international standard on IS security management, has significantly influenced the perception of IS security issues. The standard defines the main domains of security management and most security experts categorize IS security knowledge according to the relevant security management domain.In order to enhance their knowledge, they use several methods, such as attending seminars and reading relevant scientific articles, and they obtain tacit knowledge (experience) from more experienced experts through on the job training.\nA model representing IS security knowledge: Empirical findings are of limited value, unless they are supported by a theoretical framework. We will attempt to support our findings by proposing a model to illustrate the structure of IS security knowledge in an organization. In order to delineate the structure of IS security knowledge we will adopt a structured framework with three layers, namely: policy, guidelines, and measures:1. Policy: A policy may be defined as a set of high-level instructions intended to provide guidance to those assigned the responsibility of decision making.2. Guidelines: Guidelines are specific operational steps to be followed by members of the organization, so as to implement a policy.3. Measures: Measures (or security controls) refer to specific actions taken when guidelines are implemented in a specific IS installation.This hierarchical framework is mainly associated with knowledge internal to the organization. There are also other sources of knowledge that are related with the organization and that should be carefully examined; though they cannot be embodied in the aforementioned categories. For example, in the process of conducting a risk analysis review threats and vulnerabilities are measured and documented. This knowledge is vital and significantly affects policy design. The fact that it is related to the structured framework, without being part of it, is represented in Figure 1 with the arrows pointing towards the framework. The term IS-related knowledge refers to several characteristics of the IS that significantly affect IS security, e.g. network configuration.Finally, important knowledge can be extracted from the study of the organizational framework, meaning the study of several parameters associated to the organization (or organizations) in the context of which the IS operates. Figure 1 represents the model that has been derived from our field research.\nTowards an IS security knowledge management system: In the previous paragraphs, we have addressed the first two objectives of the paper, i.e. to bring to light the knowledge dimension of IS security and to determine what constitutes IS security knowledge and where it originates from. Next, we attempt to explore the potential of an IS security knowledge management system and to delineate the main functions that such a system should provide. To this aim, we first analyse the knowledge creation process and then we examine knowledge creation and management in the context of an IS security knowledge management system.Knowledge creation\nConclusions: In this paper, the knowledge management aspect of IS security management has been highlighted. Moreover, the basic sources of security related knowledge have been identified and a model of IS security knowledge has been created. Also, the activities to be supported by a security focused KM system have been identified. Thus, the basis for the development of specialized security KM systems has been set.In addition, it is important to note that both technical factors and organizational factors have to be taken under consideration. Knowledge creation is primarily a social process and a KM system should support groups in the social activities that foster knowledge creation and dissemination.An IS security KM system is expected to support IS security management in all strategic, tactical and operational levels. Moreover, it would be a valuable tool in resolving specific IS security management issues:* it would diminish the dependence on expensive security consultants, as knowledge creation occurs within the organization;* it would provide users and other stakeholders with access to security knowledge and, thus, enable their participation in the IS security effort;* it would enable management guidelines to be effectively communicated to users of the IS; and* It would support monitoring, reviewing, and amending the IS security management system by means of reinforcing the feedback process.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - Information systems security management is a knowledge-intensive activity that currently depends heavily on the experience of security experts. However, the knowledge dimension of IS security management has been neglected, both by research and industry. This paper aims to explore the sources of IS security knowledge and the potential role of an IS security knowledge management system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The results of this paper are based on field research involving five organizations (public and private) and five security experts and consultants. A model to illustrate the structure of IS security knowledge in an organization is then proposed.\nFindings: - Successful security management largely depends on the involvement of users and other stakeholders in security analysis, design, and implementation, as well as in actively defending the IS. However, most stakeholders lack the required knowledge of IS security issues that would allow them to play an important role in IS security management.\nOriginality/value: - In this paper, the knowledge management aspect of IS security management has been highlighted. Moreover, the basic sources of security-related knowledge have been identified and a model of IS security knowledge has been created. Also, the activities to be supported by a security-focused KM system have been identified. Thus, the basis for the development of specialized security KM systems has been set.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Elderly care service in an aging society	[ "Aging society", "Elderly care service", "Labour mobility", "Two-sector model", "J14", "J21", "H20" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This paper presents an examination of how an aging society affects the elderly care services sector. In some OECD countries, including Japan and Germany, elderly care services are provided through long-term care insurance. Many reports of the related literature describe long-term care insurance that can be used if individuals need elderly care services. Pauly (1990) and Miyazawa et al. (2000) demonstrated that long-term care insurance should be managed by the government, not by private insurance, because of adverse selection and moral hazard problems. Because of long-term insurance, individuals might fail to make an effort to improve or maintain their health status. Thereby, inefficiencies arise. Some studies have examined optimal subsidies for elderly care and optimal long-term care insurance. Subsidies for elderly care services decrease the costs of using the long-term care insurance, but taxation is expected to be necessary to finance the subsidy. Income taxation decreases household disposable income. Then, savings decrease. Consequently, capital accumulation is prevented, which slows income growth. Considering these positive and negative effects of subsidies, Ohlsson and Lundholm (1998), Tabata (2005) and Mizushima (2009) derived optimal subsidies for long-term care. Cremer and Pestieau (2014) examined public subsidies for elderly care services as a redistribution policy.\n2. Model: There exist three types of agents: households, firms and a government.\n3. Equilibrium: This section presents derivation of the equilibrium. Considering the equilibrium, occupational choice should be considered. An individual in a household has training cost st to work in the final goods sector. Then, the following three types of work are shown.\n4. Aging society: This section presents an assessment of how an increase in the number of elderly people deriving from an increase in life expectancy affects the elderly care service market.\n5. Subsidy for elderly care sector: This section presents an examination of how subsidies for elderly care sector affect the labor share of the elderly care sector. The government collects tax revenues and provides subsidies for elderly care services. The tax is levied as lump-sum taxation Tt; the subsidy rate is given as e (0 < e < 1). The budget constraints are shown below:(36)\n6. Numerical examples: This section presents the examination of the effect of an aging society and the subsidy for elderly care on the labor market with numerical examples. This paper sets the parameter as follows[12] (Table I).\n7. Conclusions: This paper presents an examination of how an aging society affects the labor market of the elderly care services sector. An aging society raises demand for elderly care services. Then, the share of labor dedicated to elderly care services sector increases. However, an aging society brings with it savings by which households can subsist for a longer time. Those savings are necessary for consumption. Therefore, an aging society raises the wage rate of the final goods sector because of the capital accumulation. Then, the labor supply is small in the elderly care services sector.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: An increase in life expectancy brings about an aging society, necessitating increasing demand for elderly care services. The purpose of this paper is to present an examination of: how an aging society affects the demand for elderly care services and the labor market for elderly care services; how the labor share and wage inequality between the final goods sector and elderly care sector are determined; and whether the subsidy for elderly care service increases demand for elderly care services or not.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper sets the dynamics general equilibrium model with two sectors model: one for final goods sector and the other for elderly care services. This paper derives how the labor supply for elderly care services is determined in the theoretical model. In addition to analytical research works, this paper examines how the subsidy for elderly care service affects the labor share allocated for elderly care sector and wage inequality between the final goods sector and the elderly care sector with the numerical examples.\nFindings: Related reports of the literature describe that an aging society raises the share of labor dedicated to elderly care services. However, considering a closed economy in which saving affects the capital stock, an aging society does not always raise the share of labor used for elderly care services because the wage rate of the final goods sector increases with an aging society. This effect prevents the increase of the labor supplied to elderly care services. On the other hand, the subsidy for the elderly care service raises the labor share of elderly care sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: The related literatures derive that an aging society raises the labor share allocated for elderly care sector. However, the paper shows that the subsidy for elderly care plays an important role in the increase in the labor share of elderly care sector.\nPractical implications: This paper examines how the aging society affects the labor share of elderly care sector, wage inequality between final goods sector and elderly care sector and others with numerical examples. Thanks to the numerical examples, this paper derives the quantitative result and shows how the subsidy for elderly care service should be provided.\nOriginality/value: The author thinks that this paper has rich implications and originality. There exists no literature that examines how the labor share of elderly care sector and the relative wage rate of elderly care sector are determined by the aging and the subsidy for elderly care service. The author thinks that it is a very important analysis because many economically developed countries face the aging society problem.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Green supply chain management: Drivers, barriers and practices within the Brazilian automotive industry	[ "Case studies", "Innovation", "Supply chain management", "Automotive industry", "Green operations" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Population growth, combined with easy access to credit, has led to a considerable increase in vehicle sales compared to previous decades. Global vehicle production has grown 38.63 percent in the past ten years based on data from the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA, 2013). Brazil is among the countries with the highest rates of vehicle production. According to OICA (2013), Brazil is currently ranked seventh in world automotive production with an 18.10 percent increase when comparing the second quarter of 2013 to the same period in 2012.\n2. GSCM in the automotive industry: Sustainable management is an important issue in the supply chain. The development of environmentally friendly products or processes (one of the dimensions of sustainable development) calls for a unified effort in the supply chain, which depends on the contribution and commitment of all actors in the chain, both upstream and downstream and strategic alignment so that the environmental issues result in effective gains (Gerrard and Kandlikar, 2007; Hervani et al., 2005; Gold et al., 2010).\n3. Research design: Based on the objectives of this study, which aims to identify how GSCM practices are adopted and to pinpoint the main motivations and barriers to its implementation in the automotive supply chain, a qualitative study was carried out. The following research questions guided the study:\n4. Description and data analysis: From March of 2012 to February of 2013 three car manufacturers were studied in the south of Brazil. To protect the confidentiality of each company analyzed, the term AUT (AUTOMAKER) was adopted, followed by a number (1, 2 or 3) to identify each organization, referred to as AUT1, AUT2 and AUT3. The characteristics of the companies studied are listed in Table I.\n5. Conclusion: Based on the case studies it was possible to analyze the two questions posed in the third section of this paper. Regarding the first question, it was found that the major motivation among the companies studied for implementing GSCM practices in their supply chains is directly linked to cost reduction (improvement actions generated by the Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma programs), meeting the demands of the consumer market through sustainable products and processes and meeting regulatory requirements. Regarding the barriers, the main ones identified are related to the cost of implementation and the resistance of suppliers to implement certain clean technology practices for products, production and logistics due to the initial costs of implementation.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the main motivating factors and difficulties in implementing GSCM; and to describe and explain how GSCM is being adopted in the Brazilian automotive industry.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To meet the proposed objectives three case studies will be carried out in a Brazilian automotive industry, performing a total of 13 interviews, based on a research protocol. As the data collection instrument, a semi-structured interview was used based on a pre-established script, direct observation and documents from the organization researched. For the analysis of the results, the content analysis method was used, applying a triangle analysis to the research data with the patterns presented in the theoretical reference.\nFindings: The paper orients the companies in the automotive sector to adopt GSCM practices and principally that internal actions of automakers can be transferred throughout the supply chain.\nPractical implications: Contributes in a more practical so that companies evaluate the level of application of their GSCM practices such that they may take more corrective actions to increase the level of GSCM practices.\nOriginality/value: Proposition of one classification system to identify the level of adoption of GSCM practices.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Design for service inclusion: creating inclusive service systems by 2050	[ "Well-being", "Service design", "Transformative service research", "Vulnerable consumers", "Service inclusion" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Unfair service systems have been common across human history and remain as such in many modern service experiences. Further, unfairness has been documented in every human society. This unfairness stems from customers often lacking access to services, systemic bias, customer vulnerability and discrimination during service interactions. This paper focuses on these forms of unfairness and labels them as \"service exclusion.\" Service exclusion occurs when services (service providers or service systems) deliberately or unintentionally fail to include or to adequately serve customers in a fair manner.\nService exclusion in the past: Exclusion is not a novel human phenomenon. Indeed, human history is littered with egregious examples of systemic bias and discrimination. The origins of exclusionary practices tend to be from in-group vs out-group differences that are based upon one or more human characteristics. These characteristics are based on visible distinctions (e.g. age, gender, race, ethnicity, income and health) or on others that are more difficult to discern, such as states of mind (e.g. cognitive capacity, emotional intelligence), states of body (e.g. illness, addiction and disabilities) and different ways of thinking (e.g. religion) and behaving (e.g. customs). As such, exclusion takes various forms and can be subtle or blatant, direct or indirect, and aimed at one person or a group.\nDemographic trends impacting service inclusion into 2050: The growing prevalence of service exclusion requires service scholars and practitioners alike to take urgent action given significant demographic trends. In this section, three key demographic trends, which foster service exclusion, are discussed to illustrate the need for improved service practices. More specifically, these three demographic trends are the growing numbers of consumers with disabilities and aging populations, changing family roles and social structures, and global migration.\nCalling for service inclusion: Social exclusion may never be completely eliminated. However, service exclusion can be significantly reduced by designing service solutions that respond to human diversity and by making resources available to consumers that facilitate access to services. The result will be improved individual well-being and quality of life across the population. The historical evolution of social exclusion, coupled with the fragmented nature of studies on service exclusion and the challenges associated with the current demographic trends, requires rethinking current service research priorities. The models and frameworks that represent the bedrock of service research (e.g. service quality, service failure and recovery and servicescape) were not built on a foundation of human fairness. The service field has not addressed how service organizations can extend service quality to all consumers, including those who enter service establishments or systems with disabilities, vulnerabilities, non-traditional roles, or refugee and migrant status.\nDefining service inclusion: The concept of service inclusion is built on social inclusion. Humans live within multiple social systems, which are all service systems (Fisk, 2009). This means that services are always embedded within \"socio-cultural ecosystems,\" which are a \"critical and under-researched area of well-being\" (Anderson and Ostrom, 2015, p. 244). Thus, to define service inclusion, the authors draw from studies on social inclusion within several different domains, including education (Sosu and Rydzewska, 2017), health (Davey and Gordon, 2017) and management (Folguera, 2014; Reis et al., 2017), among others. Since social inclusion is \"people driven\" as is service inclusion, surveying the definitions of social inclusion is helpful in defining service inclusion. Table I presents selected definitions of social inclusion within these different areas.\nThe four pillars of service inclusion: The authors contend that service inclusion is multifaceted and comprises four key pillars: enabling opportunities, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness. For service inclusion to be realized by 2050, each of the pillars needs to be solidly constructed and built upon. Table II provides a definition for each of these pillars and an inclusive practice example.\nDesign for service inclusion: Moving to socially inclusive service systems requires tools and methods for fostering service inclusion, which is why design for service inclusion is proposed. Service design is a multidisciplinary field with a wide range of tools and methods for creating and improving service systems. The design science approach is adopted (Van Aken, 2004, p. 224): \"The mission of a design science is to develop knowledge for the design and realization of artefacts, i.e. to solve construction problems, or to be used in the improvement of the performance of existing entities, i.e. to solve improvement problems.\" The construction problems of service inclusion are to design new service systems that are fully inclusive. The improvement problems of service inclusion are to redesign service systems to enable them to become fully inclusive.\nA research agenda for service inclusion: The challenge of meeting the service needs of all humanity requires new approaches to designing the service concepts, systems and encounters. Given the diversity of the theories and methods used in service research (Benoit et al., 2017), the service field is well equipped to tackle the overlooked issue of service inclusion. In this section, the authors propose a transdisciplinary research agenda for achieving service inclusion by 2050. Every service should use MSD to strengthen its ability to serve the broadest spectrum of human beings and to enhance the well-being of those that they serve. Since well-being is individual, this approach requires directly including consumers in the design or redesign of service systems.\nConclusion: This paper presents a transformative, human-centered approach to understanding service exclusion and designing for service inclusion. Service inclusion was defined as an egalitarian system that provides customers with fair access to a service, fair treatment during a service and fair opportunity to exit a service. A history of service exclusion, demographic trends that exacerbate exclusionary practices, a design method for service inclusion and a research agenda for advancing service inclusion were discussed. Design for service inclusion is a necessary concept and method for transforming all service systems into inclusive life-affirming experiences.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to challenge service researchers to design for service inclusion, with an overall goal of achieving inclusion by 2050. The authors present service inclusion as an egalitarian system that provides customers with fair access to a service, fair treatment during a service and fair opportunity to exit a service.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Building on transformative service research, a transformative, human-centered approach to service design is proposed to foster service inclusion and to provide a platform for managerial action. This conceptual study explores the history of service exclusion and examines contemporary demographic trends that suggest the possibility of worsening service exclusion for consumers worldwide.\nFindings: Service inclusion represents a paradigm shift to higher levels of understanding of service systems and their fundamental role in human well-being. The authors argue that focused design for service inclusion is necessary to make service systems more egalitarian.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors propose four pillars of service inclusion: enabling opportunity, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness.\nPractical implications: Service organizations are encouraged to design their offerings in a manner that promotes inclusion and permits customers to realize value.\nOriginality/value: This comprehensive research agenda challenges service scholars to use design to create inclusive service systems worldwide by the year 2050. The authors establish the moral imperative of design for service inclusion.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
The employment situations and career prospects of postdoctoral researchers	[ "Academic careers", "Career prospects", "Personal agency", "Postdoctoral researchers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Academic organisations have changed quite substantially in recent decades in terms of their tasks, structure, and culture due to increased internationalisation, lowered government influence and funding, and a larger impact from external stakeholders (Enders et al., 2011). Like other public organisations, universities are increasingly financed in an output-oriented manner, and therefore emphasis on performance has grown (e.g. Decramer et al., 2013; Hayrinen-Alestalo and Peltola, 2006; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004). It is important and urgent to study academic careers: while the knowledge economy itself deserves increased attention, the altered financial structure of universities has changed their employee relationships extensively and at different levels.\n2. Conceptual framework: While studies on academic careers have continued to proliferate, the literature lacks a more elaborate and consistent framework to investigate such careers. The ongoing development of a researcher throughout an academic career is rarely addressed, particularly studies taking a holistic perspective are scarce (Akerlind, 2005).\n3. Research context: Like other European countries, the Dutch higher education system is increasingly seen as influenced by private sector elements (Boyne, 2002). This implementation of New Public Management (NPM) should lead to a more market-oriented higher education system, one that is able to compete for clients, funding, and prestige and to meet the growing pressure to cut costs (Scharitzer and Korunka, 2000; Christensen and Laegreid, 2001). A key feature of NPM is its focus on performance in all aspects of management, primarily through NPM instruments such as pay for performance, performance appraisal, performance budgeting and performance indicators. To develop new modes of academic governance, for example in relation to research where emphasis is placed on self-governmentality and changing funding mechanisms, has begun to significantly affect academic work and employment relations (Kehm and Lanzerdorf, 2006; Leisyte, 2015). As research is increasingly funded on a project basis, the number of postdocs is growing extensively, while fewer tenured positions are available.\n4. Research methods: To investigate the complex relationships between postdocs and their employers, and as a follow-up to our previous rounds of data collection, we chose to organise three focus group meetings at a Dutch university in April 2015. A focus group is a \"group interview - centred on a specific topic (focus) and facilitated and coordinated by a moderator or facilitator - which seeks to generate primarily qualitative data by capitalising on the interactions that occurs within group settings\" (Sim and Snell, 1996, p. 189). Focus groups are particularly useful to reflect the social realities within a certain group (McLafferty, 2004) and participants are forced to explain themselves to each other, and able to compare their experiences very directly (Kitzinger, 1995).\n5. Main findings: During the analysis of the focus group data two types of links emerged: between the HRM staff and the postdocs and (most interestingly) within the group of postdocs. Both parts are illustrated with quotes.\n6. Discussion and conclusion: As explained, we frame our research gap here within the model constructed by Glaser and Laudel (2015), and have focused on the three career types and the links between organisational and cognitive and organisational and community careers.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw on the employment situation of postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) in the Netherlands, concerning their career prospects and embeddedness within their organisation, in order to discuss theoretical perspectives on academic careers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This multi-method study consists of three parts: a survey, in-depth interviews, and three focus group meetings with postdocs as well as representatives of the human resource staff and the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This paper reports on the findings from the focus group meetings, which concentrated on how postdoctoral researchers consider their employment situation and career prospects.\nFindings: The three focus group discussions revealed that postdocs are caught within a dual controversy, the first involves their lack of clarity concerning their career prospects and developments despite their highly valued work, the second regards the fact that they are specialized staff, contributing to the primary process of their employing organisation but faintly connected. Although the postdocs' formal position seems weak, their situation in terms of academic socialising is much stronger and active than appears at first sight, particularly due to their personal agency.\nPractical implications: The postdocs require and appreciate guidance and support, particularly when they must leave academia.\nOriginality/value: The paper provides new and additional insights into the position of postdocs and their career prospects. Their personal agency in pursuing further career steps is more active than expected in previous studies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Entrepreneurial networks across the business life cycle: the case of Alpine hospitality entrepreneurs	[ "Relationship management", "Entrepreneurship", "Networks", "Cooperation", "Enterprise life cycle" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Networks in the tourism and hospitality industry are of major importance for two reasons. First, cooperation among hospitality entrepreneurs is necessary, as tourism destinations offer a distinct bundle of products provided by various organizations in cooperation (Bramwell and Sharman, 1999; Grangsjo and Gummesson, 2006). Second, the industry often shows a small-scale structure, especially in Europe, yielding the necessity for organizations to cooperate to leverage sufficient resources. Therefore, a variety of research investigating network perspectives has been conducted (Beritelli et al., 2013; Timur and Getz, 2008).\nNetwork development and the enterprise life cycle: Venture growth depends upon the networking capabilities of entrepreneurs (Hansen, 1995). Most research combining issues of entrepreneurial networks and the organization life cycle focuses upon early life cycle stages. Greve and Salaff (2003) investigate networking activities during the start-up stage. Lechner and Dowling (2003) investigate what kind of relational mixes fast-growing entrepreneurial ventures use during different life cycle stages (from start-up to post-initial public offering). The relational mix refers to social, reputational, co-opetition (cooperation between competitors) and marketing networks, as well as knowledge, innovation and technology networks (Lechner and Dowling, 2003). Larson and Starr (1993) developed a conceptual framework of network evolution during the formation of an organization. First, entrepreneurs focus upon essential relationships, followed by a stage of converting these ties into socioeconomic exchange relationships, before broadening the scope of these ties by adding further functions and activities (Larson and Starr, 1993).\nMethod: Case study research based on interviews with entrepreneurs was conducted. Various scholars support qualitative approaches for studying entrepreneurial networks (e.g. Anderson and Jack, 2002; Lechner and Dowling, 2003). Case study research enables researchers to explore soft social and cultural aspects of networks (Dredge, 2006). Case studies are applied when analyzing single social units in detail and investigating contemporary phenomena within the context (Yin, 2009). This methodology helps developing research propositions for causal relationships (Yin, 2009) and meets the call for using a \"constructivist perspective describing how entrepreneurs evolve their networks to address changing resource dependencies over different phases of venture development\" (Sullivan and Ford, 2014, p. 568).\nCase studies: Contextual note\nCross-case analysis and discussion: All cases are family businesses; most businesses are currently managed by the second generation. Investments made by the first entrepreneurial generation not only primarily increased the capacity but also slightly improved the standards of the services. These investments were a first phase shaping the entrepreneurial network. The network involved mainly local actors - financial institutions, suppliers and the families themselves. A first reconfiguration of the network was undertaken by the successive generation. The reasons were challenges imposed by the enterprise life cycle and the environment. Entrepreneurs had to reconfigure their networks due to changes within the competitive environment, the financial situation and to gain access to external resources opening up opportunities and diminishing uncertainty. Table II provides an overview of the six cases.\nConclusion: This study applying resource dependency theory (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978) has yielded new insights in the development of entrepreneurial networks. Specifically, this study adds to prior research investigating resource access and relational mixes of entrepreneurial networks along different enterprise life cycle stages (Hsu et al., 2015; Lechner and Dowling, 2003), by demonstrating how and when entrepreneurs establish relationships to non-local actors and to actors from other industries. Thus, prior literature is extended by shedding further light on spatial and industrial dimensions of entrepreneurial network evolution.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to deliver a detailed understanding about the dynamics of entrepreneurial networks along the enterprise life cycle of hospitality enterprises.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Case study research was conducted, using in-depth interviews with hospitality entrepreneurs and additional material (e.g. website information). The data were analyzed applying the qualitative method GABEK (GAnzheitliche BEwaltigung von Komplexitat - holistic processing of complexity) which enables researchers to reveal concepts and attitudes of interviewees.\nFindings: Networks of hospitality entrepreneurs shift from local ties to industry-specific actor groups to local and non-local ties to actor groups inside and outside the industry. Throughout the enterprise life cycle, entrepreneurs prefer strong ties. The transition from one family generation to the next and changes in the competitive environment are important triggers of network configurations.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research should reproduce the findings and investigate the proposed relationships in representative samples from different regions and industries. The influences of different actors within networks provide fertile research opportunities.\nPractical implications: Networks provide viable means for tackling the challenges of growth in the hospitality industry. The research provides managerial implications for how networks should be configured for meeting resource dependencies of different development stages.\nOriginality/value: Building on resource dependency theory, this research emphasizes which challenges the enterprise life cycle imposes upon network management in the hospitality industry. While past research has focused upon the early stages of the enterprise life cycle, this study investigates also later stages. Furthermore, triggers of network management are identified.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Discouraged borrowers aftermath of financial crisis: a UK study	[ "SME", "Banks", "Financial crisis", "Lending", "Discouraged borrowers" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: This research seeks to add to our understanding of the effect of credit squeeze after the 2008 financial crisis on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly firms that are discouraged from borrowing. A number of studies have explored the effect of the financial crisis on SMEs, indicating that small firms faced particular problems in accessing external finance (Vermoesen et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2014; Kremp and Sevestre, 2013; Cowling et al., 2012). Research also indicates that there is less demand for external finance as a result of the credit squeeze (i.e. Cowling et al., 2012; Vermoesen et al., 2013). These studies focus on customers who applied for external financing. In the current study; however, the concern is with latent demand. The aim is to shed light on the proportion of small firms that hesitate to declare their demands known as \"discouraged borrowers\". These firms are differentiated from other non-applicants by their desire for credit. They refuse to ask for credit, not because they rely on other sources of finance, or they do not need it, but because they fear their applications being turned down (Kon and Storey, 2003). Research shows that initial credit squeeze created a rapid increase in the rate of discouragement in the UK lending market (Cowling et al., 2016). This research tries to understand to what extent this effect lasted.\n2. Literature review: The Pecking order theory (Myers and Majluf, 1984) argues that firms, after exhausting internal resources, turn to external financing and prefer lower cost external finance: debt financing. Banks are the main source of debt finance for small firms (Berger and Udell, 2003). When a firm does not have access to finances offered by banks when needed, it may abandon its investment, rely on internal sources, or look for more expensive methods of financing. This may impose additional barrier to a firm's growth. Due to higher information opacity, smaller firms are prone to tighter access to capital (Stiglitz and Weiss, 1981). One of the consequence is being more susceptible to credit rationing: being denied credit, despite being indistinguishable from good borrowers and willing to pay the market price (Parker, 2002). Research on entrepreneurial finance shows that some types of small firms may face a higher rejection rate (Freel, 2007; Irwin and Scott, 2010), but that the majority receive what they apply for (Fraser, 2004; Vos et al., 2007). At the time of crisis, SMEs faced a more restricted credit market (BMG Research, 2014), but the majority of applicants still did not face absolute credit rationing (Lee et al., 2014).\n3. Data and methodology: The data used in this study are a series of cross-section surveys drawn from the UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Finance Monitor, 2011-2016 (BDRC Continental, 2016). The survey is conducted quarterly and collects information on SME financing. The unit of analysis is firm with less than 250 employees and/or PS35 Million annual sale. The sample is initially provided by Dun & Bradstreet and Experian and is structured across all sizes, sectors, and regions. Data are provided on a ten-wave basis. Therefore, in order to have all the waves, the first and last available data sets were combined and the sampling weights were adjusted. The sample used in this study covers the first and second quarter of 2011 (combined) until the end of 2015. Each wave contains around 5,000 observations, giving a sample size of 95,000 firms. Without applying sampling weights, the sample is biased towards larger firms. Employing sampling weights, the final sample is representative of 4.5 million SMEs in the UK (BDRC Continental, 2014).\n4. Main results and discussions: Table II shows the results of probit regressions in one stage models for: discouraged firms vs applicants; and rejected firms vs approved firms. In each panel, two models are presented. The first model includes the basic demographic variables and the second model includes risk related variables as well as variables concerned with the banking relationship and firm performance. The number of observations is lower for the second model due to missing values. The total number of observations for discouragement model is 7,413 and 6,056 in model 1 and 2, respectively, representing 319,000 and 238,000 firms.\n5. Conclusion: The contribution of this paper is the investigation of the changes in the level of discouragement during the aftermath of the recession and after UK banks resumed pre-recession loan approval practices. The results show that lower probability of discouragement among SMEs lags the improvement in SMEs' access to bank funds. The results highlight the longer-term effect of tightened credit supply on SMEs that are ready to invest, but hold back because of fear of rejection.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trend of discouragement in the small and medium sized enterprise's (SME) lending market during the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008. It detects the extent to which the responses of discouraged firms to improvements in the lending market are lagged.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The results are based on surveys of UK SME Finance Monitor (2011-2016). Probit regression models were used to assess the effect of time passed from the financial crisis on the probability of discouragement.\nFindings: The analysis, inter alia, shows that the rate of discouragement has reduced significantly since 2013. The results highlight the long-term effect of tightened credit supply on SMEs that are ready to invest, but hold back because of fear of rejection.\nPractical implications: The research suggests addressing imperfect information among discouraged SMEs that are recuperating from the financial crisis. With the rise of information asymmetry, entrepreneurs show a higher level of fear of rejection by financial institutions. The longer the effects of the financial crisis exists among entrepreneurs, the longer they self-ration from credit market, which subsequently leads to reduced levels of investment, growth, and innovation among SMEs.\nOriginality/value: This research fills a gap in the literature of the effect of financial crisis on the latent demand for lending. It discusses the long-term effect of tightened credit supply among entrepreneurs even though the supply side has recuperated and recommenced pre-crisis activities.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Impact of ERP systems usage on organizational agility: An empirical investigation in the banking sector	[ "Empirical study", "Business models", "Enterprise resource planning (ERP) (packaged systems)", "Information system effectiveness" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Organizations are facing many challenges because of various factors such as globalization, customers' high expectations and demands, outsourcing, etc. (Ramesh and Devadasan, 2005). Those challenges may lead to uncertainty and unpredictability for organizations in all sectors. In order to meet such challenges, organizations need to act quickly according to the surrounding competitive situation. Moreover, organizations need to adapt to unexpected changes in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. According to Dahmardeh and Banihashemi (2010), the idea of adapting to unforeseen changes is referred to as the concept of agility. Agility can be defined as the ability of an organization to adapt to unexpected and uncertain situations and changes in the environment (Backhouse and Burns, 1999). Many researchers consider agility as a crucial factor for organizations to survive in uncertain and turbulent markets. An agile organization is able to react quickly to markets that change as a result of a dynamic environment. For example, the agility of an organization could affect that organization's capabilities in terms of producing and delivering new products, decreasing costs, increasing customers' satisfaction, removing non-value-added activities, and increasing competitiveness.\n2. Literature review: In 1991, the Iacocca Institute Report introduced the term \"agility,\" which it defined as the ability to thrive in rapidly changing, fragmented markets (Jackson and Johanson, 2003). Ganguly et al. (2009) defined agility as the state or quality of being able to move quickly and in an easy fashion. Agility focusses on the ability of organizations to cope with unexpected changes in order to survive in an unpredictable environment, and to take advantage of changes as opportunities (Zhang and Sharifi, 2000). According to Borjesson and Mathiassen (2005), agility can be used to help the company Ericsson respond more effectively to events in the software process improvement environment. Agility is complex, and has been investigated in many disciplines. For example, Vazquez-Bustelo et al. (2007) defined manufacturing agility as the capability of an organization to meet changing market requirements, maximize customer service levels, and minimize the cost of goods.\n3. Research model: 3.1. Main study variables\n4. Research methods: 4.1. Data sources\n5. Data analysis and hypotheses testing: 5.1. Reliability\n6. Discussion: Banks are facing slow economies and regulatory uncertainty. In response to these and other industry conditions, banks need to be agile, according to Michael J. McEvoy, principal in the retail banking practice at Novarica, in a recent executive brief (Tellervision, 2011).\n7. Implications for practitioners: The contribution of this research lies in the assessment of the impact of ERP systems usage on banks' agility in the Middle East. Essentially, we argue that ERP systems usage has significant impact on banks' agility in the Middle East in the current business environment but the variance of banks' agility that is explained by the use of ERP systems is weak, and have found empirical support for this result. The results of this research investigation provide banking practitioners and investors with valuable direction. Success in achieving agility is not fully dependent on ERP systems usage in banks in the Middle East. Implementing and managing ERP systems are expensive and time consuming. Before investing in ERP systems, banking practitioners and investors in the Middle East should be aware that the successful implementation of ERP systems may not lead to the achievement of sufficient competency, flexibility, quickness, and responsiveness, according to the results of this research, and that this may not deliver banking agility sufficiently. Banking practitioners should therefore consider organizational factors alongside ERP systems and other technologies in order to increase the chances of banks achieving sufficient agility.\n8. Conclusion and future work: The problem of how organizations can cope with uncertainty, unpredictability, and changes in the environment is an important topic for both academics and professionals. In order to solve this problem, organizations need to be agile. Technology could contribute to building agile organizations. ERP systems can be considered as key pillars that support organizations to achieve their business goals. This research aims to investigate the impact of ERP systems usage on agility in organizations.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be considered as cornerstone that allows most organizations to achieve their business goals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ERP system usage on agility in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 90 branches of well-known banks in the Middle East, such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Arab Bank. Data were analyzed using a path analysis methodology.\nFindings: A new model has been developed. An empirical investigation was performed on the banking sector in the Middle East to test the new model. Despite the results showing that the impact of ERP system usage on banks' agility is significant, the variance of banks' agility that is explained by the use of ERP systems is weak. This indicates that ERP usage may not influence sufficiently the current agility drivers in Middle-Eastern banks and that there may be other significant variables that contribute to agility in the banking sector.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this research were based on a survey conducted among banks in the Middle East. The results are applicable in Middle-Eastern banks, but may not be applicable in other regions.\nPractical implications: Banking practitioners in the Middle East should be aware that successful implementation of ERP systems may not lead to the achievement of sufficient competency, flexibility, quickness, and responsiveness. Hence, such implementation may not deliver banking agility.\nOriginality/value: This research model investigates the impact of ERP usage on the agility of banks in the Middle East.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A novel memetic algorithm with a deterministic parameter control for efficient berth scheduling at marine container terminals	[ "Marine container terminals", "Berth scheduling", "Deterministic parameter control", "Memetic algorithms", "Vessel service cost savings" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: According to the recent statistical data, provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), volumes of the international maritime trade have been rapidly growing since 2009 (UNCTAD, 2015). A total of 9.8 billion tons of cargo were carried by vessels in 2014, which is 20.2 per cent more as compared to the total volume of cargo transported in 2009. In five years, the container volumes increased by 30.9 per cent and the dry cargo volumes increased by 11.8 per cent, while major bulk and liquid bulk cargoes increased by 33.0 and 6.5 per cent, respectively (UNCTAD, 2015). Such a significant increase in the international containerized trade volumes requires marine container terminal (MCT) operators to improve the terminal productivity and efficiently serve the growing demand (Bentolila et al., 2016; Rahman et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2016).\n2. Literature review: The BSP can be reduced to the unrelated machine scheduling problem, where the arriving jobs should be assigned for processing on the available machines, which have different properties. The latter operations research problem is known to have NP-hard complexity (Pinedo, 2008; Bierwirth and Meisel, 2015). The NP-hard problems are unlikely to be solved using the exact optimization algorithms in an acceptable computational time for the realistic-size problem instances. Many of the published to-date BSP studies applied the stochastic search algorithms (e.g. evolutionary algorithms - EAs, simulated annealing - SA, Tabu search - TS, particle swarm optimization - PSO, etc.), which do not guarantee the global optimality of the berth schedules, but they are able to obtain the \"good-quality\" berth schedules within a reasonable computational time. The literature review presented herein mainly focuses on the solution algorithms that were designed to solve the BSP. For a more detailed description of the BSP papers, this study refers to Bierwirth and Meisel (2010, 2015) and Carlo et al. (2013). An overview of the collected BSP papers is presented next.\n3. Problem description: This study models the MCT with a discrete berthing layout (Figure 1). The terminal's wharf is partitioned in several berths, and one vessel can be moored at each berth at the time. The MCT operator is assumed to have the information regarding the vessel arrival times (i.e. dynamic vessel arrival case). The uncertainty in vessel arrival times is not modeled in this study. Once a vessel arrives at the MCT, it is towed to the assigned berth by push boats. If the assigned berth is not available (i.e. it is occupied by the other vessel), a vessel will be waiting for service in the dedicated area, located close to the MCT (Figure 1). It is assumed that the safety distance requirements between vessels, moored along the MCT's wharf, are satisfied. The vessels are served using a gang of quay cranes. The container handling productivity (measured in twenty-foot equivalent units [TEUs] per hour) is negotiated with a liner shipping company and is known before the vessel arrives at the MCT.\n4. Mathematical model: This section presents notations that will be used throughout the paper and a mixed-integer nonlinear mathematical model for the discrete dynamic BSP (DDBSP) studied herein.\n5. Solution methodology: As discussed in Section 2, BSPs can be reduced to the machine scheduling problems, which are known to be NP-hard (Pinedo, 2008). Unlike many of published to-date BSP studies that mostly relied on the stochastic search algorithms, this paper proposes a MA with a deterministic parameter control (MA-DPC) to solve DDBSP (and its linearized version - DDBSP-L) for the realistic-size problem instances. Along with the stochastic search operators, MAs use local search heuristics, which typically improve the objective function value at termination and convergence pattern of the algorithm, as compared to canonical EAs and other stochastic search algorithms. Furthermore, application of the parameter control strategies allows better exploration and exploitation of the search space (Eiben and Smith, 2003). The main steps of the developed MA-DPC are outlined in Procedure 1.\n6. Computational experiments: This section presents a number of computational experiments that were conducted to assess efficiency of the developed MA-DPC in terms of computational time and solution quality. The proposed MA-DPC will be compared against the following alternative algorithms:\n7. Conclusions and future research extensions: MCT operators have to seek new strategies that will allow to meet the growing demand for containerized trade and in the meantime coping with the existing congestion issues. This paper focused on improving the seaside operations of MCTs and proposed a novel MA with a deterministic parameter control to ensure efficiency of berth schedules by minimizing the total vessel service cost. Unlike published to-date berth scheduling studies that mostly rely on the stochastic search algorithms, the developed algorithm applied a local search heuristic for the chromosomes and population initialization and adjusted the mutation rate values based on a deterministic parameter control strategy. A set of computational experiments were performed to assess efficiency of the proposed MA with a deterministic parameter control based on a comprehensive comparative analysis against the alternative state-of-the-art solution algorithms widely used in the berth scheduling literature.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The volumes of international containerized trade substantially increased over the past years. In the meantime, marine container terminal (MCT) operators are facing congestion issues at their terminals because of the increasing number of large-size vessels, the lack of innovative technologies and advanced handling equipment and the inability of proper scheduling of the available resources. This study aims to propose a novel memetic algorithm with a deterministic parameter control to facilitate the berth scheduling at MCTs and minimize the total vessel service cost.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A local search heuristic, which is based on the first-come-first-served policy, is applied at the chromosomes and population initialization stage within the developed memetic algorithm (MA). The deterministic parameter control strategy is implemented for a custom mutation operator, which alters the mutation rate values based on the piecewise function throughout the evolution of the algorithm. Performance of the proposed MA is compared with that of the alternative solution algorithms widely used in the berth scheduling literature, including a MA that does not apply the deterministic parameter control strategy, typical evolutionary algorithm, simulated annealing and variable neighborhood search.\nFindings: Results demonstrate that the developed MA with a deterministic parameter control can obtain superior berth schedules in terms of the total vessel service cost within a reasonable computational time. Furthermore, greater cost savings are observed for the cases with high demand and low berthing capacity at the terminal. A comprehensive analysis of the convergence patterns indicates that introduction of the custom mutation operator with a deterministic control for the mutation rate value would provide more efficient exploration and exploitation of the search space.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study does not account for uncertainty in vessel arrivals. Furthermore, potential changes in the vessel handling times owing to terminal disruptions are not captured.\nPractical implications: The developed solution algorithm can serve as an efficient planning tool for MCT operators and assist with efficient berth scheduling for both discrete and continuous berthing layout cases.\nOriginality/value: The majority of studies on berth scheduling rely on the stochastic search algorithms without considering the specific problem properties and applying the guided search heuristics. Unlike canonical evolutionary algorithms, the developed algorithm uses a local search heuristic for the chromosomes and population initialization and adjusts the mutation rate values based on a deterministic parameter control strategy for more efficient exploration and exploitation of the search space.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
A spectral analysis based heteroscedastic model for the estimation of value at risk	[ "GRNN", "VaR", "Hilbert transform", "Kernel density estimation", "Wavelet transform" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Value at risk (VaR) is defined as the maximum expected loss of an asset at a specific confidence level and holding time period. After the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision initially introduced this concept for banks worldwide to calculate the capital requirements for their trading books in 1995, other international institutions like the Bank for International Settlements and the US Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) also recommended it as an effective tool to quantify risk. It has gradually become a standard tool in risk management, and a large quantity of research has been launched for a better point VaR estimate. Among which various ARCH-based derivatives models rank the most popular methods to calculate VaR.\n2. Related literature review: Degiannakis (2005) studied the ability for prediction of the realized volatility and the daily VaR value over a range of models, and found a Fractional Integrated Asymmetric Power ARCH(FIAPARCH) model together with skewed t distribution can fit the features of asset price serial. Tang and Shieh (2006) investigated the long memory trait of stock index future in three stock markets and proposed a Hyperbolic GARCH(HYGARCH)model with skewed t distribution. Bali and Theodossiou (2006) evaluated up to ten variations of ARCH-type models based on skewed generalized t distribution, and found out the TS-GARCH along with the EGARCH model performed better overall. Aloui and Mabrouk (2010) then tested three kinds of long memory type models with various distribution assumption for the estimation of VaR value in the markets of crude oil and natural gas. They concluded that a model with the consideration of the asymmetric and fractional integrated trait in volatility always behaved better in the prediction of VaR value. The Basel Accord recommends an Integrated Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity(IGARCH) model with the assumption of Gaussian Distribution for the estimation of VaR value(Gourieroux and Jasiak, 2010). Chen et al. (2011) have evaluated 4 kinds of stock index in Asian pacific markets. They concluded that the ARCH-type models with their parameters estimated through the Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) method always outperformed the Stochastic Volatility (SV)-type models.\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Estimate the mean serial by wavelet decomposition method\n4. Empirical evidence: The performance of proposed model is now tested by the daily data of DIAI, USDI option closing price and the yields of 10-year term Treasury bill (YTB10) from February 1,1999 to December 30, 2016. The selected three series represent three kinds of market risk, i.e. equity, foreign exchange and interest rate market risk. These three data sets used were obtained from the official website of Yahoo Finance, the Intercontinental Exchange and US Department of Treasury respectively. Each serial is treated as the log of daily changes. Figures 1-3 plot the comparison of the original serial and the residue serial after processing. It is clear that the residue series exhibit more stationary than their untreated counterparts.\n5. Major conclusions: All the three data sets tested suggest that the proposed model is able to follow the varying volatility to a great extent. The residue serial after processing appears a more stationary characteristic than the original one. Moreover, the estimation of VaR value can reach a rather precise approximation of the desired percentage. By conducting the Kupiec' test, the estimated VaR values are acceptable at a high significance level. In contrast, the estimated results by the traditional AR(1)-GARCH(1,1) model are worse, which cannot always be verified effective through the Kupiec' test at the confidence level of 99 per cent. Moreover, the proposed model is totally adaptive, thus it is adequate when dealing with financial time series, which are non-stationary and non-linear stochastic processes.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: This paper aims to focus on a better model to capture the trait of varying volatility in various financial time series, as well as to obtain reliable estimate of value at risk (VaR).\nDesign/methodology/approach: The typical methods in spectral analysis are used to obtain the sample of conditional mean, conditional variance and residual term. The generalized regression neural network is used to establish a time-varying non-linear model, and the non-parametric kernel density estimation method is applied for the estimation of VaR.\nFindings: The proposed model is able to follow the heteroscedastic characteristic which is common in financial time series, and the estimated VaR is satisfactory.\nPractical implications: The analysis method in this study allows the hedgers, bankers, financial analysts as well as economists to draw a better inference from financial time series. Also, relatively more precise estimate of the VaR value for a certain kind of financial asset is available. The model with its derived estimates would definitely help in developing other models.\nOriginality/value: Up-to-date, the study in literature which models financial time serial from the viewpoint of spectral analysis is rare to see. Thus, the proposed model, along with a comprehensive empirical study which reveals desirable result for the estimation of VaR would enrich the related researches at present.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Extending the construct of consumer ethnocentrism: when foreign products are preferred	[ "International marketing", "Customer satisfaction", "Consumer behaviour", "China", "Russia" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Managers contemplating entry in overseas markets need to consider consumers' attitudes toward imported goods (Klein, 2002). The consumer ethnocentrism scale (CETSCALE) developed by Shimp and Sharma (1987) has been used extensively among western researchers seeking to measure such attitudes and preferences. Consumer ethnocentrism refers to the belief that it is inappropriate - or even immoral - to purchase foreign products because to do so is damaging to the domestic economy, will increase domestic unemployment, and is generally unpatriotic (Shimp and Sharma, 1987).Although the construct was developed and initially validated in the USA, there is evidence that the psychometric properties of the CETSCALE extend beyond North America (Durvasula et al., 1997; Netemeyer et al., 1991; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998). These studies, however, were conducted in developed and mostly western nations (i.e. the US, Western Europe, and Japan) - all advanced economies where consumers generally take pride in their domestic products and judge them more favorably than foreign goods (Balabanis et al., 2001; Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Netemeyer et al., 1991; Wall and Heslop, 1986).While advanced nations were the main engines of global economic growth over the last 50 years, the road ahead looks much different. It is well established that developed nations comprise an ever-shrinking part of the world's economy (Wilson and Purushothaman, 2003). Developing and transition economies represent the next great opportunity for global growth. The savvy international marketer now seeks opportunities beyond advanced markets. With this shift comes the need for global managers to understand the attitude toward foreign goods among consumers in developing and transition economies.The present study examines whether the construct of consumer ethnocentrism extends to contexts where domestic goods are likely to be viewed less favorably than imports. Transition economies like Russia and China represent such contexts. Decades of buying shoddy goods from state-owned factories have led consumers in these countries to rate foreign products more positively than those produced domestically (Ettenson, 1993; Heslop and Papadopoulos, 1993). This is a relatively unique situation not fully explored in the context of the CETSCALE. A consistent finding across previous CETSCALE studies in advanced economies is that consumer ethnocentrism is strongly linked to judgments concerning the quality of domestic and foreign goods (Balabanis et al., 2001). Those scoring high in consumer ethnocentrism evaluate domestic products more favorably than imports (Netemeyer et al., 1991; Shimp and Sharma, 1987). However, in developing and/or transition economies, it is unclear how consumer ethnocentrism will manifest itself: perhaps the construct is not exhibited in these contexts, or instead consumers make a trade-off between nationalism and product quality[1].One argument in favor of the universality of consumer ethnocentrism is that consumers in any macro economic context will differ in their beliefs and preferences: some consumers will feel that it is immoral and inappropriate to purchase foreign goods while others will not. Thus, while consumers in developing economies generally evaluate domestic goods more negatively than foreign goods, the CETSCALE should be able to predict these judgments (i.e. explain their variance) and predict purchase preferences, much as it does in advanced economies.Contribution of the research\nMethod: Overview\nResults: Table I shows the average score on the CETSCALE for each of the four samples along with average attitudes and beliefs concerning domestic and foreign products[4]. As can be seen, CETSCALE scores are significantly lower in Russia than in China for both the student, t(214)=-13.24, p<0.001, and non-student, t(207)=-10.55, p<0.001, samples. In fact, the level of consumer ethnocentrism for both Russian samples is below those typically found among consumers in developed economies.The results at the bottom of Table I shows that consumers in all four samples perceive the quality of domestic products to be lower than goods produced in specific foreign countries (all p's < 0.05, with one exception: Russian students' negative views of Hungarian products). This supports the premise that, in contrast to developed economies, Russia and China represent contexts in which the quality of foreign products is viewed more positively than those produced domestically.The next analytical step was to test the psychometric properties of the CETSCALE in Russia and China. Concurrently, a more parsimonious six-item version of the scale was derived and compared with the ten-item scale. We then validate our findings from Russia and China by means of a re-analysis of the data collected by Netemeyer et al. (1991) in developed countries. This enables us to test the validity of the reduced six-item scale across diverse economic contexts.Derivation of the six-item CETSCALE\nDiscussion: Focusing on a broader international context than previously has been explored, the present investigation shows that the construct of consumer ethnocentrism extends to transitional economies where consumers generally prefer foreign goods. This result is significant to managers and organizations seeking sources of business in developing markets such as China and Russia. Further, the research demonstrates that in such transition economies the CETSCALE provides a valid and reliable measure of consumer ethnocentrism. The psychometric properties of the scale were robust even in Russia, where consumer ethnocentrism was relatively low and attitudes in favor of buying foreign goods were prevalent (Durvasula et al., 1997).In contrast to Russia, consumers in China displayed levels of ethnocentrism similar to consumers in developed western countries (Netemeyer et al., 1991). But, like their Russian counterparts, the Chinese samples viewed domestic goods as inferior to imports. Findings from both developing countries demonstrate that consumer ethnocentrism and the CETSCALE are applicable in contexts where consumers are not generally nationalistic in their product judgments. This supports the findings of Acharya and Elliot (2003), in Australia.The present study also shows that a six-item version of the CETSCALE performs as well (or better) than the ten-item version. In both Russia and China, the abbreviated scale exhibited uni-dimensional factor structure, high construct and composite reliability, factor structure invariance, as well as nomological validity. The re-analysis of Netemeyer et al.'s (1991) data shows that the six-item scale possesses strong reliability and validity in developed countries as well. In short, a consistent pattern of support is found for the reduced CETSCALE across eight samples from six countries (Russia, China, the USA, France, Germany, and Japan). These results suggest that the six-item scale has international applicability and can be administered across multiple nations, including both developed and developing economies[9].These findings, when coupled with Bearden and Netemeyer's (1998) call for more parsimonious marketing measures, make a strong case for the employment of the six-item CETSCALE by both international marketing managers and academics interested in measuring consumer ethnocentrism. It would appear that the ten-item version of the scale may suffer from \"empirical redundancy\" in item wording (Cortina, 1993; Clark and Watson, 1995). Of course, neither version of the CETSCALE has been tested in all possible economic and marketplace contexts. Situations may exist where the scale does not possess requisite levels of reliability and validity. Douglas and Nijssen (2003), for example, found challenges to the use of the CETSCALE in the \"small market context\" of The Netherlands. Nonetheless, our results indicate that belief in the superiority of domestic goods is not a prerequisite for CETSCALE use.The findings also show that in Russia and China, the psychometric properties of the CETSCALE are similar for student and non-student samples, particularly in Russia. For the two Russian samples, the CETSCALE revealed consistent levels of reliability, uni-dimensionality, factor invariance and nomological validity. While the two Chinese samples generally showed consistent levels of reliability and uni-dimensionality, and some degree of factor invariance, they did not pass the strictest test of factor invariance. All four samples did show the expected relationships between the CETSCALE and measures of nomological validity, with one exception. A non-significant relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and attitudes toward buying foreign goods was found for the Chinese non-student sample. Future studies may examine potential reasons for this anomaly in the findings.Future research may also consider employing more representative samples in the study design. While the present study is an improvement over previous efforts that relied exclusively on students, the samples included here were largely recruited in a non-probabilistic fashion from one city in each country. Accordingly, the study findings may not necessarily be representative of all Russian and Chinese consumers. It might be the case, for example, that Russian workers who live in industrial regions of the country are more adversely affected by foreign competition than our Moscow respondents, and therefore, are more consumer ethnocentric (similar results have been reported in the industrial regions of the Midwestern USA where workers have been hard hit by imports). Likewise, consumer markets in China are noted for significant regional differences in attitudes and product preferences which may affect the generalizability of the results.Nonetheless, this research provides practicing marketers as well as international researchers with a parsimonious six-item CETSCALE that can be used in both developed and transition economies. This is significant in light of the rapid pace of market globalization and the importance to international organizations of expanding business opportunities to developing markets generally, and the two countries considered here, more specifically. Consumer markets are growing in many developing economies and, across the globe, customers continue to enjoy an ever-increasing array of imported brands than ever before. As such, international marketers will find it increasingly important to investigate ethnocentric attitudes and product preferences of their current overseas customers as well new prospects in this dynamic global marketplace.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - This research has the purpose of exploring whether the construct of consumer ethnocentrism extends to contexts in which foreign products are preferred to domestic products.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study evaluates the psychometric properties of the consumer ethnocentrism scale (CETSCALE) in the transition economies of China and Russia using both student and non-student samples. A valid and reliable six-item version of the CETSCALE is developed based on these samples. The refined six-item scale is then validated through a re-analysis of Netemeyer et al.'s data collected in four developed countries.\nFindings: - Findings show that the scale can be used effectively in these transitional economies. A consistent pattern of support is found for the six-item CETSCALE across eight samples from six countries.\nOriginality/value: - The research provides practicing marketers as well as international researchers with a parsimonious six-item CETSCALE that can be used in both developed and transition economies.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
MNEs' regional headquarters and their CSR agenda in the African context	[ "Africa", "Multinational companies", "Developing countries", "Corporate social responsibility", "Social responsibility", "Multinational enterprises", "Regional headquarters", "Bottom-of-the-pyramid markets", "Less developed countries" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: [...] The world of CSR would look very different if the priorities of poorer groups were put first (Newell and Frynas, 2007, p. 678).\nLiterature review: The African context\nMethodology: The research reviewed above suggests that CSR in developing countries is gaining increasing attention. At the same time, a discussion emerged as to how these initiatives should look like and what the companies' motives are in pursuing CSR. However, to date empirical insights are lacking. Against this background, we aim to provide insights across three main areas: first, what kind of CSR practices do MNEs in Africa pursue? Second, how are CSR initiatives selected and how do MNEs and their RHQs balance a global CSR agenda with local needs? Third, what aspects do MNEs consider important when implementing CSR initiatives and how do relations with key stakeholders look like?\nQualitative exploration: Given the rather limited insights concerning CSR in Africa, an exploratory approach seemed appropriate and necessary to generate first insights. We therefore chose a qualitative design, which is particularly suitable to exploring implicit assumptions and gaining a better understanding of companies' perspectives and relationships (London and Hart, 2004). More specifically, we were guided by grounded theory in data gathering and analysis (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). The inductive approach enables theory development based on the patterns emerging from qualitative data. Unfortunately, we were not able to fully consider all these theoretical considerations during sample selection (the overall population of interest is made up by only 20 companies). The interview guide, however, evolved in line with emerging patterns according to grounded theory. Based on the secondary analysis, we identified several important topics that were investigated in more detail throughout the qualitative interviews. The initial interview guide revolved around four key themes: first, the rationale for choosing specific CSR initiatives both in terms of scope as well as in terms of similarities and differences to the global CSR agenda; second, key stakeholders and important aspects when collaborating with them; third, the general motivation for CSR measures; and fourth, the expectations of their outcomes.\nFindings: Motivations for CSR activities\nDiscussion: Our study aimed to provide a better understanding of MNEs' CSR strategies in Africa and explore the degree of global CSR standardization. We draw on several streams of research focussing on CSR - marketing and management, business ethics, business and society literature as well as studies on international affairs and development - to provide a holistic understanding of the context of CSR in developing countries and Africa in particular. Against the background of pertinent literature and insights derived from companies' CSR reports, we conduct qualitative in-depth interviews with RHQs managers to shed light on MNEs' CSR activities in Africa.\nConclusion: Taken collectively, the paper provides a portrayal of MNEs' CSR activities on the African continent and thereby responds to calls for research in this part of the world. We contribute to the field of international business by providing insights concerning the management of CSR by MNEs, an area to which only limited attention has been paid (Husted and Allen, 2006). Our findings provide an illustration of how the relatively large institutional distance between Western MNEs and the local realities of BOP markets could be bridged by allocating responsibility to RHQs that help to balance local responsiveness with a global CSR agenda: some MNEs still pursue very centrally coordinated CSR strategies (e.g. global outreach programs as in the case of the firm Qualcomm). The majorities of companies, such as Coca Cola or IBM, have succeeded in providing locally adapted CSR initiatives, tailored to the specific needs of the society and community in which they are operating. By looking at marketplace activities and interactions, we further provide bottom-up insights for debates concerning the intersection of the environment and the issue of poverty as well as the corporate role in these areas.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives can provide a mechanism for tapping into the vast consumer markets of developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how regional headquarters (RHQs) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Africa pursue CSR and whether their initiatives are aligned with their own global CSR agendas or tailored to local idiosyncrasies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Following a secondary data analysis of MNEs' CSR and sustainability reports and their homepages, in-depth interviews with their CSR managers in African RHQs are conducted.\nFindings: The paper provides insights into motivations of RHQs to pursue specific CSR initiatives. MNEs need to make considerable adaptations to their global CSR agendas in order to develop initiatives that fit the local setting. The authors further identify key institutions in developing countries and discuss the potential of collaborations with MNEs in their CSR initiatives.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future research should assess the impact of environmental differences (e.g. developing nations compared to industrialized nations) and firm characteristics on CSR autonomy (both at RHQs and at the subsidiary level). Furthermore, the perspectives of the various stakeholders (such as local governments or NGOs) should be examined to establish a holistic understanding of CSR in developing countries.\nPractical implications: MNEs gain a better understanding of peculiarities encountered in developing countries and are provided with recommendations on how to develop their CSR policies.\nSocial implications: The paper directs awareness to CSR in the African context, thereby providing a platform for understanding some of this continent's most important challenges.\nOriginality/value: The paper shows how the context of developing countries shapes the translation process of MNEs' global CSR agendas. Companies benefit from the best practice examples provided in this paper and learn from the stakeholder collaborations discussed.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Social innovation and the promotion of local economic development	[ "Local development", "Dimensions", "Social innovation" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Developing actions to generate alternatives that contribute with the improvement in well-being for low-income individuals is essential for reducing social disparities. Social innovation emerges as the result of knowledge applied to social needs, through the participation and cooperation of the actors involved, resulting in new and long-lasting solutions for social groups, communities or society as a whole, according to Bignetti (2011). To Butkeviciene (2009), social innovations might be considered means to create social change, fostering mechanisms to deal with different sorts of problems.\n2. Social innovation: Social innovation has arisen as a new theme in the study of innovation. It has been considered an emerging research field in which there has been no consensual definition. Such fact contributes to widen discussions between scholars and practitioners about how the concept should be defined and which terms should be used, once it is commonly, but not consistently used in the literature (Moulaert et al., 2005; Bignetti, 2011; Ferreira, 2012). According to Moulaert et al. (2005), Schumpeter was the first who underlined the necessity for social innovation in parallel with technological innovation to ensure economic efficiency.\n3. Dimensions of analysis for social innovation: The understanding of social innovation allows the emergence of several classifications about its dimensions. Such dimensions are analysed in a singular way by researchers, observing specific contexts and previous studies about the topic, among other possibilities.\n4. Methodological procedures: As emphasized by Konstantatos et al. (2013), socially innovative initiatives are developed as a response to increasing inequalities and social exclusion processes, mobilizing several resources. In this sense, understanding these initiatives demands specific methodologies permitting the approximation and learning side by side as well as promoting that actors, objectives and practices get involved with one another.\n5. Result analysis: This section displays research results. At first, ADEL's activities, its main programmes and benefitted subjects, as well as their origins, are identified. Afterwards, the dimensions of social innovation are verified, using as reference the table assembled by Tardif and Harrisson (2005). Moreover, we also verified emerging categories, aiming to complement determined variables sheltered within each dimension.\n6. Concluding remarks: Social innovations might be presented by the pursuit of solutions that enable the improvement of individuals' well-being. In this regard, the classifications presented by authors who study the topic are diverse. However, the essence of these definitions is aligned with the central purpose of social innovation. Owing to the goals of this research, the definition adopted was the one from the CRISES, Canadian centre dedicated to study the area.\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to propose a multidimensional view of social innovation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It offers a detailed analysis of the activities performed by ADEL (Agencia de Desenvolvimento Economico Local) - a regional non-governmental organization located in one of the poorest regions of Brazil - which is succeeding in engaging young people in the promotion of local development. The case was analysed drawing on the dimensions structured by researchers of one of the main centres of social innovation in the world, the Centre de Recherche sur Les Innovations Sociales (CRISES) based in Canada.\nFindings: The results found characterize ADEL as a social innovation based on the dimensions of social innovation described in the CRISES' conceptual encyclopaedia (Tardif and Harrison, 2005). The results highlight the singularities of the case studied, which allowed the elaboration of a revisited table of dimensions proposed by the CRISES' researchers.\nResearch limitations/implications: For future studies, using the CRISES' table as reference of analysis for other social innovations, the possibility suggested is the quantitative exploration of these dimensions.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this article lies in the fact that it presents a representative social innovation for the Brazilian semiarid.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Prosociality as a mediator between teacher collaboration and turnover intention	[ "Teacher collaboration", "Turnover intention", "Prosocial motivation", "Other-orientation", "Prosocial impact" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Recently, teacher collaboration has attracted the attention of researchers for its potential to improve educational organisational effectiveness (Goddard et al., 2007). Meanwhile, a high rate of teacher turnover is not only a problem for work force and resource planning but also an indicator of the poor quality of schools (Vagi et al., 2019; Smethem, 2007). Acting on the assumption that collaborative practices enhance teachers' commitment to teaching at their school, researchers have shown considerable interest in the relationships between collaborative practices in schools and their effect on turnover intention, as an indicator of organisational effectiveness (e.g. Kraft et al., 2016; Smith and Ingersoll, 2004). However, despite these findings (Guin, 2004; Simon and Johnson, 2015), little is known about the process by which those effects are realised.\nLiterature background: Collaboration in school as relational job architecture\nResearch aims: This study examines how teachers' perception of collaboration, prosocial impact, prosocial motivation and turnover intention are related (Figure 1). It is motivated by the following research questions:\nMethod: Ethical considerations\nResults: The descriptive statistics for the observed variables and their correlations are shown in Table I.\nDiscussion: This study examined the potential mediating role of prosociality between collaboration and turnover intention based on the framework by Grant (2007) in an educational context. Our results confirmed this linkage. That is, teachers engaged in a collaborative job structure felt that the positive impact of their work influences the well-being of others, thereby leading to the willingness to help others more (Grant, 2007; Hallinger and Heck, 2010). Moreover, collaboration at the school level, which provides teachers with the opportunities to interact, limited their turnover intention through the experience and motivation to help others (Guin, 2004; Simon and Johnson, 2015).\nLimitations and future research: Our cross-sectional data limit the potential for causal inferences. Although our analysis is based on Grant's (2007) theoretical framework, and our results support it, it is possible that reverse associations also exist. For example, it has been shown that collective prosocial motivation leads to employee cooperation (Hu and Liden, 2015). Therefore, a cross-lagged longitudinal design should be employed in the future to shed more light on the issue.\nPractical implications and conclusion: Our results draw attention to the importance of creating a job structure to generate the experience of benefitting others. Educational leaders should provide teachers with more opportunities to experience prosocial impact. For example, receiving positive feedback from colleagues boosts teachers' prosocial impact. Prosocial impact can also be enhanced when leaders' messages assure that teachers that their work has meaningful consequences for other people (Grant and Hofmann, 2011).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of prosociality, which is defined in terms of helping and benefitting others, between teacher collaboration and their turnover intentions. Prosociality was measured as prosocial impact and prosocial motivation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This study was conducted through a cross-sectional survey of 260 elementary and junior high school teachers in Japan. A structural equational model was employed to examine the mediating roles of prosocial impact and prosocial motivation in the relationships between teacher collaboration and their turnover intention.\nFindings: The results, first, supported the hypotheses: the high perception of teacher collaboration in school predicted high perceived prosocial impact; high perceived prosocial impact predicted high perceived prosocial motivation; and high perceived prosocial motivation predicted decreased turnover intention. Second, results supported partial mediating roles of prosocial impact and prosocial motivation between teacher collaboration and turnover intention.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limitations of this study include cross-sectional data that may limit the potential for causal inferences, and self-report data. Future studies should incorporate alternative designs.\nPractical implications: Results indicate that teacher collaboration contributes to less teacher turnover intention via prosociality. Thus, to enhance teachers' prosocial impact, more opportunities to realise their collaboration should be considered.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to explore the relationships between teacher collaboration and turnover intention in educational organisations with prosociality, which resides as core goals and objectives of teachers.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Local capacity building after crisis: The role of languages and translation in the work of development NGOs in Kyrgyzstan	[ "Knowledge", "Languages", "Translation", "Western knowledge", "Local capacity building", "Central Asia", "Development NGOs" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent years, networks of humanitarian organisations, language professionals and academics have started to address the challenges of working in multilingual crisis contexts through action and research. Examples include the work of the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities network, non-profit organisations such as Translators without Borders and Red T, and research clusters that conduct research and training on interpreting in humanitarian settings (Moser-Mercer et al., 2013, 2014) and on crisis translation (Federici et al., 2019; O'Brien et al., 2018). Whilst the increase in initiatives and operations on the role of languages in humanitarian crisis indicates a growing awareness among main actors of the importance of effective communication, language issues in the context of long-term international development collaboration have been surrounded by relative silence. Illustrative of this language silence are, for example, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which argue to \"leave no one behind\", but which do not mention the role of languages in achieving these goals. Various scholars have drawn attention to this blind spot in the SDGs, particularly to the absence of language planning in education, health and legal settings (Bamgbose, 2014; Marinotti, 2017; Taylor-Leech and Benson, 2017). In relation to the work of international NGOs (INGOs), who are key actors in delivering the SDGS, the low profile of languages has also been noted. For example, Crack (2018) has shown that donors such as DFID generally do not ask questions to NGOs about translation and interpreting, but assume that NGOs have the appropriate linguistic capacity to deal with the multilingual needs of development work. Contrary to donors' assumptions, research by Footitt (2017) and Delgado Luchner (2018) has indicated that INGOs' capacity in local languages is often problematic, and that translation and interpreting costs do not tend to be taken into account in the planning stage of development projects. Although the rhetoric of international development is geared towards equitable relationships and genuine democratic dialogue, this growing body of research provides evidence that in practice the hegemonic role of English often excludes those from non-privileged backgrounds (Crack, 2018; Roth, 2018).\n2. Conceptual framework and data: Capacity building or capacity development is considered in western approaches to development as playing a key role in societal and state capabilities to minimise the impact of economic, climate and food crisis as well as in achieving the UN's development goals (Casazza et al., 2009, p. 5). Approaches to capacity building have gone through a major paradigm shift in the mid-1990s. In earlier approaches, western donors and INGOs considered building capacity as assisting local organisations through funding, equipment and technical guidance. Nowadays, however, it is considered as a more complex process that aims to change people's behaviour and create sustainable societies. In current approaches, more emphasis is placed on local ownership of development programmes and genuine partnerships between international and local actors (Milen, 2001, p. 1). UNDP identifies \"three points where capacity is grown and nurtured: in an enabling environment, in organizations and within individuals\" (Casazza et al., 2009, p. 11). This paper considers aspects of language and translation that may hinder or enable capacity building in Kyrgyzstan on these three levels. It specifically focusses on SNGOs' organisational capacity; SNGOs' donor environment; the skills, experience and knowledge of SNGO workers and community members on an individual level. It should be noted that these levels depend on and influence each other (Casazza et al., 2009). The discussion of language and translation issues on these three levels therefore naturally overlaps in some places.\n3. Linguistic context: Russian, Kyrgyz and English in Kyrgyzstan: According to official statistics, 71.4 per cent of the population have Kyrgyz as their first language, 14.4 per cent speak Uzbek and 9 per cent Russian (Central Intelligence Agency, 2017). What makes Kyrgyzstan a compelling case is that the civil society sector is marked by an urban-rural divide that largely concurs with a Russian-speaking elite based in Bishkek, and to a lesser extent in Osh, vs a Kyrgyz-speaking rural population (Orusbaev et al., 2008; Simpson, 2010). After years of Russification during the USSR, Kyrgyz received official status next to Russian around the time of Kyrgyzstan's independence. Recent years have seen a push for Kyrgyz in official settings linked to a discourse of nationality, ethnicity and identity, and rural populations now increasingly speak Kyrgyz (Orusbaev et al., 2008). However, Russian continues to be widely spoken in urban areas and is still the dominant language in professional and higher education contexts (Central Intelligence Agency, 2017). Its status as a language of socio-economic advantage that can offer employment opportunities abroad or in international organisations is further reflected in its high percentage of second language speakers, which stands at 34.5 per cent. In comparison, statistics for speakers of English as a foreign language are as low as 0.5 per cent (Aminov et al., 2010).\n4. Study findings: languages, translation and capacity building in Kyrgyz SNGOs: 4.1 Organisational capacity\n5. Discussion: The findings presented in this paper encourage more critical reflection on the role of languages in capacity building. A number of findings are of particular relevance in relation to previous research. First, on the level of organisational capacity, the interview data indicated that limited English language skills led to SNGOs often being excluded from shaping development programmes. As indicated in the wider literature on development and risk reduction, SNGOs tend to be contracted as partner organisations to carry out a particular service, but are often not valued for their knowledge of the local context (Banks et al., 2015; Gibson et al., 2018; Mawdsley et al., 2002; Wallace et al., 2007). The present data adds to this that a lack of English language capacity in SNGOs hinders them from being involved in the early stages of project design. Furthermore, interviewees indicated that because project proposals and reports are usually not translated into local languages, local organisations and communities are not fully informed of project objectives, which makes it difficult for them to claim local ownership. The development literature has been critical of INGOs placing too much emphasis on accountability to donors, instead of to their beneficiaries, which has led to a culture in which quantitative data and reporting templates defined by donors have gained priority (Banks et al., 2015; Eyben et al., 2015). The current findings add to this that the focus on accountability to purse-string holders also means information is often reported in a linguistic format that is not accessible to local organisations or communities.\n6. Concluding remarks and policy recommendations: In conducting this research, there were some inherent limitations. The exploratory nature of the case study and the short time available to conduct the interviews in Kyrgyzstan meant that little other data were collected. The findings presented here thus rely on what interviewees have said, rather than on what they may do in practice. Future research that could add data from observing meetings between SNGOs, INGOs and local communities, for example, can shed further light on the complexity of development relationships and issues of programming. Furthermore, future research would ideally draw on participatory research methods and engage with SNGOs and local communities to discuss their needs and challenges from the early stages of the research, thus allowing space for collaboration (LeCompte et al., 1999; Stringer, 2007). An important observation is that researchers will face the same kind of linguistic issues as NGOs when aiming to engage with local communities. Just as in NGOs' work, careful preparation and appropriate budgeting for translation and interpreting is essential to bring such plans to a successful end (Tesseur, 2019).\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of languages and translation in the context of capacity building in NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that language barriers can impede local capacity building, while translation can help in overcoming some of the issues encountered.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reports on what NGO workers have said on the role of languages and translation in their work in 34 semi-structured interviews conducted in Kyrgyzstan in January 2018. The discussion is structured around a theoretical understanding of capacity building at three levels: the organisational level, the individual level and a broader enabling environment.\nFindings: First, the paper demonstrates that knowledge of English plays a key role in accessing international funding and information. Second, it describes the challenges that NGO workers encounter when translating information related to development into Russian and Kyrgyz. Third, it argues that donors do not overtly consider the important role of languages. Together, the findings suggest that ignoring the role of languages and translation can have a negative effect on project outcomes and power relationships.\nPractical implications: Policy recommendations for international NGOs and donors drawn from this case study and from comparative case studies on Peru and Malawi have been published in Crack et al. (2018).\nOriginality/value: The paper argues that taking the role of languages and translation into account can result in a more in-depth understanding of aspects that may contribute to better local capacity building.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]
Global brand equity model: combining customer-based with product-market outcome approaches	[ "Brand equity", "Customer orientation", "Modelling", "China", "International business" ]	[ { "content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.\nIntroduction: Brand equity is regarded as a very important concept in business practice as well as in academic research because marketers can gain competitive advantages through strong brands (Aaker, 1998; Keller, 1993, 2000). Since late 1980s there has been a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions in which brands have played the primary role. Increasingly, as the movement of brand valuation shifts from the developed economies to other areas of the world, especially to the emerging economies, the branding question changes considerably (Roth, 1995). In the era of global marketing, branding strategy, as a key element in the marketing mix, is increasingly viewed as a powerful tool to obtain sustainable competitive advantages (Lin and Kao, 2004), as well as to fully utilize available resources, and to avoid bleeding price competitions (Aaker and Keller, 1990). As marketing managers may want to capitalize on previously acquired brand equity by extending a reputable brand to a new regional market, branding decisions are becoming increasingly important in global marketing. However, while facing unfamiliar environments and consumers, global brands may fall into the dilemma because little global-specific research has focused on this domain so far, and little is known about the extent to which consumer-based brand equity transfers to unfamiliar consumers in a global context.In response to the trend of increasing brand globalization, there is growing demand for the development of the model of global brand equity to assess a brand's value relative to that of its global competitors. The conceptualization and measurement of brand equity, including its sources and outcomes, become an urgent and challenging task. The following questions need to be answered by global marketing practitioners and scholars. Is there a difference between the firm's branding strategies in domestic and global markets? What are the implications of taking a domestic perspective versus a global perspective when designing marketing programs for a brand?The aim of this paper is to explore the structural relationship between consumer-based brand equity and its product-market outcomes. Further, despite strong interest in the subject, there is little empirical evidence of how brand value is created in China and what effects brand equity has on Chinese consumers. Built on Keller's (1993, 2003) theoretical structure, this article develops a conceptual framework of brand equity applied to Chinese consumers. A comprehensive brand equity model is created including dimensions such as corporation ability association, brand awareness, quality/value perception and brand resonance. In addition, this research develops the product-market outcome measures and placing them as criteria variables as recommended by previous researchers (e.g. Aaker, 1998; Brown and Dacin, 1997; Keller, 1993, 1998). While earlier studies were conducted using samples from developed markets such as US, Australian and Japan, the present study uses a sample of Chinese consumers. Thus, the results may provide implications for the international branding.The rest of this paper is structured as follows. We first review the advances that have occurred in brand equity research in the past decades. Second, we propose a comprehensive model indicating the relationships between the customer-based brand equity factors and the product-market outcomes factors. Third, we present the methodology employed to test the model. Fourth, we present analysis and results of a study designed to test the model using a group of recognizable brands of domestic and foreign origins available to Chinese consumers. Finally, we offer general discussions and implications for both marketing researchers and brand managers.\nTheoretical background and hypotheses: Brand equity\nMethodology: Research design\nAnalysis and results: Factor analysis and item purification\nDiscussions and implications: The results of this research suggest that consumer-based brand equity is composed of four facets: corporation ability association, brand awareness, quality perception and brand resonance. However, the four components are not parallel but in three levels, which is similar to the brand pyramid proposed by Keller (2001). In the structure, CAA and brand awareness are in the first level; quality perception is the second level; the brand resonance constitutes the third level reflecting the relationship between consumers and brand including willingness to purchase and to recommend to others. Hence brand resonance poses at the top of the pyramid of customer-based brand equity. The modified model is presented in Figure 2.One important task of our research is the empirical validation of the relationship between CAA and other brand equity variables (all dependent variables). That is, what consumers know about a company can influence their reactions to the company's products. The results support the findings of Brown and Dacin (1997).Managerial implications\n", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Purpose: - There is a growing interest in brand formation and brand valuation among global firms today, but global marketers typically ignore one of the key factors of brand building - corporation ability association (CAA). This paper aims to explore the structural relationship between CAA and consumer-based brand equity variables and its product-market outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Utilizing Aaker and Keller's theoretical framework of brand equity, this paper develops a brand equity model combining customer-based brand equity with product-market outcome approaches. A set of scales are developed and tested on a national sample of Chinese consumers.\nFindings: - The data provide support for ten of the 12 hypotheses. The results indicate that CAA is an important factor in building and preserving brand equity. CAA and brand awareness have impact on quality perception, which has positive impact on brand resonance, brand extensibility, and price flexibility. Brand resonance has positive influence on brand extensibility and the intention to repurchase.\nPractical implications: - For global marketers operating in China, brand equity is a cultural market-based asset and global companies must focus on building corporation ability association in China in order to enjoy the substantial competitive and economic advantages provided by brand equity. Theoretically, the proposed brand equity model is an extension of the model proposed by Keller.\nOriginality/value: - For the first time, CAA is integrated into fhe brand equity model. This may provide a theoretical base for further research in the endorsement role of company ability in brand equity building.\n", "role": "assistant" } ]

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