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Two aspects of knowledge transfer: what every manager should know about using analogy and narrative
|
[
"Storytelling",
"Narratives",
"Knowledge transfer",
"Knowledge sharing",
"Analogy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Organizational scholars continue to study knowledge as an important organizational resource, primarily owing to its impact on growth, productivity and survival. In fact, researchers in the field of psychology have a long tradition of analyzing the best way to transfer knowledge at the individual level. Despite our understanding that knowledge transfer can boost organizational performance significantly, recent studies have shown that knowledge transfer remains poorly managed, as organizations often fail to transfer valuable practices and capabilities (Szulanski et al., 2016). One of the possible reasons is that knowledge transfer does not automatically occur. In this paper, I try to explore how managers as powerful mechanisms for transferring knowledge can transfer tacit as well as explicit knowledge through alternative modes. I focus on two modes of knowledge transfer - analogy and narratives. Analogical learning allows us to use our existing knowledge base to understand something novel through a process of mapping. Narratives represent a powerful way to convey information with emotion, explicit with the tacit, and the core with the context in an organizational setting.\nAnalogy: When we are faced with something unfamiliar, what we often do is to find some resemblance to something familiar to it. In terms of knowledge transfer, it simply means we use a process of analogical learning. Scholars have tried to understand the theory behind analogy. They define it as a process in which we use a familiar domain (base) to understand a novel domain (target). The focus is on how knowledge gets transferred from the base to the target. The analogical process occurs through four stages:\nNarratives: Oral storytelling has been long recognized as an integral part of knowledge transfer within societies. From childhood days, storytelling remains a popular mode of knowledge transfer over generations. Lately, narratives have been considered an important part of organizational life. There has been serious research on the role of stories as a mechanism for knowledge transfer in organizations (Jain, 2016). An organizational story can be seen as a collection of detailed descriptions about management actions in the past, interactions among employees, and/or other organizational events. In organizations, it is common to find people talking to others about their experiences and ideas. Brown and Gray (1995) gave an apt depiction of how storytelling originated in the 1980s as a mode of knowledge transfer in organizations with his description of Xerox copier repair technicians:\nManagerial implications: Most often, managers find it difficult to convey technologically complex problems to employees in a language that they best understand. Analogical learning can be an effective mode in such circumstances.\nImplications for research and society: In research, stories gain currency when researchers translate charts, facts, and figures into an engaging narrative that captures the attention of the public and enhances its reach beyond the specialists.\nConclusion: There is no doubt that the theoretical and practical interest in knowledge transfer is enduring. In fact, the significant progress made in understanding the various nuances of knowledge transfer now translate to focus on areas that still have scope for further inquiry. My sincere hope is that this article will stimulate further discussions on the two modes of knowledge transfer - analogies and narratives.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Organizational scholars continue to study \"knowledge\" as an important organizational resource, and there is a good understanding that knowledge transfer can boost organizational performance significantly. The power of individuals in the knowledge transfer is well established, as they can transfer tacit as well as explicit knowledge. However, recent studies have shown that organizations fail to transfer knowledge adequately. The purpose of this paper is to look at alternative modes of knowledge transfer that are still underexplored in organizations. The author focuses on two modes of knowledge transfer from an individual perspective - analogy and narratives, though often neglected, but can be most powerful for managers in organizations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This viewpoint is prepared by an independent writer who has amalgamated several other voices from different researchers/scholars and, finally, adds his own impartial comments and places the articles in context.\nFindings: The significant progress that we have made in understanding the various nuances of knowledge transfer now translates to need for focus on areas that still have scope for further inquiry. Based on current literature review, it was found that the two modes of knowledge transfer - analogy and narratives - require greater attention by managers during communicating tacit knowledge, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and organizational change.\nResearch limitations/implications: Storytelling and analogy allow researchers to translate charts, facts and figures into an engaging narrative that enhances its reach beyond the specialists.\nPractical implications: Narratives can be used for indirectly stating uncomfortable truths and rules of the game in a society, and thereby avoid possible conflicts.\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"
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Improving Tanzanian childbirth service quality
|
[
"Tanzania",
"Quality improvement",
"Birth plan",
"Health facility delivery",
"Partograph",
"Pregnancy danger signs"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Tanzania demographic and health survey (TDHS) reports from the past 20 years show that country is a developing country that suffers from high maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality (Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC), Ministry of Health (MoH) (Zanzibar), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS), and ICF, 2016). The TDHS 2004-2005 report revealed a countrywide maternal mortality ratio (MMR) estimated at 578 deaths per 100,000 live births and neonatal mortality rate at 32 deaths per 1,000 live births (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and ORC Macro, 2005). The southern Tanzania estimate for neonatal deaths was the highest in the country (47 deaths per 1,000 live births) (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and ORC Macro, 2005). Additionally, a study conducted in five southern Tanzania districts between 2004 and 2007 estimated MMR at 729 per 100,000 live births (Hanson, 2013). Many deaths are preventable through implementing effective and affordable interventions (Bhutta et al., 2012; Khan et al., 2006), including birth preparedness, labour monitoring (partograph) and immediate care for every neonate (Bhutta et al., 2014; Lassi et al., 2016; Ollerhead and Osrin, 2014). With more than 95 per cent of pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) at least once in the country and almost half delivering in health facilities (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and ICF Macro, 2011), there is a need to use high ANC attendances to offer quality services and help women to best prepare for their delivery, inform them about pregnancy-related complications and skilled delivery care (Magoma et al., 2013; Magoma et al., 2010). Improving institutional deliveries is a key strategy advocated to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths among the rural poor (Fogliati et al., 2015). Tanzania has a vast primary health facility network serving most rural populations (Hanson et al., 2013; Saronga et al., 2014). However, most professional health workers are based in urban areas serving minority populations (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and ICF Macro, 2011). The gap created is compensated by informal task shifting; for example, medical attendants performing nursing duties and nurses performing clinical officer duties (Table I) (Manzi et al., 2012), which has implications for healthcare service quality (Dawson et al., 2014; Wiedenmayer et al., 2015).\nMethods: Study aim and objectives\nThe intervention: Mtwara rural district\nData collection and analysis: Health facility delivery data were collected monthly from the health management information system (HMIS) delivery registers. To verify HMIS data quality, we compared data from three sources: facility delivery register; partograph; and HMIS report. If there were discrepancies, then data from the delivery register were used. Partograph data were collected from partographs stored in the labour ward. Data were analysed using line graphs and Excel's process control application, which helped to identify variation in improvement (Benneyan et al., 2003; Taylor et al., 2014; Timmerman et al., 2010).\nEthics: This work was within the INSIST study that received ethical clearance through the National Institute of Medical Research Tanzania (NIMR/HQ/R.8c/Vol II/177), the IHI and LSHTM Institutional Review Board (LSHTM Reference No A358-5316). The study is registered on clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT01022788.\nFindings: Pilot phase\nDiscussion: The study demonstrated marked improvements in partograph use and in facility deliveries within rural settings using QI methods. Both pilot and implementation districts demonstrated improvement in their QI topics. The four pilot facilities in Mtwara Rural district maintained more than a 50 per cent improvement in health facility deliveries for 12 months. In Ruangwa district, facility deliveries increased by slightly less than 50 per cent and partograph use, despite missing the target, increased over five times from 10 to 57 per cent. These results are impressive considering that bringing women to deliver in health facilities requires a multi-sectorial approach involving many players (Gabrysch and Campbell, 2009). Using partograph for labour management in low-income settings is emphasised in a review by (Orhue et al., 2012). Partographs detect labour complications and prompt healthcare staff to provide appropriate interventions to ensure feto-maternal wellbeing.\nPolicy and practice implications: Although we observed clinical guidelines, such as focussed antenatal care, at all health facilities, their usage was limited. In some facilities, guidelines were unreachable. When we printed a one-page document for birth planning and pregnancy danger signs, healthcare staff complied well in using it with pregnant women. However, its sustainability after the project is unclear. The birth planning and pregnancy danger signs counselling guideline is one among many: we suggest that guidelines could be simplified in an electronic form that will be easily accessed and understandable (Lund et al., 2016). An improving quality culture in the entire health system is needed to effectively use and profit from the fast growing QI initiatives introduced in the country (Atherton et al., 1999). Tanzania is practicing service decentralisation at the district level, which provides a good platform for applying QI methods led by CHMTs, rather than by donor partners. One major opportunity is mandating district activities to be planned by themselves making the comprehensive council health plan, which prioritises and approves budgets and interventions to be implemented at the district level.\nResearch implications: An observational study in ANC clinics is needed to ascertain barriers and facilitators for counselling services. Community involvement is another area to improve childbirth service quality. Partographs, as a tool, to improve labour services in health centres and dispensaries need further studies, taking into consideration different cadres that work at these facilities, especially how their skills and referrals to district hospitals can be improved.\nConclusion: In the fight to lower developing country maternal and neonatal deaths, we have shown that the QI approach can accelerate Tanzania's existing evidence-based interventions in rural health facilities. Bearing in mind that there are many cadres with varying competencies working in such facilities, planning how to teach and support them to use QI tools and to understand technical issues, despite their qualifications, will be beneficial. Systematically involving the hierarchical health system management up-front might facilitate acceptance and sustainability.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a quality improvement (QI) intervention in primary health facilities providing childbirth care in rural Southern Tanzania.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A QI collaborative model involving district managers and health facility staff was piloted for 6 months in 4 health facilities in Mtwara Rural district and implemented for 18 months in 23 primary health facilities in Ruangwa district. The model brings together healthcare providers from different health facilities in interactive workshops by: applying QI methods to generate and test change ideas in their own facilities; using local data to monitor improvement and decision making; and health facility supervision visits by project and district mentors. The topics for improving childbirth were deliveries and partographs.\nFindings: Median monthly deliveries increased in 4 months from 38 (IQR 37-40) to 65 (IQR 53-71) in Mtwara Rural district, and in 17 months in Ruangwa district from 110 (IQR 103-125) to 161 (IQR 148-174). In Ruangwa health facilities, the women for whom partographs were used to monitor labour progress increased from 10 to 57 per cent in 17 months.\nResearch limitations/implications: The time for QI innovation, testing and implementation phases was limited, and the study only looked at trends. The outcomes were limited to process rather than health outcome measures.\nOriginality/value: Healthcare providers became confident in the QI method through engagement, generating and testing their own change ideas, and observing improvements. The findings suggest that implementing a QI initiative is feasible in rural, low-income settings.\n",
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Generating change from below: what role for leadership from above?
|
[
"Change",
"Teacher professional development",
"Distributed leadership",
"Licensed leadership",
"Organic leadership",
"Teacher leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concept of change in education is inextricably linked with the idea of school improvement. This is often reflected in the scale and pace of policy changes as governments across the world strive to enhance pupil outcomes (Ball, 2013; Bell and Stevenson, 2006; Rizvi and Lingard, 2009). Improvement is increasingly characterised as raised performance in international assessments such as PISA (Sellar and Lingard, 2013). In a globalised world where knowledge is seen as central to securing competitive advantage then strong performance in internationally bench-marked assessments has become a key objective of policy. However these policy changes are taking place in a time of austerity and a culture of isolated privatism (O'Sullivan, 2011) which may make implementation difficult. Central to the implementation process is the pivotal role of leadership (Day et al., 2009) in managing change with much analysis about what leaders can do to progress the school improvement agenda. Investing in teachers as change-agents through supporting collaborative models of professional development may support school improvement. Within this paper we conceive of professional development as the \"processes, activities and experiences that provide opportunities to extend teacher professional learning\" which is considered to be \"the growth of teacher expertise that leads to improved student learning\" (New South Wales (NSW) Institute of Teachers, 2012, p. 3).\nResearch context: The paper reports from a study carried out in the ROI where the international move towards accountability and control is evident in The Education Act (Government of Ireland, 1998, Section 5) and subsequent policies, under what Sugrue (2011, p. 61) refers to as a \"Technology of Control\". Examples of this include the Whole School Evaluation Process and mandatory reporting of standardised test results to the Department of Education and Skills (DES), parents and school boards of management. The competing policy agendas of accountability and trust, teacher autonomy and standardisation all have an impact on teachers' and principals' professional learning experiences and practices with principals under pressure to manage and yet lead, compete and innovate (Sugrue, 2011). How principals carry out their role in the ROI depends on the context in which they work as two thirds of primary school principals are teaching principals with a maximum of 22 days administrative leave (Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), 2014). Noteworthy is that this study took place in large urban schools with non-teaching principals in a prevailing culture where isolated privatism is more valued than collective responsibility (O'Sullivan, 2011). Since the 1990s there has been \"an explosion of related administrative and managerial tasks without any real change in the resource capacity of schools\" (IPPN, 2014, p. 9). This is compounded by the lack of clarity surrounding the role of the principal, the lack of leadership training - teachers are promoted without adequate preparation for the role, poor administrative supports and poor management structures (IPPN, 2014, p. 12). A hierarchical system is outlined in legislation which requires that teachers carry out the duties that are assigned to them by or at the direction of the principal (Government of Ireland, 1998). In the absence of a current legislative framework outlining the role of the principal, schools \"are expected to play a key role in maintaining the knowledge society and be a critical element in the achievement of national goals\" (IPPN, 2014, p. 9).\n",
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"content": "Purpose: In recent years the benefits of distributed leadership have often assumed the status of an unchallengeable orthodoxy. There is a general acceptance that leadership is best when it is dispersed. In reality this is often little more than a form of \"licensed leadership\" in which those working in subordinate roles can only exercise their leadership in tightly prescribed contexts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution of teacher professional development to promoting a more optimistic vision of teacher leadership and, ultimately, organisational change. It explores the role of leadership \"from above\" in supporting classroom teachers to engage with and sustain change.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study, which was situated in the Republic of Ireland, employed a case study approach with 20 participants in five urban disadvantaged schools.\nFindings: The paper seeks to demonstrate how a professional development initiative was used to promote significant and sustained change in four of the five case study schools.\nResearch limitations/implications: It argues that in order to understand sustained change in schools it is necessary to better understand the complex ways in which leadership from above can generate change agency from below.\nOriginality/value: This paper offers a critical perspective in relation to mainstream distributed leadership theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Energetic way to face work-life conflict: Workout plan to combat stress and re-charge batteries
|
[
"Exercise",
"Human resource strategies",
"Work-family issues",
"Work-life issues"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Few of us might have escaped the claims, surveys, studies, exhortations, and advice over the years that exercise is good for you. Whether it be swimming, going for a brisk walk, or a session at the gym, making sure your body gets a physical workout can help in so many ways - making us more alert and energized to face the working day and feeling well enough to better enjoy family life.\nBeneficial interruption from stressful stimuli: While research has examined this link, critical questions remain about the relationship between the effects of exercise and work-family conflict (WFC) perceptions. Research suggests that WFC leads individuals to forgo exercise in favor of other work- and family-related obligations. Yet it is also thought that exercise can be a coping mechanism to help people meet the demands of balancing work and family.\nExercise itself would not reduce time or scheduling conflicts: Consequently, it is suggested that exercise may be considered as a potential resource that enables employees to handle the strain-based demands of work and home. Although the mechanism causing long-term exercise to reduce perceptions of WIF and FIW is not fully understood, the results of this study do provide empirical support for the notion of using exercise as a protective buffer from strain-based conflict.\nFlexible hours to allow employees to attend exercise facility: The increases in self-efficacy, along with the development of social support systems acquired through multiple sessions provide individuals with the means to navigate and cope with competing role demands (FIW and WIF).\nComment: This review is based on \"Exercise and work-family conflict: A field experiment\" by Clayton et al. (2017). The study tests for the effects of short- and long-term exercise in the relationship between work and family life. It concludes that employers might consider offering accommodations to individuals seeking to use exercise as a way to reduce work-family conflict and general stress.\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 authors found that there is a statistically significant long-term exercise effect on strain-based work interference with family and family interference with work.\nPractical implications: The paper 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"
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Informal learning, organizational commitment and self-efficacy: A study of a structural equation model exploring mediation
|
[
"Informal learning",
"Self-efficacy",
"Organizational commitment"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Organizations can create sustainable competitiveness through knowledge acquired by employee learning and development (Perez and de Pablos, 2003; Antonova, 2013). Informal learning in the workplace is a critical component of employee training and development (Dobbs, 2000; Cross, 2007). When informal learning occurs among employees within organizations, the organization acquires intangible knowledge through the individual employees' learning. Although formal learning through employee education plays a pivotal role in building an effective workforce, informal learning through observation and interaction is of equal or even greater importance (Enos et al., 2003). In fact, it has been estimated that as much as 70 per cent of learning in the workplace is informal, although a considerable amount of money is spent by organizations on formal training programs (Marsick and Watkins, 1990; Carliner, 2012).\nLiterature review: Informal learning\nMethods: Sample and procedures\nResults: Means, standard deviations and correlations\nDiscussion: This study introduced a model explaining the relationship between informal learning and organizational commitment in the workplace, including testing the mediating role of self-efficacy. The results of this research showed that informal learning had a positive effect on self-efficacy, and self-efficacy, in turn, had a positive effect on organizational commitment. This result confirmed Wang and Netemeyer (2002) which revealed the positive relationships between learning effort and self-efficacy and between self-efficacy and performance. Moreover, it is noteworthy that self-efficacy was shown to have a full mediation effect on the relationship between informal learning and organizational commitment. This result is consistent with Johnson et al. (2011) who showed that participation in learning and development practice can increase work attitudes and performance outcomes through enhanced cognitive mechanisms, such as role breadth self-efficacy. Interestingly, informal learning did not have a direct effect on organizational commitment in this study, while controlling for self-efficacy. This result is inconsistent with previous studies (Cho and Kwon, 2005; Payne and Huffman, 2005; Cao and Hamori, 2016). One possible interpretation is that organizational commitment may be less affected by environmental factors, such as HR practices, but more predicted by an employee's internal factors including self-efficacy (Bhatnagar, 2007).\nLimitations and future research: This study has several limitations in terms of methodology. Data collection mainly relied on a survey method, which is a single source and raises the concern of common method bias. As Podsakoff et al. (2003) argue, one way of controlling common method variance is to collect measures of variables from different sources such as knowledge transfer data from the internal network. Therefore, future studies may use different types of data to solve the problem of common method biases. In addition, the study design was cross-sectional; therefore, it was unable to eliminate the biases caused by simultaneous data. Future studies can adopt a longitudinal design using different time stages to collect data to eliminate this bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore a mediating effect of self-efficacy between individuals' informal learning and their organizational commitment. Informal learning between individuals is critical in the workplace because sharing knowledge and expertise is directly related to employee's attitude and organizational benefits such as enhanced performance and productivity. Of the many factors affecting organizational commitment, this research focuses on effects of informal learning and a mediating role of self-efficacy.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address these research questions, this research analyzes survey data of 317 Korean workers. Through structural equation model analysis, the authors examine how informal learning affects employee commitment to organizations, where individual self-efficacy works as a mediator.\nFindings: The analysis confirms that informal learning increases self-efficacy, whereas no directly influences organizational commitment. The analysis also demonstrates that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between informal learning and organizational commitment. This study confirms the positive relationship between informal learning and self-efficacy, whereas no direct relationship between informal learning and organizational commitment.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study has several limitations in terms of methodology. Data collection mainly relied on a survey method, which is a single source and raises the concern of common method bias. Therefore, future studies may use different types of data to solve the problem of common method biases. In addition, the study design was cross-sectional; therefore, it was unable to eliminate the biases caused by simultaneous data. Future studies can adopt a longitudinal design using different time stages to collect data in order to eliminate this bias.\nOriginality/value: The main reasons for the high rate of informal learning through activities such as on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring and community of practice include the increase in the efficiency of learning and reduction in learning costs by integrating learning and work and the effectiveness of informal learning in terms of improving performance. This research seeks to demonstrate how informal learning in the workplace influences employees' commitment to the organization through self-efficacy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The threshold effects of household indebtedness on multidimensional poverty
|
[
"Multidimensional poverty",
"Generalized additive model",
"Household indebtedness",
"D14",
"I31",
"I32"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Financial inclusion is embraced as a key element for economic development and social progress (Cull et al., 2014). Finance carries the potential to improve a household's welfare through various channels including consumption smoothing. Accumulated evidence demonstrates that access to finance is essential for economic developmeny (King and Levine, 1993). In South Africa, financial liberalization and political transformation in the early 1990s led to wider access to credit, most notable being the inclusion of households previously excluded from the financial system. In a way, this resultant reduction in credit constraints has seen financial institutions being readily prepared to issue credit as well as increasing households' dependency on borrowed funds in making the ends meet (Karacimen, 2014). These changes can be supported by the subsequent rapid rise in the usage of credit (Kempson, 2002).\n2. Overview of indebtedness and poverty: 2.1 Indebtedness\n3. Related literature: Literature on household debt and poverty is too fragmented; the focus is either on poverty, with little or no consideration for the effects of household debt, or vice versa. The microfinance field deals with linkages between these two areas, but even there threshold effects and consumer debts are not investigated. The literature is not consistent in defining both over-indebtedness and poverty, and consequently, in how to measure these concepts. Objective, administrative and subjective indicators are used for over-indebtedness (Oxera, 2004; Haas, 2006; Betti et al., 2007; Stamp, 2009), while money metric and non-money metric or multidimensional indicators are used for poverty (Orshansky, 1969; Sen, 1979; World Bank, 1990; Ravallion and Chen, 1997).\n4. Data and methods: 4.1 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS)\n5. Estimation model: This paper uses a combination of smoothing splines and a GAM, a robust estimation methodology to estimate the relationship between multidimensional poverty and the six explanatory variables. Table II lists the various continuous explanatory variables.\n6. Results and discussion: 6.1 Descriptive statistics\n7. Conclusion and implications: This paper provides evidence about the non-linear relationship between explanatory variables and multidimensional poverty using the NIDS data. The empirical results indicate that there is a debt threshold in the debt-poverty nexus. Household debt plays a crucial role in influencing multidimensional poverty levels - an appropriate level of debt is important for improving household welfare but beyond 42.5 percent threshold it is associated with increased multidimensional poverty. On the lower end, greater access to debt should be encouraged as it improves the quality of life of many households by making consumption smoothing possible. But higher debt service obligations relative to income appear to leave households more vulnerable to, for instance, unexpected changes in income and interest rates. Households might therefore find themselves suffering from double penalty of multidimensional poverty, and over-indebtedness, which has its own deadly consequences such as financial exclusion, etc. In the long run, the financial system as a whole becomes at risk because the household sector is closely associated with the financial system, it plays the dual role for savers and borrowers of funds, with the financial sector serving as intermediary. Other long-term implications are that children live in the vicious cycles of debt and poverty incurred by their parents.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the existence of critical tipping points for explanatory variables (age, government grants, education and household size) - in particular, household debt service-to-income on multidimensional poverty.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper applies a generalized additive model (GAM) using regression splines on National Income Dynamics Study data to establish threshold effects of the explanatory variables on multidimensional poverty.\nFindings: The results show that the tipping point at which debt is associated with improved household welfare is 42.5 percent (level of debt service-to-income). With significant findings, household heads younger than 60 years of age and more children are associated with lower multidimensional poverty. Government grants may suffer from fungibility as they do not seem to be an effective tool for multidimensional poverty eradication. The ideal household size with negative significant correlation to multidimensional poverty is less than four members. And lastly, education proves to be the best instrument for households to escape multidimensional poverty.\nSocial implications: High household indebtedness is a severe social problem. Its effects include deteriorating physical and mental health, relationship difficulties and breakdown. Significant social costs arise such as medical treatment and indirectly, reduction of productivity. Further effects on society include rising criminal behavior, children dropping out of school thereby transferring poverty to succeeding generations. Non-performing loans increase and in turn lead to reduced credit availability. The overall health of the economy is impacted due to reduced aggregate demand.\nOriginality/value: Macro studies have demonstrated the presence of thresholds on debt analyses. However, such is not known in micro analyses, this paper attempts to bridge this knowledge gap by applying GAM for analysis of debt-poverty nexus at the micro level.\n",
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The effect of the adoption of an alternative corporate governance system on firms' performances: The case of Italian unlisted SMEs
|
[
"Corporategovernance",
"Firmperformance",
"One-tierboard",
"Propensityscore",
"Two-tier board",
"G34",
"K22",
"M42"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and literature review: This paper provides an innovative point of view in the corporate governance debate, enquiring whether the adoption of alternative governance systems is likely to improve firms' performances. Financial literature has mainly devoted its attention to the impact of a properly designed board composition on firms' performance for listed corporations, documenting the idea that an appropriate board structure is relevant for good corporate governance (Dahya et al., 2002; Hossain et al., 2001; Carline et al., 2002) and that investors are likely to pay for it. The same happens for small and medium privately held enterprises (Uhlaner et al., 2007) or eventually with more widespread ownership structure (Brunninge et al., 2007).\n2. The corporate governance reform in Italy: In the Italian business system, which is characterized by a continuing predominance of small and medium-sized enterprises closely controlled by families, corporate governance is a debated issue: the possibility of choosing between two new alternative CGSs (i.e. one-tier and two-tier boards) instead of the traditional one was introduced in Italy by the corporate law reform implemented at the beginning of 2004. The normative background of the reform, which dates back to Title III of the Regulation 2157/2001 (October 2001), dictated the rules concerning the governance structure of the \"European Society\", identifying two alternative models of management and control and leaving the choice to statutory autonomy (Art. 38). The choice between these two models of corporate governance (one-tier and two-tier), thanks to their diffusion within the European Union, has even been shared by the Italian legislator, which introduced new opportunities for Italian firms to adopt these alternative CGSs (Art. 2409-octies and ss. and 2409-sexiesdecies and ss. of the Civil Code). This choice was not feasible before 2004, and thus represents an innovative approach to corporate governance within the Italian framework (Ghezzi and Malberti, 2008).\n3. Data and description: We take into analysis a wide sample of the Italian unlisted joint stock companies enroled in \"Register of Companies\" for the years 2003 and 2009. All accounting data have been obtained from Aida BvD, while the list of the companies featured by one tier and two tier boards belonging to our sample in 2009 have been obtained by Infocamere Archive, a database implemented by the Chamber of Commerce. We rely on two different databases, because Infocamere Archive provides us complete evidence about the universe of all the joint stock companies existing in Italy and of those which eventually implemented one tier or two tier board, but does not provide full evidence about corporate and accounting data in 2003 and 2009. For this reason we have to rely on the above mentioned Aida BvD, which however does not cover the whole universe. Since our attention is concentrated on firm performances with the aim to verify whether the adoption of one or two tier board did eventually affect their performance, we have to compare results obtained by these firms prior and after the 2003 Italian reform.\n4. Research questions and methodology: As above mentioned, our analysis is focused in enquiring whether there exists an effect deriving from the choice of a specific CGS on firm economic performances. For this reason we implement a statistical analysis with the aim to discover whether the adoption of one tier (two tier) board did affect companies' economic outcomes with respect to the performances of firms that decided to maintain a traditional system between 2003 and 2009[3].\n5. Empirical results: Table V displays the results of estimated ATT after having run propensity score.\n6. Concluding remarks: One of the main questions about corporate governance is whether firm performance depends in some ways on it. If better corporate governance is connected to better firm performance, better-governed companies should perform better than poorly governed firms. This study is based on an analysis of the medium run effects of 2003 Italian reform of corporate governance which introduces two alternative CGSs, giving both listed and unlisted companies the possibility to choose among the traditional and alternative CGSs. Focusing specifically our attention on the analysis of the performances of one and two tier board in comparison to the traditional one, the aim of this paper is to investigate in which way companies that switched into an alternative CGS have improved or not their performance. We analysed the outcomes obtained by Italian unlisted joint stock companies prior and after the introduction of 2003 Italian corporate law reform. The survey supplies descriptive statistics on a significant sample of unlisted joint stock companies, according to their CGS. In particular, we provide a general overview of the main features in terms of geographical distribution, economic activities, balance sheet and corporate items and accounting indices. The statistical analysis, using propensity score estimation strategy, is able to reduce the effect of selection bias. Selection bias might arise when firms that decided to change the CGS into an alternative one systematically differ from the sample of traditional firms for a set of observable indicators affecting the choice of the system. The variables that may affect both the probability of choosing the alternative system and performance outcomes may pollute the estimation of the interplay between CGS and performance. Controlling for these variables and comparing firms adopting an alternative system only with the traditional ones that show similar features in terms of 2003 balance sheet indices is the best way for reducing the effect of confounders and is successfully realized through the application of propensity score matching. The set of confounders includes both qualitative (legal form, economic activity and geographical location) and quantitative variables (total assets, net worth, net assets and the starting level of the outcome variables before the change of the CGS) according the 2003 values of balance sheet items and accounting indices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Alternative corporate governance systems (CGSs) have attracted a significant bulk of research recently. While the connection between the adoption of an alternative system (one tier board or two tier board system) and firms' performances has not been fully analysed yet, the purpose of this paper is to analyse whether companies which have turned into an alternative board system have eventually improved their performance over time.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using a sample of more than 15,000 Italian unlisted joint stock companies, the authors compare performance outcomes in 2009 of firms adopting alternative systems with performances of firms that maintained the system in force before the 2003 Corporate Law Reform (defined as \"traditional\"). Because of the choice of an alternative system (one tier or two tier board) instead of a traditional one is not random, the authors reduce selection bias implementing matching methods and comparing firms that are close in terms of propensity score measured in 2003 (the year before the new CGSs have been introduced by a corporate law reform).\nFindings: The authors do not find evidence of a significant improvement of performances in 2009 concerning those firms that have adopted a one tier or two tier board systems with respect to those which maintained a traditional one.\nOriginality/value: The novelty of the study concerns the application of propensity score matching for the evaluation of the impact of the change of the CGS that is possible in presence of two conditions that are all verified in our setting: first, to have a country where corporate law allows for choosing among different systems; in this case Italy is a good laboratory, because it allows for the choice among three different systems; and second, to have the opportunity to evaluate the effect of the change in light of a relatively recent \"pre-treatment\" condition; this is made possible by the fact that before the 2003 Reform of corporate law all the companies had a traditional system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Employees' perceptions of cycle commuting: a qualitative study
|
[
"Bicycles",
"Employees",
"Travel"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Physical inactivity poses a major public health challenge in Western societies (Department of Health, 2004). Presently in Scotland, 67 per cent of women and 55 per cent of men are not meeting the current recommendations of 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week, with inactivity accounting for over a third of deaths from heart disease (Scottish Government, 2009).On a national level cycling in Scotland has been receiving heightened attention due to its potential to improve public health (Cavill and Watkins, 2007; Cavill and Davis, 2007; Wardman et al., 2007). Cycling is a sustainable, healthy, transport option that can improve physical and psychological health and decrease carbon emissions (Cavill and Davis, 2007). Cycle commuting fits into daily life and provides the working population with an opportunity to be physically active (Vuori et al., 1994) and travelling through green space promotes self-esteem and enhances mood (Barton and Pretty, 2010). Although there is some debate surrounding the associated dangers of cycling, Hillman (1993) has suggested that the benefits outweigh the risks by 20 to one. More recently, de Hartog et al. (2010) reported more modest findings that the benefits of cycling are seven times larger than the risk involved in the UK context. Furthermore, the risks of road traffic accidents among cyclists, although higher than car users, are lower than for pedestrians (Cavill and Davis, 2007).Despite the benefits of cycling, only a small sector of the population cycle to work. Currently around 2 per cent of people in Scotland cycle commute (Scottish Executive, 2009), which reflects UK figures of cycling for transport (Department for Transport, 2008). Studies in the UK have found that over 85 per cent of respondents would be interested in cycling more often (Scottish Executive, 2009; Department for Transport, 2002).Environmental factors such as danger from motor traffic, poor infrastructure and bad weather are commonly cited as key challenges deterring people from cycling (Crawford et al., 2001; Scottish Executive, 2009; Unwin, 1992). A recent UK study suggested that the environmental context has an important role to play in people's choice to cycle or not (Cavill and Watkins, 2007). However, providing a supportive physical environment alone is insufficient to increase cycling (Giles-Corti and Donovan, 2002; Wardman et al., 2007). To effectively promote cycling, coordinated action is needed that addresses individual and social change, organisational change and environmental measures (Davies et al., 1997; Giles-Corti et al., 2005). The complex task of understanding cycling behaviour is also dependent on the journey type (Anable and Gatersleben, 2005).Some people regularly cycle to work despite environmental challenges. A Belgian study found that individual factors had a stronger influence on cycle commuting behaviour than environmental factors (de Geus et al., 2008). Research addressing individual factors (e.g. perceptions, attitudes and beliefs) is therefore crucial to understanding uptake of cycling and is also of value because individual factors are frequently more modifiable than environmental ones. Several questionnaire studies have addressed psychological factors related to cycling such as motivations and barriers (Crawford et al., 2001; Anable and Gatersleben, 2005; Shannon et al., 2006; Gatersleben and Appleton, 2007). However these quantitative surveys may overlook some of issues that are of importance in determining cycling behaviour and qualitative exploratory research that focuses on individual perceptions and experiences is sparse (Cavill and Watkins, 2007; Davies et al., 1997; McKenna and Whatling, 2007).A range of intervention approaches to increase rates of commute cycling have been developed and piloted. These include hard measures, such as infrastructure changes within the workplace and the wider environment, and softer measures such as incentives, social marketing techniques and psychological techniques (e.g. Cleary and McClintock, 2000; Mutrie et al., 2002; Wen et al., 2005; Gatersleben and Appleton, 2007). Sloman et al. (2009) found that a combination of hard and soft intervention approaches in six demonstration towns in the UK has led to an 27 per cent increase in cycling over a three-year period.There are very few published psychological intervention studies that have aimed to increase cycle commuting. One such study, based on the trans-theoretical model of behaviour change (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1982), tailored its intervention to employees in the contemplation and preparation stages of cycling and walking to work (Mutrie et al., 2002). The intervention achieved success for walking but not for cycling. The study concluded that it is more difficult for cyclists to overcome environmental and workplace barriers than it is for walkers. Follow-up qualitative research found that although many people perceived similar environmental barriers, the individuals who were successful at walking and cycling developed coping strategies to overcome their own perceived barriers (Crawford et al., 2000; Mutrie et al., 2002). Further research on psychological approaches will add to the momentum of success achieved in promoting cycling by explaining how individual variables interact with other factors to predict cycling.McKenna and Whatling (2007) suggest that more in-depth qualitative research that focuses on the individual may offer a fresh view on how to support and encourage cycle commuting. Their findings reveal a range of perceptions of barriers and motivations for commute cycling. Uniquely their work also highlights the power relations between the dominance of car users and the marginalisation of cyclists on the roads.The aim of the present study is to explore people's perceptions and lived experiences of cycle commuting and the influences that underlie their decision of whether to cycle to work or not. The research focus is on discerning a greater understanding of commonalities and differences of opinion regarding cycle commuting between a group of cycle commuters (CC) and a group of potential cycle commuters (PCC) who are interested in the idea of cycling to work. This work is original in a number of respects. First, this study adopts a qualitative methodological approach to a field that is largely explored using quantitative surveys and interventions. Second, the focus purely on people's perceptions and experiences of cycle commuting allows the opportunity to explore the complexities of this behaviour. Third, the qualitative nature of the study facilitates closer consideration of the impact of context on cycle commuting.\nMethod: This research used semi-structured interviews alongside interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to gain a more ideographic and detailed examination of participants' lived experiences with regard to cycle commuting (Smith and Osborn, 2003). IPA is an increasingly popular form of qualitative analysis (Reid et al., 2005). The strength of IPA is the concern with individuals' subjective perceptions of a topic, referred to as the \"insider perspective\" as opposed to trying to produce objective statements (Smith et al., 1999).In IPA the emphasis is placed on both the researcher's commitment to gain an in-depth understanding into the participant's world whilst also taking a step back and trying to learn something common about the group (Smith and Eatough, 2007). It is acknowledged that participants' thoughts are not always immediately visible from their accounts as they try to make sense of their world. Rather, by engaging in an analytical process the researcher can cautiously interpret a participant's cognitions (Smith et al., 1999).Participants\nFindings: Nine themes emerged from the interviews. These themes encompass beneficial, challenging and facilitating aspects of cycle commuting behaviour. The analysis attempts to strike a balance between the emic (insider perspective of the participant) and the etic (researcher's interpretation) by doing justice to the individual as well as emerging commonalities within the group (Reid et al., 2005). Within the themes commonalities and differences between the two groups are described.Health and wellbeing\nDiscussion: This study provides original insights into cycle commuting by qualitatively investigating both potential and regular cycle commuters' perceptions and experiences of cycling to work alongside exploring the impact of the context in which the research is set. A synthesis of findings indicates that potential cyclists are less aware of the range of benefits associated with cycling to work than regular and experienced cycle commuters. Potential and regular cycle commuters' accounts also differed in the way they discussed personal coping strategies, perceptions of supportive workplace facilities and perceptions of cycling infrastructure within the local environment. Cycle commuters discussed fewer challenges and more coping strategies than potential cycle commuters, who generally spoke more about challenges and less about coping strategies.This study also brings to light the complex nature of cycle commuting and the high level of effort needed to take part in this behaviour. Even in a supportive workplace context, numerous psychological and perceptual factors can still pose as challenges to cycle commuting. In sum, the findings show that whilst cycling to work is a complex and effortful behaviour choice, cycle commuters are more able to adapt their social cognitions favourably towards cycling by either offsetting the challenges against the benefits they experience or by finding effective ways to cope with the challenges they encounter.Being aware of the benefits\nConclusions: This study describes the complexities of similarities and differences in perceived benefits, challenges and coping strategies of cycling to work between commute cyclists and potential commute cyclists. Potential cycle commuters perceived fewer immediate benefits of cycling and greater challenges. In contrast, commute cyclists described a range of coping strategies that counteracted these challenges and facilitated their cycling behaviour. Raising awareness amongst potential cycle commuters of the immediate benefits of cycle commuting and highlighting some of the coping strategies employed by existing cyclists may be useful in psychological interventions to promote cycle commuting.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study aims to provide an in-depth individual level understanding of the psychological factors that affect cycle commuting.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A total of 15 participants (eight cycle commuters and seven potential cycle commuters) from a \"cycle-friendly\" employer based in a Scottish city took part in the study. Semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) were used to collect and analyse data.\nFindings: - The present study found that cyclists are more aware of the benefits of cycle commuting than potential cyclists. Those who did not currently cycle to work displayed a heightened awareness of the challenges of cycling to work, whereas cyclists reported more coping strategies for negotiating or overcoming the challenges involved in cycle commuting. These individual cognitions are potentially modifiable through psychological interventions.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Future research should be carried out on samples in different contexts to examine whether some of the findings would be supported in other populations.\nPractical applications: - The findings from this paper suggest that psychological interventions based on challenging perceptions of the benefits of and barriers to cycling may have a valuable role to play in enhancing cycle commuting rates.\nOriginality/value: - This study uses IPA to explore the complexities of perceptions in relation to cycle commuting. It also brings to light the types of coping strategies used to enable cyclists to overcome some of their challenges associated with cycle commuting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Perceived overall service quality and customer satisfaction: A comparative analysis between local and foreign banks in Malaysia
|
[
"Satisfaction",
"Service quality",
"Internet banking",
"Bank ownership",
"Foreign bank",
"Local bank"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In general, foreign banks face stricter limits on the availability of banking licences, restrictions on the number of branches, and restriction on the extent of foreign ownership of individual banks. However, in response to the trend of globalisation and internationalisation, the Central Bank of Malaysia has opened its banking sector doors to foreign banks. Over the last few years, the number of foreign banks and their branches operating in Malaysia has increased over time. Entry of foreign banks has made Malaysian banking competitive and posed great challenges to banks operating in Malaysia not just on the financial performance, but also on skilled staff, innovative products, service quality and customer satisfaction. On the other hand, the increasing competition also leads to rising demands and expectation of customers. As the number of banks increases, the customers are able to choose their bankers that offer better quality services. Hence, these two types of banks are offering new and/or innovative products and services at regular intervals to satisfy customers. Given this expansionary trend of banks, it is fair to accept that all these changes have some impact on service quality and customer satisfaction. In the competitive banking industry, product differentiation is difficult to achieve as most banks offer similar products and services. Therefore, bank management need to differentiate their organisation from competitors through service quality (Stamenkov and Dika, 2015) to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty as previous studies suggested that providing good services are perceived as being high quality, increases the level customer satisfaction (Kassim and Abdullah, 2010; Ladhari et al., 2011; Zameer et al., 2015). Local and foreign banks in Malaysia are expanding their products and services just to satisfy their customers' needs and loyalty. However, there is a lack of study, which compares their services and customer satisfaction.\nAn overview of banking industry in Malaysia: The beginnings of banking can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Central Bank of Malaya was established in January 1959 to oversee all commercial bank activities through the Banking Ordinance 1958, which was later replaced by the Banking Act 1973. Thereafter, in line with the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, it was then renamed to the Central Bank of Malaysia. The first foreign bank, Standard Chartered Bank, was established in 1875, a member of the Standard Chartered Group. In 1997, foreign banks controlled only 16.7 per cent of banking assets. The growth of the foreign banks is relatively slow (see Table I). This was due to deliberate of government policy which foreign banks have been prohibited to open new branches since 1971. While the oldest local bank in Malaysia was Malayan United Bank Berhad, Kuala Lumpur (formerly known as Kwong Lee Bank, Sarawak), the first local bank in Peninsular Malaysia was Kwong Yik Bank Berhad, Kuala Lumpur (formerly known as The Kwong Yik (Selangor) Banking Corporation Ltd). For a start, both foreign and local banks were like an office without proper banking hall. Transactions were done manually, until the boom of technology in all facets of banking. Today, banks are competing with each other by offering additional services that add value to their customers.\nRelated literature and hypotheses development: Convenience\nMethod: Measurement\nData analysis: Demographics\nConclusion: The first objective of this study is to examine any difference between local and foreign banks in Malaysia on perceived overall services and customer satisfaction. Our results show that foreign banks respondents have significantly higher means of perceived overall service quality and customer satisfaction than local banks respondents. This might imply that in general, foreign banks perceived higher level of overall service quality. It is also possible that foreign banks are efficient and have more resources, and/or good connections with the industry due to their international bank image, hence can provide higher quality of services. This suggests that it is important for local banks to improve service quality in a sustainable manner, in order to generate competitive advantage and to be able to maintain it over time. With regards to the relationship between perceived overall service quality and customer satisfaction, the results show that customers experience on perceived overall service quality is significantly positive affect customer satisfaction in both groups of banks. Nevertheless, foreign banks respondents show a higher level of overall satisfaction than their local bank counterparts. This suggests that banks should emphasise on customer perception of the overall service quality to enhance customer satisfaction.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Foreign and local banks in Malaysia are competing in terms of skilled staff, innovative products and services, rendering quality services and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the overall service quality and customer satisfaction of both foreign and local banks.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The data used to test the hypothesis were collected from 748 foreign and local bank customers in Malaysia. The research model was analysed using a structural equation modelling technique.\nFindings: Results show that knowledge and staff competencies, as well as convenience of the bank is more significant for local bank customers while bank image and internet banking are important components for foreign bank customers. The results also reveal that foreign bank customers have higher satisfaction as compared to local bank customers.\nResearch limitations/implications: No analysis is undertaken of any difference in the service quality dimensions between banks of different size. Further research on banking services could usefully test services quality dimensions across banks of different sizes.\nPractical implications: The findings serve as a valuable reference for local banks understand service quality challenges they may face from foreign banks in this competitive industry. Findings suggest that, to provide high-quality services, financial institutions need to heighten customer satisfaction differentiation strategies.\nOriginality/value: The outcomes of this study enhance the knowledge on the performance of both local and foreign banks in Malaysia as well as customer satisfaction, which are invaluable to all bank managers and industry players in improving their services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Art as document: on conceptual art and documentation
|
[
"Documentation",
"Document analysis",
"Art theory",
"Conceptual art",
"Exhibition catalogues",
"Primary information",
"Seth Siegelaub"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since Michael Buckland (1997) published his landmark article \"What is a 'Document'?\", there has been a regular growth in conceptual literature exploring the theoretical and historical aspects of documentation. This body of work has tended to focus on questions of definition and problems arising from the material and signifying properties of documents (Lund, 2009). More recently, this literature has grown to accommodate alternative philosophical perspectives, with phenomenology providing a useful conceptual framework (Latham, 2014; Gorichanaz and Latham, 2016). However, to date, insights from art history and aesthetics have been noticeably absent from the documentation literature. This omission is surprising, given the close historical and intellectual kinship that evidently exists between art history and information science. Thus far, the common ground between art and documentation has been explored almost exclusively from the perspective of art history (Spieker, 2008; Berrebi, 2014; Santone, 2016; Berger and Santone, 2016).\nConceptual art and documentation: material characteristics: Seth Siegelaub did not define himself as an artist as such. And yet, his close cooperation with artists did verge on creative collaboration (Norvell and Siegelaub, 2001, p. 32). Siegelaub's participation in art projects was certainly unique, at least compared to other art dealers active in the New York art world of this period. In the words of Lucy Lippard (1973/1997, p. ix), his contemporary and a fellow key figure of the conceptual art movement, Siegelaub \"reinvented the role of the 'art dealer' as distributor extraordinaire\". Siegelaub \"bypassed the art world with exhibitions that took place outside of galleries and/or New York and/or were united in publications that were art rather than merely about art\" (Lippard, 1973/1997, p. ix). Siegelaub's publications are his greatest legacy. These documents, which he called \"catalogues\", were intended to make conceptual works of art widely available in a portable and tactile format. The catalogue, Douglas Huebler: November 1968, is typical of Siegelaub's modus operandi. This was the first \"exhibition\" organised by Siegelaub in which the catalogue functioned as the exhibition. No physical works of art were displayed for the entire duration of this show. The \"exhibition\" was held in a private apartment, as opposed to a gallery space. Douglas Huebler's art, which took the form of written statements, maps, diagrams and photographs, had no physical aspect beyond the printed catalogue. Huebler explained the documentary nature of his art in a famous conceptual art statement from 1969:The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more. I prefer, simply, to state the existence of things in terms of time and/or place. More specifically, the work concerns itself with things whose inter-relationship is beyond direct perceptual experiences. Because the work is beyond perceptual experience, awareness of the work depends on a system of documentation. This documentation takes the form of photographs, maps, drawings and descriptive language(Huebler, 1969, page unnumbered).\nConceptual art and Seth Siegelaub: some background and context: Art Historian Alexander Alberro (1999, pp. xvi-xvii) identifies four art historical genealogies, or tendencies, that led to the increasing conceptualisation of artistic practices in the 1960s. The first of these concerns the \"de-emphasization\" of art's hierarchical value system. By emphasising process, and de-emphasising the importance of the work of art as a cohesive and singular thing, this trajectory \"problematizes and dismantles the integral elements of the traditional structure of the artwork\". The second trajectory concerns the reductive \"dematerialization of the actual [physical] work of art\". As the importance of art's visual elements diminish, the prominence of textual elements grow. The \"de-aestheticization\" of the work of art marks the third trajectory. Here, \"the negation of aesthetic content\" can be traced to the work of Marcel Duchamp and other art historical antecedents. De-aestheticisation, says Alberro, \"places art at the threshold of information\". The fourth trajectory problematises placement. For example, artists prefer the neutral locations of architectural and natural surroundings to the gallery space, which mediates aesthetic contemplation. The documentary format enabled works of art to be distributed and circulated beyond the gallery setting.\nPrimary and secondary information: In early 1970, the editors of Arts Magazine invited four conceptual artists to submit any document, not exceeding one page, for inclusion in the April 1970 issue. Lawrence Weiner, Daniel Buren, Mel Bochner and Sol LeWitt submitted typed and handwritten statements; only Bochner's contribution contained a visual component. While this exercise demonstrated the central importance of text-bearing documents in conceptual art, it also revealed its radical potential to disrupt the status quo. Information of this type raised questions about the validity of art magazines, which had traditionally been based on the separation of information about art (as criticism and reportage) and reproductions of art (as photographs of paintings and sculpture). Thus, the boundaries between art and information were blurred. Now, it was noted:The texts themselves have become the art, and the traditional device of using photographic reproductions in art magazines has been mocked. After all, in this instance, the artworks are not reproductions; the pages that follow are the works of art. There are no more reproductions. There is no more criticism. No more aesthetics. Only art(Battcock, 1973, p. 174).\nPlacement and meaning: from art to document: Thus far, this paper has discussed Siegelaub's conceptual art catalogues in relation to Buckland's theory of information, which is composed of a tangible dimension (information-as-thing) and intangible categories consisting of information-as-knowledge and information-as-process. Buckland's theory is applicable to conceptual art documents because the printed \"thing\" provides a material base for the intangible (conceptual) elements essential to this type of art. However, as demonstrated by Robert Barry's \"Inert Gas\" and \"Carrier Wave\" projects, Siegelaub's documents were also intended to function as evidence. Barry's art, which often contained no physical or perceptible objects, was heavily dependent on documentary proof.\nConclusion: towards a reconciliation of art and information: To date, the common ground between art and documentation has been explored almost exclusively from the perspective of art history. This paper has attempted to redress this imbalance by examining conceptual art from the perspective of document theory. It has shown that Siegelaub's theories of information have much in common with the documentalist tradition. It has argued that his work is important, and not just for its potential to contribute to the literature of document theory. More importantly, this paper has sought to establish a dialogue between art history and documentation studies, thereby demonstrating potential for further cross-disciplinary collaboration.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to bring the work of Seth Siegelaub (1941-2013) to the attention of document studies. Siegelaub was a pioneer of the conceptual art movement in New York in the 1960s, active as an Art Dealer, Curator and Publisher. He is remembered by art history for his exhibition catalogues, which provided a material base for intangible works of art.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper uses a comparative approach to examine the documents of conceptual art, especially the exhibition catalogues produced by Siegelaub between 1968 and 1972. Drawing on literature from document theory and art history and criticism, it examines several of Siegelaub's key exhibition catalogues and books.\nFindings: Siegelaub's theories of information have much in common with the documentalist tradition. Siegelaub's work is important, not just for its potential to contribute to the literature of document theory. It also provides a point of dialogue between art history and information studies.\nOriginality/value: To date, the common ground between art and documentation has been explored almost exclusively from the perspective of art history. This paper is among the first to examine conceptual art from the perspective of document theory. It demonstrates potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Revitalising suffering multinational brands: an empirical study
|
[
"Brands",
"Innovation",
"Perception",
"Brand awareness",
"International business",
"Brand management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Weak or badly managed brands can take many years to revive successfully (Ewing et al., 1995). Particularly in international markets, our knowledge on how damaged brands can be revived is quite limited. For example, Hyundai Motors, a Korean automaker, is still trying to overcome the woes created by quality problems in the early 1980s in the USA (Freeman, 2002). With the emerging technologies and vast distribution systems involved in business nowadays, the possibility of something going wrong before or after the product is distributed to consumers is more than remote (Weinberger and Romeo, 1989). The situation will only get worse if the branding program fails to recognize and address the known negative image issues in a responsive manner (Lamons, 2004). Moreover, Weinberger (1986) indicates that the effects of negativity can persist over time, especially when it is widespread and left unchallenged. The rate of diffusion of negative information increases dramatically through mass media, the internet, and word of mouth. Consequently, the time and effort taken toward creating a successful brand can be diminished very quickly as negative information reaches a large number of consumers in a short amount of time, resulting in substantial financial and market loss. For example, Merck's 2004 removal of Vioxx from the worldwide market was one of the largest drug withdrawals in history. Merck, a global research-driven pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of innovative products to improve human and animal health, directly and through its joint ventures. However, the use of Vioxx was associated with heart attack and stroke risks beginning in 2000. The publicity surrounding the risks and removal of Vioxx could diminish Merck's image as a brand that seeks to improve and maintain human health. As a result, the demise of Vioxx and the associated costs raises questions about Merck's future as a top-tier drug company (Martinez et al., 2004).Brand revitalisation should be differentiated from new brand creation for the following reasons: first, brand revitalisation focuses on changing existing perceptions among consumers while brand development hinges on creating a brand with the right image, attitude, and association. Second, brand revitalisation involves a position change in the market, whereas brand creation entails selecting a market position for the new brand. Finally, brand revitalisation usually does not envisage consumer brand recognition, but brand development requires marketing communications that primarily conceive of creations of brand recognition. These differences between brand revitalisation and brand creation insinuate that even the most established brands can be subject to consumer scrutiny (i.e. Firestone, Ford, Coca-Cola).However, there has been little emphasis in the literature on organizational strategies to revitalise a brand that consumers perceive negatively. Moreover, empirical studies with a brand revitalisation focus, whether domestic or international, are limited in the literature. Knowing what marketing and managerial actions could revitalise the brand in the mind of the consumer should be important to a company looking to overcome a flailing brand. Specifically, if undesired images, attitudes, or associations befall a brand, the firm needs to know what will possibly revitalise these factors in the mind of the consumer in order to retain customer goodwill and market share. To date, most studies that address the issue of brand revitalisation are conceptual in nature (Keller, 1999; Ewing et al., 1995).The purpose of this research is to go beyond the general brand recovery guidelines, suggested in the literature and offer potential marketing strategies that could actually motivate the consumer to change his or her negative opinion about a multinational brand. This study explores more specific strategies including innovative product improvements, third party appraisals, warranty programs, and advertising communication efforts. A conceptual model is developed to address the impact of these various strategies on the revitalisation of a brand. We explore this model in the context of two relevant consumer durable industries (i.e. automobile and electronics). In addition, the effect of local market knowledge of the organization is incorporated in the model as a possible moderator to gain further insights on the revitalisation of multinational brands. To this end, this study focuses on multinational brands.The paper is organised as follows. First, the model conceptualization will be discussed along with a comprehensive review of the literature. Second, several hypotheses are proposed based on the literature review. Third, the methodology including analysis and results is discussed. Finally, the conclusions, limitations, and future research opportunities conclude the study.\nConceptualization: Brand revitalisation\nMethodology: Measurements and data collection\nAnalysis and results: To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling was used. The theoretical model can be seen in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 1, our second order model includes three first order factors. Since, the first-order factors function as indicators of the second-order factor, model identification must be assessed before proceeding with the overall analysis. Since, there are only three first-order factors, the model is just-identified. We resolved the issue of just-identification in the hypothesized model by placing equality constraints on particular parameters yielding estimates that are approximately equal based on the guidelines proposed by Byrne (2001). Therefore, the subsequent analyses involve an identified model. The theoretical model yielded a good fit of the model with the covariances provided by the sample: kh2=389.356 on df=178, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, and SRMR = 0.06 (Hu and Bentler, 1999).Main effects\nDiscussion: A revitalised, strong brand conveys certain values to the customer (Ewing et al., 1995). This study expands our understanding of what drives brand revitalisation in the minds of the consumer. By conceptualizing brand revitalisation as a second order construct with three first-order constructs including brand image, brand associations, and brand attitudes, this study explores how different antecedents affect brand revitalisation using multinational brands consumers can recall. The results indicate that innovative product improvement help improve local consumers' negative perceptions, resulting in brand revitalisation. Traditionally, innovations are viewed mostly as a selling tool. However, according to the results of this study, innovations can be used to improve local consumers' negative perceptions of a brand.According to the results, warranty programs can also be adopted to improve consumers' negative perceptions of brands. Strong warranty programs lead to increased sales by offering additional protection from product defects, providing assurance to the consumers. However, it also seems reasonable to argue, according to the results, that strong warranty programs assure consumers of high product quality thereby improving brand equity, which can lead to a higher probability of purchasing the brand.This study also finds that effective advertising communications can be an influential determinant of international brand revitalisation. Considering the focus of this construct was on the affective aspect rather than the quality or credibility of the advertising, the results are quite intriguing in that firms can improve the negative perception of their brands internationally with advertisements that induce local consumers' positive affective response.However, the results indicate that positive third-party appraisals do not exert much influence on international brand revitalisation. It is an interesting finding in that increasingly more firms nowadays use third-party appraisals in their commercials. Several automobile TV commercials cite awards won from a renowned third party quality appraisal organization. According to our results such information is less likely to lead to brand image recovery. Probable reasons behind the result would be that there are numerous organizations that rely on the endorsement of appraisal companies to improve consumers' perceptions. However, consumers may not be familiar with such appraisal organizations and thus may not trust the recommendations made by the endorser.In addition, local market knowledge did not moderate the relationship between the tested constructs. This indicates that multinational firms' local market knowledge would not make any difference in revitalising their brands using a warranty program, appraisals, innovations, and advertising. However, this does not necessarily mean such knowledge is not helpful at all. Actually, such knowledge should still be helpful in understanding local tastes and styles preferred. The results simply indicate it does not enhance the effects of other programs that are geared toward international brand revitalisation.Managerial implications\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This study explores factors influencing the revitalisation of a multinational brand that is perceived negatively by local consumers because of various reasons such as past poor quality or negative publicity.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study conceptualises brand revitalisation as a second order construct, arguing that brand revitalisation is comprised of improved brand image, brand associations, and brand attitudes. Innovative product improvements, warranty programs, third-party appraisals, and advertising communications are hypothesised to play a role in revitalising multinational brands plagued by negative perceptions. In addition, the moderating effect of the management's local market knowledge is tested on several proposed relationships.\nFindings: - According to the results, international brand revitalisation is positively influenced by innovative product improvements, warranty programs, and advertising communications.\nPractical implications: - While overall brand perceptions play an important role in influencing consumer decisions, understanding what improves the consumer's perception of multinational brands is of vital importance to marketers. The empirical results suggest that product innovations, warranty programs, third-party appraisals, and advertising communications all help revitalise a firm's damaged brand in international markets. These findings offer multiple strategic implications to managers for their multinational brand revitalisation/management.\nOriginality/value: - The value of this research lies in its goal to go beyond the general brand recovery guidelines suggested in the literature and to offer potential marketing strategies that could actually motivate the consumer to change his or her negative opinion about a multinational brand. This is one of the first empirical studies on multinational brand revitalisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Effects of authentic leadership, affective commitment and job resourcefulness on employees' creativity and individual performance
|
[
"Affective commitment",
"Creativity",
"Authentic leadership",
"Individual performance",
"Job resourcefulness"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Leadership in organisations is perceived and valued by many stakeholders as a key element of success, a differentiating factor with strong impact on the achievement of goals through the transmission of motivation to its employees (Silva and Torres, 2010). However, due to the large number of moral and financial scandals associated with unscrupulous leaders of once-reputable companies, the need arises for new theories such as authentic leadership (AL), which are based on the moral character of the leader, concern for others and congruency between ethical values and actions (Shahid, 2010). It is necessary to promote an appropriate organisational environment starting with the creation of a good relationship between leaders and employees, because one of the major challenges for organisations is to retain the best talents in a highly competitive business environment. In this sense, Nazari and Emami (2012) suggest a need to concentrate on AL as a root construct underlying all positive forms of leadership and its development.\n2. Research background and hypothesis development: 2.1 AL\n3. Method: The study was carried out in Cape Verdean organisations, more specifically, the Santiago and Sao Vicente Islands, and 543 employees participated. Of these, 56 per cent were female, the average age was 33 years old, 59.7 per cent held college degrees and 46 per cent held leadership positions. Moreover, 80 per cent belonged to the service sector and 53.6 per cent were in the public sector; 32 per cent of the organisations represented had between 51 and 100 employees. The data collection period ran from April to July 2014, and the following procedures were adopted to gather that data: after the first contact with the organisations' leaders, and in the case of a positive answer, the person responsible for each work team and/or department was identified and a request to distribute a questionnaire to some random employees was made; the questionnaires were accompanied by a letter explaining the purpose of the research and giving a guarantee of maximum confidentiality of data and anonymity of the participants; some instructions regarding how to complete the questionnaire and thus prevent all possible error were provided; and it was requested that on completion, the questionnaire be placed in the envelope provided and closed in the presence of the researcher.\n4. Findings: Table III presents the means, standard deviations, Cronbach's a, correlations, and CR, AVE of all key variables, and shows that all variables correlate positively with each other. AL is positively correlated with all other variables. There are also positive correlations between employees' affective commitment, their perceptions of AL, job resourcefulness, creativity and individual performance. Similarly, job resourcefulness was positively associated with perceptions of AL, employees' affective commitment, creativity and individual performance. Creativity, in turn, is shown to positively associate with all other variables. Finally, individual performance also behaved similarly, showing positive and significant correlations with AL, affective commitment, job resourcefulness and creativity.\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The results show the predictive power of AL with respect to affective commitment, suggesting that the perceptions of employees regarding their leaders' authenticity influence their emotional attachment to the organisation. This result coincides with those of studies by Gardner et al. (2005), which suggest that employees are much more emotionally committed in the execution of their tasks and have a greater focus on achieving their objectives when their perceptions of their leaders' authenticity are strong (Darvish and Rezaei, 2011; Leroy et al., 2012). The H2 was confirmed, the results demonstrating that employees are predisposed to finding solutions to their daily work problems and to overcome any obstacles encountered when they perceive certain characteristics among their leaders, such as self-awareness, relational transparency, an internal moral perspective and the balanced processing of information. The real leader has the ability to instill hope, confidence, optimism and positive emotions in employees (Avolio et al., 2004), all of which subsequently contribute to increase employees' willingness to seek ways of effectively addressing challenges at work (Licata et al., 2003).\n6. Theoretical contributions: Some researchers (e.g. Avolio and Mhatre, 2012; Gardner et al., 2011) have argued that more empirical research is necessary to understand the mechanisms through which AL influences effective employees' responses and to expand the nomological network for AL. Thus, this study responds to this call showing the chain of effects between AL and employees' performance. This investigation helps to explain this process suggesting that AL predicts employees' attitudes like affective commitment and job resourcefulness, which in turn, explain their behaviour expressed on their creativity and individual performance. The results are significant because they support theory and new empirical research, suggesting that the quality of working conditions created by leaders may play an important role in the extent to which employees develop better attitudes, a creative spirit and an increased performance. Authenticity may enhance the ability of leaders to improve the social climate, to empower employees and to boost creativity and performance. Constructs like AL and job resourcefulness are underexplored in the literature. Hence, this study is revealing that they deserve additional attention from both researchers and practitioners.\n7. Implications for management: The results from this study can help managers to encourage creativity and good performance from their employees through AL, affective commitment and job resourcefulness. Hence, by implication, the research outcomes suggest that organisations should focus on training leaders who value self-awareness, transparency in their relationships with others, display an internal moral perspective and demonstrate balanced processing of information, in order to guarantee good results at the individual level and, consequently, at the organisational level. Indirectly, the study also suggests that organisations should focus on selecting leaders with authentic features and implement appropriate training activities, coaching and development that aim to increase AL since this may well result in a positive impact on employees' attitudes and behaviour. Leaders must act in a trustful, honest, respectful and courteous way, cultivating their credibility, thus enhancing employees' job resourcefulness, affective commitment and creativity. According to George (2003), by \"leading with heart\", leaders are more able to establish closer relationships with colleagues and employees. Authentic leaders must understand the importance of positive relationships with employees, since the quality of relationships may be an important determinant of success. Showing how AL promotes individual attitudes and how these attitudes influence creativity and individual performance, this study helps organisations and their leaders to boost employees and organisations' outcomes.\n8. Limitations and recommendations for future work: The study focusses on just two of the islands of Cape Verde as it was not possible to conduct fieldwork on all the islands due to the distance between them. Thus, opportunities remain to collect data from the other islands, thereby widening the picture. In respect of the research population, a convenience sample was surveyed whose representation might be questionable. Moreover, a further limitation concerns the collection of data at a single moment in time and through the same source, which may involve common method variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003). That said, certain preventative measures were undertaken, such as the Harman test, the marker variable and other procedures described earlier to reduce or eliminate such variance. Nonetheless, future studies should collect the data at different points in time or via a multiple-source method. The non-inclusion of moderating variables in the study can also be considered a limitation. Future studies should investigate whether other variables like affective well-being, satisfaction with management or organisational identification mediate or moderate the relationship between AL, creativity and individual performance. Irrespective of these known shortcomings, however, the study contributes to the organisational studies literature in its consideration of the influence of AL on employee behaviour and performance and opens new avenues of research.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between authentic leadership (AL), attitudes and employees' behaviours. More specifically, how AL influences affective commitment, job resourcefulness and creativity, which, in turn, influence individual performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Empirical research has analysed the data from a questionnaire administered to a sample of 543 employees belonging to various public and private organisations in Cape Verde. The model was tested using structural equation modelling.\nFindings: The results reveal that AL influences employees' attitudes (affective commitment and job resourcefulness) and their creativity, affective commitment and job resourcefulness predict the employees' creativity, and job resourcefulness and creativity predict individual performance.\nPractical implications: The results from this study can help managers to understand how to increase employees' creativity and performance through AL, affective commitment and job resourcefulness. Indirectly, the study also suggests that organisations should focus on selecting leaders with authentic features and implement appropriate training activities, coaching and development that aim to increase AL since this may well result in a positive impact on employees' attitudes and behaviours.\nOriginality/value: The originality of this study is that it focusses on the integration of the five concepts, AL, affective commitment, job resourcefulness, creativity and individual performance, in a single study, providing a model that depicts the chain of effects between AL, employees' attitudes, employees' creativity and individual performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors influencing continuing professional development: A Delphi study among nursing experts
|
[
"Continuing professional development",
"Delphi study",
"Nurses",
"The Netherlands"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: In nursing literature the terms continuing professional development (CPD) and continuing professional education (CPE) are often used interchangeably (Perry, 1995). While CPE is more focused on didactic principles and formal educational contexts, CPD is more focused on self-directed learning, in which the nurse is the director of his or her own professional development (Grant and Stanton, 1998). CPE forms a significant element of CPD (Murphy et al., 2006) because tailor-made education programs are important to develop the right skills as a professional. In the present study we use the term CPD unless referring to or citing from specific literature where a different term is used. The American Nurses Association (ANA) describes CPD as:\nInfluencing factors: According to Johnson et al. (2011), investment in learning and development for nurses has a positive impact on patient care, the individual nurse, and healthcare organizations. At the individual level, the key factors appear to be awareness and understanding of CPD, conflicting demands on time, the availability of funding, and access to CPD resources (Hemmington, 2000). However, the individual motivation of the nurse to engage in CPD is fundamental (Ellis and Nolan, 2005; Hughes, 2005). Individual motivation is among the most significant factors identified as contributing to participation in CPD (Furze and Pearcey, 1999; Nolan et al., 1995).If the nurse is not motivated to change his or her behavior, no amount of CPD (whether mandatory or voluntary) will be effective (Gallagher, 2006). Professional development should be a belief (Lannon, 2007), which each nurse must take personal responsibility for. Impeding factors include the amount of time needed to commute to study venues, child care issues, and problems accessing facilities after working hours. The most critical factor, according to the nurses themselves, is the amount of private time that needs to be invested in CPD activities (Gibson, 1998; Gould et al., 2006). The demands of undertaking CPD conflict with domestic commitments, which is perceived as a barrier to achieving a desirable work-life balance (Grossman, 1998; Lawton and Wimpenny, 2003).\nMethod: Research design\nResults: The results demonstrated a clear consensus among the experts on the need for nurses to participate in CPD activities. The different stakeholders did seem to hold different viewpoints on the definition of CPD. However, there was common ground in a focus on the responsibility and desire to deliver high-quality patient care. Consensus was ultimately reached on the following definition of CPD:\nConclusions and implications: This study aimed to identify and prioritize factors for registered nurses to participate in CPD activities. A three-round Delphi study was conducted, involving 38 experts representing nursing associations, nursing education, nursing management, and nursing employers.\nFurther research: The importance of CPD is clearly supported in literature and in the present study (Flanagan et al., 2000; Speet and Francke, 2004; van der Krogt, 2007). What is as yet unknown, however, is how nurses themselves understand the process of CPD (Barriball et al., 1992; Nolan et al., 1995). This understanding is essential if nurses are to be responsible for their own CPD (Griscti and Jacono, 2005).\nImplications for HRD Practice: Nurses are responsible for identifying their own professional development needs. This topic is explored in the learning-network theory (van der Krogt, 2007). The basis of the learning-network theory is that various actors shape networks, namely, work (care), the HRM process (personnel flow) and the HRD process (learning). These actors (nurses, managers, HR staff, etcetera) are the engines of the organization; they create these three processes and by doing this also shape their professional development. Nurses participate in these processes as well and gain experiences that can be relevant to their professional development. How nurses go about creating new experiences is crucial for their professional development. Nursing educators can help them give meaning to their efforts in this area.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present an inventory of expert opinions on the factors that influence the participation of registered nurses in continuing professional development (CPD) activities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A Delphi study was conducted among 38 Dutch experts (nursing employers, managers, education institutions, and professional associations). Data collection comprised three rounds: experts completed two consecutive rounds of questionnaires and participated in a discussion meeting.\nFindings: Main influencing factors were: a CPD registration system, the attractiveness of the nursing profession, nurses\nResearch limitations/implications: Being part of a larger study, for the present paper only nursing experts were asked their opinion about shaping CPD for nurses. Further research should bring in the views of nurses themselves and investigate how the wider environment influences CPD participation.\nPractical implications: As all stakeholders were found to have their own roles in the CPD process, collaboration among employers, managers, education institutions, and professional associations will be crucial to create a conducive learning climate for nurses. HRD practitioners in healthcare can use the study findings to advise hospitals about implementing the right conditions to support CPD for nurses.\nOriginality/value: A qualitative study using the Delphi method to discover factors influencing CPD in nursing had not been conducted before. Unlike many studies looking essentially at formal education, the present paper takes into account workplace learning among nurses as well.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Is bitcoin a near stock? Linear and non-linear causal evidence from a price-volume relationship
|
[
"Bitcoin",
"Cryptocurrency",
"Non-linear causality"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency designed and introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto (2008). At first, bitcoin's uptake was slow, even though it had the advantages of not being administered by a central bank or administrative authority, of being transparent and of offering a low-cost means of transacting internationally. Over the next decade, it gradually grew in popularity as more speculators who began to see its value as an investment vehicle. As of March 24, 2018, bitcoin's market capitalization exceeded $150bn, an increase of 9,900 percent since 2013. Furthermore, bitcoin comprised about 45 percent of the cryptocurrency market's total market capitalization, making it a significant player among cryptocurrencies[1]. With its better diversifying capability, it soon became globally acknowledged as a safe and legitimate means of conducting trade (Briere et al., 2015). It is now considered to be an important financial asset (Dyhrberg, 2016a), due to its advantages as a hedge, even when compared to the US dollar (Dyhrberg, 2016b; Bouri et al., 2017). Speculative interest in bitcoin continues to grow, as does its price (Cheah and Fry, 2015; Baeck and Elbeck, 2015; Sahoo, 2017). Any fluctuations in bitcoin's price are determined by the usual economic fundamentals of supply and demand, the exchange-trade ratio, the equity market and bitcoin's exchange rate against other currencies (Bouoiyour et al., 2016). Although numerous studies have used both linear and non-linear causality tests to investigate the price-volume relationship of equities listed on traditional stock exchanges, there are no similar studies for bitcoin as a near stock.\n2. Data and variables: The study uses daily time series data on the two variables of bitcoin prices and TV. Specifically, it uses bitcoin closing prices in US dollars and its TV for the period August 17, 2010-April 16, 2017. Bitcoin's closing price is an average index value of all major bitcoin exchanges. Data are taken from Quandl.com, which obtains its data from blockchan.info. Bitcoin's closing price is converted to a series of log returns and the TV is taken as the log of change in TV. The bitcoin returns (Rt) and TV are calculated as follows:(1)\n3. Econometric methodology: As our main objective is to find the causal direction between returns to bitcoin and its volatility and TV, this study employs both linear Granger-causality (Toda and Yamamoto, 1995) and non-linear Granger-causality (Diks and Panchenko, 2006) tests. These methods are considered suitable to uncover the causal relationship between the variables of price, volume and volatility.\n4. Empirical analysis: 4.1 Linear causality test results\n5. Robustness check: Many studies show that bitcoin's price has undergone tremendous changes over time (Urquhart, 2016; Nadarajah and Chu, 2016). For this reason, Bai and Perron's (2003) multiple structural break test is used to check for any structural break that has occurred during the period August 17, 2010-April 16, 2017. Based on UDmax and WDmax statistics of Bai and Perron (2003), the results show only one significant break in this causal direction; this occurred on April 10, 2013[3]. This break is justified on the basis of a spike in the bitcoin price after it had been on the market for three years. Any changes in the bitcoin price remained almost negligible until February 20, 2013, after which it began moving upward. Afterward, a rising trend is then observed because of bitcoin's wider recognition in the media and investment houses, its public acceptance as a currency (Lo and Wang, 2014) and its acceptance, among business groups, as a speculative asset across the world (Bouri et al., 2017).\n6. Conclusion: This study examines the causal linkages between bitcoin returns and TV, using both linear and non-linear Granger-causality tests. The study also examines the causal relationship between the volatility of returns and TV. This paper makes several contributions to the literature. First, the results from the linear Granger causality show a significant unidirectional causality running from bitcoin returns to TV. This implies that bitcoin returns can be used to predict its TV but not vice versa. This finding is observed in the increasing interest of investors and business groups in bitcoin as bitcoin yields good returns and allows investors to hedge against other financial assets. Second, the non-linear Granger-causality test indicates a bi-directional causality between bitcoin returns and TV. Third, linear Granger-causality models show that TV significantly influences returns volatility but not vice versa. Fourth, the results from the non-linear Granger-causality test do not show any such causality in any direction; however, fifth, the non-linear causality results in the post-break period confirm that the TV has had a significant impact on the volatility of returns, in recent times. Therefore, the findings from the non-linear causality analysis suggest that investors cannot simply believe in the linear dynamics of the bitcoin market when making their investment decisions. This is because the arrival of new information in terms of TV is neither linearly related to the price nor it is a one-to-one kind of relationship as investors commonly understand it to be.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the price-volume relationship in the bitcoin market to validate near-stock properties of bitcoin.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Daily data of bitcoin returns, returns volatility and trading volume (TV) are utilized for the period August 17, 2010-April 16, 2017. Linear and non-linear causality tests are employed to examine price-volume relationship in the bitcoin market.\nFindings: The linear causality analysis indicates that the bitcoin TV cannot be used to predict return; however, the reverse causality is significant. In contrast, the non-linear causality analysis shows that there are non-linear feedbacks between the bitcoin TV and returns. The bitcoin TV, which represents new information, leads to price changes, and large positive price changes lead to increased trading activity. Similarly, in recent periods (post-break period), the results of the non-linear causality test show a unidirectional causality from TV to the volatility of returns.\nResearch limitations/implications: This study uses the average index value of major bitcoin exchanges. But further research on this relationship using data from different bitcoin exchanges may provide further insights into the price-volume relationship of bitcoin and its near-stock properties.\nPractical implications: These findings from the non-linear causality analysis, therefore, suggest that investors cannot simply base their decisions on the linear dynamics of the bitcoin market. This is because new information in terms of the TV is neither linearly related to the price nor it is a one-to-one kind of relationship as most investors commonly understand it to be. Rather, investors' decisions should be based on non-linear models, in general, and the best-fitting non-linear model, in particular.\nOriginality/value: The study examines bitcoin's near-stock properties in a price-volume relationship framework with the help of both linear and non-linear causality tests, which to the best of the authors' knowledge remains unexplored.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Evaluating the economic performance of Spanish wineries
|
[
"Economic performance",
"Profit",
"Organizational effectiveness",
"Spain",
"Viticulture",
"Wines"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The assessment of performance is a critical component of the management process in any type of organization. In this sense, several approaches have been proposed to evaluate it. Among these proposals, productivity and efficiency analyses as well as different profitability ratios have become very important in recent years to characterize the performance of a company. However, although the single output to input ratios, such as returns on investment (ROI) and return on sales may be used as indices to characterize financial performance, conventional referents of performance, whether they are measures of profitability, productivity or efficiency, are unsatisfactory discriminants of \"excellence\" (Chakravarthy, 1986), as a company's performance is a complex phenomenon requiring more than a single criterion to characterize it (Zhu, 2000). In fact, many researchers have conceptualized organizational performance as a multidimensional construct (Lewin and Minton, 1986; Venkatraman and Ramanujam, 1986; Flood et al., 1994; Morgan and Piercy, 1998; Raju and Lonial, 2001) as it covers diverse purposes and types of organizations/levels.\nThe Spanish wine industry: According to the most recent data published by the International Organization of Vine and Wine, the estimated production of wine in the European Union in 2007 was 148.6 million hectolitres (one of the smallest of the last few years), representing a decline of 16.6 million hectolitres compared to 2006. The countries most affected by this decline were Portugal (-23.49 per cent), Italy (-14.14 per cent), France (-13.15 per cent) and Spain (-9.09 per cent), while production increased in Germany (+17.76 per cent), and to a lesser extent in other countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. By wine type, France is ranked first as the largest producer of quality wines with 23.5 million hectolitres, followed by Italy (14 million) and Spain (13.1 million). In terms of country wine, Italy produces 15 million hectolitres, France 12 million and Spain 2.5 million. Finally, for table wines, Spain and Italy jointly head the ranking with 18.9 and 18 million hectolitres, respectively (ICEX, 2008).With nearly 1.16 million hectares under vine (of which 97.4 per cent is for wine, 2 per cent for table grapes and the remaining 0.6 per cent for raisins and live plant sales) Spain continues to be the country with the largest area of vine cultivation in the European Union and the world (it accounts for 30 per cent of the total EU area and around 15 per cent of the world's area under vine). According to data from FEGA (the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund), wine production in Spain rose to 34.3 million hectolitres in 2007, which should be added to the 5.5 million hectolitres of must. Of the 34.3 million, 18.5 million relates to table wines, 2.5 million to table wines with geographical indication and 13.2 million hectolitres to quality wines with Denomination of Origin classification, equivalent to 33.1 per cent of total wine production. By colour, nearly 19.2 million hectolitres were red or rose wines (56.1 per cent of the total, 15.06 million hectolitres), while 44 per cent were white wines. Production of red wine fell by 3.07 per cent, while white wines fell by 16.12 per cent compared to 2006 (MAPA, 2008).In economic terms, the Spanish wine sector is hugely important both in terms of the economic value that it generates as well as for the number of jobs it sustains. In fact, in 2006 the wine industry employed 22,863 people, accounting for 5.98 per cent of the total employed by the agrifood industry. The value of sales by wine producing companies in the same year rose to EUR5.319 billion, equivalent to 6.76 per cent of total sales for the sector. The wine producing sector accounted for 1 per cent of Spain's GDP. In 2005, there were 3,991 companies in the sector accounting for 12.4 per cent of all agrifood companies, ranked third behind the bakery, pastry and biscuit industry, and the meat industry (ICEX, 2008). The average size of an agricultural enterprise in Spain is 3.34 hectares, although this varies between regions. The smallest are found in Galicia and the largest in Murcia. Most of these wineries are associated in agricultural cooperatives, which are important to guarantee the future of the agricultural industry (Martin and Vidal, 2001).As has been stated above, of the total area dedicated to vine growing, nearly 60 per cent has a denomination of origin classification, producing VCPRD wines (the Spanish acronym for \"quality wine produced in a specific region\") and the number of hectares is rising to the detriment of areas growing table wines, reflecting the strategy of Spanish wineries to increase the added value and quality of the wine produced. Spain has 73 production areas for VCPRD wines, of which five are classified as quality wines (vinos de calidad), three are single estate wines (vinos de pago) and the remainder are denomination of origin which, following the European production model, maintain strict control over the quantity produced, wine making practices and the quality of the wines that are produced in each area. These denominations of origin are able to reduce information asymmetries between wineries and consumers, reducing the corresponding risk when selecting a wine brand (Ruiz-Vega et al., 2004). Asymmetry in information is the contrast among the different bits of knowledge that consumers and wineries have about the wines that firms offer on the market and it is a common feature of market interaction, because the seller of a product often knows more about its quality than the prospective buyer. When such asymmetry in information concerns the quality of the products, the correct evaluation by the consumer becomes extremely difficult. For this reason, denominations of origin represent a useful tool to allow wineries to reduce the asymmetry in information, as the consumer will be able to trust such denominations and, therefore reduce the cost of searching and choosing among the wineries that offer wines of higher and lower quality.The first authorized denominations date back to 1932 and were Jerez-Xeres-Sherry, Manzanilla de Sanlucar de Barrameda, Malaga, Montilla-Moriles, Rioja, Tarragona, Priorato, Alella, Utiel Requena, Valencia, Alicante, Ribeiro, Carinena, Penedes, Condado de Huelva, Valdepenas, La Mancha, Navarre and Rueda. There are also 42 classes of table wine with the right to use the traditional \"Vinos de la Tierra en Espana\" description (Spanish country wines). There are denominations of origin in every region except Cantabria and Santander, while in some regions such as La Rioja, the Basque Country, Navarre or Catalonia, nearly all the wine produced is classified as VCPRD, meaning that it is classified under a specific denomination. The sector shows enormous determination at every level and is continuing its consolidation. In this line, one of the main characteristics of this sector is the important process of modernization and renewal that it is currently undergoing. Since 2000, more than 102,000 hectares has been subject to reconversion and restructuring, representing nearly EUR650 million in investment.The main companies in the sector with sales in excess of EUR100 million are: J. Garcia Carrion, S.A.; Grupo Freixenet, S.A.; Grupo Osborne S.A.; Arco Bodegas Unidas, S.A.; Codorniu, S.A.; Domecq Wines Espana, S.A.; Grupo Miguel Torres, S.A.; and Felix Solis, S.A. The five largest groups account for nearly 28 per cent of the market (ICEX, 2008). Further, the penetration of foreign capital among the leading companies is also highly significant. However, small wine producers and cooperatives still exist alongside the large companies, which own wineries in the different producing regions in order to diversify their range. To control quality throughout the production process, many wineries have purchased or have increased the acreage of their vineyards in order to ensure the consistent quality of the raw materials. There has also been a significant investment in constructing new wineries, improving facilities and equipment and in the use of different ageing techniques to offer a much broader range of quality wines. It is interesting to highlight the activities and innovation of many wineries that are experimenting with new grape varieties and the use of indigenous grapes in order to produce wines that meet the tastes of new consumers. Investments and investment projects in progress to create and improve the production capacity of wine companies exceeds EUR1.20 billion (ICEX, 2008).This modernization process also includes the construction of new wineries designed by world famous architects, which some wine companies have embarked upon, including Domecq, Bodegas Ysios (commissioned to Santiago Calatrava) or CVNE (designed by Philippe Mazieres), Marques de Riscal, which commissioned Frank O. Gehry, or the new Senora de Arinzano winery (Bodegas Chivite) designed by Rafael Moneo.Once the contextual setting has been described, the next section presents the methodology and sample used to estimate profitability, productivity and efficiency in the Spanish winery sector.\nMethodology, sample and variables: Methodology\nResults: Estimation of profitability, productivity and efficiency\nConclusions: Several approaches can be found in the literature for measuring economic performance. For the first time in the winery industry, this paper simultaneously applies traditional profitability and productivity measures and a non-parametric technique to estimate efficiency, and compares the results obtained. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of wineries operating in the Spanish market.As a main conclusion, overall none of the methodologies can be said to be better than the rest. Organizational performance is a multidimensional construct as it covers diverse purposes and types of organizations/levels. Although the most appropriate methodology depends on the characteristics of the production process and the aim and scope of the analysis, managers should consider, estimate and monitor different economic ratios and indexes to analyse the real performance of their firms.This paper is not without limitations. First, only Spanish wineries have been analysed. The generalization of the conclusions of the study to other countries should be made with caution. Second, this paper has only considered the economic performance of wineries and the findings are not substitutes for other subjective measures directed at the assessment of aspects such as the quality of the wines produced. Third, the DEA model applied to estimate efficiency does not allow for random errors in the data, assuming away measurement error and chance as factors affecting outcomes.Finally, future research lines should be directed towards considering the variables and factors that determine performance and identifying the types of management practices currently being implemented in Spanish wineries that have a positive impact on productivity, profitability and efficiency. With increasing global competition and excess quantities of grapes worldwide, wineries need to focus on methods to streamline operations and sustain productivity for the long term (Thach et al., 2005). Further, in the global market, an international comparison of wineries from different countries facing distinct environmental conditions could be very interesting in order to identify the best practices in the world winery industry.Opens in a new window.Table I\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to compare different approaches to the evaluation of the economic performance of wineries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This paper simultaneously applies traditional profitability and productivity measures and a non-parametric technique to estimate efficiency, and compares the results obtained. A cluster analysis has been applied to identify different groups of firms. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 1,222 Spanish wineries in 2007.\nFindings: - The results reveal important differences depending on the methodology employed. Overall, none of the methodologies can be said to be better than the rest.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This paper has only considered the economic performance of wineries and its findings are not substitutes for other subjective measures directed at the assessment of aspects such as the quality of the wines produced.\nPractical implications: - Managers should be aware of their own performance in order to guarantee the competitiveness and future investments of their wineries.\nOriginality/value: - For the first time, this paper analyses the economic performance of Spanish wineries, simultaneously using different approaches widely employed in the management literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Strategies used by a meatpacking company for market competition
|
[
"Competitive strategy",
"Planning",
"Meatpacking plant",
"Business strategy",
"Brazil",
"Management strategy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the last decades, studies about strategic planning in organizations have become an important tool for management models. There are several influences on this interest and, one of them, is the fact that the competition among organizations has been increasing as time passes by, what leads to the development of great adaptability and, thus, creating the possibility of undergoing new requirements, as well as, assuring the company survival and success.Although almost all sectors of the Brazilian economy face this reality, the meat industry presents a high level of competition due to strong internal and external demands which require the definition of strong strategies and quick actions in order to survive and remain competitive.Therefore, when it comes to meatpacking plant, the level of competition is disputed by large industrial groups which have strong influence on the national beef market. The process of developing strategies must take into consideration specific characteristics each sector has, considering the strategies of the companies for purchases (especially of raw materials - cattle), production and sales, in order to transform, such actions, into a competitive advantage for the company.Observing the stated context, conclusions have been searched for the formulated problem: which are the strategies used by meatpacking companies to remain competitive in the respective market?This study aims to find out which strategies are those and, how they have been developed and implemented, considering as a case study a meatpacking company from the beef sector according to the managers' perceptions and, more specifically to identify if it is based on strategies, which creating process, follows Mintzberg's model approach and observes the effects produced by the application.The constant changes in the organizations' environment provide them a great adaptability which is strategical when ensuring its permanence and success. In this way, it becomes possible to understand the strategic models used by the company, as well as, its processes to develop strategies that are able to enable the managers maximizing results more effectively.\n2. Theoretical reference: 2.1 Organizations\n3. Methodology and methodological procedures: Regarding the methodology, a descriptive and exploratory research has been developed as a case study. The approach proposed by Mintzberg (1979) has been used in order to analyze the collected data. It required a longitudinal perspective, in which the researcher must analyze the phenomenon historically, dividing it into three stages: collection of secondary data; strategies interferences and periods when the data will be organized in chronological order; theoretical analysis of each period. At this stage the research is based on the applied interviews which allowed the phenomenon explanation.\n4. Results and discussion: The model of Mintzberg and McHugh (1985) application results are next presented in the following sequence: company's current situation (diagnosis); analysis of strategic periods and the strategies used by the company and, also, presenting the critical events in each period.4.1 Current status of company\n5. Final comments: Through this case study it has been possible to identify the strategies created and applied by the meatpacking company's managers in order to remain competitive in the market.Methodological procedures have provided a comprehension about strategies and, the way these have been developed in the company according to the manager's perception. Analyzing this study, it can be observed that different types of strategies, based or not on previous planning, guided and defined by the direction of the company over its 40 years (1972-2012). It has also been observed that the managers are flexible and attentive to the environment in which the company operates. All strategies described are classified as deliberate-accomplished and emergent.It is relevant to point that this research can introduce and provide material for other future studies about meatpacking plants and use of business strategies. Other comparative researches may have great value since it could be possible to identify different types of strategies developed by managers in this sector of the economy.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This article aims to identify strategies used by a midsize meatpacking plant company located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in order to remain competitive in the market. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand which strategies the company uses and how those have been designed according to the company managers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Concerning the methodology, a descriptive research was developed as a case study. The data collection was accomplished through researches on official company documents which describe its history and are used for several tasks. This information source pointed out critical events during the history of the organization which allowed the researchers to identify the strategies developed and implemented through its leaders' insight during those historical periods when the company was in crisis.\nFindings: - Mintzberg and McHugh's model was applied to identify strategies, as well as discovering the effects they obtained by using them. It has been observed that in order to remain competitive in the market, the company used strategies classified as Deliberate-Accomplished and Emergent.\nOriginality/value: - Through this case study it has been possible to identify the strategies created and applied by the meatpacking company's managers in order to remain competitive in the market.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An empirical study of oil and gas value chain agility in the UAE
|
[
"Economic sustainability",
"Empirical Research",
"Supply chain agility"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the last few years, global value chains (GVCs) have increasingly become the center around which production and world trade are structured. A value chain classifies the complete series of activities and processes that firms perform to convey a service or a product from its conceptual design stage to its finishing stage to be used by end consumers (Gereffi and Fernandez-Stark, 2011). This range of activities includes product conception, design, planning, sourcing for intermediate inputs and raw materials, prototyping, production, marketing, distribution and support functions. In other words, GVCs today are for more complex in terms of its networks of sourcing, pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, marketing, consumption and return. Nowadays, this chain of activities is no longer confined in one place or a limited geographical space. As the cost of communication and transportation falls and the technological growth advances, the opportunities of international trade with intermediate and final services and goods have enhanced (Andersen et al., 2015). Moreover, factors like cost, access to raw materials and other resources, access to new markets, and trade and commerce policy improvements have enabled the geographical destruction of the value chain activities throughout the globe considerably. This global fragmentation of manufacturing processes is a significant source of competitive advantage for industries and thus reiterates for improved efficiency. Today, it is reported that intermediate services constitute 70 percent of the world's service imports and more that 50 percent of world manufactured imports are in the form of semi-finished products, parts and components (De Backer and Miroudot, 2013).\n2. Literature review: A systematic literature review approach has been carried out to identify the key research articles that are published along the theme. In performing the search, scientific databases like Springer, Research gate, Elsevier, Scopus and Emerald were used to consolidate the articles with the following main keywords: supply chain agility, supply chain risk management, supply chain management, disruption to the supply chain and supply chain and outsourcing. These keywords have also been combined with \"UAE\" and \"oil and gas\" to filter the research direction. All keywords were chosen in direct relation to the research objectives and research question established in this paper. The search process resulted in a quit few numbers of papers that were reviewed through a systematic manner such that the authors read the title of the paper first and then screened the abstract to get relevant themes/match to scanning the rest. If the paper was found to be related to the research objectives, it was selected for deeper review and eventually included in the research tree presented later in Section 2.5.\n3. Research framework and hypotheses: The purpose of this research is to assess the link between the dimensions of agile value chain that include OS, SD and MS in the context of the UAE oil and gas industry. Today's continuously growing and vibrant nature of the oil and gas value chain presents many challenges for effective structural coordination. Members of the value chain stakeholders cannot compete independently anymore due to the nature of the today's competition unless they innovate and sustainably differentiate their service or product offerings. The final product delivered to the end customer moves across a chain of entities that add value to the product. Moreover, recent aspects like outsourcing, globalization and cost savings along the value chain increased uncertainty and risk exposure (Figure 3).\n4. Research methodology: This research applies an inductive empirical study that proposes a model with a causal relationship between the VCA and implementing SD strategies, outsourcing dimensions and MS. This proposed relationship requires the validation of the empirical data. Several stages of statistical testing are used for the information gathered through the survey-based questionnaire. These statistical analyses were performed by using IBM SPSS Statistics (v.23).\n5. Survey results: The statistical analysis of the data gathered through the questionnaires was performed by using the IBM SPSS Statistics (v.23).\n6. Findings and discussions: The analysis of the data confirmed that oil and gas value chains in the UAE have in place a good combination of SD strategies including transport capacity planning and building safety stocks. This is in line with previous research stating that it is essential to plan and implement in advance effective strategies to handle SD (Deane et al., 2009; Krishnan and Ulrich, 2001; Urciuoli et al. 2014). Value chain managers build enough safety stocks to ensure uninterrupted supply in the case of disruption by calibrating inventories to guarantee the availability of products (Tomlin, 2006; Sheffi, 2006; Torhaug, 2008; Tang, 2006) and that is applicable to oil and gas value chain as well. Moreover, companies usually seek to set up access to various modes of transportation by dealing with multiple carriers and therefore multiple channels and distribution routes (Tang, 2006; Tomlin, 2006). Some of the other strategies that were mentioned by the respondents to mitigate SD include pre-arranging critical stocks in advance, reduce dependence on key suppliers, better contingency planning, contracts management and supplier engagement. In addition, respondents confirmed that the implementation of such strategies improved the agility of the value chain through a positive impact on various dimensions of agility. As stated, the output of the hypothesis testing using Pearson correlation (r = +0.432) indicates that there is a moderate positive relationship between implementing SD strategies and VCA. Previous research works suggested that such strategies enhanced the resilience competences of the companies by enabling rapid responses to unexpected situations and hence improve competitive advantage which was also confirmed by the questionnaire respondents (Khan et al., 2012; Urciuoli et al., 2014).\n7. Research significance, managerial implications and limitations: From a scientific perspective, this research paper contributes to the ongoing research on the role of agility in organizational success and the factors that impact and determine this agility in the context of UAE oil and gas industry. The literature review included in this paper reveals that unlike in the other process industries where there is a plenty of data on the role of agility in organizational success (Azevedo et al., 2012; Gunasekaran and Ngai, 2012; Sarkis et al., 2011; Khan and Pillania, 2008; Abdulmalek and Rajgopal, 2007; Lin et al., 2006; Yusuf et al., 2004), this issue remains untapped in the area of oil and gas industry especially in the UAE oil and gas value chain. Hence, this research contributes with an overview of the effect of implementing SD, outsourcing and MS on the overall VCA. From a practical perspective, this paper describes relevant strategies that should be taken into consideration by value chain managers of oil and gas companies in order to improve their companies value chain's agility.\n8. Conclusion: In conclusion, the oil and gas value chains are complex due to the nature of their networks of sourcing, pre-manufacturing, outsourcing, subcontracting, manufacturing, distribution and consumption. Value chain managers of these companies are more often being asked to take decisions in complex environments, where both technical and social capabilities make the difference in terms of building agile value chains. The findings of this research indicate that the oil and gas value chains in the UAE have in place a good combination of SD and OS that are needed to be synchronized with MS. Several key managerial implications are recommended for improving VCA. Implementation of these strategies would benefit significant effect on the agility of the value chain and, therefore, would sustain the company's competitive position.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agility of oil and gas value chains in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to understand the impact of implementing supply disruption (SD) strategies, outsourcing strategies (OS) and management strategies (MS) on oil and gas value chain agility (VCA). The results can support the oil and gas industry across the UAE to build resilience in the value chain.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design consists of a comprehensive literature review, followed by questionnaire-based survey responses of 106 participants and comprehensive statistical analysis, thus validate the developed theoretical framework and contribute to both practical and methodological approaches.\nFindings: The findings indicate that oil and gas value chain in the UAE has moderate a significant degree of SD, when OS in place that are synchronized with the overall MS. Among the hypotheses developed, two were accepted thus warranting both SD strategies (r=+0.432) and MS (r= +0.457) found to have a positive moderate effect on VCA. The third hypothesis was rejected by revealing OS (r=+0.387) found to have a positive moderate relationship with VCA. Therefore, implementation of all three strategies has a positive moderate effect on the agility of the value chain and, therefore, supports to sustain competitive position.\nResearch limitations/implications: Some of the limitations of this research include the geographic coverage of the study region and other methodological limitation.\nPractical implications: The research provides guidance for oil and gas supply chain managers to better understand the critical factors that impact and determine VCA. The paper also describes relevant strategies that should be taken into consideration by these managers in order to build their agile value chains.\nSocial implications: The research contributes to the social dimensions of supply chain sustainability of how resilient is the oil and gas value chain during uncertain conditions, so that it can respond to uncertain changes in order to contribute to corporate social responsibility.\nOriginality/value: This research is the first of its kind in the UAE region to assess the link between dimensions of agile value chain, OS, SD strategies and MS primarily from the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Wine place research: Getting value from terroir and provenance in premium wine value chain interventions
|
[
"Australia",
"Value chain",
"Conceptual/Theoretical",
"Provenance",
"Terroir",
"Premium wine"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In the past 20 years, there has been a concerted effort to increase the size of the premium wine market in Australia, shifting industry's focus from quantity to quality and encouraging more consumers to drink wines that display regional or place, characteristics (Lockshin and Corsi, 2012; Johnson et al., 2013; Francis and Williamson, 2015; WFA, 2007). Recent reports from the industry's peak body indicate good progress has been made towards achieving this goal, with overall growth in both domestic and export sales skewed towards higher price points (i.e. above $15) (Wine Australia, 2017, 2018). In addition, consumers and trade appear to be gaining greater knowledge of regions and styles, and anecdotal evidence suggests the number of public wine events and masterclasses is on the rise. The Chief Executive of Australia's peak wine body calls this trend \"premiumisation\", recently saying \"[consumers] may be drinking less, but [...] they want to enjoy a quality experience\" (Nancarrow and Burt, 2018).\n2. Place in premium wine value chains: 2.1 Place and wine value\n3. A conceptual model of the wine/place experience in the value chain: Within Australia and overseas, two important aspects of the value consumers place on premium wine include an authentic connection to a specific and unique place, and the associated winemaking craft that influence the creation of place distinctive wines. This combination of wine creation, distinctive sensory qualities and the consumer's knowledge of these, gives rise to the wine/place experience. From this, a conceptual model was developed, which depicts four conditions considered necessary for premium wine consumers to have the wine/place experience they value (Figure 3). The model also shows how these necessary conditions relate to the concepts of terroir and provenance and how they work through the value chain.\n4. Wine science and the wine/place experience: The conceptual model above provides a guide for thinking further about how wine science can contribute value to the premium wine value chain and thus ensure that the concepts of terroir and provenance are successfully used to add value to the industry and the wine/place experience. Although it is useful to think about how wine science can contribute to ensuring these four conditions are met, wine researchers and practitioners should note the challenges and differences in approach, which each condition requires. For example, to impact the wine/place experience, there is a need to ensure that different research specialties that tackle each condition work together (given all conditions are necessary for an effective wine/place experience). The following discussion considers how the wine/place experience can be furthered through wine science and how wine science does this across the value chain. It will start by considering how terroir and provenance work and relate to science and how this relates to consumers and experts in the premium wine value chain more generally. Then it will take a look how science and tradition interact (and can conflict), especially around the concept of terroir. Finally, this section will consider some risks for wine science in the value chain.\n5. Conclusion: While a great deal is known about wine consumers and the science of making wine, confusion still surrounds the concepts of terroir and provenance, and how the value of place can be better used across the entire value chain. In this paper, a conceptual framework for addressing this is presented. The framework describes how the two concepts, provenance and terroir, operate in the value chain of premium wine production, highlighting how they relate and support one another - terroir is the expression of a place through a wine's sensory qualities, while provenance is the authentication of this along the value chain.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Place is an important aspect of wine quality, contributing both distinct sensory characteristics and symbolic significance to the consumer's experience, particularly in premium wine markets. The concepts of provenance and terroir, and the processes they describe, communicate meaning and significance along the value chain from wine production to consumption. This paper aims to clarify how these concepts are defined, how they contribute to premium wine value chains and how a greater understanding of these concepts by wine science researchers, and other actors, can enhance consumer value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address these aims, a conceptual framework is developed, which outlines the conditions needed to fulfil the wine/place experience through the value chain. This framework resulted from discussions within a team of researchers currently undertaking a large project into place distinctiveness in Pinot Noir wines in Australia. The refinement and exploration of the concept is grounded in a multidisciplinary literature review.\nFindings: Through application of the framework, wine science researchers are advised to develop a knowledge co-production approach with other actors in the value chain. Doing so enables all actors to use evidence-based storytelling to enhance the role that place has in premium wine value and consumer experience.\nOriginality/value: Overall, this paper contributes to the conversation surrounding the value of terroir and provenance, particularly as they relate to premium wine in New World wine regions. The innovative framework is applicable for both business and wine science researchers, especially those with decision-making responsibility and associated with wine science research institutions, funding bodies, industry partnerships and consortia.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Embedding corporate responsibility through effective organizational structures
|
[
"Organizational structures",
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Organizational change",
"South America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Integrating the corporate responsibility function has become a must for companies if they wish to remain competitive in the markets they act - which are growingly globalized and highly aggressive - and become leaders by distinguishing themselves while adding value to the firm. The process involves a great deal of change throughout the organization, with impacts that usually go beyond the organizational chart, and hopefully reach into the organization's culture.The way in which companies are integrating the corporate responsibility function varies widely, and the old adage \"structure follows strategy\" does not always seem to be the rule. When applied, we find that structure becomes the perfect driver for organizational change; when it is not, structure is more likely to become a factor of resistance to change. Is there a \"one size fits all\" structure that ensures the effective embedding of CSR function in an organization? Can we at least identify successful practices that apply to any organization, regardless of size, industry sector or country of origin?In order to answer those questions, we should begin by understanding what companies are currently doing, and how. The reality of large multinationals with headquarters usually located in developed countries is probably quite different from the problems faced by businesses of other scales in developing countries, or emerging markets. Still, managing corporate responsibility effectively remains a challenge for all. In response, we prepared an assessment tool in questionnaire form, based on the questions that companies frequently present to us in search of best practices. Over 40 aspects considered relevant are covered to understand what companies are doing to integrate the corporate responsibility function into their organizational structure. To prove the tool's relevance, we present the results of a comparative study of a few of the questions included, for a sample of Chilean companies using published information.Throughout this paper we will use the terms \"CR\" (corporate responsibility) and \"CSR\" (corporate social responsibility) as synonyms, as we consider that \"CSR\" fairly reflects the economic, environmental and social dimensions of business.\nThe challenge: In the past five to ten years, the importance of the CSR function (function being defined as \"the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group\") has grown in different regions of the world - Latin America being no exception. Throughout the region we have observed, in our role as business consultants, the changes and challenges that our clients face as they develop, grow, and compete in, ever more demanding markets - internationally and locally.In Chile, the past five years have been key in developing and formalizing the CSR function; we have been approached repeatedly by companies, posing a wide array of questions regarding the CSR function in their organizations:* Should we move forward with a separate CSR department, or just set responsibilities and targets in the existing structure?* Is it right for the CSR function to rest in the PR department (or, corporate affairs or human resources department)?* Should environmental and human resources issues be also an objective and responsibility of the CSR department?* How is the CSR budget in my company in relation to the industry standard?* Is it necessary to establish a CSR committee at the board level?* We operate in seven different countries ... how do we integrate the CSR function at a global level without losing the local perspective?* Should the CSR manager be recruited from within or outside the company?These are just some of the questions our clients keep asking themselves, and us.In order to answer those questions, it is time to gather information using a systematic research on current company actions, including but not limited to recognized business leaders in the field of sustainable development.\nStrategy or structure: what comes first: We have observed that many companies in the developing world faced the challenge of integrating the CSR function by what could normally be considered the end of the process: changing the organization's structure, without going through the needed discussion, agreement and implementation of a defined strategy. These could be the reflection of a natural reaction: realizing that CSR is important to the organization, that something needs to be done about it, and therefore someone needs to take care of it. Having established a CSR position, companies are usually over-confident that they are moving in the right direction, forgetting to integrate the CSR function into the broader perspective of risk management.Thus, the CSR manager - under various denominations - appears in the new organizational structure of the company. It is not uncommon to place this role within the PR department, or HR, or corporate communications, or environment, always responsible and subordinated to a C level executive. However, does this new manager connect with the other departments, if at all? How does he/she reach the board? What are the specific responsibilities of the CSR manager?This is not only an issue in developing countries; on the contrary, it is also an issue in the developed world.Commonly, CSR corporate practitioners in the UK are in charge of (Acona, Acre and Ethical Performance, 2008):* environmental management/climate change;* reporting;* community involvement;* marketing (to internal audiences); and* stakeholder dialogue.Further, a new position is starting to be visualized: the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), comprising and integrating not only traditional CSR activities but also broader risk management responsibilities (Griffiths and Perera, 2007).Therefore, without addressing the strategy issue, and without first considering what and how the company will integrate CSR issues in its business fundamentals, there is a high risk for the CSR manager to become an odd piece in a puzzle, without real authority, which implies the inability to create value for the firm - and society.A CSR strategy must include planning, strategic objectives, targets and deadlines. Strategies need to be discussed at the appropriate level, and to be fully operational they need transversal and proper authority.\nMaking CSR operational: Another dimension of the analysis poses the question of who should be responsible for corporate governance and the company's CSR policies and objectives? It should probably be someone with full knowledge of the company's impacts on society, both positive and negative, and with the appropriate level of understanding of current and future risks faced by the company. There seems to be consensus around the idea that it should be someone who has the capacity to influence the company's strategic planning (Park, 2008) which ultimately means that the involvement of the Board is crucial for effectively embedding the CSR function in organizations. Having the Board supervising the integration and implementation of CSR in an organization immediately places CSR issues at the core of business strategy.Moreover, legislation in several countries seems to be moving in that direction, holding Directors accountable for the environmental and social consequences of business decisions. The combined code on corporate governance makes it clear that corporate responsibility is important. It states that \"directors should set the values and standards of the company and ensure that it meets its obligations to shareholders and others\".The board should be responsible for (Mackenzie and Hodgson, 2005):* setting values and standards;* thinking strategically about corporate responsibility;* being constructive about regulation;* aligning performance management;* creating a culture of integrity; and* using internal control to secure responsibility.However, the role of boards is to govern, not to manage, so they have to delegate. The struggle is not new. The alternatives found in practice to embed CSR in an effective organizational structure were clearly described years ago by business for social responsibility (Business for Social Responsibility, 2002). And, it appears that the options are still open and remain the same.There are many ways to place the CSR role in the board: appointing the CSR responsibility to an existing board member, dedicating a committee exclusively to CSR, or even involving the whole board on CSR decisions. The same applies at the executive level, where members of the executive committee can be made responsible for CSR oversight, a new member can be added to the executive committee with CSR responsibilities and expertise, or the entire executive committee can be included in CSR decisions. As we move down through the organization, the same rationale can be applied, centralizing or decentralizing, concentrating the CSR responsibilities in one department, or distributing responsibilities according to different criteria, like geographic locations, business divisions, etc., with or without cross-functional interaction.Regardless of the structure of choice, we observe that commitment from the Board must be followed by responsibilities down the ladder. To assign responsibilities and get the rest of the organization \"on board\", there is nothing better than a set of correct incentives. Culturally, that implies a huge shift from short-term cost cutting views, to long-term sustainable performance (Kelly and White, 2007). The organization should decide on the set of incentives that works best to complement profit maximization with CSR performance. Just as it is when it comes to any other strategic component of a business, the performance is to be measured and assessed, according to an established formal strategy.\nTime for answers: The preceding thoughts were the triggers for this paper as a contribution from our business experience to further much needed research.While there appear to be no \"one size fits all\" answer and much has been and is being theorized, we felt the need to systematize an approach that could lead to meaningful correlations between the characteristics of a company and its related strategy, structure and practical implementation through systems and scorecards. This need gave rise to a questionnaire that could be used as a research and diagnostic tool to gather experiences and trends in CSR throughout the corporate world.The application of the tool would allow us to describe how and where in the company structure corporate responsibility has been embedded, and - in turn - to assess whether there are structures that could be more effective than others.Having identified the need for a study that attempts to cover and provide an answer to the main questions our clients are asking; we have incorporated - the issues considered relevant to understand what companies are doing to integrate the corporate responsibility function in their organizational structure. Therefore, we structured the tool in four sections: company characteristics, strategy, structure, and systems and scorecards.For its application we chose, for a small sample of Chilean companies, a few questions from each section and applied the questionnaire using publicly available information to test its usefulness.\nA practical tool: The questionnaire is a comprehensive detail of what is being frequently asked by companies when searching professional consultancy advice, according to our experience.The four sections allowed us to understand:* the main features of the company;* how deep the strategic discussion and implementation of CSR related issues has been so far;* how this discussion has been converted into structural and functional practices; and finally* how this has been incorporated into systems and, most importantly, into evaluation and remuneration practices through scorecards (Figure 1).The answers give a complete characterization of current practices, which in turn allow for correlations and conclusions as to best (or preferred) practices.Most if not all the questions could be answered by reviewing/researching publicly available information. We have added some questions that could supplement the research through focused interviews. The questionnaire could also be used by companies as a practical self assessment tool to identify opportunities for improvement in the way they are integrating the CSR function. While most of the questions included in the survey come from what we have been asked by business on consultancy practice, many of them have been taken from, or adapted from other sources (GEMI and BSR, 2006; Melcrum Publishing, 2005; Club de Excelencia en Sostenibilidad, 2007) (Figure 2).\nAn application in practice: As previously stated, we used a condensed version of the tool on a sample of Chilean companies to test its potential for drawing conclusions and correlations. The summarized questionnaire is shown in Figure 3.The sample chosen and the source of information was a list of 26 companies that published sustainability reports in Chile in 2007, based on publicly available information- mainly corporate web pages and/or printed sustainability reports.The results of the application are shown in Tables I and II.After having answered the characterization section, we performed an analysis on the three categories included in the tool in order to determine correlations, gaps, and finally trends on sustainability practices in Chilean companies (Table II).Based on the above the following relations and conclusions were found:* Sustainability reporting is still a domestic effort, with no exposure to world-class index assessment systems.* Sustainability reporters unanimously show adoption of GRI as the reporting guidelines.* Three out of four companies present at least a two years track record of sustainability reporting.* Credibility is provided by the reporting effort and the reputation of the companies, rather than by external assurance.* Leaders in sustainability reporting fall behind in the definition of a full range of sustainability policies; however, all the companies have at least one relevant CSR policy, and most of them have two.* The variety of names for the CSR position shows no uniform understanding of the CSR function, however, they can be broadly aggregated into three categories: \"CSR\", \"communications\", and a blend of \"environmental\" and \"sustainability\".* Companies are moving forward on policy making, but the structuring of CSR areas is lagging behind.* CSR structuring and CSR strategies are both strongly associated with the size of the company in terms of its employees and revenues. The larger the company, the bigger the chance to find a structured area, and the more sustainable development-related policies declared.* The absence of information in the public domain on the number of people (team size) that work in the CSR function reveals that these data are to be collected through interviews.* The CSR function appears to be placed mainly in specific departments rather than distributed through the organizational structure.* Making CSR operational through BSC is still an immature practice.* Companies are putting strategies into place, are slowly creating structures, but they fail in bringing downstream CSR practices into their organizations and in associating business performance and CSR performance.With this tentative research we wanted to show the effectiveness of our tool in order to draw conclusions on CSR trends and help organizations improve their CSR path. Our findings show interesting conclusions that make us believe that applying the complete tool extensively, would certainly help to pinpoint trends, describe the state of the art, make correlations and eventually define best practices, to successfully put CSR into action, from strategy to operations through effective structures.Finally, we wish to emphasize that it is time for empirical research to light the road toward meaningful comparisons to draw conclusions as to best practices. Our contribution is a tool to guide research based on real information needs requested by businesses. Good practices identified and correlations detected could impulse adoption. Adoption, in turn, would heighten the bar for progressive improvement of effective organizational structures, leading to proper embedding of CSR in business fundamentals.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which companies are embedding the corporate responsibility function in different organizational structures, and to identify, when possible, best practices related to organizational structures which have proved effective in managing corporate responsibility that can be applied by any organization, regardless of size or industry sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors developed and applied a methodology, in the form of a questionnaire, covering more than 40 aspects to describe what companies are doing to integrate the corporate responsibility function in their organizational structures. The design of the survey was based on available literature as well as their own professional experience answering questions commonly received from clients in Latin America. The questionnaire was then applied to a small sample using companies' public information from reports and company web sites.\nFindings: - The application of the questionnaire on a sample of Chilean companies using their public information tested the tool as valid and fit for the designed purpose. The main conclusions were that CSR structuring and CSR strategies are both strongly associated with the size of the company in terms of number of employees and revenues.\nOriginality/value: - Many questions arise when the task of implementing CSR is proposed and Latin American companies are trying to apply best practices by learning from the experience of companies with longer histories in CSR matters. However, trends are not uniform and different organizations are taking a variety of pathways in the process of CSR implementation. This paper offers a general vision of how companies are making the effort to implement CSR best practices, in terms of structure, strategy and scorecard; and presents a simple tool to assess the gaps, if any, in the effective embedding of corporate responsibility on organizational structures.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding the effects of WeChat on perceived social capital and psychological well-being among Chinese international college students in Germany
|
[
"Germany",
"Social capital",
"Social networking sites",
"WeChat",
"Psychological well-being",
"Chinese international students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Over the past few decades, the worldwide explosion of social networking websites (SNSs) has dramatically transformed individual's social behaviors and networking practices across diverse cultures, nations, and regions. Due to the advantages of convenience of access and the low cost, these communication technologies serve as an alternative and innovative avenue for users to interact with others, and to maintain and strengthen networked interpersonal relations (Chang and Hsu, 2016; Mao and Qian, 2015; Pang, 2018). A recent media investigation shows that the utilization of SNSs is currently the most prevalent online activity around the world, particularly among digital-savvy younger generation (Tsai and Men, 2017). Moreover, prior research has indicated that college students' social media adoption and their engagement in various online activities through the site are related to a range of social and psychological consequences including perceived social capital, civic and political engagement, and satisfaction with life (Burke and Kraut, 2016; Lin and Wang, 2017; Raza et al., 2017). Consequently, the unprecedented popularity and exponential growth of social media make it imperative to comprehend the nature of this newly emerging media and its potential implications for users' social connectedness and well-being in the digital era.\n2. Theoretical background: 2.1 WeChat use and bridging and bonding social capital\n3. Research model and methodology: 3.1 Research model\n4. Analytical strategy: All data analyses were conducted by using the SPSS version 20.0 and AMOS version 19.0. Preliminary descriptive analyses were first implemented to characterize the current sample and offer insight into the possible effects of WeChat on Chinese international students' differentiated forms of perceived social capital, sense of loneliness, and life satisfaction in Germany. After that, a zero-order correlation analysis was run to explore the intertwined relationships among the main scaled variables of the research while controlling for gender, age, education level, residence length, and WeChat usage experience. Finally, a structural model was utilized to explicitly assess the structural connections among these constructs.\n5. Results: 5.1 Descriptive analysis of WeChat use\n6. Discussion: 6.1 Main findings\n7. Conclusion: To summarize, this present study makes an early effort to systematically investigate the questions about whether the intensity of WeChat use is associated with three types of social ties by differentiating bonding, bridging, and maintained social capital, and discover how these distinct forms of social capital are related to psychological well-being among Chinese students studying abroad in Germany. The obtained results provide robust evidence that WeChat functions as an efficient and cost-effective platform for sojourners to maintain and develop diverse types of social capital. Moreover, the study constructed a hypothesized model to identify that interacting with WeChat would exert influence on well-being outcomes through bonding and maintained social capital among these sojourners in a host country. The results of this empirical study shed a more nuanced insight for further research in a new media context.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the intensity use of WeChat is associated with perceived social capital and psychological well-being factors among Chinese international students in Germany.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on an online survey data collected from 212 Chinese international college students in Germany, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were sequentially implemented to deal with the research questions.\nFindings: The correlation analysis results indicate that the intensity of WeChat use is positively correlated with bridging, bonding, and maintained social capital. Additionally, a path model demonstrates that bonding social capital is positively related to life satisfaction and negatively related to the sense of loneliness. Furthermore, both bonding and maintained social capital mediate the relationship between WeChat use and these two well-being outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: Theoretically, the research is an initial study contributing to the existing social media literature on evaluating the effects of WeChat use on social capital and well-being. Practically, these obtained results can be beneficial to the understanding the dynamics of how social media may potentially impact students' social connectedness and life quality.\nOriginality/value: Although WeChat has become the most prevalent social networking site in Mainland China, the social and psychological implications of the emerging technology are not completely understood. The paper offers evidence that WeChat has functioned as an efficient platform for sojourners to develop diverse types of social capital and promote well-being in an intercultural setting.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
An exploratory study of SME local sourcing and supplier development in the grocery retail sector
|
[
"Retail trade",
"Sourcing",
"Small to medium‐sized enterprises",
"United Kingdom"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Research by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) found that 59 per cent of shoppers were interested in buying local food and 15 per cent said that locally produced foods made available in supermarkets would make their shopping easier (IGD, 2003, p. 159).However, the main British grocery retailers are operationally advanced by comparison with those of mainland Europe. They utilize business practices that are amongst the best in the world. This is demonstrated in the retail buying processes, where the grocery retailers are geared to buying from large suppliers able to distribute products nationally. Retailers are now well equipped to handle stores' demand, having developed efficient purchasing and logistical capabilities to ensure a smooth exchange between the parties in the chain. Retailers expect continuity of supply. Dealing with smaller suppliers may require a different set of procedure and practices than those applied to the larger supplier contracts. Furthermore, in the survey of leading manufacturers conducted by the IGD (2003, p. 177), 70 per cent believed that global sourcing was one of the most important issues in grocery retailing. This background of international and national sourcing systems and emerging interest in local food products and local sourcing may present conflicting strategies for the retailer.The overall aim of this research therefore was to undertake an exploratory investigation to gain insights into attitudes and perceptions of supplier development and local sourcing programmes in the UK grocery retail sector. To achieve this, the factors which motivate the retailers to undertake and resource a minority activity such as local sourcing need to be established. The objectives of the study are to:* investigate how the SME supplier aligns with highly centralized buying procedures and category management systems;* consider the influence of retailer power and retailer branding strategies on the SME producer; and* provide empirical evidence of the current shape and scope of local sourcing and supplier development in the UK grocery sector.The paper is structured as follows; first reasons for the growth of local sourcing and supplier development are explored. Secondly, a literature review outlining definitions of supplier development and its aims and objectives are presented. The retail-trading environment is then considered, focusing in particular on category management, branding strategies and the role of power in the retailer/supplier exchange. Findings of the study are presented and discussed. Implications for future research are considered.\nGrowth of local sourcing and supplier development in UK food retailing: A number of reasons can be attributed to UK grocery retailers implementing local sourcing or supplier development initiatives such as competitive and political pressure as well as consumer lobbying. Over the last decade, local food sourcing has risen in prominence at both the consumer and the policy levels. This interest may be connected to factors such as declining agricultural incomes combined with a series of crisis within the UK agricultural sector, such as those involving listeria, salmonella, E. coli, BSE and foot and mouth disease (Morris and Buller, 2003). The aftermath of these food disasters has given rise to more discerning consumers who see connections between the farming crisis, mass production, increased food miles and our obsession for cheap and convenient shopping (Independent on Sunday, 2004). The National Association of Farmers Markets (NAFM) reported that \"growing numbers of consumers are keen to support farmers directly and are actively seeking out locally produced food ahead of products that may have been shipped around the country\" (Marketing, 2003).Political factors\nSupplier development - motivations, strengths and weaknesses: Supplier development was pioneered in the automotive industry. Companies such as Toyota and Honda are masters at supplier development initiatives (Liker and Wu, 2000). They have long since recognised that the supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link and therefore invest time and money into developing suppliers' skills and capabilities. Supplier development is anchored firmly in both the customer's and supplier's organisation, leading to joint team structures (Hartely and Choi, 1996).To this end the buyer must become involved with the supplier in training and education in order to address skills gaps. This requires a fundamental shift involving behavioural changes in the customer-supplier relationship (Dale et al., 1994; St John and Heriot, 1993). Expected outcomes of supplier development programmes include, improved efficiency and reduced costs through information sharing, communication, joint-problem solving and risk-sharing (Quayle, 2000; Handfield et al., 2000) as well enhanced supplier performance in terms of technical, quality, delivery (Watts and Hahn, 1993).Success or failure may be determined by the degree to which the organisations display a co-operative culture, the quality of the relationship and the strategic importance attached to supplier development by both the customer and the supplier. Handfield et al.'s (2000) survey of 84 companies' categorised pitfalls into three areas:1. supplier specific, such as lack of communication or commitment;2. supplier resources and competencies; and3. buyer-supplier interface pitfalls, such as lack of trust, poor alignment, no clear roles and responsibilities.Lack of understanding of the changing dynamics of the buyer/supplier relationship may also contribute to the reported dissatisfaction of such programmes by both customers and suppliers (Wagner et al., 2002). Given that supplier development can directly impact on cost, technology, delivery and flexibility, it is understandable that the retail industry is turning attention to such strategies.Defining supplier development\nGrocery retail trading environment antecedents to category management: The UK food-retailing industry has been characterised by intense competition resulting in a move towards premium and niche retail brand products, streamlining of the supply base and increased use of information technology (Dapiran and Hogarth-Scott, 2003). To maintain high standards of quality, food retailers and their suppliers have been keen to increase efficiency and reduce costs (White, 2000). An array of new concepts have been introduced into the management of retail supply chains in an attempt to improve performance (Sparks and Wagner, 2003), for example, concepts such as quick response (QR) (Fiorito et al., 1995; Kincade et al., 2001), efficient consumer response (ECR) (Kurt Salmon Associates, 1995) and collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) (Angeles, 2000). All of these concepts are intended to be assessed as an integrated set of activities that impact across the entire supply chain, not just between individual trading partners (Bell and Cuthbertson, 2004, p. 64). These customer-focused strategies encourage strong relationships between the retailer and the supplier (Fernie, 2004, p. 36). These require a higher degree of interaction between parties, and have promoted the drive towards category management and product replenishment. Category management is the main approach to buying management by UK food retailers.Category management\nResearch approach: The literature establishes a gap between the high level of recognition of the benefits of supplier development and the actual degree of implementation (Quayle, 2000). In order to address this gap a case study methodology (Yin, 2003) was used with the buyer/supplier relationship as the unit of analysis. This approach can utilise quantitative or qualitative data, or both, and has the benefit of being able to adopt a longitudinal approach. Yin (2003) identifies three types of case study: exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive. It is the exploratory type which is adopted here. This case study method has resulted in a holistic, in-depth investigation of the interacting issues of supplier development (Feagin et al., 1991). Tellis (1997) notes that case study research is not sampling research but that the selection of cases should maximize what can be learned within a specific time-frame. The unit of analysis is a system of action rather than an individual or group of individuals. The researcher considers not only just the voice and perspective of the actors, but also of the relevant groups of actors and the interaction between them.There are four main grocery chains in the UK: Tesco, J. Sainsbury's, Asda and Safeway/Morrisons. The research team had access to one large supermarket, ranked within the top six UK food retailers. Three interviews were conducted with the commercial manager, the supply chain manager and the supplier development manager, each lasting two to three hours. During the course of these interviews the buyers identified key SME suppliers for us to contact. It should be noted that these suppliers had employees ranging from 50 to 100, falling into the category of small supplier but not micro-enterprise. This constituted the sample frame and representatives from five suppliers were interviewed. These respondents were senior staff including CEO to key account managers.A semi-structured interview schedule was drawn covering the issues raised in the literature. Two researchers were present at each interview ensuring that all relevant points were covered and a high degree of cross checking of data could be carried out. Following transcription, similarities and differences were clustered and compared and the third member of the team then interrogated the findings to ensure greater accuracy in interpretation. Feedback from the suppliers on the interpretation of data represented some degree of validation and triangulation.\nFindings and discussion: The findings are presented from both the retailer and supplier perspective and set in the context of category management, retail brands and retail power.Category management\nFuture research directions: The next stage of this research is to investigate micro-enterprise SMEs that have been involved in local sourcing and supplier development programmes since 2000. Presenting opportunities to pursue longitudinal studies, work is required to explore how these very small suppliers organise themselves in terms of logistics hubs, co-operatives, local food network groups, farmers markets etc. This is a sensitive area of study suited to qualitative research. Also, establishing the extent and sustainability of local government support is important and how buying groups and/supplier associations and local government can be encouraged to provide greater long-term support to the SME producer.\nConcluding remarks: The paper set out to explore the scope of local sourcing and supplier development initiatives and compare reports in the trade press with what was happening in practice. The SMEs in the sample were established companies with employees ranging from 50 to 100. Using secondary and primary data it has illustrated how category management, branding strategies and retailer power influenced the relationship between the retailer and the SME supplier. Clearly, these SMEs found it difficult at times to service the large grocery retailer and it would seem logical to assume that the smaller micro business would find it even harder to develop business relationships with the grocery retailer. Although not able to generalise, on the basis of the evidence garnered so far, the grocery retailer recognises the importance of SME suppliers but it is not clear if local sourcing and supplier development programmes are sustainable or merely a passing fad.Local sourcing and supplier development initiatives could create opportunities for the food retailer to use their SME suppliers in a proactive manner. However, it is difficult to ascertain what is really happening as suppliers rarely raise issues about food retailers' behaviour. Business growth can be achieved through supplier development but to ensure real choice for consumers, there must be competition in the market. All stakeholders; government, consumers, retailers and suppliers have a responsibility to ensure that grocery retailers are genuinely committed to social accountability issues such as local sourcing.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The overall aim of this research was to undertake an exploratory investigation to gain insights into attitudes and perceptions of supplier development and local sourcing programmes in the UK grocery retail sector.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Since this research is exploratory in nature, a qualitative approach to data collection was undertaken using semi-structured in-depth interviews.\nFindings: - Retailers do seem to be undertaking supplier development as defined in the literature but the data collected highlights some of the difficulties experienced by all suppliers in supporting grocery retailer category management and branding strategies. From this, local sourcing also implies the involvement of the micro-enterprise producer. This has the potential for greater levels of power and trust imbalance.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The main research limitation was the small sample size. However, the research was exploratory and the sample was essentially convenience based. This resulted in over-representation by the larger SME producer. The findings can be enhanced with further qualitative research focusing on the micro-enterprise supplier.\nOriginality/value: - The paper offers an insight into the debate on SME supplier development and local sourcing by providing empirical evidence of the current shape and scope of the various initiatives in the UK grocery sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Older workers: stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy
|
[
"Ageing",
"Age groups",
"Older workers",
"Age stereotypes",
"Occupational self-efficacy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The issue of ageing in the workplace has been defined as a \"new diversity\" (Capowski, 1994) because it tests the capacity of organizations to manage changes in the composition of the workforce. Recent surveys revealed that Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, and that the current ageing process of population in Italy is more pronounced than in most other European countries (OECD, 2004). Nevertheless, older workforce do not receive a special attention and adequate investments by Italian employers (Conen et al., 2012). Studying generations based on perspectives of stereotyping is important in the work context, above all because people's beliefs about generational differences are not based on real differences, but they are often socially constructed and based mainly on common age stereotypes (Rudolph and Zacher, 2015). Negative evaluations made by others may produce a negative spin-off in older workers' behaviours concerning their career activities, early retirement intentions and learning and development motivations (Gaillard and Desmette, 2010; Salthouse and Maurer, 1996). But which is the mechanism through which stereotypes can influence older workers' behaviours? We think that self-efficacy defined as \"beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments\" (Bandura, 1997, p. 3) may be a key construct for understanding age-related processes in the work environment because it is influenced by the social context and it may be considered as a trainable resource to prevent negative outcomes of ageing in the workplace. Self-efficacy has been shown to be affected by ageing (i.e. Dingemans and Henkens, 2015) and to be an antecedent of work-related task performance (Judge et al., 2007). However, surprisingly, very little attention has been dedicated to older workers' self-efficacy.\nAge stereotypes in the workplace: As the workforce gets older, age stereotypes become more relevant in organizations (Finkelstein et al., 2015; Posthuma and Campion, 2009). Age stereotypes are defined as \"a simplified, undifferentiated portrayal of an age group that is often erroneous, unrepresentative of reality, and resistant to modification\" (Schulz et al., 2006, p. 43). Different studies have demonstrated a general consensus about the contents of stereotypes that affect older people in the workplace, independently from the age (Posthuma and Campion, 2009; Van Dalen et al., 2010) or the nationality (Chiu et al., 2001; Guglielmi et al., 2016) of the respondents. Older workers are not viewed entirely negatively or positively, however, they are stereotypically viewed more negatively compared to younger workers, and this stereotyping is at the heart of employment discrimination against them (Dordoni and Argentero, 2015; Van Dalen et al., 2009, 2010). The present study intends to involve both younger and older workers to explore which age stereotypes are perceived by a large sample of Italian banking sector employees in their workplaces. Conen et al. (2012) showed that Italy is an interesting context to study ageing at work. Italian employers differ from their European counterparts in the sense that that are very inactive towards older workers. They believe that the government is responsible for older workers' retention and lifelong training programmes. Consequently, they think that age discrimination should be combated with laws and media campaigns.\nAge stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy: Self-efficacy construct represents a core aspect of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and has been widely investigated as determinant of behaviour. It is conceived as \"a dynamic set of self-beliefs that are linked to particular performance domains and activities\" (Lent, 2005, p. 104), and in this sense, it can be conceptualized at different levels of specificity. General self-efficacy reflects a generalization across various domains of functioning in which people judge how efficacious they are, while domain-specific self-efficacy refers to the beliefs in one's ability to perform the specific tasks required to succeed within a given domain (Bandura, 1977). Many ageing studies have reported age-related declines both in general self-efficacy (Dingemans and Henkens, 2015) and domain-specific self-efficacy (Lang and Heckhausen, 2001), but when contextual resources are available it is possible to observe an improvement in some domain-specific self-efficacy beliefs among older adults (McAvay et al., 1996).\nMethod: Participants and procedures\nResults: Exploratory factor analysis\nDiscussion: The present study aimed to explore the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy, focusing on a comparison between older and younger workers. We were interested to test the point of view of employees on the beliefs that organizations hold towards older workers. Our results confirm that organizational age stereotypes may be described in terms of beliefs about productivity, reliability and adaptability of older workers. These stereotypes are related to occupational self-efficacy and this relationship is moderated by age. Indeed, the organization's positive beliefs towards older employees' adaptability and reliability improved the occupational self-efficacy of 50 years and over group, while it had no effect on the under 50s.\nLimitations and future research: This contribution offers a number of promising theoretical and practical implications for the study of the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy, but a few limitations merit mentioning. Considering the generalization of our findings, we collected data only from the Italian bank sector. As previously discussed, Italy has one of the oldest populations in Europe, and the Italian workforce cannot be easily compared to foreign ones. In addition, the bank sector showed to be a favourable environment for older workers, because it has shown as interested in investing in aging workforce and developing age management policies. For instance, the European Banking Federation (2014) mentioned older workers' training and career programmes among its human resources best practices to foster the length and level of the staff's employability. Future studies should use the contextual features as control variables to yield further insight into the perception of age stereotypes in the workplace. Another limitation to our sample may be its response rate (59.7 per cent), which is not very high, but is in line with the average of response rate of previous research (Baruch and Holtom, 2008).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy. First, the authors intend to test the measurement invariance of Henkens's (2005) age stereotypes scale across two age group, respectively, under 50 and 50 years and older. Then, the moderator role of age groups in the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is investigated.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The survey involved a large sample of 4,667 Italian bank sector's employees.\nFindings: The results show the invariance of the three dimensional structure of organizational stereotypes towards older workers scale: productivity, reliability and adaptability. Furthermore, the moderation is confirmed: the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is significant only for older respondents.\nResearch limitations/implications: Future studies should aim to replicate the findings with longitudinal designs.\nPractical implications: The study suggests the importance to emphasize the positive characteristics of older workers and to reduce the presence of negative age stereotypes in the workplace, especially in order to foster the occupational self-efficacy of older workers.\nOriginality/value: The findings are especially relevant in view of the lack of evidence about the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Digital marketing and business-to-business relationships: a close look at the interface and a roadmap for the future
|
[
"Digital marketing",
"Relationship marketing",
"Business-to-business marketing",
"Digitalization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Digitalization is a pervasive force in the marketplace (Hofacker et al., 2016). Along with (big) data analytics, digital marketing now occupies a central place in marketing research and practice. Not surprisingly, over the past couple of decades, a large body of research has examined digitalization and its implications for marketing theory. However, much of this research has focused on the implications of digitalization on business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Among the critical areas examined by scholars include online/mobile retailing (Pagani et al., 2019; Shankar et al., 2010), online advertising (Goldfarb and Tucker, 2011), online branding (Murphy and Scharl, 2007), online reviews (Sparks and Browning, 2011), online communities (Park et al., 2018) and gamification (Hofacker et al., 2016). Compared to this stream of research, much less attention has been devoted to the study of digitalization in the business-to-business (B2B) sector. Recent developments in digitalization hold considerable promise for B2B relationships (Kannan, 2017). There are also threats that need better understanding. Consequently, the purpose of this special issue is to focus scholarly attention on the implications of digitalization on B2B relationships.\nEmergent domain of digital marketing vis-a-vis business-to-business marketing: Scholars started examining the implications of digitalization on B2B marketing in the 1990s, and research in this stream came to the fore by the turn of the century. Early research noted the implications of digitalization on fundamental relationship issues in the B2B context such as relationship evolution and trust (Pavlou, 2002) and the reversion to transactional orientation from a relational orientation (Sharma and Pillai, 2003). B2B exchanges and market places, given their potential to disrupt the prevailing market structure, attracted considerable scholarly attention during this time (Day et al., 2003; Kandampully, 2003; Pillai and Sharma, 2004). Technological aspects of digital relationships such as customer relationship management in B2B e-commerce (Zeng et al., 2003) and technology adoption (Pires and Aisbett, 2003) were among other topics studied.\nRole of digitalization in business-to-business relationships: As noted above, B2B relationships have not escaped the overwhelming transformative force of digitalization that has been upending the way markets function and the way customers behave and make sense of firms' value offerings (Confos and Davis, 2016; Kannan, 2017; Vendrell-Herrero et al., 2017). Artificial intelligence, blockchain, data security/integrity, internet of things and big data analytics are just some possible digital trends that can shape how B2B relationships are understood and managed. Below we delve specifically into important research domains in B2B marketing and discuss what role digitalization and digital marketing can play in each domain. Some of these domains, such as coopetition and servitization, represent emergent themes in B2B marketing research, while others, such as relationship dynamics and power/trust concepts, have traditionally constituted fundamental research streams. Nonetheless, they are all subject to a pervasive influence of digitalization and digital marketing, and thus, have the potential to be extensively informed by research tackling the digitalization-B2B marketing interface. Figure 1 shows the important domains of B2B relationships where different aspects of digitalization and digital marketing have a strong potential to influence.\nFuture research agenda: Despite growing research interest in the interface of B2B relationships and digital marketing, there are many unexplored or underexplored phenomena within this research domain that highlights a rich future research potential. In this section, we discuss the research potential of digital marketing in B2B relationships in line with the seven noteworthy domains of B2B relationships that were discussed earlier.\nArticles in the special issue: The articles in the special issue take a close look at some important items within the topic of digital marketing and B2B relationships. In an interesting article, Zhu et al. (2020) examine the patterns of B2B digital referrals inscribed in business's digital content. These authors find that businesses are more likely to give referrals to peers residing in the same region. The article provides useful insights into competition in the digital space.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This study aims to introduce the special issue on digital marketing and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. In general, only modest attention has been devoted to the study of digitalization in the B2B sector and even less on the importance of the perils and promises of digitalization for B2B relationships. This study's goal is to help focus scholarly attention on the implications of digitalization on B2B relationships.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this conceptual paper, the authors' approach is to carefully review relevant literature, and to lay out the field of digital marketing and B2B relationships, conceptualizing it for future research.\nFindings: The authors find that the following areas are critically important to understanding future trends in digital marketing and B2B relationships: coopetition, value co-creation, B2B branding, servitization, innovation networks, relationship dynamics and power and trust.\nOriginality/value: The intersection of digitalization and B2B relationships is an under-researched topic. With this paper and the accompanying special issues papers, the authors hope to begin to fill this critical gap.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Changing governance, changing needs interpretations: implications for universalism
|
[
"Personal needs",
"Welfare",
"Home care",
"Norway"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: From the ideational perspective of policy making \"universalism\" figures as a positive term, associated with \"social institutions that foster integration and discourage alienation\" (Titmuss, 1968, p. 133) or the right of citizens to be treated with \"equal concern and respect\" (Rothstein, 1998). Used in specific contexts, however, further clarifications will often have to be made (Kristensen, 2007). In reference to health care, Rothstein emphasises that treating everyone with \"equal concern and respect\" does not mean that all citizens are treated the same in the sense that they get an equal share of resources. Giving more to some persons than to others does not imply the view that the life projects of the former are worth more than those of the latter. It could rather reflect the judgement that, if the former are not allocated extra resources, their suffering will be grater than the latter's (Rothstein, 1998, p. 33). They may simply need more medical treatment.The importance of needs testing as a distributive principle in welfare policy is beyond dispute. While the concept of \"needs\" is often talked about as a given part of human nature, there is no general agreement on the meaning of the concept (Robertson, 1998; Fraser, 1989). Needs are social constructions which rest upon established social consciousness and shared meanings and as such they are contingent on social changes (Eriksen, 1996). Accordingly, universal welfare arrangements based on needs testing may change and assume different institutional forms.Drawing on case studies from Norwegian home care, this paper demonstrates how interpretations of needs and associated notions of equity in service allocation have been challenged by shifting modes of governance. Home care, which originated within a context of voluntary associations of women, has gradually been marked by a quest for bureaucratic accountability and, like home care in most western welfare states, by the ethos of new public management (NPM) (Szebehely, 2005; Burau et al. 2007; Wrede et al., 2008; Dahl, 2009). The aim of this paper is to make explicit how shifting logics of governance draw on different interpretations of needs and thereby shape the way universalism is put into practice. The paper starts by elucidating the concept of universalism and, in particular, the complex relation between the principle of universalism and eligibility based on needs. Based on the distinction between \"creative\" and \"proportional justice\", it then continues by describing different eras of governance and how routines for assessing needs and the handling of competing needs claims have changed. It as argued that, even though equal access has become increasingly high on the agenda, it might be questioned as to what extent people are given equal respect and concern.\n2 Universalism and needs led service provision: At a highly abstract level, \"universalism\" signifies that welfare benefits are available to all, as an entitlement of citizenship. However, universalism in human service provision is not just about eligibility and coverage (Clarke, 2004), it is also about the way people are encountered and treated by service staff (Vabo and Szebehely, 2011). Universalism reflects an ideal of responsiveness in handling of cases (Blomberg and Peterson, 2007) and may be strengthened by public officials being committed to an ethic of equal concern and respect (Rothstein, 1998, p. 219).Even though \"universalism\" is commonly used to characterise welfare systems in contrast to systems based on selectivism, the scholarly debate has always recognised that the two sets of principles should not be regarded as absolutes or diametrically opposed systems (Reddin, 1969; Kildal and Kuhnle, 2005). Even, Titmuss (1968), one of the pioneers of universalism in social policy, recognised that some kind of selectivity was necessary to ensure equal services to people in unequal situations. Titmuss rejected means-tested targeting of service (negative selectivity) but advocated that certain disadvantaged groups may require additional services or flat subscription rates (positive selectivity). In that, he recognised the significance of being sensitive to social inequalities and to ensure that resources are to some extent redistributed within a universal welfare scheme.In more recent debates \"universalism\" has been cited in opposition to \"particularism\". The question has been raised as to whether the principle of universalism is attuned to an increasingly diverse citizenship and population. According to Thompson and Hogget (1996), this stream of critique is confusing because it tends to mix universalism and uniformity. The confusion might reflect the fact that in the UK universalism has been strongly associated with the centralising and bureaucratic Fabian welfare state, and accordingly the critique is directed at the institutionalised expression of social rights rather than at the existence of these rights per se. Thompson and Hogget (1996, p. 34) argue that \"universalism\" and \"particularity\" represent a mutually reinforcing duality. Universalism seeks to provide a fair standard by which to treat particular cases. Particularity derives its moral standard from an underlying universalism - the idea that differences should be equally respected. Universalism is about creating universal measures that enable all citizens to be treated with equal consideration and respect without resulting in demands of uniformity or assimilation (Kristensen, 2007). Learning from Nancy Fraser's work on politics of recognition, Kristensen (2007, p. 57) argues that an explicit inclusion of recognition in the discussion of universalism allows for a revision of the implicit normativity of the principle.From this, it may be argued that needs testing, in order to be committed to an ethic of equal concern and respect, will have to be sensitive to social and cultural diversity. Still, \"needs\" is a complex, fluid and contingent concept and, hence, assessment of \"neediness\" is always problematic. Departing from the idea that \"need\" is a relational concept (A needs X in order to get Y), Fraser (1989) argues that while it may be possible to agree on general needs claims, these claims tend to become controversial as soon as they descend to a lower level of generality. Needs cannot be determined empirically in an objective manner: they will always have to be defined in accordance with some kind of standard, norm or discourse. In relation to welfare services, attention is generally called to the contrast between professionally defined needs and needs defined by individuals, families and communities (Foster, 1983; Robertson, 1998).No matter how individual needs are understood, it is also a matter of dispute how competing need claims should be balanced. Lipsky (1980, p. 99) point to the dilemma of street-level bureaucrats aiming to interact flexibly and responsively with single clients while being limited by finite resources. If they adhere to the particular needs of too many individuals, their capacity to respond flexibly will disappear. Foster (1983, p. 129) discusses the same inescapable tension in terms of two competing logics of justice: \"creative justice\", the handling of the unique and shifting needs of individuals, and \"proportional justice\", achieving fairness among individuals. In the following analysis, these two logics of justice are used to highlight a shift of moral voice in governance of care from a partial and situated voice of social professionals that focus on empathic care towards an imperial and detached voice of reform efforts that focus on equity and accountability.\n3 Research method: The paper is based on three case studies of home care organisation in Norway conducted at different points in time, representing different eras of governance. The studies were conducted within separate research projects designed for different purposes, although with a common focus on needs assessment and service allocation. The two latter projects had a clear intention to follow up questions and empirical findings from previous studies, and these studies were partly based on overlapping cases.Case study A, conducted in 1994 and 1995, explored typical self-regulated home care teams and the way in which the discrepancy between scarce resources and ambitious policy aims was handled. Routines and patterns of practice were identified through personal and group interviews with officials and practitioners. The data on which the process of negotiation was based included personal interviews with older care recipients (n=17), their public care providers (n=21) and adult children (n=14).Case study B was conducted in 1999 and 2000 in five urban care districts that were testing some of the market and management ideas recommended by central government at that time. Particular attention was paid to purchaser-provider arrangements and associated reform elements such as citizen charters and quality management. The study was inter alia based on personal interviews (n=58) from six municipalities/city wards (including the two districts from the previous case study) with executives, consultants and frontline staff. Official reform accounts and everyday-work descriptions were compared and critically analysed.Case study C was conducted between 2007 and 2010. The aim of this study was to explore how the purchaser-provider split had matured and, among other things, how purchasers and providers collaborated on needs assessment. The study included interviews with key informants from previous studies and from two Norwegian cities (Bigtown and Smalltown). Data were drawn from policy documents, consultant reports, workshops (held for purchaser officers and care team leaders) and personal interviews with executives and purchasers (n=11), front line managers and staff (n=14) and care recipients and family members (n=21).\n4 Home care under shifting trends of governance: Norwegian home care originated in the third sector and was taken on board in public welfare programmes during the 1960s and 1970s. Thanks to generous reimbursement from central government, home care expanded greatly in this first era. However, in the mid-1980s legislative changes delegated to municipalities the responsibility for a wide range of services and the previous reimbursement system based on earmarked grants was replaced by block grants. Municipalities were now urged to bridge the gap between ambitious policy goals and scant resources. In the following years, access to home care levelled off and then declined moderately (Daatland, 1997, p. 40). Since then, local governments have been influenced by shifting modes of governance, i.e. by shifting ideas about power and authority, and about how decision making and coordination of action should be made.An era of horizontal decentralisation\n5 Shifts in governance - shifts in notions of needs: Changing modes of governance have brought about new patterns of work in home care, including new roles and routines for needs assessment and service allocation. We have so far associated the new allocation routines with a shift of focus away from individual needs and creative justice towards a stronger emphasis on proportional justice that ensures fairness among competing needs. In this section, attention will be paid to the way in which this shift of focus has made an impact on the notions of needs that underlie service allocation.Needs as related to individuals' coping capacity\n6 Summary and conclusion: Despite the limits of a case study approach in providing a basis for generalising its conclusions, it can be argued that the small number of information rich cases explored here can add some deeper insights into the possible implications of current trends of governance. Drawing attention to the every day routines of needs assessment and service allocation, the analysis suggests that universalism has always been subject to conflicting pressures and, thus, remains contingent on shifting trends of governance.In the self-regulated care teams of the early 1990s, great emphasis was placed on \"creative justice\" and home care staffs were well positioned to respond to the unique and shifting needs of individual elderly. However, because resources were finite, the management of uniqueness meant management at the expense of other users. This case study analysis suggests that the basis for deciding whose needs are of low priority is highly contingent on available resources and, therefore, decisions on needs are frequently perceived as arbitrary and unjust. Reforms emerging in the late 1990s were largely driven by the concern of the administration to avoid arbitrariness and ensure \"proportional justice\" - justice between competing claims for priority. The specialisation and separation of needs assessment from the daily care provision presumed a more constrained definition of needs. Needs decisions were to be based on fixed criteria and priorities. Inquiries into contemporary home care organisation suggest that elements of flexibility have been incorporated into the purchaser-provider organisations. Within this hybrid governance arrangement, care-giver staffs are expected to collaborate with needs assessors to ensure that individual and shifting needs are met. However, efforts made \"from below\" to assure that individual needs are met are no longer made at the expense of named individuals, but rather at the expense of the system as whole. Contemporary home care organisations are constantly pushed \"from above\" to restrain care responsibilities and to pay attention to the clock. This suggests that the general preconditions for paying attention to individual needs are undermined because responsibilities are offloaded from the public care providers.It may be argued that the new policy of rationing is more just as it implies that burdens of cost are more equally shared. Moreover, it could be argued that transparency and prefixed criteria will prevent service allocations that are based on the prejudices of staff. However, in departing from the idea of treating citizens with \"equal concern and respect\" there is also a danger that a system based on fragmentation and constriction of responsibility may be insensitive towards the particular needs of vulnerable groups. Accordingly, further research is needed on the way various groups of citizens are navigating in relation to this complex system.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper seeks to explore how universal welfare arrangements based on needs testing may change and assume different institutional forms. Drawing attention to Norwegian home care, the paper explores how established interpretations of needs and associated notions of equity among needs have been challenged by shifting modes of governance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study draws on policy documents, interviews and observation from three different case studies undertaken at different points in time representing different eras of governance. From this perspective, the study examines the role of professionals taking part in needs assessment.\nFindings: - The studies indicate that routines for needs assessment in home care are contingent on shifting logics of governance. A shift in policy of needs testing may be described as a shift from a personal situated approach encouraging \"creative justice\" towards a detached and impartial approach better equipped to ensure \"proportional justice\". The latter approach has become more dominant as heightened attention has been paid to citizens' rights. It is, however, questionable to what extent it will improve the preconditions for treating citizens with equal concern and respect.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The case study approach underlying the study is incapable of providing generalised conclusions about the development in all Norwegian municipalities.\nOriginality/value: - Universalism is often talked about as a stable feature of the Nordic welfare system. Drawing attention to the underlying and elusive notions of needs, the study makes explicit some unstable aspects of universalism.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Incentives for complexity in financial regulation
|
[
"Financial supervision",
"Bank regulation",
"Incentives in bureaucracies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: There is a glaring inconsistency in the way economists usually treat financial regulation: in the quest for coming up with an elegant way to address different forms of market malfunctioning we usually forget that the crafting of the details and the implementation of the solutions will have to be taken care of by human beings, and these human beings have their own personal interests at stake. Naturally there are a large number of cases where personal interests will not make much difference, but in other cases they may be of crucial importance, as will be discussed in this article.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to find out which incentives are present for persons who are taking care of financial regulation in practice, and how these incentives impact their attitudes towards complexity of financial regulation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on recent contributions, reasons behind the increase in complexity observed in financial regulation are discussed. The role of actual incentives for the persons involved in setting up and enforcing regulation is detailed.\nFindings: Incentives for persons that impact drafting and implementation of financial regulation produce a bias towards excessive complexity. Additional complexity reduces the risk for being exposed to aggressive journalism and pressure from populist politicians. Increasing complexity of regulation will also benefit large players since the costs are largely fixed.\nResearch limitations/implications: Careful studies measuring the costs of increased complexity in terms of increased resource requirements are needed.\nPractical implications: To reduce the bias towards excess complexity, a body consisting of knowledgeable persons with high integrity is required with an explicit mandate of scrutinising regulation in order to reduce, or at least not increase, complexity. This body must be empowered with sufficient discretion to tackle cases that lack precedents.\nOriginality/value: The paper introduces an explicit discussion of existing incentives on the regulator side of financial markets to increase the understanding of the issues involved in the increased complexity that we observe in the rules that are implemented to guide behaviour in financial markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Counterfeiting, fashion and the civil society
|
[
"Consumer behaviour",
"Fashion",
"Supply chain",
"Counterfeiting",
"Organized crime",
"Made in Italy"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The world's biggest manufacture of fakes is in the field of fashion. According to estimates made by the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition the global market for counterfeit goods is worth 600bn USD (International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, 2012). In terms of seizures between January 1 and December 31, 2011, the top four goods categories by retail price (in US dollars) are: fashion accessories ($686m, 38.5 percent), watches ($215.7m, 12.1 percent), footwear ($198.8m, 11.2 percent) and clothing ($190.9m, 10.7 percent). In terms of product value, Nike comes top of the list ($462m, 26.9 percent), followed by Louis Vuitton ($136m, 7.9 percent) and Tag Heuer ($84.5m, 4.9 percent) (World Customs Organization, 2012).\nCounterfeiting in Italy: Firms usually make a substantial investment in their brands. In the case of fashion products these efforts are aimed at building up brands as exclusive and glamorous. To achieve such an ambitious purpose brands must be both popular and inaccessible to the masses: this is the key to the way counterfeiting works: the more money firms put into building top brands, the more likely those brands are to be counterfeited (Commuri, 2009). That applies to Italy as the home of luxury brands with the highest prestige and of \"Made in Italy\" more generally, all brands exposed to unfair competition from counterfeit products. Italy is also one of the countries that risks a loss of national competitiveness from the development of the market in fakes because the great bulk of its economy consists of small and medium-sized family businesses which lack the resources to tackle the problem adequately (Meraviglia, 2011).\nThe effects: economic, social and political dangers of fakery: The situation depicted in the previous part confirms that counterfeiting is a longstanding problem which is growing in size and scope. Actually, though some people still think of it as a negligible, \"petty crime\" phenomenon, it ought not to be underestimated since it involves society as a whole and therefore needs to be addressed structurally at the highest level.\nWhy do people buy counterfeit products?: Why should a consumer buy a counterfeit item?\nCounterfeiting and criminal organizations: Counterfeiting is a fast-growing criminal activity with undeniable links to organized crime (Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (AACP), 2004; ACG, 2008; UNICRI, 2011; MiSE and UNICRI, 2013).\nStrategies for detecting and reducing counterfeiting: Many different strategies are proposed in the literature to counter product and brand counterfeiting. Measures to limit this phenomenon may stem from the supply or the demand side, meaning they may involve action by companies to prevent the distribution of counterfeit goods' (Chaudry and Zimmerman, 2008) and/or the motivations behind customers' choices (Ang et al., 2001).\nConclusions: Three things emerge from the analysis of the main features of the connection between counterfeiting, the fashion industry and the consequences for civil society: the size of the phenomenon, the low level of awareness in government and civil society about the seriousness of the problem, and the link with organized crime (and resulting social implications).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The paper deals with counterfeiting, its problems and its effects, analyzing the case of Italy in particular. The purpose of this paper is to underline the scale of the phenomenon and its economic and social impact on the fashion industry and civil society, concentrating on the involvement of organized crime. Lastly, it offers some possible counter-strategies for detecting continual violations and ensuring it spreads no further.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author uses a multidisciplinary approach to the issue of counterfeiting in the fashion industry; beginning with an economic analysis of the phenomenon and examines its social implications, going deeper into the role of the consumer from a sociological point of view and, from a forensic one, the role of organized crime.\nFindings: Three things emerge from the analysis of the main features of the connection between counterfeiting, the fashion industry and the consequences for civil society: the size of the phenomenon, the low level of awareness in government and civil society about the seriousness of the problem, and the link with organized crime (and resulting social implications).\nSocial implications: The main social implications of this work concern first the role of consumers, who may vary greatly in the degree of awareness they exercise when buying, and second the close connections between organized crime and the counterfeiting supply chain.\nOriginality/value: Counterfeiting has become a global business. In Italy it has reached huge dimensions and has developed some peculiar aspects, particularly in the fashion industry: this paper brings out these economic, social and criminal aspects. In order to effectively tackle this problem, therefore, it is essential to work out both supply side and demand-side strategies and to strengthen co-operation across national borders, taking steps to control the whole supply chain as well as working to educate consumers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Shadow work for leadership development
|
[
"Leadership development",
"Leadership",
"Jung",
"Shadow leadership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Despite the call for virtuous leadership (Caldwell et al., 2015), moral failures of leaders continue (e.g. Castille and Fultz, 2018; Fyke et al., 2018). This results in part from an instrumental approach to framing leadership as good vs bad when a more complex and nuanced perspective is required, one that recognizes the critical role of shadow (Ketola, 2008, 2012) and identity work in leadership development (Karp and Helgo, 2009). Most theories of leadership create an artificial split between virtue and vice, extolling pro-social behaviors and traits and cautioning against the opposites, such as hubris and narcissism. The result is a list of classic \"thou shalt\" and \"thou shalt not\" truisms that fail to equip individuals to deal with the complexity of the human psyche (Kellerman, 2004; Simonet et al., 2018). Individuals and systems must learn to journey inward to the source of their less developed unwanted self (Petriglieri and Stein, 2012), their shadow. By developing awareness of and the capacity to make meaning from our shadow, we enable greater clarity, power and effectiveness (Kets De Vries and Korotov, 2007; Bertholo, 2013).\nThe false dichotomy: The leadership literature is replete with dichotomies: leadership vs management, transformational vs transactional, autocratic vs participative (Collinson, 2014). This includes the characterization of good vs bad leaders (Allio, 2007) where the former are associated with positive attributes such as being honest, visionary, inspirational, creative and intuitive (de Haan, 2016; Eckhaus, 2017; Figler and Hanlon, 2008; Mason, 2006). The tendency is to promote the positive and pathologize the \"dark\" including the negative traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and hubris (Harms et al., 2011). This view reinforces the great man myth and obscures awareness of the \"mostly mundane, dysfunctional-yet-sufficiently-effective leaders that permeate and eventually poison organizations, communities and families\" (Jones, 2007, p. 6).\nThe ego, persona and shadow: Jungian shadow, an integral aspect of the psyche, offers a powerful and practical way out of the false dichotomy described above. To this end, the foundational notion of complementary opposites is important to understand. Jung saw examples of opposites relating in complementary ways. Night leads into day and day into night. We experience male and female, hot and cold, liquid and solid, left and right, living and dead, up and down, straight and winding. Each part of these pairs in their variations informs the other; one would not exist without the existence of and relation to the other (Watts, 1989). The notion of complementary opposites assumes equal weighting to both elements. Perceiving any phenomena without its complementary opposite, while technically possible, is unhelpful at best and dangerous at worst.\nThe danger of denial: Although we cannot escape the reality and impact of individual, cultural and collective shadow, there is significant collusion in its denial, as described by Kets de Vries (2004):That the organizational man or woman is not just a conscious, highly- focused maximizing machine of pleasures and pains, but also a person subject to many (often contradictory) wishes, fantasies, conflicts, defensive behavior, and anxieties - some conscious, others beyond consciousness - is not a popular perspective.(p. 184)\nIncorporating shadow work in leadership development: Although increasingly seen as \"identity workspace\" (Petriglieri and Stein, 2012) leadership development programs typically do not include shadow work. Instead, the emphasis, implicitly or explicitly, is on strengthening leaders existing identity by encouraging positive traits and behaviors (e.g. humility as per Caldwell et al., 2017). How can individuals, groups and organizations build systems and processes to assess, critique and incorporate our shadow sides? First, we must begin at the cognitive level by equipping leaders with the language of the inner journey (i.e. complementary opposites, ego, persona, shadow and golden shadow, etc.). Next, leadership development must provide a different mental model for the interior landscape of leadership. One that can acknowledge, welcome, and engage with the many and varied potentials that constitute the individual and collective shadow. This involves moving away from seeing leadership as a list of pro-social traits (Figure 2(a)) and toward a psychologically informed model that embraces the opposites of our persona and ego (Figure 2(b)).\nConclusions and next steps: This paper contributes to the body of literature applying a psychological approach to leadership development. Specifically, we explored the Jungian concept of shadow as an important conceptual addition to leadership development initiatives. Incorporating shadow work at the individual and collective levels is essential to enabling authenticity. It enables leaders to access their whole psyche, engage in healthy relationships and avoid unhealthy conflict with themselves and others. We presented a number of exercises that can be used to introduce and incorporate shadow work into leadership development programs. Of course, there is much work to be done in understanding what is helpful and feasible in terms of shadow work in organizations. We wonder to what degree are practicing managers aware of and using these concepts? What impact does the introduction of shadow work have on leadership practice and relationships? These are just some of the questions related to understanding the impact of enabling leaders to acknowledge and engage with their whole selves.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand upon scholarship exploring the application of Jungian psychological concepts to leadership development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper in which Jungian shadow is explored as a potential bridge between the simplistic conceptualization of good and bad leadership.\nFindings: The importance of shadow work to leadership development is explored and activities for shadow work are provided.\nResearch limitations/implications: Because this paper is not an empirical study, it does not present research information, propositions or hypotheses.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents a clear and accessible introduction to Jungian psychology and suggests practical exercises for incorporating shadow work into leadership development.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Internationalization vs family ownership and management: the case of Portuguese wine firms
|
[
"Finance",
"Export",
"Portugal",
"Wines",
"Econometric Model",
"Regression",
"International business",
"Ownership"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Internationalization represents a natural development for many firms, but for others, it constitutes a difficult barrier to surpass. International business literature has advanced a set of strategies and determinants of international diversification and trade (Buckley and Casson, 1976; Dunning, 1980; Rugman, 1981; Hennart, 1982), highlighting the associated benefits and costs (Rugman, 1976; Zaheer, 1995). The most common forms of firms' internationalization, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are based on a low commitment perspective focusing on exporting, which offers greater flexibility and requires fewer resources than other ways of entering foreign markets (Leonidou, 2004; Leonidou et al., 2007).\n2. Literature review: Because of globalization and export growth, a robust export performance is increasingly a critical factor for a firm's general performance and survival. For firms, entering the export market constitutes a high-risk decision that encompasses sunk costs, revenue volatility due to exchange rate movements, limited knowledge of external market conditions, local competition and cultural assimilation (Rocco, 1996; George et al., 2005). Different firm-specific characteristics such as size, age and product diversification have been shown to be associated with SMEs' internationalization (Graves and Thomas, 2004; Kontinen and Ojala, 2010). In this paper, departing from an agency theoretical setting, our unique objective is to study the impact of the ownership and management structure on the internationalization level of wine firms.\n3. Definition of variables, data and methodology: 3.1 Definition of variables\n4. Empirical results: The regression results for REM are presented in the upper part of Table II, where the dependent variable is the measure of internationalization (INT) or the export to sales ratio (EXP). The lower part of Table II presents the regression results for the Tobit Model.\n5. Conclusions, implications, limitations and future research recommendations: Internationalization theories should not consider firms just as a value-maximizing entity regardless of their owners. Different owners and managers have different risk attitudes, face different incentives and bring to the firm different resources, so similar firms, pertaining to the same sector, could present different degrees of internationalization. To date, at the light of the agency theory, little empirical research has been conducted to identify the variables that foster family firms' internationalization decisions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between the firms' ownership and control structure and their export performance. The literature is traditionally focused on the relationship between firms' performance and internationalization, with the relationship between ownership and control structure with internationalization being much less studied, particularly in the context of family firms.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors focus their study on the Portuguese wine firms due to their increasing importance in the Portuguese economy and in the promotion of the country's exports and image abroad. They used a balanced panel data sample of 82 firms for the period from 2011 to 2015 and applied a random effects model and a Tobit specification.\nFindings: The degree of family involvement shows a negative and significant relationship with internationalization, meaning that family firms that intend to internationalize should be open to receive external managers with international experience and increase their internal competencies to enhance internationalization.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends the literature since assesses, at the light of the agency theory, the presence of differences in the internationalization degree and export intensity between family firms that are managed and controlled by the owners and family firms that are managed by non-family members, with an application to a less studied sector and country.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The effect of regional income inequality and social diversity on the provision of local public goods in Indonesia
|
[
"Indonesia",
"Endogeneity",
"Local public goods",
"Regional income inequality",
"Social diversity",
"System GMM"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Provision of public goods has a substantial impact on economic growth. Thus, efficient distribution of public goods in society is essential to boost economy. Finding factors influencing public goods provision is of practical importance for policy makers. However, there is no established theory about what determines the public goods provision. Take income inequality as an example. Some researchers, such as Romer (1975), Roberts (1975) and Meltzer and Richard (1981), assert that in democratic society, income inequality demands more public goods because it imposes political pressure on the government to redistribute income. Others, in contrast, conclude in an opposite way since they find that broader income inequality associated with lower provision of public goods (de Mello and Tiongson, 2006; Shelton, 2007). In short, findings of the effects of income inequality on public goods supply are mixed in the previous research.\n2. Income inequality, social diversity and provision of public goods: So far, despite prevalent research interest in the relationship between income disparity and public goods provision, the results seem to be inconclusive. On the one hand, Romer (1975), Roberts (1975) and Meltzer and Richard (1981) propose median voter theorem, which envisages that broadening of income disparity will encourage greater use of taxation for redistribution policy. Broader income gap pressures the government to redistribute more if it manifests equal income opportunity. While several studies find no statistically significant correlation between the income inequality and public goods provision (Dollar et al., 2016; Shelton, 2007; Lupu and Pontusson, 2011), several empirical works confirm an opposite relationship between them. Benabou (2000) asserts that more income inequality is associated with less, rather than more, provision of public goods because support for redistributive policies decrease as inequality is alleviated. Several works coincide with this result (de Mello and Tiongson, 2006; Anderson et al., 2017).\n3. Empirical strategy: 3.1 Data and key variables\n4. Estimation results and robustness check: Tables II and III present the estimation results. The tables show the estimated coefficients, the associated z-test statistics based on robust standard errors, and statistical significance of the estimated coefficients. The estimation results started with the results of ethnic diversity and followed by estimation of religious difference.\n5. Conclusions: This study examines the effect of regional income distribution and ethnic diversity on the provision of local public goods in Indonesia. Using provincial-level data from 2001 to 2014, the estimation finds that regional income inequality has no significant effect on the provision of local public goods. This may due to the long-run effect of public goods provision to the distribution of income and the set of variables that may affect the relationship between income inequality and provision of public goods. The result also shows that ethnic diversity is associated with larger provision of local public goods. Different preferences toward public goods provision in a fragmented society are larger than those in a homogenous society. An ethnically plural society is also prone to conflict and intra-group competition A large difference in preferences toward public goods provision in a heterogenous society pushes the local government to provide a larger mix of public goods in order to meet the greater demand of its local constituents' preferences for maintaining peace within the society and compete with other regions. Furthermore, the political fragmentation within an ethnically heterogenous society triggers incentives for local politicians to form an inter-ethnic coalition in order to gain the local political access (i.e. consociationalism). This practice is common in Indonesian local politics. Just as any other developing democracies, Indonesian local politicians are also under pressure to bring benefit to their voters in exchange of their political support.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to quantify the effects of regional income disparity and social diversity on local public goods delivery in Indonesia.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Using Indonesian provincial data over the period 2001-2014 and by way of System GMM, this paper circumvents endogeneity and persistence of key variables over time which may bias the estimated impact of the critical variables.\nFindings: The result provides no significant evidence on the influence of regional income inequality on the provision of local public goods. The result reveals that ethnic diversity is associated with the more extensive provision of local public goods. A large difference in preferences toward public goods provision in a fragmented society such as Indonesia forces the local government to deliver a greater mixed of public goods to accommodate various preferences for public goods and ensure that each group has equal access to public goods. Political fragmentation within an ethnically heterogeneous society also encourages local politicians to provide a larger provision of public goods to form an inter-ethnic coalition to gain local political access.\nPractical implications: The significant effect of ethnic diversity on public goods provision implies a set of policy recommendation for Indonesian Government in order to maintain peace within the country. The central government should establish a clear-cut standard of local public goods provision for local governments to ensure that that anyone has equal access to public goods regardless of ethnicity. This will mitigate the possibility of ethnic conflict in an ethnically plural society.\nOriginality/value: This paper extends its analysis using both fractionalization and polarization indexes to measure the social diversity in Indonesia to obtain a comprehensive knowledge regarding the influence of ethnic diversity on the public good provision. This paper proposes a set of policy recommendation for Indonesian Government to manage the effect of social diversity on the provision of local public goods. To the author's knowledge, this has never been done before for Indonesia.\nPeer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2018-0661\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Can trade liberalisation bring benefits to the war-affected regions and create economic stability in post-war Sri Lanka?
|
[
"Sri Lanka",
"South Asia",
"Computable general equilibrium model",
"Post-war reconstruction",
"Regional disparities",
"Trade liberalization",
"C68",
"F14",
"R13"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: There is a large body of literature on the link between trade liberalisation, growth and poverty. However, less attention has been paid to the relationship between trade and regional disparities or spatial disparities with some exceptions (see Brulhart, 2010 for a survey). It is well known that there are disparities and frictions between regions in many developing countries, particularly in South Asia (see Ahmed and Ghani, 2008). It may not be possible to achieve long-term growth, peace, harmony and political stability in these countries unless different geographical regions share the gains from trade liberalisation in an equitable manner.\n2. Trade liberalisation in Sri Lanka: stylised facts: After gaining independence in 1948, Sri Lanka implemented an inward-looking development strategy wherein import substitution constituted a major element of both trade and industrial policies until 1977. The exception to this was a brief episode of open economic policies between 1948 and 1956 and an episode of partial liberalisation during 1965-1970. Figure 1 presents stylised facts of post-independent trade policy regimes associated with different political regimes of right-of-centre governments led by the United National Party (UNP) and the left-of-centre Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).\n3. Regional disparities in Sri Lanka and war-affected regions: Geographically, Sri Lanka is a small island economy and it has nine provinces or regions with different socio-economic characteristics. Unlike in developed countries and some developing countries, regional GDP data considering long-term trends in regional disparity in Sri Lanka are rather weak. After some experiments in compiling regional GDP data by the government in the 1980, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka began to publish regional GDP since the 1990s. These relatively new regional estimates are weak and have some limitations (see Bandara and Jayasuriya, 2009). Nevertheless there is a general consensus that there has been an increasing trend in regional inequality over the last two decades or so, characterised by the increasing dominance of economic activities by the Western province (WP) in which the capital and the commercial centre with the main harbour, Colombo, is situated. This domination can be clearly seen in the provincial GDP shares given in Figure 3. In terms of provincial population shares, WP comprised the highest population share of 28.7 per cent while the war-affected Northern province recorded the lowest population share of 5.2 per cent in 2012 (see Figure 2). As Bandara and Jayasuriya (2009, p. 212) described, \"it has much higher per capita income and lower rate of poverty, industry and services dominate the structure of the economy (with agriculture's share being almost negligible), accounts for most of manufacturing industry in the country (number of establishments, employment and value added), and has better infrastructure facilities (road density, communication facilities and access to financial services)\". Figure 4 demonstrates the domination of industry and services sectors in the WPs relative to the war-affected regions and the whole economy.\n4. Multi-regional CGE model for Sri Lanka: The use of single country or global CGE models has been very popular among policy analysts in developing countries such as Sri Lanka, for evaluating the gains from trade liberalisation at a national level. However, these single country and global CGE models have not been able to capture the regional effects of trade liberalisation. The \"top-down\" or \"bottom-up\" CGE models are ideal tools in evaluating such effects (see Partridge and Rickman, 1998, for an excellent survey; Doi, 2006, for an introduction to regional CGE modelling, and Partridge and Rickman, 2008, for a roadmap to use CGE models in economic development policy analysis). These models have increasingly been popular among regional policy analysts in developed countries over the last two decades or so. However, there are only limited examples of using regional CGE models in developing countries (see e.g. de Souza Ferreira Filho and Horridge, 2006; Butt and Bandara, 2009).\n5. Regional impact of trade liberalisation: simulation results: In this section, we present the results of policy simulations. Simulation experiments were carried out with the Sri Lankan regional CGE models described in the previous section in order to evaluate the effects of a tariff cut on national macro variables, national industry-level variables and the regional macro and industry levels in both the short run and the long run. They were carried out with the intention to identify the direction and magnitude of the short-run and long-run impacts of a 100 per cent reduction in prevailing tariffs across the board. That is, a total elimination of tariffs in both agricultural and manufacturing industries. We introduce this type of tariff cut to examine maximum gains from a full liberalisation of tariffs. The results of these simulations will assist us to evaluate whether trade liberalisation will bring benefits to the post-war economy in Sri Lanka, particularly to the war-affected regions.\n6. Concluding remarks and policy implications: This paper attempted to explore the role that trade liberalisation can play in post-war development in Sri Lanka, particularly focussing on the war-affected regions and regional disparities. The regional CGE analysis carried out in this paper suggests that, in the short run, trade liberalisation would bring relatively smaller gains to the war-affected Northern and Eastern regions, while it would bring a large benefit to the WP, which is the main region where industrial and service activities are located. In contrast, the long-run results suggest that the regional economies of war-affected regions such as the Northern and the Eastern provinces would be substantially stimulated with the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing industries and services industries in those regions (since capital is mobile across industries in the economy). However, the long-run results also suggest that trade liberalisation tends to widen regional disparities. The overall simulation results suggest that trade liberalisation will have a significant positive impact on the post-war recovery process, particularly, in the long run. Thus trade reforms will help in achieving long-term peace and political stability in Sri Lanka.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: There is a large body of literature on the link between trade liberalisation, growth and poverty. However, less attention has been paid to the relationship between trade and regional disparities. The purpose of this paper is to identify and quantify the regional impacts of trade liberalisation, particularly in the war-affected regions and to understand to what extent trade reforms can contribute to the post-war recovery process and long-term economic and political stability in Sri Lanka.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors developed a single country multi-regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for the Sri Lankan economy to meet the need for a detailed country study as emphasised in the recent literature.\nFindings: Both short-run and long-run results suggest that all regions including war-affected regions in the country gain from trade liberalisation, although gains are uneven across regions. Furthermore, the results suggest that war-affected regions gain more relative to some other regions in the long run.\nOriginality/value: According to the best of the authors' knowledge within country regional impact of trade liberalisation using a multi-regional CGE model has never been attempted for Sri Lanka. The results of this study, even though based on Sri Lankan data, will be relevant to other developing countries engulfed in internal conflicts with regional economic disparities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of disaster on access to records of National Archives of South East, Nigeria
|
[
"Nigeria",
"Impact",
"Access",
"Disasters",
"Enugu",
"National Archives"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (2001) defined disaster as an event causing great damage, injury or loss. Archival records have often been threatened by disasters which are attributable to man and sometimes nature. Records protection has to do with all the steps taken during acquisition, organization and distribution of record to prevent and protect deterioration or loss as a result of disasters. Protection of archival records would entail all activities associated with maintaining records for accessibility and use, either in their original format or in some other format. This includes a number of actions ranging from control of the environment to conservation treatment. Disaster prevention of records itself is the actions taken to stop the occurrence of sudden removal or damage of records from accessibility and use.\nPurpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of disaster and how it affects access to records of the National Archives of South East, Nigeria. However, the specific objectives are to:\nResearch questions: The following research questions guided the study:\nLiterature review: Perhaps, the most realistic interpretation of disaster is to view it as dependent, not on the scale of damage, but on the effect the incident creates. Doig (1997) gave an instance that a water leak affecting one shelf of archives may only be a small-scale emergency, but can be considered a disaster if materials affected are of significant value and their replacement results in huge financial spending. In risk analysis factor of disaster occurrence, Morris (1992) states that risk analysis will produce different patterns for different agencies. Factors such as geographic location, building construction, political environment, number of staff, overcrowding and use patterns will have a bearing on the results of the analysis. For him, theft maybe a high-category risk in an agency but a low-category risk in another.\nMethodology: Research design\nResults and findings: The respondents indicated that the greatest type of disaster that occurs in the National Archives of South East, Nigeria, is power failure, as 100 per cent of them in both archives, respectively, affirmed this. The other types of disasters prevalent in the National Archives are: lightening strike; vandalism; water leakages; fire outbreak; stealing; and flood. There are types of disasters the National Archives has not experienced before. They include earthquake/tsunami, volcanic eruption, explosion, chemical spillage and acts of arson and terrorism. However, 27.3 per cent of the respondents in Enugu and 6.3 per cent of them in Owerri indicated that the archives had experienced landslide in the past.\nDiscussion: In this study, the most prevalent disaster experienced in the archives is power failure. This is not surprising as power failure has been a major issue in Nigeria generally. The observation of the researcher is that some records that need heat from light are left at the mercy of humidity. The respondents also acknowledged the occurrence of other man-made disasters in the archives such as stealing, vandalism, fire outbreak and water leakages. The only natural disaster they acknowledged that occurs in the archives is lightening strike. The effect of this disaster was found to be enormous as attested to by 90.9 and 75 per cent respondents in Enugu and Owerri, respectively. The findings show that respondents do not feel that some natural phenomena such as earthquake/tsunami, volcanic eruption and landslides constitute threat to records of the archives. This position is against the global pattern of climate changes where natural disasters have been seen to occur in regions that were hitherto not susceptible to disasters.\nConclusion and recommendations: The events of disaster, in whatever shape or frequency, impede access to records of the National Archives of South East, Nigeria. Most of the disasters that affect the archives are man-made, but with the recent happenings around the globe - the global climate change - it becomes imperative to focus attention on eventual occurrence of natural disasters in the archives.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of disaster and how it affects access to records of the National Archives of South East, Nigeria. However, the specific objectives are to: identify the types of disasters that occur in the archives of South East, Nigeria; ascertain the frequency with which the disasters occur in the archives; determine the relationship between disaster and access to records of the archives; find out the disaster prevention measures adopted by the archives; find out the disaster response and recovery plans available in the archives; and make recommendations for effective disaster prevention and control measures for the archives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research design adopted for this study is the survey method. Individuals constituted the respondents of the study. This design assisted in gathering accurate data of the given issues and also guided in discussing the findings of the study. The researcher adopted one technique in data collection. Questionnaire was used for primary data collection. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the staff of the National Archives.\nFindings: The findings show that the most prevalent disaster experienced in the archives is power failure. There are occurrences of other man-made disasters in the archives such as stealing, vandalism, fire outbreak and water leakages. The only natural disaster they acknowledged that occurs in the archives is lightening strike. The effect of this disaster was found to be enormous as attested to by 90.9 and 75 per cent respondents in Enugu and Owerri, respectively. The respondents do not agree that natural phenomena such as earthquake/tsunami, volcanic eruption and landslides do constitute threat to records of the archives.\nOriginality/value: The events of disaster, in whatever shape or frequency, impede access to records of the National Archives of South East, Nigeria. Most of the disasters that affect the archives are man-made, but with the recent happenings around the globe - the global climate change - it becomes imperative to focus attention on eventual occurrence of natural disasters in the archives. In prevention, response and recovery plans, it is important that consideration is given to all areas likely to be affected by the disaster.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Exploring risks, advantages and interpersonal trust in buyer-salesperson relationships in direct selling in a non-western country
|
[
"Trust",
"Buyer-seller relationship",
"Direct selling",
"Repurchase intention"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The role of trust in the relationship between buyer and seller/supplier can be found in a large number of business studies. In fact, marketing and other discipline scholars have increasingly looked at trust within the context of business relationships (e.g. Blois, 1999; Jiang et al., 2011; Lander and Kooning, 2013). Business relationships may involve interpersonal relations and interorganizational relations. Previous studies have shown the important role of trust in business-to-business relationships (Blois, 1999; Svensson, 2001; Zabkar and Brencic, 2004; Jarralt and Ceric, 2015), buyer-supplier relationships (Miyamoto and Rexha, 2004), and consumers' view of brands (Ar and Kara, 2014; Crosby and Zak, 2015; Bhuian, 2016), and consumer-retailer relationship (Abbes and Goudey, 2015), and sample selection for internet surveys (Golden and Brockett, 2009).\n2. Background: Personal selling is found to be evolving toward the salesperson as a relationship manager who can build strong ties with customers. Gaining trust is crucial to the industrial salesperson, as trust facilitates an exchange relationship while mistrust hinders it (Jiang et al., 2011; Poon et al., 2012). According to Newell et al. (2011), there is an association between sales behavior and buyer assessment of salesperson attributes and loyalty. In addition, consultative task and personal relationship would play an important role in influencing buyer perceptions of expertise, trust, and relationship loyalty. In the exploratory study conducted in the manufacturing and construction industries of four countries (UK, India, Pakistan, and Poland) by Jiang et al. (2011), the findings indicate that both trust and reliance have significant impact on building relationships with long-term perspectives.\n3. Research framework: 3.1 Role of trust and perceived risk\n4. Methodology: The population studied is the adult general public of Hong Kong, which includes both customers and non-customers of direct selling companies. Mall-intercept interviews were conducted by trained university student interviewers in the spring of 2014. A pretest of the questionnaire was done on 40 post-graduate students before the actual survey. The purpose of the pretest was to assess any problems in the wording and understanding of questionnaire items. Students are a valid group to use for this purpose. Using the street-intercept method of interviewing a sample of more than 200 customers and non-customers were surveyed at three major shopping areas in Hong Kong, namely, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, and Causeway Bay. After screening, a total of 212 valid cases were obtained for analysis.\n5. Findings: Table I shows the profile of respondents. The respondents were mainly male. More than 60 percent are under the age of 30, not married, and have a household income under HK$300,000 (US$38,700). Finally, only 18.5 percent of respondents had never made a purchase from a direct selling company. Since a split ballot was used for response to the perceived advantages questions, it is necessary to see if there are differences in the demographic characteristics of respondents. Statistically, sample characteristics did not differ significantly (p>0.22).\n6. Conclusion and discussion: Previous research shows that consumer trust is an important factor affecting direct selling activities (Poon et al., 2012; Young and Albaum, 2003). However, no research has been done in the past to investigate the effects of different dimensions of consumer trust on consumer buying behavior under a direct selling situation. In general, H1 and H2 are supported based on the findings of the study. Unsolicited telephone call such as telemarketing is found to have the highest consumer perceived risk and so direct selling does not have the greatest perceived risk level. In addition, the major advantage perceived by consumers of buying from a direct selling company is the ability to shop at home. However, H3 is not supported. The major dimensions of trust as viewed by consumers are not necessarily positively related to intention to purchase from a direct selling company.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensions of interpersonal trust which would affect the buyer-salesperson relationship in a direct selling situation. It also investigates consumers' perceived risk and advantages of direct selling.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of consumers (and also non-consumers) of direct selling companies in Hong Kong was performed by means of mall-intercept interview. The major measurements were perceived risk, perceived advantages, trust dimensions, and repurchase intention.\nFindings: The results show that there are six dimensions of interpersonal trust in the buyer-seller relationship in direct selling, but only one dimension (i.e. honesty) has a significant relationship with repurchase intention. The ability to shop at home is found to have the highest advantage rating of direct selling. In addition, direct selling is perceived to have a lower level of risk than unsolicited telephone call such as telemarketing.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to investigate the effects of different dimensions of interpersonal trust on consumer buying behavior under a direct selling situation in Asia. The study also serves as a foundation for studying the applicability and usefulness of all trust measures in other western or non-western cultures/nations.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Supply chain contracting coordination for fresh products with fresh-keeping effort
|
[
"Supply chain",
"Coordination",
"Contract",
"Fresh product",
"Fresh-keeping effort"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Nomenclature\n1. Introduction: One of the biggest challenges in fresh product supply chain (FPSC) is maintaining product freshness. According to Cai et al. (2010), in developed countries, there is up to a 15 per cent loss of product due to damage and spoilage. In developing countries, this loss rate is much higher. Overcoming this problem requires retailers and suppliers to work closely by coordinating operations across the supply chain. FPSC retailers and suppliers are severely affected by consumer value and product freshness and price; these considerations could invalidate such companies' original coordination schemes in cases lacking a contract. Therefore, research on the issue of coordinating FPSC management through contract is both meaningful and critical.\n2. Model description: We consider a FPSC consisting of one supplier and one retailer. It costs c per unit for the supplier to procure the product. The supplier then sells the product to the retailer at a wholesale price w, and the retailer sells the product to consumers at a retail price p. We use a continuous variable t to measure the level of effort (Cai et al., 2010) used by the retailer to preserve the fresh product. This effort is called the fresh-keeping effort. The relationships of events in FPSC are presented in Figure 2.\n3. A coordination model without contract: In this section, we examine the optimal decisions for retail price and fresh-keeping effort in a centralized and a decentralized FPSC without contract.\n4. Contracting to facilitate coordination: In this section, we first examine whether the fresh-keeping cost-sharing contract is effective or not. Then, we investigate the best way to coordinate the FPSC by sharing both costs and revenues in fresh-keeping contracts. It is expected that the FPSC will be more effective if it is bonded by a contract. It is also understandable that parties will accept such a contract only when they do not need to scarify their own profit (compared to situations with no contract).\n5. Numerical analysis: In the above sections, we theoretically discuss how to coordinate the FPSC under a contract situation and a non-contract contract situation and then explore the differences between the centralized FPSC and the decentralized FPSC. To illustrate the theoretical results, we present some numerical examples in this section. The parameters are summarized in Table I.\n6. Conclusion and future research: One of the specific challenges in food supply chain is that freshness of food is one of the keys for customers purchasing decision. This leads to two important questions: first, how much effort and resources are needed among FPSC members in order to keep the product refresh. Second, how to motivate and coordinate PFSC members through contract mechanism. This paper strives to answer these questions.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Fresh product loss rates in supply chain operations are particularly high due to the nature of perishable products. The purpose of this paper is to maximize profit through the contract between retailer and supplier. The optimized prices for the retailer and the supplier, taking the fresh-keeping effort into consideration, are derived.\nDesign/methodology/approach: To address this issue, the authors consider a two-echelon supply chain consisting of a retailer and a supplier (i.e. wholesaler) for two scenarios: centralized and decentralized decision making. The authors start from investigating the optimal decision in the centralized supply chain and then comparing the results with those of the decentralized decision. Meanwhile, a fresh-keeping cost-sharing contract and a fresh-keeping cost- and revenue-sharing contract are designed. Numerical examples are provided, and managerial insights are discussed at the end.\nFindings: The results show that the centralized decision is more profitable than the decentralized decision; a fresh product supply chain (FPSC) can only be coordinated through a fresh-keeping cost- and revenue-sharing contract; the optimal retail price, wholesale price and fresh-keeping effort can all be achieved; and the profit of a FPSC is positively related to consumers' sensitivity to freshness and negatively correlated with their sensitivity to price.\nResearch limitations/implications: This research is based on the assumption that demand is relatively stable. It has not addressed when demand is stochastic.\nPractical implications: The findings would be useful for managers in fresh food sector in terms of how to deal with suppliers in order to maximize total profit while also provide freshest food to the customers.\nOriginality/value: Few studies have considered fresh-keeping effort as a decision variable in the modelling of supply chain. In this paper, a mathematical model for the fresh-keeping effort and for price decisions in a supply chain is developed. In particular, fresh-keeping cost-sharing contract and revenue-sharing contract are examined simultaneously in the study of the supply chain coordination problem.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Process benchmarking: a new tool to improve the performance of overhead areas
|
[
"Benchmarking",
"Cost accounting",
"Germany",
"Performance measures"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Since the landmark publications by Tucker et al. (1987) and Camp (1989), only few management tools have gained such a high degree of worldwide acceptance within the last few years as benchmarking. Innumerable publications impressingly underline this point of view. In German-speaking science and practice, benchmarking has also become famous (Anderson and McAdam, 2005; Brokemper and Gleich, 1997, 1998a, b; Dattakumar and Jagadeesh, 2003; Horvath and Herter, 1992; Neely and Adams, 2002; Yasin, 2002).Regarding its contents, benchmarking can be considered as a new form of external analysis, which has a strong functional emphasis and does refer mainly to financial measures. These are partly built with values of a balance sheet item or figures and statistical data taken from the external accounting. Benchmarking tries to overcome this point of view, which is narrow-minded, and thus for a strategic and market-oriented view inappropriate.For Camp (1992, p. 3), benchmarking is \"the continous process of measuring products, services and practices against the company's toughest competitors of those companies renowned as industry leades.\" With the help of benchmarking, companies want to systematically and continually discover, analyze, describe and measure those best practices which are at the moment disposable (Anderson and McAdam, 2005: Camp, 1989).Within a wider distribution of benchmarking, various forms and benchmarking parameters have become visible. Process benchmarking has received the most careful attention, since it is appropriate for overhead cost areas and thus for intra- and cross-industrial approaches (Anderson and McAdam, 2005: Beretta et al., 1998). Processes mostly have the same cross-organizational structures and thus enable a concrete comparison and a display of improvement potentials. With the help of process cost accounting, some of the immanent problems of traditional cost accounting systems (e.g. flexible standard costing or direct costing) could be overcome (e.g. in changing from output- to input-oriented cost recording or by reporting cost drivers).Several studies have addressed various aspects of process benchmarking (Delpachitra and Beal, 2002; Fong et al., 2001; Chan et al., 2006; Hess and Francis, 2004; McAdam, 2001). However, no prior study has looked at cross-corporate process benchmarking. Specifically, how can an organization integrate a cross-corporate knowledge transfer for creating process-related ideas for improvement and change in such a concept?In order to address this limitation in the literature, we develop and present a performance measurement process/tool for recording activity and sub-process related cost and performance. We believe that the processes/tool should not just be judged in relation to the arising costs but also compared in relation to all relevant cost and performance parameters; knowledge should be transferred between corporations, and improvement approaches should be explained systematically. This process/tool was developed and empirically tested in the German mechanical engineering industry. Several of the companies who participated in this study are currently using this process for cross-corporate process benchmarking purposes.\nPrescriptive literature: The pertinent literature can be grouped under the following sub-headings: performance management, process cost accounting and benchmarking/process benchmarking.Performance measurement\nResearch methodology: In this section, we report on the experiences of a comprehensive benchmarking project carried out in a special field of the mechanical engineering industry (companies which produce gear-boxes) by the professional association of the German mechanical industry. The primary author of this paper was an integral part of the group that undertook this project. The introduction of the project targets and process will be followed by a description of the designed concept of process benchmarking. Some results and a discussion of the usefulness and consequences of process benchmarking from the participants' and researchers' point of view will than follow.Research concept\nProcess benchmarking in the German mechanical engineering industry: The benchmarking project - an overview\nConclusions and implications for managing costs and performance in traditional overhead areas: In this paper, we discuss how a process benchmarking project can be organized and designed in a process-related way. With the method of data evaluation which is based on process cost accounting, a possibility for objective data evaluation in overhead cost areas was used, the usefulness of which can be improved by a stringent evaluation carried out by a neutral analysis team.To summarize our experiences in the process benchmarking project, the following remarks on limitations and benefits were made, which shall give ideas for further research activities in benchmarking:1. Process cost accounting is an objective tool for measuring and comparing the performance of activities and subprocesses in overhead departments.2. The tool gives informations not only about costs, but also about non-financial indicators:* process volumes;* process-related time (cycle times); and* used capacity/resources of processes.3. The tool can be used in a very economical way.But we have to consider the following limitations too:* Processes are only one performance factor/performance level.* Resources, structures and products also determine the performance of the organizations.* We learned: process benchmarking does not work by itself! Management and employees have to implement what they have realized; they have to strive for change and learning, and with process benchmarking only already existing methods, systems and concepts were discovered!So, now, we have to ask the question, whether it is possible to obtain industry leadership by using this tool, especially when using it in the same industry. Nevertheless, the gained experiences with process benchmarking show obviously that normally success can be reached quickly and consistently. So, we believe, the designed and implemented type of process benchmarking could be a new effective and efficient tool for the management accounting for cost reduction and performance improvement.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to present an empirically developed and tested process to address the limitations in the literature on the lack of appropriate performance measures and benchmarks for recording activity and sub-process related cost. The process presented integrates performance measures, process cost accounting tools and benchmarking.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A special type of research methodology called innovative action research is utilized to develop and test the new process benchmarking tool.\nFindings: - The new tool provides information not only about costs, but also about the following non-financial indicators: process volumes, process-related time (cycle times), and used capacity/resources of processes. Also, the tool can be used in a very economical way.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The findings of the study are limited to the German mechanical engineering industry. Further research is needed for generalization of the proposed model.\nPractical implications: - Although, the mechanical engineering industry is used to demonstrate the proposed framework, it can be applied to other industries with a little modification.\nOriginality/value: - A new, effective and efficient tool for cost reduction and performance improvement is developed and empirically tested.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Senior citizens' perspective on the value offerings of third place via customer to customer (C-2-C) engagement
|
[
"Loyalty",
"Social capital",
"Senior citizens",
"Third places",
"Value experiences",
"Value offering"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Population ageing is one of the dramatic demographic shifts in both advanced and less advanced countries (Kim et al., 2016). By 2050, an estimated 22 per cent of the world's population will be senior citizens over 60 years of age (Ngan, 2017). While much of the current growth and status of seniors are presented as positive phenomena, well-documented literature has also suggested that a majority lose their social networks in old age, which affects their social capital (Mostaghel, 2016). Social isolation has triggered many seniors to patronise social engagement places also known as third places, such as social clubs or coffee shops (the first place being their home, and second places are their hospital and children's home), in part, because of other customers who congregate in these third places (Rosenbaum, 2006). This notion of interpersonal encounters with other customers (customer-to-customer [C-2-C] engagement) is of great interest to managers and academics alike. A dedicated body of work has confirmed that C-2-C engagement can influence the value experienced from services where interpersonal interactions are a crucial part of the service experience (studies Johnson and Grier, 2013; Ekpo et al., 2015). Yet, little theory exists that could explain the C-2-C engagement of senior citizen consumers, particularly the value seniors experience from their visit to third places. Therefore, the first aim of this study is to understand the value experiences of seniors through their C-2-C engagement in third places.\n2. The domain of the third-place value offering framework: 2.1 C-2-C engagement\n3. Study 1 - qualitative inquiry: The first phase addresses the three research questions using qualitative analysis. Therefore, we adopted focus group interview and content analysis approach to develop our third-place value offering framework. Following Meshram and O'Cass (2013a), seniors' social clubs in Australia were used as the focal third place. Data were collected in Newcastle, NSW, one of the seventh largest cities in Australia with a population over 150,000. This city has a long history of senior-citizen clubs managed by the Pensioners' Association of Newcastle. Eight large clubs were randomly approached using the city council website out of which four clubs agreed to participate in the study. The city council described large clubs based on their membership size of 25-50 members. All four clubs were managed by club-formed committees that consisted of representatives of the club members and representatives of the Pensioners' Association of Newcastle. These clubs were similar with respect to activities, such as morning tea, bingo (housie) games, bus trips, indoor bowls, craft days, social days and committee meetings. The second author of this paper approached participants in club meetings. If participants agreed in principle, focus group discussions took place on the club premises. Each session lasted about 40-60 min.\n4. Findings from Study 1: Analyses of the interview data uncovered three categories (see Table II for summary of the key findings). The first category, C-2-C engagement, suggested different levels of engagement from emotional connection to routine engagement amongst seniors in the clubs. We classified these engagements into four categories based on seniors' value experiences. Loyalty to the club was evidenced through seniors' commitment to and involvement in expanding club membership. Finally, social capital was reported through norms of reciprocity in social groups and trust in club members.\n5. Discussion and hypothesis development: 5.1 Configuring the value offering of third places at the higher-order level\n6. Study 2 - quantitative study: In the second phase of our study, we focused on a quantitative analysis of the data, which enabled us to confirm the nomological validity of the third-place value offering framework. We approached 20 seniors' clubs by email, from which 18 clubs agreed to allow us to survey their members. The researchers visited these clubs at a pre-arranged time to distribute surveys and brief club members on the study. Drop-off and collection techniques as outlined by Smith (2007) were used for the data collection. Club members were requested to return the completed surveys to a collection box provided by the club president. In a few cases, the club president volunteered to read and complete the surveys for some seniors who were not able to do it by themselves.\n7. Results: Hypothesis 1 predicted that value offerings of third places would be reflected by four value experiences. Figure 1 shows the four-factor model of third-place value offerings with an inter-correlation range from 0.60 to 0.31, indicating the presence of a second-order factor (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).\n8. Discussion and theoretical contribution: Building on the key contributions from S-D logic, value scholars and studies on C-2-C engagement, the aim of this study was to understand:\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework of third-place value offering that explains how specific consumer groups', senior citizens, customer-to-customer engagement in third places can develop their value experiences.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected for two studies from senior citizen clubs in Australia. Study 1 uses focus group (12) and is analysed with QSR NVivo software following content analysis. Study 2 is based on 324 surveys and is analysed with AMOS version 24 software.\nFindings: Study 1 identifies eight themes based on 29 main codes to develop a framework on the value offerings of third-place value and its consumer-centric effect on seniors' loyalty and social capital. The themes under social capital and loyalty contributed to a better understanding of how consumers engage with each other in social clubs and develop their social capital. The results of Study 2 support the conceptualisation of third-place value offering as a reflective model and confirm the model's nomological validity in relation to seniors' loyalty and social capital outcomes.\nResearch limitations/implications: The only limitation of the paper is that it presents findings based on data collected in a regional place in Australia.\nPractical implications: The findings provide three practical implications for managers to consider in relation to service places: improve consumer patronage through community engagement, improve local business practices via consumer-owner friendship and redesign spatial settings to deliver meaningful consumer experiences.\nSocial implications: The present study has three social implications; first, it highlights the significant role of third places in bringing isolated groups of community together for regular interaction and socialisation. It also extends understanding on senior citizen customers and their consumption experiences within third places for value creation. The study also contributes to understanding how senior citizen customers develop loyalty towards third places and enhance their social capital through social engagement in the place.\nOriginality/value: This paper uses consumption experience to develop the consumer value in third places. It provides a consumer-centric focus to servicescape and incorporates recent works on third places, value, social capital and loyalty.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Impact of lean strategy on operational performance: a study of Thai manufacturing companies
|
[
"Lean production",
"Factor analysis",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Thailand",
"Operations and production management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: Taiichi Ohno at the Toyota Motor Company developed the lean strategy in 1950s (Ohno, 1988). It is a business model that focuses on systematic identification and elimination of waste from a process and involves changing and improving processes (Motwani, 2003) while delivering quality products to the manufacturer and consumer at the lowest cost. Lean has changed the rules of competition and has induced \"post-maturity\" growth phase (Smeds, 1994) in organizations implementing it.The prime purpose of a lean strategy is to eliminate wastes (muda) (Tapping, 2006). Several research studies have shown that a lean strategy produces higher levels of quality and productivity and better customer responsiveness (Krafcik, 1998; Nicholas, 1998). The impact on lean strategy is mostly based on empirical evidence that it improves the company's competitiveness (Oliver et al., 1996; Doolen and Hacker, 2005). It is worth mentioning that the impact of lean thinking as a strategy is important not only in manufacturing but also for the entire supply chain.Lean manufacturing seems to be a radical process innovation that is not restricted to its origin, but has wide applicability in many different countries and industries (Womack et al., 1990). Lean is associated with reducing lead times in work-in-process inventories and production. It also means increases in velocity and flow in the supply chain. The impact for organizations is the adjustment in thinking towards a \"total cost\" concept which ignores individual cost structures such as transportation and warehousing and focus on the total cost of delivering value to the customer (Goldsby and Martichenko, 2005). This focus provides support for the argument that it is the collective responsibility of all managers to continually strive for improvement within and between organizations. Lambert et al. (1998) suggest that the structure of activities/processes within and between companies is crucial for achieving superior competitiveness and profitability. It is vital that lean suppliers receive, on time, stable schedules so that materials and parts can be secured and delivered (Keller et al., 1991). To achieve waste reduction coordination of activities is critically important (Xu and Beamon, 2006). Part of building coordinated links between chain partners involves communication and information sharing with the intention of influencing trading partners to forge strong integrative relationships (Berry, 1995; Holden and O'Toole, 2004). To achieve these strong relationships requires an understanding of the expectation of business partners (Hausman, 2001). Participation in such relationships is recognised as contributing to firm performance (Webster, 1992; Dwyer et al., 1987; Frazier, 1999; Kalwani and Narayandas, 1995). An example of this dependence is the lean supply concept, which enables the supply chain to hold minimal inventories while still being able to react to pull strategies in relation to customer demand.In addition to forging relationships, management involvement and commitment is an essential prerequisite in aiding any of the desired productivity improvement initiatives (Kettinger and Grover, 1995; Coronado and Antony, 2002; Eckes, 2000; Henderson and Evans, 2000). The evolution of innovations is self-organizing, the outcome cannot be predicted (Smeds, 1988). Thus, an enterprise's evolution towards a lean enterprise cannot be managed only with a top-down development strategy. Instead, an emergent strategy is needed (Smeds, 1988). This strategy is often not expressly intended, but is rather a pattern in the interactions of the organization with its environment, that becomes recognised and legitimated after the fact (Mintzberg and Mintzberg, 1988).Another lean strategy feature is the search for continuous improvement in products and processes (Oakland, 1993). The adoption of lean integration principles between firms requires continuous effort of improvement using mutual-focused relationships. Lean also relies on relationships to enable these practices to be carried out (McIvor, 2001). Adaptation involves making appropriate responses to technological changes and learning from other organizations that have achieved the best practices in the industry continuously (Freeman and Perez, 1988). In innovative organizations, employees should be trained in multiple skills and possess redundant capabilities. The contents of the individual tasks should be enlarged and enriched, and the continuous improvement of the tasks should be an important aspect of work. These principles increase creativity (van De Ven, 1986). Using data from 187 Thai manufacturing companies, this study examines the extent to which lean management practices are adopted and their impact on firms' operational performance.\n2 Lean in practice: The implementation of a lean strategy, like any other productivity improvement initiative, is believed to harbour enormous difficulties (Denton and Hodgson, 1997). One of the main goals of implementing a lean strategy is the elimination of everything that does not add value to the product or service (Womack and Jones, 1996). In many companies the major focus of lean implementation is still the shop floor and their search for competitive advantage has yet to rely on the more recent lean integrative approaches (Hines et al., 2004). The lean revolution is clearly underway within the US manufacturing companies, although the jury is still out on what exactly the end result of a lean initiative ought to be (Blanchard, 2007).A study by Zayko et al. (1997) points that lean manufacturing can result in a 50 percent reduction of human effort, manufacturing space, tool investment and product development time, and a 200-500 percent improvement in quality. Lean production is an multi-dimensional approach which includes a variety of management practices that focus on quality, supplier management and reducing waste through such mechanisms as just in time (JIT) inventory management (Shah and Ward, 2003). The term JIT originates from concept of reducing inventory holding by requiring that parts and components be delivered just as they are required for production and not before (Harrison and van Hoek, 2008). JIT delivery has been a key element in the development of lean production in many companies (Hines, 1996). The concept has been broadened and now refers to postponement of unnecessary resources until they are required. In addition, lean production also requires frequent, rapid flows of information and goods along the value chain (Levy, 1997).Flow management is considered to focus on reducing the management or coordination costs, for example, using small production runs or small lots (Voss and Robinson, 1987) and reducing coordination efforts by dealing with less suppliers (Coyle et al., 2003).Shah and Ward (2003) use the marketing notion of \"bundles\" also utilized in human resources (MacDuffie, 1995), as a means of clustering-related dimensions or attributes. This study uses the same concept in an attempt to group-related dimensions. The three bundles are known as JIT, waste minimization and flow management, which are interrelated in their ability to reduce cost through enhanced efficiency, which contributes to their influence on operational performance.There are several studies that have examined lean and performance with the majority focusing only on limited aspects of lean (Cagliano et al., 2004). We use multi-dimensional approach similar to the work conducted by Shah and Ward (2003, 2007). However, the majority of research on lean and performance tends to be case based on individual organization experiences. For example, Dhandapani et al. (2004) described a case study of a steel plant in India which has realized a substantial production and inventory cost reduction by the implementation of lean practices. Abdulmalek and Rajgopal (2007) also studied a large integrated steel mill where lean principles were adapted in conjunction with value stream mapping tool and simulation models. Parry and Turner (2006) studied three UK-based companies that have been applying lean practices. Bayou and de Korvin (2008) developed an unified framework to measure leanness of manufacturing firms and by selecting JIT, Kaizen and quality controls as lean attributes demonstrated that Ford's system is 17 percent leaner than GM's system. Recently, Anand and Kodali (2009) presented a case study of a medium-sized valve manufacturing company and Browning and Heath (2009) presented the case of Lockheed Martin's production system for the F-22 program. By using an analytic network process-based model, Anand and Kodali (2009) demonstrated that the implementation of a lean manufacturing system resulted in superior organizational performance compared to other practices namely flexible manufacturing systems and computer-integrated manufacturing systems. Whereas, Browning and Heath (2009) explored how novelty, complexity, instability and buffering affect the relationship between lean implementation and production costs. Our study targeted the Asian manufacturing sector using survey data gathering as opposed to case studies. The next section of the paper describes the research methodology followed by the analysis. The key findings from the analysis are then presented. The paper ends with a discussion and main conclusions drawn from the study.\n3 Research methods: Survey instrument\n4 Analysis and key findings: Scale validity and reliability tests\n5 Discussion and conclusions: Using data collected from 187 manufacturing companies in Thailand, this research examined the extent to which lean practices are adopted by manufacturing organizations and their impact on firms' operational performance. The responding firms were grouped as SMEs and LEs based on number of employees and as Thai owned, foreign owned and joint venture based on their ownership. Using multiple regression models the effect of lean practices on operational performance were investigated for both categories of firms - size and ownership.Of the 13 lean practices examined in this study, factor analysis produced three higher level constructs namely JIT, waste minimization and flow management. JIT included six items namely: reduction of inventory, preventative maintenance, cycle time reduction, use of new process technology, use of quick changeover techniques and reduction of set-up time. Waste minimization included four items namely: eliminating waste, use of error proofing techniques, use of pull-based production systems and removal of bottlenecks. Flow management included three items namely: reducing production lot size, focus on single suppliers and continuous/one piece flow.The results show that all three lean constructs are significantly related to operational performance. JIT has a higher level of significance in LEs compared with SMEs, whereas for waste minimization there is a higher level of significance for SMEs compared with LEs. Clearly JIT techniques are applicable to both SMEs and LEs and these results are consistent with the findings from previous studies conducted in the West. What is surprising in the results shown is the lower significance level for waste minimization in LEs given the fact that many of these organizations have adopted an integrated quality and environmental management system. One reason for this could be the fact that LEs have a much higher focus on the \"hard\" techniques of lean (use of new process technologies) which in turn eliminates the need for focusing on waste minimization under the traditional production methods. Flow management has a much lower level of significance for both SMEs and LEs. That is, respondent companies are having more than one supplier and producing in larger lots. Companies appear to be maintaining a higher level of supply of materials and a higher level of finished products to satisfy both internal and external customers and are not totally becoming lean in their operations.With respect to ownership, JIT is highly significant to operational performance for all three ownership groups (Thai, foreign and joint venture). Foreign-owned companies show a higher level of significance on operational performance for both waste management and flow management than Thai and joint venture companies. Other studies have also shown foreign-owned companies to perform better than local (Australian)-owned companies, particularly in the case of adopting new technologies (Beaumont et al., 2002).This study has provided insights into the adoption of lean practices in an Asian context and provides further evidence that lean practices are significant in enhancing operational performance. Further evidence needs to be provided through case studies from Asian countries on how effectively lean practices are being implemented and the critical success factors for adoption.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which lean management practices are adopted by manufacturing organizations in Thailand and their impact on firms' operational performance.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected against 13 lean practices from 187 middle and senior managers belonging to 187 Thai manufacturing firms. Using factor analysis these lean practices were then clustered into three higher level constructs namely just in time (JIT), waste minimization and flow management. The responding firms were categorized into small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises (LEs) based on size and Thai-owned, foreign-owned and joint venture firms based on ownership. The multiple regression models were employed to investigate the effects of three lean constructs on operational performance in different categories of firms. The operational performance is measured by four parameters such as quick delivery compared to competitors, unit cost of products relative to competitors, overall productivity and customer satisfaction.\nFindings: - The results indicate that all three lean constructs are significantly related to operational performance. JIT has a higher level of significance in LEs compared with SMEs, whereas for waste minimization there is a higher level of significance for SMEs compared with LEs. Flow management has a much lower level of significance for both SMEs and LEs. With respect to ownership, JIT is highly significant to operational performance for all three ownership groups (Thai, foreign and joint venture). Foreign-owned companies show a higher level of significance on operational performance for both waste management and flow management than Thai and joint venture companies.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides insights into the adoption of lean practices in an Asian context and using survey data as opposed to case studies, and provides further evidence that lean practices are significant in enhancing operational performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Bridging the data divide between practitioners and academics: Approaches to collaborating better to leverage each other's resources
|
[
"Research",
"Service",
"Data",
"Data capture",
"Management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In every minute of every day, around half a million tweets are sent, over 4m videos are watched on YouTube and 120 new professionals join LinkedIn (Marr, 2018). We created 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day in 2017 and, up until then, 90 percent of the world's existing data had been generated in the years from 2015 to 2017 (IBM Marketing Cloud, 2017). In addition, there is an increase in firms collecting biometric data via, for example, Fitbits, which logged 150bn h of heart data from tens of millions of people across the globe (Becker's Hospital Review, 2018). With the rapid deployment of geotagging, censors, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and platforms that capture every movement of their stakeholders (Wirtz et al., 2018, 2019), the amount of available data generation is set to continue accelerating.\nThe data divide: managers' data and academics' insights: Generating data as such is not the problem; vast amount of it is created every second by millions of people. Data generation will accelerate further with the deployment of the IoT, which turns analog goods into digital goods. What troubles practitioners in this day and age is not getting their hands on enough data, but making smart use of the existing data and generating insights from this data (Kumar et al., 2013). This is where academics can play an important role: they take time to dig deep, examine patterns, identify structure - in short, they can, using AI and machine learning, turn data into managerially and scientifically relevant insights to be used for decision making, optimization, predictions and innovations.\nData realities and priorities of managers and academics: Table I organizes data realities and priorities into the following dimensions: research problem, research resources, research process and research outcome (adapted from Frank and Landstrom, 2016).\nRecommendations for leveraging data realities and priorities: The framework, outlining the recommendations on how to best leverage the different data realities and priorities in the managerial and academic worlds has been developed in two steps. The initial framework was based on a literature review and the authors' personal experiences of having regularly and successfully collaborated with the managerial world, or having worked in industry. In a second step, we gathered a list of service research centers around the world from the SERVSIG website (www.servsig.org) and gathered feedback from their members. In particular, we asked for a reflection on the framework of recommendations and whether these reflected their best practices, and also whether they had any additional recommendations. Of the 15 service research centers contacted, 9 provided feedback either in writing, via personal conversation or as a part of the author team (their names are listed in the acknowledgments). As such, this paper integrates the extant literature and the implicit knowledge of the authors and members of some of the world's leading service research centers. The objective is to make this knowledge explicit by formulating recommendations on how academics can collaborate better with the managerial world in order to leverage data realities and priorities (see Table II).\nConclusion and limitations: Organizations are often drowning in data, leading them to use only a fraction of their data to generate insights and support decision making (DalleMule and Davenport, 2017). At the same time, researchers spend increasing amounts of time, effort and financial resources to collect data that yield relevant academic results. In this paper, based on the above description, we portrayed companies as data gatherers and academics as data hunters. Despite a substantial body of research on the practitioner-academic gap (e.g. Amabile et al., 2001; Anderson et al., 2001; Markides, 2007; Birkinshaw et al., 2016; Hambrick, 2007), no research has taken a closer look at this gap in relation to data realities and priorities. Our paper fills this gap and identifies four dimensions of data realities and priorities relating to the research problem, resources, process and outcomes (Table I). Based on this framework, it identifies recommendations on how to leverage these data realities and priorities for the benefit of academics and practitioners alike (Table II).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Organizations (data gatherers in the context) drown in data while at the same time seeking managerially relevant insights. Academics (data hunters) have to deal with decreasing respondent participation and escalating costs of data collection while at the same time seeking to increase the managerial relevance of their research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework on how, managers and academics can collaborate better to leverage each other's resources.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This research synthesizes the academic and the managerial literature on the realities and priorities of practitioners and academics with regard to data. Based on the literature, reflections from the world's leading service research centers, and the authors' own experiences, the authors develop recommendations on how to collaborate in research.\nFindings: Four dimensions of different data realities and priorities were identified: research problem, research resources, research process and research outcome. In total, 26 recommendations are presented that aim to equip academics to leverage the potential of corporate data for research purposes and to help managers to leverage research results for their business.\nResearch limitations/implications: This paper argues that both practitioners and academics have a lot to gain from collaborating by exchanging corporate data for scientific approaches and insights. However, the gap between different realities and priorities needs to be bridged when doing so. The paper first identifies data realities and priorities and then develops recommendations on how to best collaborate given these differences.\nPractical implications: This research has the potential to contribute to managerial practice by informing academics on how to better collaborate with the managerial world and thereby facilitate collaboration and the dissemination of academic research for the benefit of both parties.\nOriginality/value: Whereas the previous literature has primarily examined practitioner-academic collaboration in general, this study is the first to focus specifically on the aspects related to sharing corporate data and to elaborate on academic and corporate objectives with regard to data and insights.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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"We've got a better situation": the life and afterlife of virtual communities in Google Lively
|
[
"Diaspora",
"Sustainability",
"Communities",
"Non-sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Esther Dyson (1998) described the internet as \"a medium for us to extend our intellectual and emotional selves\". In her libertarian neo-frontier discourse the internet is a medium that makes people take charge of their own lives and offers opportunities for free expression and endeavour. There is no doubt that the internet has functioned as a Dysonesque cultural landmark of the turn of the century. It became a new frontier with endless possibilities for self-expression, entrepreneurship and community building. The ease of starting a web site and the diversity of existing communities and community platforms has made it easy to participate and initiate new (virtual) bodies. While the internet has offered opportunities for thriving communities like Facebook or Second Life, there are many failures, not only for their founders, but also for their users. There.com, Vivaty, Metaplace, Forterra (e.g. Takahashi, 2010; McDonough et al., 2010) and Uru (Pearce and Artemesia, 2009) are just a few examples of virtual community environments that have closed down. We know very little about the reasons why these environments fail (Pearce and Artemesia, 2009, p. 29) or how virtual communities could better cope with the closure of a particular platform and sustain independent of technical systems. The failure of an environment is not, however, necessarily the same thing as the failure of a community or its outcomes. Usability for a specific purpose and sociability are two distinct features of virtual communities (Preece, 2001).\nLiterature review: Virtual communities\nMethods and material: The present study is based on a qualitative content analysis (White and Marsh, 2006) and ethnographically inspired (Juffermans, 2008) close reading (DuBois, 2003) of the discussion in the blogosphere, in Lively related discussion forums at the time when the service was launched (8 July 2008) and when its closure was announced (19 November 2008). The data collection method was chosen to get a deep and broad view of Google Lively and its active users before, after and during the existence of the platform. In comparison to retrospective narratives (e.g. interviews, essays), the strength of analysed material is (assuming that the texts have not been edited to a large extent after they were published) that the accounts offer glimpses to that what the users of Lively thought and felt during the period of its existence.\nAnalysis: Initial discussion\nDiscussion: Google Lively did not become a \"Second Life killer\" and it is equally apparent that the service was not successful according to the criteria of Google. However, Lively was not completely unsuccessful as a community platform in as far as to the idea of the ultimate failure of a virtual community is the absence of social space (Malaby, 2009). Google Lively was launched as an interactive environment and even if the initial blog post did not make any direct references to virtual communities, it is clear that the principal aim of the software was to facilitate socialisation and social knowledge exchange. As Croon and Agren (1998) pointed out, technology is not a virtual community per se, but it is apparent that within Lively, a group of active Livelians formed a very real albeit short-lived virtual community during the period of activism that fits the frequently cited definitions of virtual (Rheingold, 1993) and the internet communities (Brown and Duguid, 2000). The definitions are equally apt for describing the major sub-communities Livelypeople and Digiguys. The communities were web-based social aggregations that fostered socialisation and knowledge exchange and shared activities. Similarly, both Lively and Livelian communities may be described as information neighbourhoods (Burnett, 2000) because of the diversity of information shared on and about Lively in the different phases of its lifespan.\nConclusions: The analysis of the case of Google Lively, a defunct virtual community platform, demonstrates that even if individual services within the internet are not necessarily sustainable, the internet itself is sustainable as a platform for socialisation and knowledge exchange. The internet is not only sustainable as technology, but also in the community sense, much like it was built to be in the beginning. Emigration from a defunct community service such as Google Lively to other platforms may strengthen social ties of the community members. The community develops an idea of a virtual homeland and evolves from a single virtual location-based community to a true distributed community that functions simultaneously in different services in the internet. Communication and sharing of information is such a fundamental part of humanity (in terms of Gadamer, 1992) that the unsustainability of internet-based arenas of participation does not affect socialising and information sharing per se. However, it is apparent that a change of platforms and migration does affect the predominant modes of information sharing and the information that becomes shared.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of unsustainable community platforms from community and information sharing perspectives using Google Lively as an example. The aim is to analyse what happens when a community platform is not sustainable and explore the reasons why Lively failed or succeeded as an arena of participation and information sharing.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study is based on an ethnographically informed analysis of texts on Google Lively mined from the web and gathered using two small qualitative surveys.\nFindings: The findings show that Lively fostered the emergence of several virtual communities that outlived the platform. Shared experience, experience of crisis and a distinct identity appeared to be significant factors that seemed to contribute to the success of analysed Livelian communities.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study is based on a convenience sample and an analysis of one virtual community platform.\nPractical implications: The results inform the development of community strategies for situations when a platform is closing and plans are being made for the sustained existence of the virtual community in new contexts.\nOriginality/value: This is the first comprehensive study on Google Lively. The findings can be expected to have relevance also in the context of comparable virtual community platforms.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Hotel management in Cuba and the transfer of best practices
|
[
"Cuba",
"Best practice",
"Hospitality management",
"Hotel and catering industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Although Cuba has become a major player in Caribbean tourism, the hotel business in Cuba is a relatively unexplored area in terms of research (Jayawardena, 2003a). In the last 15 years, Cuba has become the third most popular tourism destination in the Caribbean region, and the second destination in the region for Europeans, recording the highest rate of growth in tourism arrivals of all Caribbean countries. Tourism has become socialist Cuba's most lucrative sector. The total number of hotels at the end of 2003 amounts to 263 with around 47,500 rooms, giving Cuba the second largest hotel capacity in the Caribbean. However, and though the country has undergone a significant decentralisation process towards a market socialist model in these last 15 years (Jensen, 2003), Cuba has neither abandoned socialism nor proclaimed a systematic reform according to a Chinese, Vietnamese, or any other model of revised socialism. The state retains a predominantly guiding role in economic production and this directly affects the implementation of western style management processes and systems. This limits many hotel managers in their efforts to reach efficient and effective organisational performance.The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the management challenges faced by international hotel operators when applying universally accepted management principles in the Cuban hospitality market. The research methodology includes a combination of in-depth interviews with senior executives of Cuban and foreign international hotel chains operating on the island, and desk research both in and outside Cuba. Based on this research, the paper presents a scenario where the state's role in the protection of the socialist revolutionary principles, combined with the need to adopt some market-based management practices, constitutes a singular case in the world of hotel management. The results analyse the pros and cons of different management best practices in the Cuban hospitality sector, emphasising those that can provide significant results in the Cuban context.\nMethodology: Gathering market data is more difficult in Cuba than in most other countries, because there are few sources of information and analysis that are independent of the government and the media are not free to disseminate accurate descriptions of emerging developments. For the most part, important business information must still be collected through interviews, usually with government officials or with executives of government or joint venture companies. Even then, certain details remain shrouded in secrecy.We used both secondary and primary research sources based on fieldwork carried out in Cuba during the first semester of 2003, when the authors held a visiting teaching position at University of Havana and a later visit during the months of December 2003 and January 2004. In-depth interviews were conducted in the city of Havana with senior executives of Cuban hotel operators as well as with several expatriate executives of Spanish and French hotel corporations. These include a total of eight interviews with executives belonging to three main Cuban hotel corporations (Cubanacan, Gran Caribe and Horizontes) and five foreign executives from hotel operators such as Sol-Melia, Barcelo, Riu, Iberostar and Accor. Issues explored included their hotel structure, investment and location decisions, management contract negotiations, hotel management challenges, tourist development in the Cuban market, and industry trends and future projects. Interviews lasted up to two hours and due to socio-cultural considerations, were not taped.\nBackground on tourism and hotel development in Cuba: Tourism in pre-1959 Cuba was a major industry and a primary source of hard currency and employment and the island dominated Caribbean tourism (Jayawardena, 2003a). Following the Cuban revolution in 1959, tourism practically disappeared from the island. This was partly due to the fact that the US market dried up as a result of the US embargo imposed in 1960. But more significantly, Cuba's strategy for economic and social development did not consider the tourist activity to be a key factor in the future of the island. Part of this philosophy stemmed from the authorities' revulsion at the ills associated with tourism in 1950s: gambling, drugs, prostitution and the presence of organised crime in hotels and casinos (Schwartz, 1997).With the break-up of the Soviet bloc in 1989, Cuba lost its most important markets and sources of manufactured goods and financial support. The inefficiencies of Cuba's centrally planned economy, which had been largely obscured by external subsidies, suddenly became glaringly apparent. Without Soviet subsidies, many state enterprises were closed and the government imposed the programme called the \"Special Period in time of Peace\" in September 1990. Cubans found themselves with a surplus of pesos but nothing to buy. From 1989 to 1993 Cuba's gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 35 per cent, imports plummeted 75 per cent and the deficit rose to 33 per cent of GDP (Chatham, 1998).Starting in 1989, the Cuban government actively started a drive towards economic diversification and the establishment of partnerships with foreign companies. The government introduced a few market-oriented reforms and limited measures toward economic liberalisation, including opening to tourism, allowing foreign investment through joint ventures, legalizing the dollar, and authorising self-employment (private micro-enterprises) for some occupations. As in other transitional economies, tourism was viewed as a use of scarce investment capital that had a good prospect of producing high and rapid returns, and a way to create a market for diverse goods and services supplied by Cuba's domestic industry (Simon, 1995). The first joint venture was formed by a new tourist state corporation, Cubanacan, with Spanish hotel group Sol Melia in 1988 to build and run a hotel in the tourist resort of Varadero. This hotel - Sol Palmeras - opened in May 1990. In 1990, another hotel - Tuxpan Hotel - was constructed and operated under joint venture with the German company LTI International Hotels.In 1994, the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) was created and several state-run and semi-autonomous tourist corporations and hotel chains were established for the promotion of hotel and tourist-related foreign investment and activities. These include Cubanacan Corporation, Hotel Group Gran Caribe, Horizontes Hotels, Habaguanex, Gaviota Tourist Group and Islazul. These organisations group together different types of hotels, restaurants and other specialised deals relating to all tourism-related activities and needs within the island (airport transfers and transportation services, travel agencies, insurance, etc.). These six Cuban hotel operators have established links with many non-US international hotel operators in the last 15 years, that contrary to other transactional economies such as China (Pine, 2002), have helped the country develop a simple and centralised hotel structure, based on a mix of Cuban and foreign investments and management deals with partners from Spain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, The Netherlands, Jamaica and Mexico. Joint ventures were the predominant form of foreign participation in the early 1990s, when domestic capital and management know-how was scarce. In the late 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, Cuban corporations have increasingly assumed a 100 per cent investment in new hotels, and new arrangements, such as hotel management contracts, have been used more frequently as Cuba recovered from the depths of its 1992-1993 economic crisis and had domestic capital to invest in hotels.During the last 15 years, Cuba has experienced a tourism boom, the likes of which have been rarely seen before. Tourist arrivals have increased from just over 300,000 in 1988 to more than 1.8 million in 2003, representing a compound annual growth of 17.5 per cent, more than three times the level of global and Caribbean tourism growth. As shown in Table I, Cuba's share of Caribbean tourism increased during the 1990s, from an average of 3 per cent during the 1980s to about 10 per cent in 2002. Just 15 years after re-entering the tourism market, Cuba has become the third most popular tourism destination in the Caribbean region, following behind Dominican Republic and Cancun; and the second destination in the Caribbean for Europeans. Significant as this may seem, it should also be noted that this has been achieved with very little travel from the vast US market, the main supplier for Caribbean tourism.Cuba's hotel supply, as applied to \"international quality\" hotels, grew from about 10,000 rooms in 1988 to 47,500 in 2003, representing an average annual increase of over 10 per cent. Based on travel agencies' sales brochures and hotel web information, the total number of hotels at the end of 2003 amounts to 263 with around 47,500 rooms, giving Cuba the second largest hotel capacity in the Caribbean. Of the 47,500 rooms available in the country, nearly 70 per cent have a four- and five-star rating. Moreover, by the end of 2003, more than half of the country's hotel capacity (56 per cent - 26,500 rooms) and 73 out of the 263 hotels were administered by 17 international hotel chains under hotel management contracts and joint venture agreements (Table II).\nThe transfer of new management processes and best practices: These new operational modes through diverse forms of associations with foreign capital were also an attempt to apply \"private sector\" management to certain hotels and the transfer of hotel and tourism management skills to the country. Clearly, joint ventures and international associations have provided Cuban tourism and hotel corporations with a great deal of know-how, management services and marketing skills that have even encouraged Cuban corporations to fully manage some of their newly established properties. Resorts such as the all inclusive five-star 944 room (1,416 beds) Playa Pesquero Resort, a $100 million investment and the biggest hotel in the country, owned and managed by the Cuban group Gaviota; or the Gran Caribe Hotel Varadero International (Gran Caribe Group), both compete in quality and service with other international well-known hotels. The most recently created, Habaguanex Group, offers a very customised and high quality service in its 16 historical quasi-boutique hotels.Although most of the executives interviewed agreed that over the last 14 years, Cuban tourism industry has produced above-average gross operating profits (GOPs) in most hotel groups, foreign hoteliers face major management problems typically arising from the specific institutional context namely the control of the state and other related issues. The state's role in the protection of the socialist principles, combined with the need to increase quality and efficiency, present a real challenge for international hoteliers when doing business in the country. Within this context, hotel corporations cannot simply transfer the so-called management \"best practices\", since some Cuban regulations may facilitate and others hinder their implementation. But neither is it clear that this is always desirable even when possible, since the best practices approach is a typically Anglo-Saxon management style which could be detrimental in some national contexts, and particularly, in the specific Cuban context.Many studies have been carried out, almost exclusively in American companies, which show how a series of management practices invariably produces better economic results. In other words, if obtaining good results is what is desired, one must implement these best practices, regardless of the country or type of organisation. Its application is thus universal (O'Dell and Grayson, 1998; Wright and Boswell, 2002), though differences in the way these practices are put into practice have been observed among countries (Jackson, 2002; Kamoche, 2001).What then are these best management practices? Different authors have their own preferred best practices but the following are some of the most often mentioned practices: job security, training, performance-based salaries, rigorous selection, participation, market-competitive salaries, teamwork or symbolic egalitarianism (Baron and Kreps, 1999). However, and as mentioned above, some of these best practices, such as training, can be quite effective in the Cuban context, some can be effective but are difficult to implement there, while others can be highly ineffective or even counter-productive. Let us examine some of them.\nBest practices that work in the Cuban context: Technical training\nBest practices that could work but are difficult or impossible to implement: Staff selection\nBest practices that can be highly inefficient or even counter-productive: Sharing information\nConclusions: Tourism is Cuba's main drive toward globalisation and economic transformation. However, this transformation is subjected to the constraining influence of a powerful state that dictates and determines the \"acceptable\" business practices, the depth of implementation of market-oriented approaches and the degree of managerial discretion. Hotel management practices in Cuba are constrained by a state-imposed political context. However, international joint ventures and new operational modes in the hospitality industry are stimulations for changes to occur. The need to improve economic performance is also a powerful motivation to confront the status quo. Today, the implementation of some western best management practices can produce significant results in the Cuban context, while others may produce negative outcomes, and therefore, should be held back until the institutional context is changed.In particular, hoteliers should place a strong emphasis on training. This is essential in Cuba in order to improve hotel service quality as well as workers' motivation. Moreover, training should be based on short intensive courses, and on the hotel promises if possible. For top management, any training programme that includes international travel is highly motivating. Other universally much accepted best practices, such as sharing information or egalitarianism could be counterproductive in the Cuban context. Indeed, it is critical to control strategic information and to break with egalitarianism and establish some type of \"tangible\" recognition for those who exhibit a more service and quality oriented behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the management challenges faced by international hotel operators when applying universally accepted management principles to the Cuban hospitality market.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The authors use both secondary and primary research sources based on fieldwork carried out in Cuba during the first semester of 2003 and a later visit during the months of December 2003 and January 2004. Eight in-depth interviews were conducted with senior executives of Cuban, Spanish and French hotel corporations.\nFindings: - The paper presents a scenario where the state's role in the protection of the socialist revolutionary principles, combined with the need to adopt some market-based management practices, constitutes a singular case in the world of hotel management. In the current Cuban institutional context, the implementation of some western best management practices can produce significant results, while others produce negative outcomes, and therefore, should be held back until the institutional context is changed.\nPractical implications: - The paper has implications for managers in suggesting that from a hotel perspective, the application of universally accepted best management practices must be carried out practice by practice and country by country.\nOriginality/value: - This paper contributes to increased knowledge about the dilemmas of managing hotels in a still highly centralised socialist country but with an increasingly market-based economy.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Revenue in reverse? An examination of reverse supply chain enabled revenue streams
|
[
"Reverse supply chain",
"Reverse logistics",
"Revenue",
"Conceptual modelling",
"Case study research",
"Original equipment manufacturer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: While the customer is the end-destination in traditional forward supply chains, reverse supply chains (RSCs) begin with the customer. In the RSC-concept by Guide and Van Wassenhove (2009) the RSC consists of five connected processes: product acquisition, which concerns acquiring used products from the market (used products are labeled core products in literature), reverse logistics (RL), which concerns the logistical movement of core products from the market to a sorting facility, inspection, sorting, and testing of products to determine quality and choice of recovery operation, recovery operation (e.g. repair, remanufacturing, or recycling), and remarketing, which concerns creation and exploitation of markets for recovered products. Figure 1 illustrates the RSC.\nLiterature review: This section reviews literature addressing how firms can achieve revenue through their RSC. The review is divided into two sections about revenue enabled directly through the firm's disposition strategies for core products, and revenue through added virgin product sales enabled by the RSC. A virgin product means a product entering the market for the first time made from virgin components and materials.\nResearch methodology: The paper's objective is to identify the revenue streams enabled by the RSC and examine the industrial utilization of these streams. The literature review has identified 86 RSC-enabled revenue streams. The following sections detail how the paper first excludes illogical revenue streams and then conducts the case study that examines the industrial utilization.\nIdentification of RSC-enabled revenue streams using conceptual modeling: As detailed in the methodology section this section excludes illogical revenue streams to ensure a set of revenue streams that are logically available to OEMs. To conduct the exclusion the study formally defines a RSC-enabled revenue stream as \"a continuous stream of income received by a firm from resale of items processed in the firm's RSC or from added virgin product sales enabled by the RSC.\" The definition contains two types of revenue, which fits with the results of the literature review: revenue achieved through the RSC's dispositions strategies and revenue enabled by either the integration of RSC-enabled services in the total product offering or RSC-enabled augmentation of brand associations. The first type of revenue (\"a continuous stream of income received by a firm from resale of items processed in the firm's RSC\") has three constituent elements congruent with the three dimensions in Figure 3: item, disposition strategy, and buyer group. Any combination of item, disposition strategy, and buyer group constitutes a revenue stream. The definition of the second type of revenue (\"a continuous stream of income received by a firm [...] from added virgin product sales enabled by the RSC\") focusses not on items, buyer groups, and disposition strategies. Instead, in the second type, a revenue stream is defined by an explanation of how the RSC enables new revenue through increased virgin product sales.\nExamining revenue stream utilization in industrial practice using case study research: While the set of revenue streams identified in the previous section answers the first research question about which revenue streams the RSC enables, this section answers the second research question about how revenue streams are utilized in industrial practice. The next four subsections, which present the paper's case analysis, follow the analytical sequence detailed in Figure 4.\nConclusions and contribution to theory and practice: The paper's results show 12 distinct RSC-enabled revenue streams within three categories: (A) new revenue through sales of core items, (B) new revenue through sales of recovered items, and (C) new revenue through added sales of virgin products. The case sample results show that six of these 12 revenue streams are utilized in industrial practice and that the utilized streams primarily are within Category B. The paper presents nine propositions that explain the revenue stream utilization for firms within the paper's domain limitation. The following set of characteristics summarizes the set of propositions by describing the OEM that is most likely to utilize RSC-enabled revenue streams. The OEM has:\n",
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"content": "Purpose: When original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) examine whether to implement a reverse supply chain (RSC) for their products, oftentimes the motive is cost savings or regulatory compliance. However, a frequently overlooked but equally important benefit is the possibility for creating new revenue. The purpose of this paper is to examine which revenue streams the RSC enables for OEMs to utilize and how these streams are utilized in industrial practice.\nDesign/methodology/approach: First, the paper identifies the RSC-enabled revenue streams that are available to OEMs using a literature-based conceptual modeling approach. Second, using a set of eight cases the paper explores these streams' utilization pattern and develops a set of propositions that explain the pattern.\nFindings: Results show a set of 12 distinct RSC-enabled revenue streams within three categories: new revenue through sales of used items, new revenue through sales of recovered items, and new revenue through added sales of virgin products. Six of these 12 streams are utilized in industrial practice. Among the propositions that explain the utilization pattern are the degree of component customization, product life-cycle longevity, and the value gap between used and recovered products.\nOriginality/value: While extant literature concerning the relation between the RSC and the firm's revenue is scarce, this paper contributes to the understanding of RSCs' revenue generation potential and thus to the stream of literature that views the RSC as a value creator rather than a costly nuisance. Furthermore, the paper provides managers with a broad view of how their firm's RSC can increase revenue from existing markets as well as create revenue from new markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Variation in sustainability competency development according to age, gender, and disciplinary affiliation: Implications for teaching practice and overall program structure
|
[
"Assessment",
"Curriculum development",
"Sustainability competencies",
"Sustainability education",
"Transdisciplinary"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In response to the United Nation's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014; UNESCO, 2003), the number of undergraduate sustainability degrees offered in higher education is on the rise worldwide (AASHE, 2011). Although some efforts to integrate sustainability into universities are strongly rooted in traditional disciplines, others have taken on a transdisciplinary character that spans disciplinary and institutional boundaries. There has been much debate among sustainability teaching and learning scholars regarding the types of knowledge, skills and attitudes that should be the focus of such transdisciplinary efforts. Wiek et al. (2011) proposed five key competencies that synthesize the knowledge, skills and attitudes specific to sustainability education that have appeared in the literature over the past 20 years. These key competencies are aligned with a framework aimed at resolving sustainability problems in the real world (Wiek et al., 2011). The framework, in turn, sets forth four distinct modules or steps used by sustainability scientists:\n2. Methods: The purpose of this study, which builds on a similar study conducted in the same sustainability course the previous year (Remington-Doucette et al., 2013), is to assess development of sustainability competencies among a diverse group of undergraduate students before and after a semester-long introductory sustainability course, and to explore whether there are differences in development among different, easily identifiable demographic sub-groups within the class. The course was specifically designed to increase the five key sustainability competencies in the students, and the aim of this study was to answer the following general research questions (RQs):\n3. Results: 3.1 Inter-rater reliability\n4. Discussion: The study evaluated the development of five competencies in undergraduates as a result of a semester-long introductory sustainability course. Competence development was evaluated based on pre- and post-semester scores for two case studies analyzed by students. Development of each competency was considered collectively for all student participants in the course and also for class sub-groups based on declared major, age and gender.\n5. Conclusions: This study offers insight into the teaching practices and general program structures that may be required for effective sustainability education. The results indicate that student development of key sustainability competencies can be enhanced through certain pedagogical approaches, including problem-based presentation of key sustainability concepts; incorporation of real-world sustainability problems; and use of hands-on activities, case studies, role-playing and group work. If working with business students specifically, additional practices should be used to bridge the \"pedagogical gulf\" between business and sustainability (Carrithers and Peterson, 2006). These practices include paying attention to student motivation for learning and incorporating explicit comparisons of disciplinary perspectives into course content. Educators involved in undergraduate sustainability program design should consider students' developmental stage (Perry, 1999) and attitudes about the future (Slaughter, 2002; Hicks and Holden, 1995) when building courses and experiences aimed at fostering normative and anticipatory competencies, respectively, into an overall program structure. Finally, this study highlights a need for gender diversity in shaping education for sustainability to ensure effective interpersonal competence development in all undergraduates. These insights are based on assessment of one introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course and much additional work is needed to draw strong conclusions about teaching practices and program structure. Along these lines, this study provides a flexible and \"road-tested\" rubric to facilitate such evaluative work in other sustainability courses or degree programs.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a classroom assessment aimed at determining the extent to which five key sustainability competencies develop in students during an introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. University sustainability programs intend to provide integrated education that fosters the key competencies students need to solve real-world sustainability problems. Translating sustainability competencies into effective pedagogical practice in integrated academic programs is not straightforward. This work builds on a previous study by both expanding the competencies evaluated and considering additional demographic characteristics.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper summarizes previously identified key sustainability competencies and describes teaching methodologies used to foster these competencies in students. Development of competencies in students during a semester-long course is assessed using a pre-/post-test based on two case studies. The implications of the findings for teaching practice and overall program structure are discussed.\nFindings: Based on the assessment methods used here, four of the five sustainability competencies evaluated in this study developed differently in students according to gender, disciplinary affiliation and age. Females improved interpersonal competence more than males. Systems thinking competence improved for students associated with the three disciplinary affiliations considered in this study: sustainability major, sustainability minor and business major. Anticipatory competence improved for sustainability and business majors only, but not for students minoring in sustainability and majoring in other disciplines. Finally, normative competence improved for younger students only.\nResearch limitations/implications: Insights for teaching practice and overall program structure are based on assessment of one introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. Much additional work is needed to draw strong conclusions about general teaching practices and program structure for sustainability education. This study provides a flexible and field-tested rubric for further evaluative work in other sustainability courses or degree programs.\nPractical implications: Universities incorporate sustainability into their undergraduate curricula in many ways, ranging from certificates to entire degree programs focused on sustainability. The results of this study suggest that educators pay attention to gender diversity, classroom teaching practices, disciplinary perspectives and student attitudes and developmental stages as they figure out how to make sustainability part of undergraduate education. This information may help create more effective sustainability courses and academic programs, which may maintain the viability of current sustainability programs and promote the institutionalization of sustainability in higher education.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to undergraduate sustainability education by providing insight into how sustainability education might thoughtfully be integrated into academic programs. It also offers an assessment approach for use by other sustainability educators to evaluate effectiveness of teaching practice and overall program structure based on five key sustainability competencies commonly cited in the literature.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Religion, science and secularization: a consumer-centric analysis of religion's functional obsolescence
|
[
"Religion",
"Consumption",
"Brand communities",
"Psychology of religion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: \"Is religion outdated in the 21st century?\" was the topic of a debate hosted in January 2013 at the Open Forum Davos - a platform through which the annual World Economic Forum offers occasion for debate on controversial issues between the public and scholars, business leaders and policymakers. This event is just one of the many that feed the public and scholarly conversation on the role of religion in today's society - a secular age in which its meaning and functions have deeply changed (Taylor, 2007). This conversation is intrinsically multidisciplinary - involving historians, sociologists, psychologists, theologians, and philosophers - but it is also highly relevant for consumer research because religious ideologies shape consumption fields (Bourdieu, 1991; Holt, 1998) - the intertwined network of products, brands, consumption practices and related social relations (Arsel and Thompson, 2011) - either by directly dictating consumer behavior on specifically prescribed (or proscribed) objects of consumption (McDannell, 1995) or through norms of acceptable and unacceptable behavior within religious communities (Arsel and Bean, 2013; Ustuner and Holt, 2007). While consumer research on religion examined how religion influences individual decision making, choice and purchasing behaviors (Hirschman, 1981; Izberk-Bilgin, 2012; Moschis and Ong, 2011), and how people keep or depart from their religious identities in multicultural societies (Lindridge, 2005; McAlexander et al., 2014), marketing scholars have not been particularly engaged with the broader multidisciplinary conversation on the changing role of religion in modern society. Yet, because of its capacity to affect consumption patterns, any fundamental change in practiced religiosity has implications for consumer research.\nDefining religion: To begin our analysis, we need to clarify what we mean by religion. We are interested in discussing theistic - as opposed to deistic - religions. Generally speaking, the former refers to the idea that one or more gods, creators of the universe, have a specific divine plan for humanity, make demands on our behavior and intervene in our lives. In contrast, deistic religions build on the idea that the observation of the natural world is suggestive of design and universal order, imposed by some sort of divine intelligence which, however, does not intervene in our lives and particularly not through revelation and religious authority.\nReligion as a product: Our enquiry builds on the assumption that religion can be analyzed as a product. To support this claim, we contend that it complies with the definition of what a product is: a product, or better a value proposition, is a set of benefits that an organization offers its customers to satisfy their needs and wants (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010).\nPeople's needs and religion's functions: But what human needs does religion satisfy? And, what functions do religion serve? In short, religions provide cognitive closure and a sense of control, alleviate existential anxiety, offer a sense of meaning, provide social identity and enhance self-esteem (both at the individual and social level). From an evolutionary perspective, these functions of religion have been retained through history and generations because of their adaptive significance and survival value (Dawkins, 2006; Hood et al., 2009).\nIs religion obsolete?: Psychology research suggests that religion has successfully addressed several basic human needs throughout history by providing unambiguous knowledge, absolute morality, social identity and promises of immortality, immanent justice and centrality in the universe. Yet, the secularization hypothesis predicts that enhanced human control over the capricious and unpredictable environment (Bell, 1976) and modernity's emphasis on reason, scientific inquiry and skepticism will eventually disenchant the world by eradicating myth, magic and religion (Weber, 1922, 1978). This hypothesis builds on modernization theory, which postulates that economic development triggers socio-cultural dynamics that shift societies towards the values that we associate with modernity (Inglehart and Baker, 2000): empowerment, political activism and aversion to absolute norms; diminishing discrimination against women, minorities and out-groups; decreasing national pride; rising concerns for psychological - rather than economic - well-being and for meaning, purpose and quality of life rather than basic survival (Inglehart and Baker, 2000). Put differently, the secularization hypothesis predicts the functional obsolescence of religion: the performance and reliability of religious functions are declared to be declining in a disenchanted modern age of reason and science (Weber, 1922, 1978) where alternative options can better satisfy the same human needs (Bartels, Ermel, Sandborn, and Pecht, 2012). To discuss this possibility, in the following arguments we will distinguish between the benefits that derive from the content of religious answers (e.g. religious beliefs) and those arising from religious identity and socialization within religious groups.\nDiscussion and conclusions: Ideologies affect consumer behavior (Ustuner and Holt, 2007) because cultural capital shapes consumption fields (Bourdieu, 1991; Holt, 1998) and religious ideologies are no exception (Hirschman, 1981; Izberk-Bilgin, 2012). Religions affect consumption either by explicitly prescribing (or banning) certain goods and services (McDannell, 1995) or through the norms of acceptable and unacceptable consumption that emerge within religious communities (Arsel and Bean, 2013; Ustuner and Holt, 2007). These consumption practices indirectly affect the consumption of a plethora of other goods and services (e.g. a tight coupling of sex and reproduction affects the sale of contraceptives but also family size, and, in turn, housing, transportation and education opportunities for the children).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to offer a marketing perspective to the multidisciplinary debate on whether religion is expanding, declining or resurging in contemporary and allegedly secular society. Specifically, it examines the \"secularization hypothesis\", which predicts that religion tends to lose its central role in people's lives as secular reasoning spreads and scientific knowledge accumulates.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Borrowing from psychology literature, the authors identify the psychological and social needs satisfied by religion and in doing so uncover its functions. They then discussed whether religion can be claimed to be functionally obsolete.\nFindings: The authors identified four functions of religion: explanatory, relieving, membership and moral. The content of religious doctrines offers consumers of religion unambiguous knowledge, absolute morality and promises of immortality, immanent justice and centrality in the universe. Religion also provides a social identity, through which people can build meaningful connections with others in the community and with their own history.\nOriginality/value: A change in the role of religion would be highly relevant for consumer research because religious ideologies shape consumption practices, social relations, products and brands. The authors observe that the content of religious answers is so well-crafted around human psychology that the explaining, relieving and moral functions of religion have not lost reliability. However, cultural change has weakened religion's ability to gratify human psychology through social identity and meaningful socialization, which led to the marketization of religion, the rise of spirituality and the intensification of socialization around consumption.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Explorations into sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service Part 3. Implications and research findings on leadership
|
[
"Leadership",
"Gender stereotypes",
"Training and development",
"Sex differences",
"UK Civil Service"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: This is the third part of a three-part paper on the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. It discusses the implications of research presented in the second part of this paper before examining leadership in the UK Civil Service.\nPractical implications of research on sex and gender in the UK Civil Service: In the first part of this paper, we reviewed theory and research into the intersection of sex, gender and leadership, drawing particularly on Powell (2012). We concluded that the playing field that constitutes managerial ranks continues to be tilted in favour of men and behaviours associated with the male stereotype. This is the case despite what leadership theories and field evidence suggest and the softening of attitudes in recent decades.\nFurther research findings on situational differences: In the second part of this paper, we described research showing that the behaviour of individuals varied in different situations, and that different behaviours were valued differently in different situations. Differences in behaviour and assessments of behaviour were also found to be more strongly linked to context than either sex or gender. These findings highlighted the importance of matching behaviour patterns to the demands of particular work situations.\nGender roles and work roles: The evidence presented in the second and third parts of this paper, shows that people at work are judged by at least two sets of standards. These are the extent to which their behaviour is consistent with what is expected of them in their work role, and the extent to which it is consistent with what is expected of them in their gender role.\nSex differences in behaviour: In our research, we found sex differences in the behaviour of managers in the UK Civil Service. However, we also found that such differences are small, with far greater differences amongst men and women managers than between the average man and women manager. The implications of this finding are considered below.\nConcluding discussion: Our research has confirmed the existence of contrasting gender stereotypes and differences in the behaviour of male and female managers in the UK Civil Service. However, it showed that such differences are small, with greater differences amongst men and women managers than between the average man and woman.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This is the third part of a three-part paper on the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. The first part of this paper provided an introduction to the research, a literature review and some conjectures derived from it. The second part formulated specific null hypotheses, outlined the research methodology and presented research findings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical implications of the research findings, presents an evidence-based framework for understanding the transition into leadership, with prescriptions for its use and ends with a concluding discussion on the overall research findings.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Information was collected from a wide cross-section of UK Civil Servants between 1993 and 2013. Individuals were participants on training and development activities carried out by the authors. Individuals completed psychometric instruments, including self-assessments and 360 degree assessments and provided information on their sex, work role and work situation. Statistical analysis was carried out to identify behaviours associated with effective leadership, taking account of behaviours used, behaviours valued and behaviours valued more highly than in those in follower roles and situations. Comparisons were made between the effective leader behaviour profile and those for sex differences and gender stereotypes.\nFindings: A very strong statistical relationship was found between the frequency with which individuals use a range of behaviours and the extent of their leadership role and situation. Moreover, particular behaviours were found to be more valued in leadership roles/situations, with clear differences between those valued in follower roles/situations. A combined leadership effectiveness profile had little in common with either the male/masculine or female/feminine profile.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research was a by-product of the authors' training and development work. It was not part of a purpose-built and wide-ranging research programme into sex, gender and leadership. It also relates to one context, the UK Civil Service, and may not generalise to other contexts. Nonetheless, there are clear parallels between these findings and previous research.\nPractical implications: Gender stereotypes were best tackled by ensuring that all jobs are properly described and all assessments involved the use of relevant information against agreed job criteria, with appropriate training and development essential to maintaining best practice. Moreover, training and development activities should concentrate on actual individual differences, rather than stereotypical generalisations about such differences. Finally, an evidence-based, gender-neutral leadership framework was proposed. The leadership framework is relevant to would-be leaders, line managers and human resource professionals, including training and development specialists.\nSocial implications: The research findings are relevant to understanding the intersection between sex, gender and leadership in the UK Civil Service. They relate to wider social issues concerning equal opportunities and diversity.\nOriginality/value: There is an extensive body of theory and research on the intersection between sex, gender and leadership. However, very little focuses specifically on the UK Civil Service. These research findings and the subsequent analysis are, therefore, original. The gender-neutral, evidence-based leadership framework is an original contribution to both theory and practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Total Quality Management practices and work-related outcomes: A case study of higher education institutions in Pakistan
|
[
"Pakistan",
"Higher education institutions",
"Employee performance",
"Job satisfaction",
"Effective commitment",
"TQM practices"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Total Quality Management (TQM) has been extensively researched in the area of innovation and quality. TQM involves the efforts of employees working in all divisions and levels of the organization for the provision of quality products with continuous improvement in them (Pfau, 1989). The importance of TQM culture within organizations is due to the fact that it greatly impacts the confidence and job attitudes of the workers (Dose, 1997). If the viewpoints and ideas of the employees are taken into account while developing the organizational goals, strategies and mission, employees then tend to assist their organizations (Benkhoff, 1997). He further argued that employee affective commitment significantly affects employee performance. Sutanto (2004) stated that highly committed employees perform well and contribute more to their organizations. The main factor to accomplish organizational objectives is by means of effective application of TQM practices and employee performance. Employee performance is both activated and enhanced through the provision of training and development (Gul et al., 2012).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 Total Quality Management and employee performance\n3. Research methodology: The proposed research model and hypotheses were analyzed by using a questionnaire-based analysis technique due to its wide use and practicality. The study was cross-sectional and self-administered questionnaires were utilized.\n4. Data analysis: To analyze the data, the 20th version of SPSS was used by undertaking statistical tests such as reliability test, correlation test, regression analysis and independent sample t-test analysis.\n5. Discussion: The main intention of the study was first to find out the direct correlation among study variables: TQM practices, employees performance, job satisfaction and affective commitment. The second objective was to examine the meditating role of job satisfaction and affective commitment in the relationship between TQM practices and employee performance. The results of our study showed that job satisfaction and affective commitment mediated the relationship between TQM and employee performance. Employees in organizations implementing TQM practices reported greater job satisfaction and more affective commitment to their organizations, and both of these contributed to better employee performance through direct effects.\n6. Recommendations for future research: As per researcher's knowledge, the current study is the first ever study in the field of TQM practices and its implication in the HEIs in Pakistan, but it has some limitations too. The first limitation is that the authors used a cross-sectional data for the study which limit inference of cause and effect. Researchers in future should opt for a longitudinal approach to find out this direction of causation. Second, the data were collected by using self-administered questionnaires, which gives space for social desirability bias, as respondents usually try to answer in a way that shows them in a good light. Third, the research was conducted without any comparison of the public and private sector universities. A comparative study in this regard can be undertaken. Additionally, the sample size can be increased by extending the research to other cities of Pakistan so that an elaborative view of the overall education sector can be obtained.\n7. Conclusion: This study extends the earlier works by providing evidence for the mediating role of job satisfaction and affective commitment in the relationship between TQM practices and employee performance. The findings of the current study suggest that TQM practices may act as accelerator to positive work attitudes like job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee performances. From social exchange theory perspective these findings suggest that organizations/institutions can mold the attitudes of their employees by implementing the best TQM practices such as training and development, better working conditions, visionary leadership, focus for the employees, just and fair recognition and reward system, etc., the institutions should also work set standards which would be helpful to check the performance of the employees. All this can be accomplished by optimizing the quality assurance cells and quality assurance departments in the universities.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices on the performance of employees working in higher education institutions (HEIs). It also examines the mechanism through which TQM practices affect the performance of employees.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data for the current study were obtained from both public and private sector HEIs of Pakistan. In total, 400 questionnaires were distributed among the administrative and academic staff of 3 universities and 240 usable questionnaires were received. Data were analyzed through regression analysis using SPSS.\nFindings: The results show that the TQM positively and significantly determines employee performance, and the mediating variables of job satisfaction and affective commitment. Both the mediating variables show a mediating role in the TQM/employee performance relationship.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study has practical implications for universities' top management to focus on TQM practices that help in building and enhancing satisfaction, commitment, as well as performance of the employees that could ultimately result in better performance of the universities.\nOriginality/value: This research is an addition to the current literature and the first attempt in this area to the best of authors' knowledge. This study will help in identifying how important and beneficial it would be for the services organizations to implement the TQM practices and identifying the impact of TQM practices on employee's job performance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
A bottom-up approach for productivity measurement and improvement
|
[
"Productivity and performance management",
"Manufacturing industries",
"Bottom up decision making",
"Productivity improvements",
"Productivity measurement",
"Canada",
"Bottom‐up approach",
"Case studies"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The steady incline in oil prices triggered from the September 11, 2001 attack combined with the recent credit crisis and downturns in financial markets has driven organizations to re-evaluate their manufacturing processes and bottom line. The increase in oil prices has a direct relationship with raw material presenting managers with the key challenge of increasing or maintaining productivity. While increasing output to reduce unit fixed costs remains the common management response, reducing and recycling waste coupled with lean production systems have also become popular tactics with managers (Kattman et al., 2012; Shahin and Jaberi, 2011; Cooper and Edgett, 2008; Lee-Mortimer, 2006). The lack of understanding of the relationship between productivity, profitability and performance has led to the application of piece-meal solutions for problems in productivity. The objective of this research paper is to suggest an integrated approach that may be used by firms in planning, managing and forecasting productivity improvements.This paper proposes an integrated model of planning and implementing productivity improvements. The model is then used to examine productivity improvements of a Canadian-owned oil refining company in Great Falls, Montana and a small Canadian packaging company in Calgary, Alberta. In addition, seven shorter cases are used to illustrate various components of the model. The research also discusses both long and short-term management strategies implemented by each company, and highlights the key success factors (KSFs) and key failure factors (KFFs). The remainder of the paper is presented in five sections. The first section provides a literature review of various productivity models. Next section introduces and explains the continuous improvement model for productivity. The following section presents each case based on the normative continuous improvement model. And lastly, an analysis of the critical success and failure factors of each case, as well as examining important managerial implications for managers of productivity improvement initiatives.\nLiterature review: Many of the productivity improvement models use quantitative models to measure performance. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is the most popular method (see Migueis et al., 2012; Harrison et al., 2012; Santos et al., 2011; Simar and Zelenyuk, 2011; Shi et al., 2011) while other methods including analytic hierarchy process (see Samvedi et al., 2012; Lin et al., 2011; Punniyamoorthy and Murali, 2010) are becoming popular among researchers. Due to the large number of factors affecting productivity that increases mathematical complexity, many of these models use only few influential variables. Punniyamoorthy and Murali (2010) combine productivity and quality dimensions by using AHP to develop an integrated performance model which helps to identify best practice units in service organizations. In an attempt to link plant capacity and productivity Grando and Turco used production throughput and production capacity as parameters to measure productivity in a single machine scenario. Tran et al. (2009) used an indexing method examine the contributions of productivity, prices and firm size to the value added by firm.There have been numerous studies been carried out to identify the most influential factors affecting productivity including quality (Lee et al., 2007; Terziovski, 2006), knowledge (Kollberg and Elg, 2011), investment (Mawdesley and Al-Jibouri, 2010), equipment losses (Shirose, 1996), maintenance (Bamber et al., 1999; Ahuja and Khamba, 2008) , working methods (Tjahjono, 2009) and labor quality (San et al. (2008). Based on the data collected from UK construction firms Mawdesley and Al-Jibouri (2010) identified five dominant factors including investments in planning and control. They argue that these can be used to evaluate management strategies and their effects on project productivity. By using data from 500 German manufacturing companies Broedner et al. (2009) argue that outsourcing has a strong negative impact on a firm's labor productivity and call for revision of established decision-making schemes for vertical manufacturing on cost-efficiency considerations. Studying Taiwanese manufacturing firms, San et al. (2008) confirms that that labor quality has significant influence on manufacturing productivity. Based on the detailed loss analysis of steel industry, Anvari and Edwards (2011) proposed an integrated equipment effectiveness concept that can be used to measure and identify the areas of improvement.Many authors studied the effect of knowledge management and human capital on productivity and efficiency. In her study, Ornaghi (2006) confirmed that technological externalities affect positively firms' productivity growth. Investigating 182 sales teams in a management consulting company Haas and Hansen (2007) developed productivity model of knowledge sharing in an organization. This model looked at various types of knowledge and their effects on different task units. In similar study Tjahjono (2009) found out multi-media-based information system increased efficiency and productivity of manufacturing operations. Using three industry categories Islam and Shazali (2011) studied degrees of skills, favorable working environment and R&D on manufacturing productivity of labor-intensive industries. They found that productivity is positively correlated with favorable working environment while R&D expenditure and productivity are strongly correlated.Although productivity measurement and improvement methods are widely discussed in previous studies, the most common problem is that they are mostly top-down approaches. Limited studies have considered a bottom-up approach for productivity improvements. In their recent study, Mauri et al. (2010) argue that there is a huge demand for need for \"easy-to-implement\" solutions. They developed special parameters called operating system effectiveness to detect to monitor, diagnose and improve the performances of a manufacturing system. However, they also failed to provide a comprehensive and easy method that managers can use to measure and improve productivity.\nA continuous improvement model for productivity improvement: Companies are constantly looking to improve productivity, through many different methods, whether through innovation, waste reduction, labor cut backs or simply speeding up production. This paper introduces, and examines, the continuous improvement model for productivity improvement. The model is shown schematically in Figure 1.In attempts to improve productivity there are several factors that must be considered and integrated. The most critical issue is identifying exactly what needs to be accomplished, and then through a series of steps discover methods that can be executed to achieve the desired goal. The initial outlook must be vast, looking at the largest limiting factors. Once established, the processes can be broken down and examined more simplistically. The application framework shown in Figure 2 helps to better comprehend this process.The micro-model above defines the process for each of the outer five spheres in the continuous improvement model for productivity improvement. Consider these as the critical three inner steps that must be fulfilled at each main step. The multi-directional arrows, as seen between activities and behavior, and behavior and outcome, simply indicate that a failure within any of those three steps, at any time, allow for the ability to take a step back and re-evaluate. As outcome is the last step in the process, and relies entirely on behavior, it therefore has no direct relationship to activities other then indicating the initiation of a new activity.Activities\nA case study of a small manufacturing company in Calgary, Alberta: Rocky Mountain Packaging Inc (Rocky Mountain) was established in 1974 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and employs over 70 people. Rocky Mountain's first products were flexible packaging for supermarkets and since then, expanded to include plastic bags and pouches including medical specimen bags, polyethylene sheeting and tubing, polyethylene bags, produce packaging, re-closable bags and permanent packaging. Rocky Mountain provides products for markets all over the world, including Canada, the USA, the UK, Mexico, Chile and Australia.With both external and internal pressures the company needed to improve their bottom line by $1.4 million, or face the real possibility of closing their doors. The president of the company, recognizing that they had to do something, sought help. An independent consulting firm was contracted to help them increase productivity. Addressing productivity improvement within Rocky Mountain required the use of the continuous improvement model and the business strategies and techniques of Rocky Mountain. How the company used this model will briefly discussed.Focus\nA case study of an independent crude oil refinery in Montana, the USA: Montana Refining is one of the last small, independent full production refineries in the USA, competing with the multi-national companies. They are also in the asphalt manufacture and service business, specializing in a full state of asphalt products. In addition, they also produce light products including gasoline, jet fuel and propane. A Canadian oil producer recently purchased Montana Refining. It has had success over the years due to its ability to meet a niche market; it is conveniently located to distribute asphalt as well as high-octane fuel. However, with the recent economic downturn and external pressures caused Montana Refining to look for some help with increasing productivity.The pressures from the price of oil, volatile markets and seasonal fluctuations, coupled with aging equipment and workforce, create many obstacles. These needed to be conquered and overcome, but it was a daunting task to attempt on their own and determined it would be necessary to seek external help. Montana Refining was refining approximately 9,400 barrels of crude oil/day and was looking to increase this to 10,000. It was also necessary to reduce cost in such a competitive environment. They realized that these steps were required to avoid closure like so many other refineries in the USA.Focus\nConclusion: The analysis of case studies shows two major success factors. First, the model incorporates the behavioral aspects of employees in developing and implementing productivity improvement measures. By using a behavioral based model, superior business results are a natural outcome of staff engaging themselves in personal improvement. Like individuals trying to improve their golf score on each round they play, employees try to improve their work performance during each data point. Work becomes fun and recognition is as commonplace as we see it in a sports arena. Second, the bottom-up process empowers the workers to take the lead on the productivity improvement initiatives. This provides better acceptance of the changes made and sustainability of the initiatives. It also allows the managers to focus their time on long-term improvements. As a president of one of the companies pointed out \"It was like trying to plug holes in a sieve with each drip representing $100 of lost value. Before the project I could not have spent two hours talking with you, I didn't have time.\" He went on to say that when he finally plugged a hole, often it would unplug soon thereafter. Now, he said, his entire staff is plugging holes, and when they plug a hole it stays plugged, forever.Based on the case studies two failure factors were identified. The first, and likely the cause that has identified by the senior executives is obtaining the accurate information. Most employees, at some time in their career, have been denigrated after posting poor results. It is much safer and easier for them to avoid the collection and posting of data in the first place. It may take a concerted effort and dedicated supervisory staff, to overcome initial resistance. The period of resistance is likely to last only a few days if appropriate feedback on performance is provided. Training in the entire model should be provided before this kind of initiative is started. Second, most organizations believe that they are already applying the model, or many parts of it. Invariably, on closer inspection, they are not. Typically we see that the Focus is unclear. This can be tested when asking any front line employee \"What does a good day look like?\" If they cannot answer that question with empirical objective data, then they do not have a clear focus. Companies have not successfully applied the model if front line staff do not collect post and present their data to their supervisors.The most common mistake may occur in applying this is the wrong resolution of measures. Measures and targets are often so broad that no single employee feels like they can impact it. Effective measures are meaningful, present a clear line to the Focus, and are well in the sphere of control of the employee. Organizations using this model can expect a step change in business results. The model is based on a scientifically supported human behavior model and will deliver results if properly implemented. Appropriate implementation includes the transferring of the requisite skill set to the existing leadership in the organization.This paper introduced a bottom-up process model for productivity improvements. The five steps proposed should consider as a part of an ongoing process that continuously involves all departments and especially their managers and leaders. If implemented correctly, it would provide better directions to unlock the sales and improve the competitive position. This paper has few limitations. First, the model was tested using two major cases from the USA and Canada. More cases from different industries would be valuable to increase the applicability of the model. Action research methodology the researchers immerse themselves in real-life settings by working firms as participant observers could provide detailed information of the success and failure factors. This paper also provides various opportunities for further research. For example, a more detailed assessment of the differences between business workers and managers of various firm sizes and industries would help to fine tune the model in their productivity improvement initiatives.\n",
"role": "user"
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{
"content": "Purpose: - The steady incline in oil prices combined with the recent credit crisis and downturns in financial markets has driven organizations to re-evaluate their manufacturing processes and bottom line. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a bottom-up approach that may be used by firms in planning, managing and forecasting productivity improvements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multiple-case study approach was used: two comprehensive cases and seven short cases were used to illustrate the model.\nFindings: - The lack of understanding of the relationship between productivity, profitability and performance has led to the application of piece-meal solutions for problems in productivity. Bottom-up approach in improving productivity will provide better results than top-down approach.\nOriginality/value: - This paper describes the bottom-up approach which has been successfully used for managing productivity improvement initiatives.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Consumer attitudes and communication in circular fashion
|
[
"Consumers",
"Communication",
"Co-creation",
"Circular economy",
"Circular clothing",
"Relooping fashion"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sustainable consumption and production are important elements in preserving limited natural resources and avoiding climate change. In the textile sector, the increased consumption is mainly due to fast-changing, affordable fashion that results in an increasing amount of textile waste (Elander and Palm, 2015). The environmental impacts of textile production include energy consumption, water use, chemicals, dyes and finishes and greenhouse gas emissions (Pedersen and Gwozdz, 2014). Textile production is one of the most polluting industries in the world (NRCD, 2016).\nMethod: The research questions in our study were as follows:\nResults and discussion: Circulation of clothing\nConclusions, implications and limitations: The time is ready. Consumers and companies are aware of the limited natural resources and climate change and concerned about the challenges they cause. It is understood that something needs to be done. Novel technological solutions for a more sustainable and closed-loop system have been developed for the textile industry, and new sustainable and circular brands are coming to the market. The closed-loop system, where garments are recycled into new fibres, is quite a new phenomenon and a new business opportunity.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers' views and expectations on circular clothing. This paper also clarifies how the remanufacturing process should be communicated and circular fashion marketed to consumers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research methodology consisted of consumer interviews, utilising an online innovation platform (Owela) to involve consumers and workshops with project partners and with external stakeholders.\nFindings: Consumers' interest towards recycling and sustainable solutions has increased. They appreciate the idea of recycling textile waste to produce new clothes; circular products should become \"the new normal\". Consumers are asking for more visible and concrete information about circular clothing and how their behaviour has affected the environmental aspects of textile production. The communication should be timed correctly by using multiple communication channels and also paying attention to the shopping experience. In addition, digital services alongside circular clothing could create additional value for consumers.\nResearch limitations/implications: In this study, only consumers from Finland were involved. The results might be different in different parts of Europe and especially worldwide.\nOriginality/value: This study focusses on circular clothing - an area that has not been studied much before. Also, consumers involved in this study were of a different age compared to most of the previous studies, where the focus has been mainly on young college students.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Sports university education and entrepreneurial intentions: A comparison between Spain and Lithuania
|
[
"Theory of planned behaviour",
"Entrepreneurial intentions",
"Culture",
"Sport science students"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Entrepreneurship is understood as an activity that generates innovation, employment and growth over a long period of time; therefore, it is considered by governments to be a solution to social and economic problems (Thornton et al., 2011). In fact, the creation of new companies means the generation of alternative ways to reduce unemployment, mainly in the current period, which has been affected by the global economic crisis (Brancu et al., 2015). Therefore, the interest in entrepreneurship has increased in almost every country, and its influence on economies and on society has been recognised because of its emergence as a key factor in the generation of social and economic activity (Acs and Szerb, 2010). Thus, in recent years, efforts have been increased to promote an entrepreneurial mindset in society (Davey et al., 2011).\nTPB: The TPB (Ajzen, 1991) is one of the most widely used models in the study of entrepreneurial intent in different countries (Autio et al., 2001; Gonzalez-Serrano et al., 2016; Krueger et al., 2000; Linan and Fayolle, 2015; Moriano et al., 2012). Ajzen (1991) postulates that behaviour is a function of beliefs that influence a certain behaviour. These beliefs are considered important premises that determine personal attitude (PA), intention and perceived behaviour control (PBC).\nMethodology: Sample\nResults: Reliability and validity analysis\nDiscussion: Entrepreneurship in the sports sector is generating increasing interest due to the growth of this sector and its intrinsic characteristics. However, there continue to be few studies conducted on this subject (Ratten and Ferreira, 2017), and no previous studies have been found that analyse the influence of culture on the EI of the students of the sport sector. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse the role that culture can play in the EI and the TPB variables related to it in university students in the sports field in two specific countries: Spain and Lithuania.\nConclusions, implications and limitations: To increase the number of entrepreneurs in the sports sector in Spain and Lithuania, the educational policies to be followed must be adapted to the context of each country, since the variables that influence the EI of students in the sports sector are different depending on the country. This paper aids in contributing to the literature about the effect of the culture in the EI, in particular of sport science utilising as framework the TPB. Moreover, it seeks to contribute with the inexistent literature that analyse the EI of SS students of Lithuania and scarce in the case of Spain. Furthermore, it highlights the differences in the curricula of the sport science degree of both countries.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how the nationality and the sport education system could affect the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) of undergraduate sport science students in two different countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A total of 249 undergraduate sport sciences (SS) students from Spain and Lithuania were analysed. The EI questioner questionnaire by Linan and Chen (2009) was used to compile the data during the 2016-2017 academic year.\nFindings: There are significant differences between the sport science students of Spain and Lithuania. The Lithuanian students have significantly higher means in the variables of EI, perceived behaviour control and professional attraction. Moreover, the variables that predict EI are different, and certain path coefficients of the variables are also significantly different.\nResearch limitations/implications: The sample originates from one university in each country; therefore, these results may not be generalisable to the entire population.\nPractical implications: The SS degrees in Lithuania and Spain should follow different educational policies with the objective of fostering EI and increasing the number of entrepreneurs.\nSocial implications: Creating adequate educational policies to foster entrepreneurship in sports across countries could improve the number of entrepreneurs in the sports sectors; thus, the youth unemployment rate will decrease.\nOriginality/value: There has been no previous research that analyses the EI of sport science students across contexts through the theory of planned behaviour. Moreover, there are no studies that compare the EI of university students between Spain (Western Europe) and Lithuania (Eastern Europe).\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Reverse (brand) anthropomorphism: the case of brand hitlerization
|
[
"Brand personification",
"Brand hate",
"Brand anthropomorphism",
"Brand hitlerization",
"Reverse anthropomorphism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Throughout human history, people have associated those they hate with evil, demonizing the hated side to single them out from the group/community to exclude and punish them (Baumeister, 1996; Staub, 1996; Sternberg, 2003). This exclusion and malediction of the hated side generally includes some symbolic expression efforts. However, evil is a theological concept and does not belong to the secular world. In religious sources, there are definitions of behaviors that are considered evil, bad, inhuman or unacceptable, but there is almost no visual definition of evil. Consequently, the appearance of evil is left to the human imagination. Our popular culture fills this imagery gap by developing worldly pictures of evil for us, (e.g. devil horns, arrow-pointed tail) or it uses those dictators who have committed crimes against humanity (e.g. Hitler) to personify evil and evil spirits.\nReverse (brand) anthropomorphism: Anthropomorphism is defined as \"attributing humanlike properties, characteristics or mental states to real or imagined nonhuman agents and objects\" (Epley et al., 2007, p. 865). In this context, brand anthropomorphism is the attribution of humanlike characteristics and/or personality features to a brand, making it seem more human and less like a soulless object (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007; Chandler and Schwarz, 2010; Aggarwal and McGill, 2012). The goal of brand anthropomorphism is to trigger a positive social relationship with a brand (Aggarwal and McGill, 2012), increasing product likability (Aggarwal and McGill, 2007), leading to developing a stronger emotional relationship with the brand (Chandler and Schwarz, 2010). This, eventually, leads to \"brand love\" (Rauschnabel and Ahuvia, 2014). In other words, marketer-generated brand anthropomorphism focuses on creating a positive consumer-brand relationship.\nMethod: To better understand consumer reactions and feelings about reverse brand anthropomorphism 28 in-person in-depth interviews were conducted. The purpose of the in-depth interviews was to understand consumer conceptualizations of the reverse anthropomorphism of evil and develop a basic understanding of consumer beliefs about the concept of evil and their reactions to consumer-based brand hitlerization communications. An interview structure containing various open questions was developed in light of the theoretical discussions described above. Interview questions were initially pre-tested with two respondents and, based on their responses, the interview format was remodified and later finalized.\nData collection: Most of the interviews were conducted in a small town with a middle-class population on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area in the Northwest of the USA. Most of the participants interviewed were not necessarily anti-corporate or anti-branding fans or supporters. The interviews took from 15 to 35 min, depending on the availability of the respondent's time and other external factors. Interviewer observations of respondent reactions, body language, mimicry, smiles, and laughs, were reflected in the interviewer's notes. Participants have a range of views and beliefs that increase the quality of the study, as is reported in Table 1.\nFindings: The study's findings are discussed in two ways. First, the \"embodiment of soul\" in Figure 1, which is defined as the first step of reverse anthropomorphizing, is investigated how participants define and conceptualize the evil concept and how they imagine the embodiment of evil soul. Later, the establishment of the \"reverse brand anthropomorphizing\" of evil, which is defined as the second stage in Figure 1, is investigated. To understand participants decoding process for reverse anthropomorphizing figures, they were asked whether these figures are perceived as fair, readable or disrespectful.\nEmbodiment of soul: In this section, as indicated in the interview process in the Appendix, participants were first asked how they define evil to understand their consumer conceptualization and embodiment of evil.\nReverse brand anthropomorphism: Participants were asked if they see a company/brand as evil after defining the concept of evil and founding the best embodiment options of evil as Hitler. Although one participant indicated that there is no such thing as an \"evil corporation,\" almost all the other consumers interviewed agreed that a company/brand can be evil. In fact, one participant confessed an association with the corporation he works for as follows: \"I know we (corporation I work for) does some bad things. I don't like it, but we are doing it\" [M, 35+, Business Manager, Christian].\nConclusion: This study introduced a new anthropomorphism concept: \"reverse brand anthropomorphism\" - defined as humanizing unnatural forces such as evil. The proposed reverse brand anthropomorphism focuses, so far, on consumer efforts to generating a negative consumer-brand relationship (such as Brand Hate). In consumer brand hate expressions, the evil concept gets a special place as the concept helps consumers to differentiate between what is considered human, moral, real, good and what is considered inhuman, immoral, unreal and bad or beyond bad. Although the evil concept is found in various brand hate semiotics and has been used as a main consumer hate expression tool in the past (Kucuk, 2015), it was not clear why and how consumer hatred personifies evil, which is defined as reverse brand anthropomorphism. Thus, this study was aimed at filling this theoretical gap.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although marketer-generated brand anthropomorphism impacts on positive company returns is studied broadly, consumer-generated brand anthropomorphisms that focus on demonizing and hitlerizing brands is not extensively studied. This study aims to examine these consumer interpretations of the evil, its symbols and personifications of brands as evil, with a new concept: \"reverse brand anthropomorphism.\"\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper provides a literature review of brand anthropomorphism and the application of the concept of evil. This paper also uses a qualitative analysis with consumer interviews to explore the proposed reverse brand anthropomorphism concept.\nFindings: This study's findings reveal that consumers see corporations as consciously evil, loosely as an embodiment of Adolf Hitler. Consumer interviews points out that corporate brand power aimed at controlling consumer value systems is associated with \"evil,\" an evil that secretly aims at possessing consumers and controlling their consumption practices. The findings of this study indicate that consumers also develop their own alternative moral market value systems, ones parallel to religious morality. Although \"evil\" imagery is often found distractive and disrespectful by consumers, the younger generation accept it as a new and alternative form of market speech.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to introduces and conceptualize a \"reverse brand anthropomorphism\" concept with examples of consumer brand hitlerization semiotics. Further, this study is also the first study to discuss evil in a consumption context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Consumers' responses to brand websites: an interdisciplinary review
|
[
"Consumers",
"Brands",
"Internet"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The media landscape has changed considerably since the development of the internet, which is also visible in the field of marketing communication. In particular, brand websites have become an important tool for advertisers (Song and Zinkhan, 2008). Brand websites provide various functionalities. Consumers can read product or brand information, watch TV commercials, customise virtual products, download music, chat with other visitors, or have a direct dialogue with the organisation behind the brand. By supplying a broad range of functionalities, these websites provide the brand with a platform to foster relationships with potential and actual customers, based on a continuous dialogue (Flores, 2004; Christodoulides and de Chernatony, 2004; Dou and Krishnamurthy, 2007; Holland and Baker, 2001).Given the popularity of brand websites, it is important to know how consumers respond to these websites and which factors influence such responses. To address this, in the past ten years an increasing number of academic studies from various fields (e.g. marketing, communication, advertising, and information systems) have shed light on this subject. To make optimal use of the findings of these studies, it is necessary to make an interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art overview of the findings. The aim of our study is to do this and to provide an integrated overview of the literature on consumers' responses to brand websites.Our study will not only give a thorough overview of factors influencing consumers' responses to brand websites, but will also give insight in the (methodological) state of research. Knowledge about the state of research is important, because it helps us to assess the validity of the findings up to now and to improve the quality of future research. Furthermore, the review gives an overview of the theories used in the past to explain consumers' responses to brand websites. Knowledge of the theories that were used or ignored can guide future researchers in their work. Describing the applied theories is especially interesting because of the interdisciplinary nature of the review which provides a chance to look over the borders of each discipline to see which theoretical principles are used in other fields. Thereby the review substantively improves our knowledge of the topic.In sum, our literature review is important for three reasons. First, it will show which factors and theories have been studied in the past and which have been ignored. Second, by accumulating earlier findings the review will give insight in the factors influencing effectiveness of brand websites. Third, the review will help us assessing the quality of earlier research to assess the validity of the findings up to now. Obviously, our literature review will help both researchers and managers in the future.The following research questions guide our research synthesis:RQ1. What is the current state of research in the area of brand websites?RQ2. Which factors influence consumers' responses to brand websites?RQ3. Which theories are used in articles about consumers' responses to brand websites?To date, no earlier review of brand website studies has been conducted. Some other reviews (e.g. Cho and Khang, 2006; Kim and McMillan, 2008) only provided reviews of internet research in general. Others provided a review of online advertising research but excluded marketers' own websites while recognising its importance (Ha, 2008).A first contribution to the field is made by Constantinides (2004). He gave a significant review of the factors that influence consumers' online shopping experiences. However, Constantinides (2004) only described the different factors but did not address the relative importance of each factor; our review goes one step further and will also judge the relative strength of each factor. Another difference is that Christodoulides and de Chernatony (2004) investigated online shopping websites while our review investigates brand websites. Thereby our review acknowledges that marketers' websites are not only used for e-commerce but also for communicating, entertaining, and interacting with customers and other stakeholders (Chakraborty et al., 2002).There is no common accepted definition of \"brand website\" in the literature, though the term is used more and more often (e.g. Muller et al., 2008; Dou and Krishnamurthy, 2007; Flores, 2004; Macias, 2003; Thorbjornsen and Supphellen, 2004; Muller and Chandon, 2003). Dou and Krishnamurthy (2007, p. 193) simply described brand websites as: \"websites that are dedicated to brands.\" Tung et al. (2006, p. 94) provided a more detailed description, defining brand websites as \"web sites that are designed to be an integral part of the firm's overall advertising campaign, with the objective of brand building.\" To focus our analysis, this review is restricted to studies on business to consumer (B2C) websites that have persuasion as the most important goal. Thus, we excluded studies on e-commerce websites, user generated content websites, and search engines.\nMethod: Literature search\nResults: Characterisation of the studies\nConclusion and discussion: State of research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The aims of this paper are to provide an integrated literature review of factors influencing consumers' responses to brand websites; to describe the state of research in the past ten years; and to give an overview of the theories used in brand website studies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a vote-counting procedure, 736 findings from 50 empirical studies are synthesized. In a vote-counting analysis the number of positive and negative significant relations between the same two variables is compared to the number of non-significant relationships.\nFindings: - The analysis reveals which person-related factors (e.g. involvement or flow) and website-related factors (e.g. usability or interactivity) influence responses to websites and brands. To explain such responses many studies integrate new theoretical concepts (e.g. interactivity or telepresence) into traditional theories. Furthermore, the review shows that the current state of research is limited by the use of forced exposure, student samples and the measurement of affective responses.\nPractical implications: - The present study investigates an increasingly popular approach to promote brands at the internet: the use of brand websites. The study gives insight into factors influencing the effectiveness of these websites. Marketers can use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of their websites.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a valuable contribution to the literature on brand websites. The paper can form the basis for future research on this topic.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Social capital and career advancement of female academic staff in Nigerian universities
|
[
"Mentoring",
"Networking",
"Career advancement",
"Female academic staff",
"Government machinery",
"Nigerian universities"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: In this contemporary world, human resources are considered most valuable assets for any organization (Snell et al., 2015; Mahoney and Kor, 2015). Thus, institutions must accept to utilize their worker's diversity and career advancement processes and practices. Such strategies are even more important in the higher education sector because of the roles that universities play in supporting socioeconomic and political development. However, such process, strategies and practice are questionable and were challenged in the higher education sector of many nations including Europe and Africa. In several cases, entrance and development of workers into formal organizations are imbalanced and lopsided for men over women.\nLiterature reviews and hypotheses: In relations to social capital theory and the framework of this study, related and previous relevant studies were reviewed on mentoring, networking and government machinery.\nMentoring: Preceding studies on career advancement revealed that mentoring is an important variable in explaining female career advancement. Jones and Brown (2011) and Kalpazidou Schmidt and Faber (2016) claimed that mentoring has a mutual and positive relationship between mentees and mentors that stimulate career advancement. Supporting this assertion, Parsa et al. (2016) indicated that mentoring had a positive and significant relationship with career advancement among academic staff in Iran. Thus, mentoring can be utilized as a mechanism for career advancement (Parsa et al., 2016). Similarly, Phitayakorn et al. (2016) argued that mentoring is an important factor for promotion and career plan. Relatedly, Scandura and Williams (2001) argued that mentoring is a predictor of career advancement. Furthermore, mentoring was found to be significant to women's career advancement (Abalkhail and Allan, 2015; Patwardhan et al., 2015). Mentoring was also found to be predicting career success and has a broader meaning which encompasses both intrinsic and extrinsic career success (Bozionelos, 2006; Sanford et al., 2015). In the same trends, Searby et al. (2015) affirmed that mentoring influences female career development in the higher education sector through coaching, sponsorship and counselor. Admittedly, Levine et al. (2013) further stressed that mentorship and its acceptability were established on the ground of trust, personal conditions and shared values irrespective of either intra-gender or inter-gender mentoring relationship.\nNetworking: Networking is a technique that fetches information, opportunities and resources from within and outside the organization. It as well enhances a person's career from the angle of compensation and promotion through partaking in a tangible assignment (Wellington and Catalyst, 2001). Dougherty and Forret (2004) and Durbin and Tomlinson (2010) found that mutual relationship between a junior and superior that provides potent career assistance is a vital technique for career advancement. Networking is built to develop and promote opportunities to higher level positions in a career in an organization through the sharing of advice and support about employees' career (McCarthy, 2004 in Durbin and Tomlinson, 2010; Ismail and Rasdi, 2007). Hence, networking is a factor of career advancement. In this regard, Warner et al. (2016) found a positive relationship between network reach and author publication in a high impact journal. It is a well-known fact that publication of articles in the reputable journal is a requirement for academic promotion and career advancement. In a related development, Huang (2016) found that maintaining the network such as of sustaining contacts and partaking in professional activities was significantly related to positive career outcome such as promotion. This outcome is an indicator of career advancement of employees. Furthermore, social networks were identified as tools to gain new knowledge, means of referrals, channels of information and avenue for socialization. Arokiasamy et al. (2011) found networking to be positively and significantly related to career advancement among female academicians in Malaysian private universities with career advancement indicated by a positive change in promotion, salary, goal achievement, learning and prospect. However, Linehan (2001) stressed that lack of networking or poor networking could negatively affect career advancement of female employees. In this sense, networking is a positive tool for aiding career progression among employees (Seibert et al., 2001; Singh et al., 2006). Nonetheless, networking can be understood from two perspectives of formal and informal networking. The former is a structural relationship among employees based on professional guidelines in which they share professional knowledge and career-related matters. On the other hand, informal networking is designed based on the conscious and social gains (Durbin and Tomlinson, 2010).\nGovernment machinery support: According to Women Watch, United Nations (2007) human resource department, such as women affairs department of every nation, has a role to play in attracting women to leadership tasks and positions through necessary support such as affirmative action like quotas. Following this call, Cho and Kwon (2010) stressed that advanced and non-advanced countries attempted to promote gender equality through various policies and program such affirmative action, sensitization and re-orientation about employees and employers relationship. However, Korean authorities have developed such policies and laws to reduce gender inequality, but the implementation of those laws and policies remains a mirage (Cho and Kwon, 2010). Nonetheless, government machinery continues the fight for transparent processes of recruitment, promotion and leadership advancement, creating awareness within institutions and the country at large on the potentials of women and their capacities so as to eliminate gender stereotypes in the society.\nResearch method: Sampling and data collection procedure\nAnalysis of results: Demographics\nDiscussion: This study aims to examine the relationships between mentoring, networking and government support on career advancement of female academic staff in the Nigerian universities. In this vein, the results of this study revealed that all of the variables were found to be related and significant to career advancement.\nTheoretical implications: This study has empirically answered the most enduring question of why some people are promoted faster than others (Lin and Huang, 2005). The reason deduced from this study and in line with the social capital theory is that those people who gain social capital than others occupy more advantageous network, support and position. Therefore, social capital allows access to a variety of support system with necessary information and skills to contribute to organizational development. Thereby, social capital, in turn, influences staff performance and career advancement such as promotion, an increase in salary and learning of new skills (Lin and Huang, 2005; Seibert et al., 2001). The social capital theory postulates that the most paramount factor to development is \"central network\" at which an individual is attached to an organization. That is, individuals' position in a central network of social relations influences social capital, which in turn creates values and access to social resources that provide positive career outcome (Lin and Huang, 2005).\nPractical implications: This study is a valuable guide for practitioners, policy makers and researchers in understanding the role of mentoring, networking and government support on career advancement of female academic staff. Thus, this study is a viable document directing toward effective management of female academic staff in particular and overall HRM in Nigeria and other countries with similar cultural and political characteristics. Hence, the study offers a policy agenda in the planning, formulation and implementation of strategies for a diverse, stable and productive university system.\nLimitation and future study: This study is limited to social capital factors of mentoring, networking and government support. Further study may be extended through an eco-system approach. The eco-system approach is recommended because career advancement is influenced by a system framework (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000; Patton and McMahon, 2014). Therefore, future studies can examine career advancement from socio-structural and cultural factors (eco-system) that strengthen or in some situation weaken human agency in career development (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000). Moreover, this study restricted to the perceptions of public universities academicians though large sample size was utilized. However, further studies need to broaden scope that integrates opinions of female academic staff from both public and private universities.\nConclusion: In conclusion, the findings of this study showed that all of the three social capital factors had predicted career advancement of female academic staff in Nigerian universities. The results revealed that mentoring, networking and government machinery were positively and significantly related to the career advancement of female academic staff. The results mean that the three hypotheses were supported. Hence, practitioners especially university authorities and national government can adopt these findings as a guide to policymaking and implementation about career advancement of female academicians. Thus, it can be further deduced that adopting these independent variables would predict career advancement. In turn, career progression of female academic staff to the top would create balance and lead to diverse university institutions. It is to be noted that a diverse organization with both males and females proportionately distributed at senior level shall promote competition and consequently improve performance and productivity of universities and nation at large.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the social capital factors of career advancement of female academic staff in Nigerian universities.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A measurement and structural analysis were conducted for the three independent variables and a dependent variable on 20 public universities. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The dependent variable was female academic staff career advancement and the independent variables were mentoring, networking and government machinery. Using stratified random sampling, 532 academic staff were selected as the study respondents. They represented sampling criteria such as federal and state universities.\nFindings: Structural modeling analysis showed that social capital variables, specifically mentoring, networking and government machinery variables, were significant contributors to the career advancement of the female academic staff in Nigerian universities.\nPractical implications: This study creates an insight into the knowledge of career advancement among female academic staff in public universities. These institutions dominate the university system in Nigeria and serve as the main avenue for university education in the country. At the level of higher institution, HRD is significant, particularly in creating awareness among academic staff about their career planning and aspirations, the role that the perceived environmental factors play in their advancement to higher positions in the university and how they should further utilize those factors.\nOriginality/value: The paper examines social capital factors (limited to mentoring, networking and government machinery) that are of concern to managing the career advancement of female academic staff in public universities.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The implications of Brexit for the governance of telecommunications markets in the United Kingdom
|
[
"United Kingdom",
"European Union",
"Telecommunications industry",
"Governance",
"International mobile roaming",
"Single market"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The results of the UK referendum on membership of the European Union (EU) held on 23 June 2016 came as a shock, not least to many who had voted for Brexit (Hobolt, 2016). It was immediately followed by the realisation that the winning side was backtracking on promises of increased expenditure on the National Health Service (NHS) and curtailed immigration, and had been cavalier in its total absence of planning. Dougan (2016) called the Brexiteers \"dishonest\" and \"criminally irresponsible\", whereas the Advertising Standards Authority merely noted that political communications were not covered by its codes, that otherwise require honesty and truthfulness (ASA, 2016; White and Johnston, 2016). There was no coherent view of what Brexit meant (Table I), how long it might take, what was to be negotiated under the poorly drafted Article 50 TEU (Treaty on the European Union)(Hofmeister, 2010; Wyrozumska, 2012) and the separate EU-UK trade agreement, or how four decades of EU legislation, only some of which had been transposed, was to be continued, revised or repealed, to provide for the promised improved competitiveness and greater economic freedom, now that the dead hand of Brussels had been cast off (Mason, 2012). In particular, there was no view on whether the UK was to remain part of the single market, a territory without internal borders or other regulatory obstacles for the free movement of goods and services (EC, 2016c), or of the EU Customs Union[1]. Even the constitutional measure to invoke Article 50 TEU was subject to judicial review, with the High Court rejecting the use of the royal prerogative in favour of a parliamentary decision[2]. There were calls for a second referendum, including a petition that generated a parliamentary debate (BBC, 2016; Bogdanor, 2016; Clegg, 2016; Hansard, 2016), or for a general election to confirm the decision and its terms, although these will not be available for some years. There were half-joking references to a \"Hotel California scenario\", from the lyric \"you can check out, but you can never leave\", with the complexities overwhelming the decision to go[3]. The questions that arise for the telecommunications sector are a very small part of a much larger constitutional, economic and political picture, but are important in themselves and may be relevant for other sectors and other countries.\nExiting the European Union: The four decades of UK membership generated little affection for the EU, with politicians and political parties presenting \"Europe\" as an embarrassing economic necessity, requiring acceptance of ways presented as Byzantine and Mediterranean (Anderson and Weymouth, 1999; Vasilopoulou, 2016; Goes, 2016). Continental Europe was different, whether bizarre or funny, but always inefficient and irrational. Pro-European politicians emphasised the need for or their success in achieving reforms, fighting against rather than demonstrating solidarity with fellow MSs. \"Brussels\" was often blamed for measures with which British ministers and Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) had agreed, while the press cooked up stories about absurd and non-existent rules.\nPan-European telecommunication services: Reforms to the telecommunications sector over recent decades have created a confederal patchwork of national regulatory fiefdoms, with the EC having pushed governments for liberalisation and pressed regulators for harmonisation of implementation measures. Despite some efforts to introduce the country of origin principle, it is not used in telecommunications. However, there are fully globalised markets for the network equipment purchased by operators and for the devices used by consumers, plus global and regional providers of corporate network services and regional satellite television services for residential markets.\nUnited Kingdom policy making: The original EU policies for liberalisation of telecommunication markets were adapted from the UK, themselves adapted from the USA, with the addition of denationalisation[9]. However, in recent years, the capacity of the HMG to formulate policy, let alone innovative or radical policy, has greatly diminished, having largely been outsourced. The principal debates have taken place in Brussels, around the EC, which conducts consultations, legislative reviews and impact assessments. The European Parliament (EP) and Council of Ministers, in which HMG is represented by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), have reacted to the positions adopted by the EC. There has been extensive, if not always well-documented, lobbying by manufacturers and operators of the EU institutions, and national governments and parliaments, part of their multi-level political engagement. Manufacturers and operators have pressed their interests at the expense of consumers and business users at every level and opportunity, both directly and through trade associations (e.g. Digital Europe, ETNO and the GSM Association), often more effectively coordinated than governments.\nScotland: That the Brexit referendum arose from a promise in a Conservative Party manifesto caused knee-jerk opposition in Scotland, where opponents had long sought to tar them as \"toxic\" and to make it a Tory-free zone (Kendrick and McCrone, 1989)[13]. The Scottish National Party (SNP) threatened that if people in Scotland voted to remain, while the overall UK vote was to leave, this would meet its manifesto commitment to hold a second independence plebiscite, being \"a significant and material change in the circumstances that prevailed in 2014\" (SNP, 2016, p. 23). This formula circumvents its earlier promise that the 2014 plebiscite had been once in a lifetime. Despite making repeated threats of a second plebiscite, even publishing draft legislation (SG, 2016), the SNP remains fearful that a second failure would doom it to political oblivion (Curtice, 2014). While there is much rhetoric about Scotland in the EU, there has been very little preparation of the policies or legislation necessary for independence or EU membership (e.g. to meet the Copenhagen Criteria). There is a complete absence of any real affection for or solidarity with continental countries and cultures, instead it is a cold and dismally economic relationship, concerned about foreign labour and export markets, very much in the British tradition of transactional benefits. There is a significant risk that an EU MS would block negotiations for Scotland to accede under Article 49 TEU, at least until after a successful independence plebiscite or even until independence had been completed, which would take a further two years[14]. Several MSs are concerned not to encourage provinces to pursue secession (e.g. Belgium, France and Spain).\nConclusion: The changes following the Brexit vote were remarkable, far faster than after the Chanak or Suez crises[19], with the replacement of the prime minister and many senior ministers, and the development of new governmental structures to negotiate exit from the European Union. Given the rapid pace, this analysis will probably be overtaken by events. Nonetheless, the processes are potentially quite long, with the delayed invocation of Article 50 TEU, the reaching of an agreement between the UK and the EU, obtaining the consent of the EP and a qualified majority of the MSs. Conceivably, the UK might withdraw its Article 50 application, although the possibility is fraught with legal and political uncertainties. The UK might lose component parts, with talk of referenda in Northern Ireland and Scotland for unification of Ireland and de-unification of Great Britain. Other MSs (e.g. France) might apply for Article 50 TEU, leading to the breakup of the EU.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the implication of the exit of the UK from the European Union (a.k.a. Brexit).\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the options for the UK and the freedom this creates for the government to design its system of governance for the telecommunications and related economic sectors.\nFindings: Brexit, other than the Norway Option or membership of the European Economic Area, allows the UK Government considerable freedom to reshape its system of governance for telecommunications. The strongest influence in such a redesign would be vested commercial interests, with the risk of subsequent underperformance and insufficient rigour.\nResearch limitations/implications: Events have moved relatively quickly, yet the outcome of the negotiations remains difficult to predict, beyond broad scenarios.\nSocial implications: There will be a need for greater involvement of consumers and business users in the process of recasting the regulatory governance system if it is not to be for the benefit of vested interests.\nOriginality/value: This is the first substantive analysis of Brexit for the telecommunications sector.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Behavioral intentions of disabled tourists for the use of peer-to-peer accommodations: An application of fsQCA
|
[
"Disabled tourist",
"Behavioural intention",
"Complexity theory",
"FsQCA",
"Sharing economy",
"Orthopaedic"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Accommodation is one of the key elements of concern in the hospitality industry. Accommodations do, of course, vary significantly from the economical to the luxurious. The type of business based on what has been referred to as a \"sharing economy\" or \"peer economy\" has emerged as a new area of interest within the tourism industry, in which people are using online platforms for the \"sharing of consumer goods and services that provide new ways for end-users to generate income from their possessions\" (Heo, 2016, p. 1). In the case of peer-to-peer (p2p) accommodations, people use online platforms (e.g. Airbnb) to market accommodations that are available to \"rent\" by describing the characteristics of each specific place and the distinct services that they offer. Such platforms enable travelers to book these alternative accommodations to enjoy a more home-like experience (Hamari et al., 2015). It should be noted, though, that a wide range of both tangible (e.g. convenience and service provisions) and intangible (e.g. host attributes) features influence travelers' decisions regarding where to stay (Prud'homme and Raymond, 2013). More specifically, socio-economic factors (e.g. lower prices compared to hotels and opportunities to socially interact with one's host) have boosted the popularity and success of p2p accommodations (Guttentag, 2015; Tussyadiah, 2015). As a result of such increased interest, an investigation into the expectations and motives of disabled travelers regarding the accommodations sector, and more specifically the sharing economy, is important because disabled tourists, given their potential needs for more attention and specialized treatment, are more profitable customers (Burnett and Baker, 2001; Yau et al., 2004). What this means is that this is a market of both general economic growth and one of increasing interest due to the fact that factors such as \"increasing life-span[s], decreases in communicable diseases, improved medical technology, and improved child mortality\" (Yau et al., 2004, p. 947) are yielding more frequent travel among the disabled. As Burnett and Baker (2001, p. 4) state:\nLiterature review: Accessible tourism\nTheoretical background and the configurational model: Complexity theory provides the sufficient theoretical support for the research model to predict the causal conditions of disabled tourists' intentions to use p2p accommodations, thus construing it as a complex social phenomenon. This theory posits that the investigation of the net effects of predictive variables does not provide accurate results that are capable of predicting the causal models that lead to expected outcome condition. As the prediction of behavioral outcomes is a complex process, a set of complex interactions between antecedents (i.e. conjunctural causation) must be considered as a causal model capable of predicting the conditions leading to a desired outcome (Sehring et al., 2013). This complex interaction of antecedents is called \"configuration\" and the method for identifying this configuration is \"configurational modelling\" (Rihoux and Ragin, 2009). This approach, in contrast to symmetrical thinking, uses a distinct configuration of causal antecedents to explain the conditions leading to a set of desired outcomes. This asymmetrical approach is an advancement in theory and methodology for modeling disabled tourists' behavioral outcomes, specifically with respect to the use of p2p accommodations. The following section describes the relevance of fsQCA and complexity theory in more detail. The technical terms used to describe this approach are explained and compared with those of the conventional symmetrical methods in the work of Olya and Gavilyan (2016).\nMethodology: Data and procedure\nResults and discussion: Preliminary and descriptive statistics analyses\nConclusion and implications: Remarks on findings\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the causal models that predict disabled tourists' behavioral intentions to use peer-to-peer (p2p) accommodations. This study also explores the causal models through complex combinations of demographic factors, host attributes and the levels of perceived charm, convenience and other service features of the accommodations as a means of describing disabled tourists' behavioral outcomes.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was administrated to measure the study variables. Using the convenience sampling technique, the questionnaires were distributed among disabled individuals with orthopedic disorders who reside in North Cyprus in May 2016. The five respondents were later interviewed about their needs and expectations from p2p accommodations. A set of preliminary tests (for both reliability and validity) was conducted, and descriptive statistics were used based on the scale items. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to test the proposed research model, which revealed sufficient and consistent conditions leading to behavioral intentions of disabled tourists in their use of p2p accommodations. The predictive validity of the model was then tested. Finally, the results of the fsQCA were evaluated based on the key tenets of complexity theory.\nFindings: The findings reveal under which conditions disabled tourists tend to use p2p accommodations. This empirical study has relied upon the use of causal models integrating combinations of demographic variables and host and accommodation place attributes (i.e. charm, convenience and service features) which were put forth as sufficient predictive configurations of the behavioral outcomes of disabled tourists within the context of a sharing economy. Ultimately, this study finds that p2p customers are not limited to travelers with low income levels.\nResearch limitations/implications: The views of people with orthopedic problems in North Cyprus were obtained for testing the configurational model, which means that the results do not necessarily represent a large range of customers' perspectives. Although this limitation was addressed through the application of a powerful compensatory analytical approach (fsQCA), it is advised that data from tourists with various types of disabilities in other countries be collected for future studies.\nPractical implications: The results of this study provide practical implications for hosts on how to combine accommodation place characteristics (e.g. charm, convenience and service) with their own personal attributes (e.g. knowledge and eagerness) to bolster the disabled tourists' intentions to use p2p accommodations. It is hoped that the results of the fsQCA using the demographic variables presented here will guide businesses toward performing target marketing. This is useful for hosts who wish to attract more disabled tourists, a profitable segment of the market.\nSocial implications: This study draws social attention to the disabled tourists as potential customers in the sharing economy. Conducting an empirical study that considers the social inclusion of tourists with disabilities in the emerging version of hospitality business is helpful to both the supply and demand sides.\nOriginality/value: To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study that investigates the indicators of disabled tourists' intentions to use p2p accommodations. This study also adds to the current literature by modeling the behavioral intentions of disabled tourists within a sharing economy using a pragmatic and set-theoretic approach (i.e. fsQCA in conjunction with complexity theory).\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Defining transparency movements
|
[
"Open data",
"Accountability",
"Government 2.0",
"Open government",
"Accessibility literacy",
"Creative Commons",
"Free software",
"Ideology of openness",
"Open research data",
"Transparency movements"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Just about any contemporary practice is pressured by claims toward more transparency (Austin and Upton, 2016). However, it is rare that such imperatives of openness originate within the governmental policy. The movement toward more transparency is pushed from a multitude of actors with diverse arguments and ideologies. The concept of transparency movements has sometimes been mentioned as a concept of use when talking about this contemporary push toward more openness (Florini, 2007; Shaxson, 2007; Fenster, 2011; Lupia and Elman, 2014). However, so far this concept has not been targeted for serious theoretical treatment. The alternative term of \"accountability movements\" has also been suggested (Chen and Haynes, 2016).\nTransparency and transparency movements: The ideal of transparency can be tracked back to Kant and his view of scientific reasoning as providing enlightenment, rooting out ignorance (Weinert, 2009). During much of the twentieth century, transparency was tied to the evolving political imperative of freedom of information as well as the notions of access to information (Calland and Bentley, 2013). It has been suggested that transparency with time has become a catchall answer to a wide variety of social, financial, political and corporate problems (Birchall, 2011).\nMethod: The act of defining a new phenomenon is fundamentally a matter of construction, tying together previously non-associated concepts, allowing interesting patterns to emerge. The following attempt at identifying, demarcating, and defining transparency movements as a major contemporary phenomenon involves the usage of numerous concepts. Each main concept will thereafter be discussed separately.\nA theoretical definition of transparency movements: This section stipulates a definition intended to be useful for a critical understanding of transparency movements:Transparency movements are transnational entities emerging from unfinished ideologies of openness as well as methods of datafication to mobilize a clearly articulated kind of digital resource in the form of code, content and/or data for purposes of reuse and/or accountability.\nTransnational entities: Transparency movements appear as global rather than a national phenomenon. Frequently, they emerge as commonsensical and nonintrusive at various national contexts, bypassing national regulation. In that sense, transparency movements frequently serve as mechanisms for regulating on a global rather than national basis. As the development of common rules through traditional international legislation is slow, and frequently inefficient, transparency movements can operate in a certain power vacuum. In many cases, national legislation worldwide are attempting to catch up with the opportunities and challenges created through diverse transparency movements.\nCentralized organization: Only two examples of a centralized organization was found in this material. The first of these is the Open Source Initiative (Raymond, 2001) which forked away from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in the late 1990s. There were numerous reasons for the rift within FSF; one of them being that discussions on \"free software\" alienated the business community (Wiley and Gurrell, 2009). It was argued that OSS should utilize the community to drive innovation in a manner superior to commercial software production and be less of a commercially antagonistic social movement (Raymond, 2001). OSS is centralized and does not have local chapters. However, it is affiliated with other transparency movements such as CC and Wikimedia Foundation (Open Source Initiative, 2017). OSS was not only inspired by mobilization of open code but also by the enhancement of quality supplied by a peer review of academic papers, as well as transparency in government (Raymond, 2001).\nDecentralized organization: Within the decentralized organization, power is distributed to numerous local actors worldwide. Even though the headquarters of FSF is situated in Boston, there is a multitude of chapters worldwide. The setup is identical for five other movements. It is important to note differences between, on the one hand, organizations such as CC, owning an intellectual asset in the form of their licensing platform, thus with clear ownership over a niche area, and, on the other hand, Open Knowledge International (starting around 2005) attempting to be the transparency movement not only of open data, but also open educational resources, open research data and Government 2.0 (also known as open government data). For instance, projects involving open data have in recent years generated a strong interest from actors such as the G8 (2013) and OECD (2015). Six decentralized transparency movements are described in Table II.\nNo central organization: Ideological transparency movements do not develop a unified central organization. Rather, well-developed ideas and rhetorical devices inspire change within organizations worldwide. This means that specific challenges of openness are handled locally at various organizations worldwide. Among these organizations we find several combining different kinds of resources: Government 2.0, open science and open research data. Notably, in the case of open research data empirical materials and scholarly publications are connected, thereby combining open data sets with open access (data and content).\nReuse and accountability: In the process of reviewing transparency movements, it became obvious that there are three separate traditions: accountability, reuse and accountability/reuse. The accountability tradition can be said to have open government as an umbrella concept. Movements associated with this tradition are focused on mobilizing content and notable movements are Open government, Open science and Transparency International. There is, furthermore, an emphasis on countering corruption and enhancing democratic practices, thereby increasing efficient practices of institutions. In an influential text, Popper (1957) suggested that the liberal democratic state has to invite transparent discussions in order to ward off totalitarian tendencies. Open government is also closely associated with the ideals of freedom of information. Such regulation became widespread within Western democracies during the second half of the twentieth century (Ackerman and Sandoval-Ballesteros, 2006).\nMethods of datafication: Although some movements have roots from the twentieth century, the phenomenon of transparency movements is here understood as connected to digitalization of everyday life (Yoo, 2010). The concept of datafication was suggested by Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier (2013) as a way to talk about how analog phenomenon could be made into a format suitable for quantitative processing. For the purpose of this article it is useful to build upon the broader approach to datafication suggested by Lycett (2013) which in turn is inspired by a framework developed by Normann (2001). This involves the use of three concepts also useful for understanding transparency movements: dematerialization, liquification and density.\nIdeologies of openness: The notion of an ideology of openness was introduced by Eisenberg and Witten (1987) as a critical description of normative beliefs about openness as an unmitigated good. An ideology can be described as a system of normative beliefs upheld by a certain group. Eisenberg and Witten (1987) argued that demands for increased openness appear as tempting and seductive imperative for many organizations but implementation nonetheless becomes problematic. Eisenberg and Witten (1987) suggested that the promotion of increased openness should be understood as always taking place within complex contexts and already existing organizational tensions. Strategic goals of increasing transparency could therefore be connected to specific economic or policy agendas. An ideology of openness could even serve to undermine an existing culture of transparency. With the creation of formal and transparent communication routes, power brokering would instead be shifted to more informal channels.\nUnfinished ideologies of openness: Ideologies of openness, regardless of if they are oriented toward ethics, opportunity or free, start out as simple and powerful notions aimed at generating consensus and passion within an emerging community. Transparency movements are concerned with the mobilization of certain resources for specific purposes. However, given the ubiquitous presence of powerful tools for datafication, taken together with an expressed ideology of openness, it becomes problematic to articulate restrictions regarding the usage of mobilized resources. Transparency movements are, in other words, ideologically committed to unbounded openness. As individual movements gain momentum, problems connected to unbounded openness tend to emerge. A critical understanding of ideologies of openness can therefore be developed further through notions of \"unfinished platforms\" and the \"generative pattern\" identified by Zittrain (2008, p. 99) in his discussion of the future of the internet.\nDiscussion: Through the definition of the larger phenomenon of transparency movements, it becomes possible to investigate a wider range of societal aspects than what is possible if movements are studied one by one as well as by separate disciplines.\nConclusion: This paper has attempted a theoretical approach in order to both articulate and define transparency movements as a broad phenomenon. Transparency movements were defined as transnational entities emerging from unfinished ideologies of openness as well as methods of datafication to mobilize a clearly articulated kind of digital resource in the form of code, content and/or data for purposes of reuse and/or accountability. This definition was developed through an exploration of 18 transparency movements. These were found to be situated within the accountability tradition, the reuse tradition and the accountability/reuse tradition. Some of these movements were had centralized or decentralized organizational structures. However, 10 of the movements did not have any dedicated organization at all. These were described as ideological transparency movements.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: A multitude of transparency movements have been developed and grown strong in recent decades. Despite their growing influence, scholarly studies have focused on individual movements. The purpose of this paper is to make a pioneering contribution in defining transparency movements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An exploratory approach has been used utilizing movement-specific professional and scholarly documents concerning 18 transparency movements.\nFindings: Different traditions, ideologies of openness and aspects involving connections between movements have been identified as well as forms of organization.\nOriginality/value: This is the first attempt at identifying and defining transparency movements as a contemporary phenomenon.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Savings measurement for capital equipment purchasing: challenges and conceptual model
|
[
"Savings measurement",
"Capital equipment purchasing",
"Challenges",
"Savings",
"Purchasing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Capital equipment purchasing (CEP) exerts a significant influence on purchasing success. The percentage of total purchase spend for capital equipment averages about 8-11 percent (CAPS Research, 2005; Fearon and Bales, 1995). But CEP decisions also influence related lifecycle costs (e.g. fuel, maintenance, repairs and operating supplies), which add up to 5 percent of total purchase spend (Fearon and Bales, 1995), as well as production costs. In evaluating a CEP project, savings measurement plays an important role in purchasing performance measurement. However, savings measurement for CEP faces some special challenges. For example, in many cases, it is not possible to compare the actual price with previous prices, as is typically done for production materials, and follow-up costs are partially higher than the pure purchase price.\n2. Theoretical frame of reference: 2.1 Capital equipment purchasing\n3. Case studies: 3.1 Case study methodology\n4. Discussion and model: 4.1 Discussion of procedure-specific challenges\n5. Conclusion and outlook: Our study presents practical procedure- and behavior-specific challenges that must be addressed. The six procedure-specific challenges in savings measurement for CEP primarily address topics concerning components and calculation methods. The seven behavior-specific challenges deal mainly with manipulation, trust and judgment in savings measurement for CEP. In many cases, the challenges described have been discussed in the literature on purchasing performance measurement, savings measurement, purchasing organization and behavioral management accounting. However, the discussion in the literature often does not consider any of the special features of CEP. Analysis of these research areas leads to a preliminary conceptual model for CEP savings measurement. On the one hand, the formulated propositions state that savings measurement for CEP is influenced by internal and external determinants. And on the other hand it affects CEP's performance and manipulation, trust, as well as the judgment of CEP's savings measurement results.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Many companies are not satisfied with the methods used to calculate savings for capital equipment purchasing (CEP), and the existing academic literature does not provide adequate suggestions for solving this problem. Therefore, the authors will aim to analyze how companies measure savings for CEP and attempt to identify the main challenges in this area. In order to understand which savings measurement system for CEP is appropriate in a specific situation, they will explore the relevant determinants and effects of savings measurement for CEP.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After presenting a description of the theoretical foundations of CEP and savings measurement, the article presents three cases of savings measurement for CEP from manufacturing industry and pinpoints the major challenges involved. These challenges are then discussed with reference to the relevant literature and a conceptual model for savings measurement for CEP is developed.\nFindings: The authors identify six procedure-specific and seven behavior-specific challenges. Procedure-specific challenges in savings measurement for CEP primarily address topics concerning components and calculation methods, while behavior-specific challenges mainly involve manipulation, trust and judgment. The authors' formulated propositions state that savings measurement for CEP is influenced by internal and external determinants and affects CEP's performance, manipulation and trust, as well as judgments which may be made about CEP's savings measurement results.\nPractical implications: The managerial implications of the authors' research concern the successful design and process of savings measurement for CEP.\nOriginality/value: Savings measurement for CEP, as a special case of purchasing performance measurement, has received little attention in the academic literature. Thus, the authors will present calculation methods, along with identifying and discussing challenges and revealing relevant determinants and effects.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Non-decision making in the reform of equal pay policy: The case of Finnish gender equality legislation
|
[
"Finland",
"Legislation",
"Equal pay",
"Non-decision making",
"Tripartite policy process"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The concept of non-decision making can be used to describe how gender equality issues are marginalised and delegitimised in order to keep them off the political agenda. Non-decision making is essentially about power (e.g. Lukes, 1974). The suppression of women's shared interests is central to the maintenance of a patriarchal society. By analysing non-decision making, it is possible to understand the dynamics and tactics used by patriarchal systems in order to marginalise gender equality issues and maintain the patriarchal status quo (e.g. Marchbank, 1994).\nNon-decision making: Non-decision making is a theory concerned with systemic bias, issue suppression, and covert use of power, and as such is a very suitable approach for analysing feminist questions. Non-decision making is a useful concept for analysing situations where there are significant, but latent, power conflicts and actors intentionally limit the scope of decision making to relatively non-controversial issues (Bachrach and Baratz, 1962, 1963; see also Bergqvist et al., 2015). The concept of \"mobilisation of bias\" describes how the dominant values, political myths, rituals and institutions tend to favour the vested interests of certain stakeholders. Analysing non-decision making can be conducted by investigating the mobilisation of bias in a certain context: what are the dominant values, myths, political procedures and rules of the game? Which individuals or stakeholders benefit from the existing bias and which do not? And, what are the dynamics of non-decision making, the manner though which the status quo is upheld? (Bachrach and Baratz, 1962, 1963).\nOn equal pay policy: The right to equal pay is based on several international agreements and conventions (e.g. European Commission, 2006; ILO, 1951; European Union, 1957; UN General Assembly, 1948, 1979). The equal pay principle is also included in the Finnish legislation and especially in the Act on Equality between Women and Men 1986/609 (1986). It is indeed a human right and mandatory for those states that have ratified the conventions to implement.\nThe Finnish context: Many Finns believe that gender equality is already a reality in Finland (e.g. Julkunen, 2009). Indeed, in international comparisons Finland tends to do rather well (e.g. World Economic Forum, 2015). However, when Finnish society is examined more carefully, the picture is more complex, and a variety of unresolved issues, such as the gender pay gap, remain. Gender segregation in the Finnish labour market is unusually strong; men often work in the private sector in industries such as manufacturing and construction, while women often work in the public sector in industries such as health care, social services and education (Official Statistics of Finland, 2015). Gender segregation is also routinely offered as an explanation for the aggregate gender pay gap (e.g. Vartiainen, 2001; Luukkonen et al., 2004).\nVested interests of the stakeholders: As mentioned earlier in this paper, the same organisations that negotiate on wages and framework agreements for Finnish labour market also negotiate on equal pay policy and legislative initiatives, such as the case presented here. The renewal of the gender equality legislation and new wordings on how to conduct pay comparison, is very directly linked to wages, wage determination practices and wage relativities between different industries and occupations, negotiated by these central stakeholders (Table I, p. 10). Thus, the legislative renewal presented a clear threat to these stakeholders since it has potential to change wage relativities and uncover injustice in wage determination. Thus, the tactics of non-decision making (e.g. Marchbank, 1994, 2000) were needed in order to protect their vested interests.\nData and methods: The analysis focuses on the minutes of the meetings of the tripartite working group that shaped the renewed legislation in relation to pay comparisons. The data consist of documentation of a total of 18 meetings of the tripartite working group: the minutes of the meetings and appendices. The minutes of the meetings are a valuable source of information about tripartite decision making and the dynamics of non-decision making. All the decisions made and the rationale and arguments behind the decisions were documented. All participants have also approved the minutes of the meetings. A limitation of the data is that not everything is documented in the minutes.\nNon-decision making in the tripartite policy process: First barrier: setting the political agenda\nConclusions: The concept of non-decision making is useful in understanding the dynamics behind a policy initiative that failed, or at least was severely damaged by, power struggles between the stakeholders and deliberate acts to keep certain issues off the agenda. This paper sought to make a contribution to the literatures on non-decision making (e.g. Bachrach and Baratz, 1962, 1963; Bergqvist et al., 2015; Marchbank, 1994), corporatist politics (e.g. Saari, 2015; Ikavalko, 2010; Salmi and Lammi-Taskula, 2014) and equal pay policy (e.g. Saari, 2013; Fransson and Thornqvist, 2006; Rubery and Koukiadaki, in press). This was achieved by analysing the competing interests of different stakeholders, tactics used in order to limit the scope of decision-making and the implications for the developed law.\nPolicy implications: While the actual effects of the renewed legislations will be known only after some years, it seems unlikely that the legislation would be successful in promoting equal pay. The resulting legislation only implies small changes to the previous situation. The prior legislation did not give detailed advice on comparing wages of men and women. The new legislation gives more detailed advice but at the same time, advises to only compare within job titles and pay grades, where no large differences are to be found. Comparing only within existing pay grades and job titles leaves the majority of gender-based pay differences, which appear between different job titles and pay grades, invisible and unaffected.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse an example of non-decision making in the Nordic tripartite policy process, namely, the reform of the Finnish gender equality legislation and the law for equal pay comparisons.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses non-decision making as a conceptual framework for qualitative analysis of the documentation of the working group that drafted the law for equal pay comparisons. The analysis focuses on the strategic responses used by the participants in order to defend the status quo and resist change in legislation.\nFindings: The key findings are that the suggested law for conducting equal pay comparisons as part of gender equality planning in Finnish organisations changed dramatically in the tripartite policy process. Employer organisations successfully prevented the most relevant features from being implemented in the reformed law.\nResearch limitations/implications: The findings of this research indicate that there is a need for more research on the tripartite policy process and its implication on developing policy.\nSocial implications: This paper shows what kind of power employer and employee organisations use in Finnish policy making. As a result, the reformed gender equality legislation is a compromise reflecting the vested interests of different stakeholders. The findings highlight the challenges of developing policy in tripartite policy process.\nOriginality/value: The tripartite policy process and its implications have rarely been studied. The value of this paper lies in both originality of the topic and approach, and the societal importance of the findings.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Testing the stability of "wisdom of crowds" judgments of search results over time and their similarity with the search engine rankings
|
[
"Ranking",
"Change in time",
"Wisdom of crowds",
"Relevance judgement"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Numerous general models of information seeking and web searching behaviour have been proposed in the past such as Ellis (1989), Bates (1989), Kuhlthau (1991), Dervin (1992), Johnson and Meischke (1993), Marchionini (1995), Spink (1997), Wilson (1999), Fisher et al. (2005), Knight and Spink (2008), Du and Spink (2011) and Case (2012). Relevance is a central notion in information science and is an important part of user information seeking models (Saracevic, 2007). This study investigates an under-explored topic in the literature (Saracevic, 2007): stability and change of user assessment of search results over time. Human evaluation of documents relevance is a complex process that requires coordination of multiple cognitive tasks (Du and Spink, 2011). User result evaluation is needed in many fields and has many purposes, hence it is important to understand the factors and phenomena behind it. This study aims to extend the understanding of the result evaluation component of the proposed web search behaviour models, with respect to the temporal change factor. In this broad context, this research contributes to modelling the change in user relevance evaluation behaviour over time.\n2. Related work: First, a review of some previous studies is presented, which apply \"wisdom of crowds\"-based techniques to improve and learn search result relevance and ranking. Then, the most relevant user studies are reviewed, which are related to agreement on ranking and relevance judgements and comparison between user and search engine ranking.\n3. Method: 3.1. Study setting\n4. Results and discussion: To answer the first research question of this study we computed the changes in the individual users' judgements and the corresponding changes in the consensus judgements by the two types of measures defined above and then compared these changes. It was found that the majority of changes in user evaluation of search results are local within 1-2 close ranks and relevance values. Moreover, the consensus rankings (obtained by aggregation of the individual ranks) were considerably more stable (changed in time less) than the individual users' rankings, but were still quite different (by 30-60 per cent) from the search engine's rankings. These findings imply that \"wisdom of crowds\" decreases the subjectivity and increases the stability of user ranking and thus can be used as a reliable reference for user relevance evaluation behaviour modelling.\n5. Conclusions and future work: Ranking of search results according to their relevance to the users is one of the primary tasks of search engines. However, this task is extremely challenging especially due to the changes over time in user preferences, which affect their assessment of search results. This paper presented an exploratory study of this issue that has not been addressed before.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: One of the under-explored aspects in the process of user information seeking behaviour is influence of time on relevance evaluation. It has been shown in previous studies that individual users might change their assessment of search results over time. It is also known that aggregated judgements of multiple individual users can lead to correct and reliable decisions; this phenomenon is known as the \"wisdom of crowds\". The purpose of this paper is to examine whether aggregated judgements will be more stable and thus more reliable over time than individual user judgements.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this study two simple measures are proposed to calculate the aggregated judgements of search results and compare their reliability and stability to individual user judgements. In addition, the aggregated \"wisdom of crowds\" judgements were used as a means to compare the differences between human assessments of search results and search engine's rankings. A large-scale user study was conducted with 87 participants who evaluated two different queries and four diverse result sets twice, with an interval of two months. Two types of judgements were considered in this study: relevance on a four-point scale, and ranking on a ten-point scale without ties.\nFindings: It was found that aggregated judgements are much more stable than individual user judgements, yet they are quite different from search engine rankings.\nPractical implications: The proposed \"wisdom of crowds\"-based approach provides a reliable reference point for the evaluation of search engines. This is also important for exploring the need of personalisation and adapting search engine's ranking over time to changes in users preferences.\nOriginality/value: This is a first study that applies the notion of \"wisdom of crowds\" to examine an under-explored in the literature phenomenon of \"change in time\" in user evaluation of relevance.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The futures agenda of the future CEO
|
[
"Futures markets",
"Leadership",
"Education",
"Professional education",
"Training"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Historically, workforce components were discrete and hierarchical. The organizational chart laid out a vertically-oriented structure of positioning. The top and the bottom were dramatically far apart. The middle segment filled the gap in between and differentiated the levels of managerial responsibility and functionality. Although complexly layered, organizational structure exhibited clarity and stability. Such reassurance was essentially an affirmation of both the general business environment and the particular culture of the company. Both converged to provide the ultimate yield of future continuity. Finally, all defined not only American wealth but also dominance. The Fortune 500 companies collectively summed up the triumph of capitalism and their CEOs the constellation of leadership.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To shape a futures agenda for future executives.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Identifies and examines five future leadership foci: globality, technology, talent development and retention, innovation, and professional development and training.\nFindings: - The position of CEO needs to be reinvented and to move in the direction of hybrid competencies.\nOriginality/value: - All future executives will have to be futurists and learning leaders.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Quality cost of material procurement in construction projects
|
[
"Construction",
"Simulation",
"Case study",
"Project management",
"Novel method"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Material procurement is an intrinsic part of all construction projects. Nothing can be built if there are no materials to work with. Unfortunately, the material procurement process is not as simple as gathering sufficient funds to purchase the materials required for a project. Many challenges exist in material procurement. When deciding on a supplier, construction firms cannot consider the price alone but must also take into account geographical proximity of the supplier and the associated delivery time. Firms also need to weigh the lower cost of ordering large quantities against the difficulty of storing the procured material on a congested construction site. Quality of the material and reliability of the suppliers are important factors that firms need to keep in mind during the procurement process, as replacing defective materials is a costly endeavor and late deliveries lead to project delays (Manavazhi and Adhikari, 2002). Since construction materials can often command a large share - 40-45 percent - of an entire project's cost (Agapiou et al., 1998), material procurement issues are commonly cited as a cause for delays and cost overruns. Proper management of the procurement process can mean the difference between failure and success, on time, on budget, high quality delivery of a project. Companies cannot afford to neglect maintaining and improving their material procurement process if they intend to survive in the hyper-competitive construction sector.\n2. Literature review: Meeting quality and customer satisfaction targets is no longer sufficient for businesses today. These objectives must be achieved at the lowest possible cost. To facilitate this outcome, a company must necessarily take into consideration the COQ. Calculating the COQ is not a straightforward task as there has been some debate with regards to which costs should be included as a part of COQ (Machowski and Dale, 1998).\n3. Methodology: A single construction project forms the basis of our case study. Having a single example allows for a greater depth in our investigation into construction material procurement costs, although the results from our study will not be as generalizable as one utilizing multiple construction projects and firms. The reason the COQ approach is chosen for determining material procurement costs is due to COQ models having a history of successful applications in many different industries, as our earlier literature review has demonstrated. Evaluating how different scenarios would affect material procurement's COQ is necessary if we are to provide guidance on improving the process of material procurement. As setting up experiments for different scenarios in the real world is infeasible, we opted to perform simulations.\n4. Analysis: The primary motivation behind our analysis of the simulation results is preventing costly reworks, which directly result from quality failures in the procurement process and which Love and Li (2000) recognized as the leading cause of cost overruns in construction projects. By identifying the activities which help construction material procurement and the activities which harm them, companies can streamline the process and eliminate wasteful activities and the costs associated with them, thereby reducing the COQ. Although findings from a single project case study are not applicable to all firms, the findings can serve as starting points for other researchers investigating construction material procurement quality costs.\n5. Discussion: Although the effects of modifying appraisal costs have been discussed in Section 4, the reasons underlying the deviation of the results from Juran's model have not been explored. In this section, we will give an overview of the nature of the construction industry as well as the appraisal activities in order to propose a number of explanations for the obtained results. And, we will also discuss the possible causes for the different reactions to changes in appraisal cost exhibited by the POs (Figures 4 and 5).\n6. Conclusion: In this paper, we developed the first COQ model for the construction material procurement process which accounts for supplier costs. By building a simulation of the COQ model, we were able to examine a number of scenarios where the appraisal cost and prevention cost parameters were modified in isolation and in combination.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Material procurement constitutes a large share of the overall cost of construction projects. Understanding the factors influencing the cost of quality (COQ) in the procurement process could help identify opportunities for lowering quality cost without compromising quality. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: In this paper, a COQ model for the construction material procurement process is developed using the traditional prevention-appraisal-failure (PAF) approach. Using data from a $4bn aluminum smelter construction project, the authors conducted a simulation of the COQ model to evaluate various quality assurance policies.\nFindings: This paper confirms that raising the prevention cost leads to a drop in failure cost as well as COQ for the project studied. While the authors are unable to provide blanket recommendations as the results are derived from a single project case study, it does suggest that construction material procurement processes would benefit from a higher prevention expenditure. And for certain cases where the authors observe a deviation from the traditional Juran's model of COQ - the high appraisal cost in the procurement process - reduction of appraisal expenditure may in fact be more beneficial than its increase.\nOriginality/value: The research results suggest that appraisal expenditure should be tailored to each purchase order in order to maximize the total benefits. Additionally, this paper presents the first COQ model developed for the construction material procurement process. Another unique feature of the model is its inclusion of supplier-side costs, which are excluded in the conventional COQ analysis.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
An analysis of residue net estate distribution to bayt al-mal in Singapore
|
[
"ʿAṣabah",
"AMLA",
"Dhawū al-arḥām",
"Farḍ",
"Farāʾiḍ",
"Radd",
"Residual net estate",
"Bayt al-māl"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The current practice of the Syariah Court in Singapore is that the residual net estate goes to the bayt al-mal - which is identified as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) - when there is no 'asabah (agnatic residuary heir by blood) in the family structure. This practice has created uneasiness among female legal heirs, spouses, some converts and the community at large. The above-mentioned situation does not arise when there is an 'asabah legal heir.\nBackground of the drafter of Administration of Muslim Law Act, Chapter 3: The AMLA, Chapter 3, is an Act relating to Muslims in Singapore. It makes provisions for regulating Muslim religious affairs, for constituting a council to advise on matters relating to the Muslim religion in Singapore, and for establishment of a Syariah Court.\nBooks mentioned in Administration of Muslim Law Act, Chapter 3, s114.1: All of the six books mentioned in s114.1 of AMLA help in defining Muslim law. Thus, the need to understand all the six books is essential for us to implement and be able to appreciate Muslim law and its contemporary applications to suit the Singapore context.\nDefining residual net estate: After the apportionment of the net estate as per the Qur`anic shares to the respective fard legal heirs, the excess will be the residual net estate. For example, a deceased left behind only his mother as fard legal heir; the residual net estate is one minus 1/3, the Qur`anic share for the mother. Thus, the residual net estate is 2/3. This residual net estate would go to the surviving 'asabah legal heirs if they are present. When there is no 'asabah legal heir, in Singapore, bayt al-mal will acquire the residue, as the radd doctrine is not practiced there.\nDefining radd doctrine: In the context of Muslim inheritance law, radd in Arabic means \"to return\". It is the practice of returning the residue of the net estate established through the fara`id law to the fard legal heirs or dhawu al-arham when there is no 'asabah legal heir. As in the above example, if the radd doctrine were practised, the 2/3 residual net estate would be returned to the mother instead of handing it over to the bayt al-mal.\nThe four Sunni schools' traditional views on the doctrine of radd: The Maliki view\nDefining the surviving legal heirs in fara`id law: Legal heirs are well defined in the Qur`an, Surah al-Nisa` (4:7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 33, 176), Surah al-Ahzab (33:6) and hadiths.\nIssuing inheritance certificate in Singapore: Inheritance Certificate is a certificate issued by the Syariah Court of Singapore stating its opinion on the persons entitled and the shares in the estate of a deceased. It is a requirement in the probate process. Currently, in Singapore, the Inheritance Certificate can only be issued by the Syariah Court through its e-Inheritance Certificate application. The application is solely following the early fara`id views of the Shafi'i School. If the application is made based on another School, like the Hanafi, the Syariah Court official will process the Inheritance Certificate manually based on the early fara`id view of the School of the deceased.\nContemporary practices of the four Sunni schools: The condition set by classical Shafi'i and Maliki scholars is that bayt al-mal is a public treasury or is a representative of the 'asabah so that it can inherit the residual net estate when it is \"properly administered according to the law\" (Coulson, 1971, p. 50; Nawawi, 2001, p. 247). N J Coulson explains the meaning of: \"properly administered according to the law\":\nLegislation of the four Sunni schools in some Muslim and non-Muslim countries: Legislation in Muslim countries recognises that today's bayt al-mal is not able to function as the state or public treasury as in the past. Thus, it is difficult to adopt the previous stand that bayt al-mal is or represents, the 'asabah. Hence, the residual net estate should go to heirs related by blood ties or marriage.\nAuthority to legislate Muslim estate law in Singapore: The authority in Singapore to legislate Muslim law on estate matters lies with the civil court as defined in AMLA, Chapter 3, s1, the State Courts or High Court, not the Syariah court. The civil court can also make a judgement on any hearing of Muslim estate based on Muslim law as defined in AMLA, Chapter 3, s114.\nReform and legislating of the residual net estate or radd doctrine in Emory University Islamic family law archive: Shari'ah law is always characterised as a divine ordain that is eternally valid and immutable. The issue is not Shari'ah law per se, but the interpretation based on past and new knowledge and its application in different times, locations and situations, which are the drivers of this reform and development. There are thus various developments of Muslim law in different Muslim countries regarding the treatment of the residual net estate. In some countries the fard legal heirs are prioritised over bayt al-mal to receive the residual net estate; in some others, it is the dhawu al-arham (Ahmed, 2019).\nResults and discussion: Maslahah mursalah (public interest), as argued by Kamali (1998, p. 267), is an accepted Shari'ah principle based on the needs of the community. It encourages the betterment of the community or lessens something that threatens the well-being of the community. The deduction of this concept is from some Qur`anic verses such as Surah al-Hajj (22:78):\nConclusion: In today's context, the bayt al-mal does not function as the bayt al-mal during the victorious decades of the Muslim empire. It no longer supports the full needs of the needy in the Muslim community, especially the legal heirs or the dependents (Muslim or non-Muslim) of the deceased.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to examine the current practice in Singapore regarding an inheritance issue: disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-mal, which is identified as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, MUIS). The issue arises when the deceased leaves fard (fixed-share) heir(s) and/or dhawu al-arham (outer family members) but there is no 'asabah (agnatic residuary heir by blood). Fard legal heirs are those beneficiaries for whom the Qur`an prescribes inheritance of a pre-determined share. Disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-mal results in a reduction in the share due to the fard legal heir or worse, a total loss to the dhawu al-arham legal heirs.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach based on library and case study research has been adopted to elaborate practices that fall under the purview of the Administration of Muslim Law Acts (AMLA), Chapter 3.\nFindings: The current practice seems biased against, especially, women and spouses. It creates high dissatisfaction in the community, especially those affected by such practices. This paper elaborates on the practice of residual net estate distribution in Singapore and the contemporary practices of the four Sunni madh-habs - the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali jurisprudential schools - in other countries.\nResearch limitations/implications: In Singapore, Muslim law is defined and implemented by the civil court, not the Syariah Court or MUIS. The recommendation to change from the current classical practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS to the contemporary practice that is relevant to today's context lies with the civil court and Government of Singapore. The choice for the Syariah Court and MUIS to adopt the contemporary practice as per Hanafi School by rule of the court or the government is beyond this research. Zayd ibn Thabit, Caliph Abu Bakr and a small number of companions held the view that the residue net estate asset must go to the bayt al-mal, the current classical practice. The contemporary practice adopted by Sayyidina 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, Jabir ibn Zayd and majority of the companions' view, is not in favour of the residue net estate asset to go to the bayt al-mal; rather they view that it must be returned to the legal heirs.\nPractical implications: Awareness in the community in the current controversial practice in Singapore when the residue net estate through the fara`id law was giving to bayt al-mal instead of returning to fard or dhawu al-arham in the absence of the 'asabah legal heir as stated in the Inheritance Certificate issued by Syariah Court.\nSocial implications: To understand the contemporary Muslim law and the practical and just application in today's Singapore context as supported by the AMLA, Chapter 3.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study that challenges the current practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS in Singapore, thereby endeavouring to restore justice to the community.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Looking for status appeal? Act interested in your child's education
|
[
"Human capital",
"Education",
"Positional strategies",
"I21",
"J24"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: So your absolute achievement - not merely your relative success - may depend on your relative position in some other space(Sen, 1983).\n1. Introduction: Adam Smith is often cited in the economics literature as one of the first to give importance to the idea of relative consumption. However, Thorstein Bunde Veblen was the first to formalize the notion of status consumption. Subsequent research over the last century has found that individual's consumption of luxury (status) goods largely serve a signaling function (Heffetz, 2011). In general, one's career choice (i.e. lawyer, dentist, etc.), job position (i.e. manager, assistant director, etc.), office location (i.e. corner office, 18th floor, etc.) gives some general information of a person's income. Because this information is not always available to others, individuals resort to status (positional) goods to correct information asymmetries (i.e. size of home, car make, etc.).\n2. Motivation model: In this section, we introduce a household decision model. Due to data constraints our empirical exercise will measure positional and non-positional with a proxy measure of time investment. To keep the theoretical model consistent with our empirical model, we evaluate a household that faces time allocation choices. For simplicity, we assume that the representative agent is born with a finite endowment, ei, j>0. Further, we measure the endowment of household i, a member of reference group j in time consumption units psei, j>0. Let ps>0 be a constant that scales the endowment into time units. The endowment is used to satisfy personal consumption ci, j and child's time educational investments xi, j+yi, j. The consumption equation is as follows:(1)\n3. Estimating strategy: Our model suggests that households view their child's educational visible time investment as a positional good. Our strategy is to estimate household visible time investment in her/his child's education as a function of her/his endowment rank in reference group j. We estimate parent i's status (visible) time investment by the following equation:(9)\n4. Results: We estimate Equation (9) and show the results in Table III. Panel (A) outcome variable is visible time investment, while Panel (B) estimates non-visible time investment. A positional good should fall as a household moves up in rank. It also follows from the theory that non-positional goods should not respond to household rank. As noted earlier, Panel (A) is estimated with a Tobit censored model with robust clustered standard errors at the state level. Panel (A) reports marginal effects computed at average levels using the expected likelihood of an uncensored outcome method (i.e. [?]E(pos|x)/[?]xk=bkPh(xb/s)).\n5. Conclusion: In this paper we show that parents use their parental involvement in child's education as a status (positional) good. We first develop a theoretical model that predicts that positional time investment is falling in household rank. As the parent's position in the reference group improves. he/she lowers consumption of the status good. The model shows that having positional preferences lead to overconsumption of the status good. Therefore, a rise in rank partially alleviates the effect of overconsumption of the status good and raises utility. In addition, we show that positional preferences have varying effects on a household's well-being. A prediction of the model is that high rank households are more sensitive to changes in rank than low rank households. More importantly, our model produces an inverse U-shaped relationship in responsiveness to changes in rank. The model indicates that demand for the positional good is more elastic (sensitive) to changes in rank at around the 70th percentile (in income). Interestingly, we find small sensitivity at the two extremes of the income distribution.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study how positional concerns influence a parent's time investment decisions of her/his child.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The author presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of household positional and non-positional time investment choices in the education of her/his child.\nFindings: The author shows that a parent who is mindful of her/his relative position in the income distribution will use her/his time investment choices to influence her/his perceived status. The theoretical model predicts that visible time investment increases as members of her/his reference group move up in rank. The author shows that moving down in rank lowers utility. The author employs National Education Longitudinal Studies (1988) data set to test the model prediction and shows that visible time invested in child's education is explained by place on the income distribution.\nOriginality/value: The author extends the positional literature to account for parent time investment in her/his child's education. The work suggests that time investment in one's child's education is based on more than altruistic preferences and resources. It leaves open the possibility that perceived social standing influences a household's time investment in their child's education. From a policy perspective, the findings provide a new way to think about drivers of parental involvement.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Factors affecting intentions to purchase via the internet
|
[
"Electronic commerce",
"Shopping",
"Behaviour",
"Consumer behaviour",
"Online operations",
"Hong Kong"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: The impact of the www on the retail sector has been much greater than that of any other commercial sector, resulting in the creation of a new form of retail format - electronic retailing (e-tailing). Since web-shopping behaviour does not necessarily follow traditional consumer behaviour, e-tailers face new challenges, as existing knowledge of consumer behaviour cannot be directly applied to the new web-based shopping domain. The research literature and research workers tend to be exuberantly optimistic about future growth of web-shopping activities in the industrialized Western economies, see Pew Research Center (2001), Fetto (2002), Blue Earth Internet (2001) and Forrester Research (2001). Similar studies in developing economies influenced by Asian culture-influenced are scarce, an exception being Michael et al. (2002) who predicted that growth in web buying and selling activities in the Asia-Pacific region should continue for many years.Comments and anecdotal evidence suggest that web-shopping activities in Hong Kong are on the increase, with a resulting rapid growth in the e-tailing business. The investigation of web-shopping behaviour in Hong Kong has therefore become a timely topic for research. Some models for examining web-shopper behaviour such as technology acceptance models (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989) and online pre-purchase intentions models (Shim et al., 2001) have appeared in the literature the past few years. A significantly high proportion of the studies have been concerned to assess the behaviour of consumers in the West (Siu and Cheng, 2000). Since consumer behaviour can be culture-specific, marketing strategies need to be tailor-made to fit the specific markets (Peter and Olson, 2002), and it is questionable whether the reported findings in the West are directly applicable in a cross-cultural context. Hong Kong is a Chinese community steeped in Chinese culture and factors influencing web-shopping behaviour among Westerners may not have the same effects on local consumers. A search the literature results in only few studies of web-shopping behaviour that are relevant to the Hong Kong market. Such studies focus on the characteristics of Hong Kong web-shoppers such as their age, their income level and their occupations.This paper reports some initial steps in modelling web-shopper behaviour in Hong Kong. An empirical model is used to explore local web-shopper behaviour using local subject in the survey sample. The research framework partly incorporates Rogers' (1995) innovation-decision model and related consumer behaviour theories. The specific objectives of the research are:* to investigate the general attitudes towards web-shopping in Hong Kong;* to study the relationships between past web experience, past web-shopping experience, formation of attitude towards web-shopping, adoption decision, the use of the web for product information search, and the formation of web-shopping intentions in Hong Kong; and* to understand the influence of promotional offers and product categories on the strength of web-shopping intentions among Hong Kong web-shoppers.\n2 Literature review and background to e-tailing in Hong Kong: Even though many Hong Kong e-tailers have folded up over the last several years, there are others who maintain a continuous investment policy to nurture and improve their e-tailing business. These include the main supermarket chains in Hong Kong, Park'N Shop and Wellcome, and a few other retailers such as the wing on department stores and the commercial press. However, the growth of local web-selling activities in the past few years has been relatively slow when compared with markets in the West.Two research studies seem to be relevant to the e-tailing market in Hong Kong. The first was conducted by Technowledge Asia Pte Ltd (1999), a relatively comprehensive study, inquiring into the demographics of Hong Kong web-shoppers and the e-tailing business in Hong Kong. The other study was conducted by Siu and Cheng (2000) and focused on adopting web-shopping in Hong Kong. Both studies suggest that web-shoppers are mostly internet-users and have relatively high education backgrounds. This in turn suggests that as the number of internet users in Hong Kong grows, a growth in the number of web-shoppers will also follow. According to the reports from census and statistics department, the number of internet users in Hong Kong has been increasing in recent years. Over 71 per cent of households have personal computers at home, and out of that, 91 per cent had internet connection in the year 2004; this compares with 60 and 80 per cent, respectively in the year 2001. These figures clearly indicate that the penetration of information technology in the household sector is growing rapidly and that the number of internet users is therefore increasing.2.1 Research on online consumer behaviour\n3 Hypotheses to be tested: Shim et al. (2001) postulated the existence of the information search stage during the process of web-shopping and the result supported that intentions to use the web to search for information was not only the strongest predictor of web-purchase intention, but also mediated the relationships between web-purchase intentions and other predictors such as attitude towards web-shopping, perceived behavioural control and past web-purchase experiences. We therefore propose to test:H1. Positive attitude towards web-shopping would increase the likelihood of using the web to search for information.\n4 Methodology and results: 4.1 The sample and data collection\n5 Discussion and concluding comments: 5.1 Attitude towards web-shopping\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - To investigate web-shopping behaviour in Hong Kong: identification of the general attitude towards web-shopping; relationships between past web-shopping experience, attitude towards web-shopping, adoption decisions, search behaviour and web-shopping intentions; and influences of promotional offers and product categories on web-shopping intentions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Relevant hypotheses were constructed and a web-based questionnaire survey was than conducted using technically educated subjects. The proposed hypotheses were statistically tested and principal components analysis and structural equations were used to produce a structural model.\nFindings: - Web-shopping intentions are directly affected by web-search behaviour and web-shopping adoption decisions, and are indirectly affected by web-shopping attitudes, past web-shopping experiences and past experience with the web. Web-search behaviour was a stronger factor than adoption decision in terms of influencing web-shopping intentions. The presence of promotional offers had a positive effect on web-shopping intentions, and web-shopping intentions were different for different product categories.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The sample employed was composed of technically educated undergraduates and graduates and thus limiting generalizations to a higher levels.\nPractical implications: - Experienced internet users and experienced web-shoppers are more likely to be potential future web-shoppers. Those who have a general dislike for shopping and who tend to buy in a great haste when the purchase becomes absolutely necessary may eventually be another group to become web-shoppers.\nOriginality/value: - The primary value of this paper lies in extending the understanding of Hong Kong web-shopper behaviour, and in developing an empirical model that can partly explain the processes leading to web-shopping intentions.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Value of buildings with design features for healthy living: a contingent valuation approach
|
[
"Hazard prevention in buildings",
"Payments",
"Prices",
"Housing"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: 1.1 Pricing housing qualities\n2. Healthy building parameters: After the outbreak of SARS in Asia, which claimed 300 lives in Hong Kong alone in 2003, healthy living environment became a major concern that called for focused studies. In China, healthy building concept can be traced back to at least 3,000 years ago of Zhou Dynasty. In view of the traditional architectural concept, homes were arranged in harmony with the environment so as to create a perfect balance among people, building and environment (Mak and Ng, 2004; Tam et al., 1999). More recently, there have been studies showing that traditional Chinese building design benefits occupants' health, for example, Rossbach (1983); Berglund et al. (1991); Tam et al. (1999); Jeffreys (2000); Braubach and Bonnefoy (2003); Mak and Ng (2004) etc.An abundance of previous studies investigates the impacts of building orientation, micro-climate, environment and building design on occupants' health. For example, Friedler (1991); Raja et al. (2001); Prianto and Depecker (2002); Oral et al. (2004) and Burnett et al. (2005) showed the relationships between natural cross-ventilation and orientation with indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Graham (1990); Murtagh et al. (1993); Denny (1995); Fonseca et al. (1996); Braubach and Bonnefoy (2003) and World Health Organization (2000) posit that pollutant and dust accumulate in stagnant air inside a poor ventilated house, which is not conducive to good health of the occupants. Mohsen and Oldham (1977); May (1979); Hammad and Gibbs (1983); Hothersall et al. (1996); Cheung et al. (1997); Chand et al. (1998); Griffiths (1999); Chau et al. (2004, 2005); Prianto and Depecker (2003); Li et al. (2003) and El Dien and Woloszyn (2005) identified the performance of a balcony in terms of aesthetic, utilities, noise pollution reduction and ventilation improvement. Leslie (2003); Kaplan and Kaplan (1989); Hartig and Evans (1993); Gratia and De Herde (2003); Raja et al. (2001) and Ghisi and Tinker (2004) contended that a big window with landscaped or sea view is conducive to psychological health.Although scientific studies have, to a certain degree, supported these healthy building parameters, the extent of the effect perceived by the residents and thus the willingness to pay for individual parameters is unknown. This is not helpful to the decision making process of designers and developers in providing the design of these parameters. In order to provide quantitative support, our research studies, by the use of CVM, the willingness to pay for these parameters.Based on the above literature review, we formulate a 4x6 matrix of building parameters (Figure 2). The top hierarchy of healthy building parameters is divided into four groups: architectural design, building services design, external environment and property management. Each group contains six relevant building characteristics, which will be put forward in the questionnaires.\n3. Methodology and data: Contingent valuation method (CVM) was first proposed by Ciriacy-Wantrup in the 1950s, and it is a widely used method in environmental cost-benefit analysis, such as Alonso (2002); Turner and Bateman (1993) and Venkatachalam (2004). It is a good method for valuing non-market goods and provides a direct appraisal of a hypothetical market. Nomura and Akai (2004) concluded that CVM is a valid statistical method on processing responses to questions on how much the respondents are willing to pay for certain benefits. Since the market is hypothetical, visual aids like photographs were used to supplement the description of goods in terms of the quantity and quality. Respondents were required to state their WTP for the change of status quo of the goods. These data were collected by questionnaire survey.A sample of our questionnaire is shown in the Appendix (Figure A1). The questionnaire consists of two parts, namely, the background information of the interviewees and the CVM analysis of the healthy building parameters. In the first part, residents were asked about their background such as household monthly income, age, and sex. In the second part, residents were asked to specify the price difference in percentage according to different conditions of the parameters. In our survey, questions on the eight identified healthy building parameters were asked separately. When one parameter is being asked, all other parameters are kept constant. Diagrams or floor plans, similar to Figures 3 and 4, depicting the difference in one parameter are provided on questions concerning the provision of balcony, the availability of cross ventilation and the window size. Other questions concerning unambiguous features, such as floor level, orientation, headroom and size, are not supplemented with diagrams. Since not all people were familiar with market price, a hypothetical base price is provided as a datum. For example, in the orientation of a building, the market price of a north-facing flat is taken as the base, residents are asked to give price differences for the other three orientations. All hypothetical market prices are expressed in Hong Kong Dollars (US$1=HK$7.8).The target sample for the survey was selected through consideration of the following opportunities and constraints:* Residents living in private housing estates are more sensitive to the monetary value of healthy building parameters compared to residents who live in public housing estate, where the property value may not be the residents' concern as their housing needs are provided or subsidized by the government.* As our study scope cannot cover all citizens in Hong Kong, we aimed at the mid-range sector of society to provide a reasonable representational sample. It was decided that the selected estate should be a reasonable size private estate where residents earned an above average income and were educated enough to appreciate the value of their property and health issues. It was agreed that the estate should preferably be one of the 22 popular private residential housing estates on Hong Kong Island as referenced by the property market statistics published by the Rating and Valuation Department (2005). Such selection criteria avoided the study being tainted too much with side issues arising from some respondents coming from extreme poor or wealthy backgrounds and polarized educational levels.* The access for carrying out the survey required the cooperation of the estate management.The study was carried out in collaboration with the Hong Kong Construction Industry Institute (CII-HK). Given the above three criteria, CII-HK sourced two suitable estates. One of these was chosen because the estate management team was willing to give full support to carry out the survey. The questionnaire sheets were sent to each of the 13,000 households in the estate. There were 60 housing blocks with the building heights in the range of 26 to 30 storeys in the estate. The survey was conducted in mid of June 2004. A total of 259 valid responses were received by return mail in the mid July 2004. The response rate is about 2 per cent, which is not very high rate. However, it was the best achievable even with the full support of the CII-HK and the estate management team given the concurrent publicity of health issues by the government at that time.\n4. Results: 4.1 Profile of the respondents\n5. Limitations and future study: First, this study focuses on the building itself and is limited to studying the eight identified building parameters for healthy buildings. There are other important built-environment parameters such as landscaping, open space provisions, density zoning and micro-climate of urban planning which should also be studied in relation to health issues of residents. Second, the sample of this study was confined to a private housing estate only and all the occupants were middle class citizens of Hong Kong in order to limit any effect from side issues arising from opinions from extremely poor or wealthy respondents. Hence, the results of this study do not rule out that people of lower or higher income also value equally the healthy issues in their living environment. This requires further verifications. The results of this study can be further validated by carrying out similar research with the support of the government or quasi-government bodies to cover a larger sample size with wide range of income group for better understanding of the other underlying factors. Third, with the indicative results from this study, further research is recommended to investigate the same WTP relating to health concerns for the different types of household and different categories of housing such as public housing, luxury private housing and mass private housing developments. Fourth, it has been argued that the quality of stated preference data is inferior to observing revealed preference (like hedonic price method) because consumers answered CVM questions without contemplating their actual spending on the specified items. This shortcoming can be resolved by clearly explaining to respondents the item to be valued.\n6. Conclusion: The incident of a highly contagious disease killing people in the densely populated housing estate awakened the public interest in promoting the quality of life. Since there is no recognized market existing for healthy building, we set up an artificial market to find out a monetary value of intangible benefits of healthy building. By conducting a poll on basis of an imaginary market, the individual's likings and intent of improvement can be obtained. It is believed that reasonable people always link willingness with affordability. Therefore, the survey provides a means of probing respondents' willingness to pay and the questions are focused on consideration of healthy building parameters against the desirable price. Each datum furnished was treated as ceteris partibus. Potential buyers were asked to state how much they were willing to pay for the specified changes in building attributes that are believed to have relationship with the health of occupants. As a result, the survey shows positive impacts on housing price induced by the provision of the following eight healthy building parameters:1. facing south;2. possession of sea view;3. height at the range between 18th and 28th floor;4. higher headroom;5. larger floor area;6. larger window;7. possession of a balcony; and8. openings facilitating cross-ventilation.In summary, the ANOVA results bring forth an interesting insight on characteristics of the respondents and their willingness to pay. Age variation does not influence WTP. However, high or low incomes group has different responses to WTP. In Hong Kong, most residential units facing a road were sold at lower prices. Low earning groups who cannot afford a high price are forced to accommodate themselves to the less favorable environment.Once the trends of the public demand for healthy buildings are known through this study, stakeholders in the building industry such as architects, developers and builders would change their practice in light of this. The offer of healthy buildings may then become the major selling point in the market economy. For purpose of meeting the need of the client, the building experts should gradually follow the trend to develop healthy buildings in the future.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - After the outbreak of the disease of \"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)\" in Asia in 2003, a healthy living environment is a major concern. The purpose of this paper is to study the value of healthy building parameters by the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), which gives a direct appraisal of the occupants' value.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Healthy building parameters were identified in previous studies. Questionnaires are distributed to residents of a large-scale high-rise private housing estate in Hong Kong to find out their willingness to pay (WTP) for individual healthy building parameters.\nFindings: - The results suggest that most residents are willing to pay for healthy building parameters, each with a different value.\nResearch limitations/implications: - The paper is limited to studying the eight identified building parameters for healthy buildings. The sample of the study is confined in a private housing estate only and all the occupants are middle class citizens of Hong Kong. The results of the study can be further validated by carrying out similar research with the support of the government or quasi-government bodies to cover a larger sample size for a better return rate.\nPractical implications: - The findings have practical implications on cost-and-benefit analysis of housing design.\nOriginality/value: - Housing price is commonly regarded as the total value of a bundle of housing quality and environmental characteristics. The implicit price of individual quality and characteristic is often identified by the hedonic pricing model. However, its validity depends on a lot of econometric assumptions. The study is the first to be conducted after the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong to gauge the opinions of residents on health/economy issues\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Perspectives of studies on document abstracting: Towards an integrated view of models and theoretical approaches
|
[
"Abstracting",
"Document management",
"Information retrieval",
"Research"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction and background: The practice of abstracting and summarizing, like other documentary operations such as classification, and indexing is as old as the need to have a synthesized record of the content of a document so that it can be quickly identified, assimilated and retrieved. We find examples of abstracting even in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages (Witty, 1973); Skolnik, 1979; and Manzer, 1977). Abstracting, under various names, and depending on the cultural and political changes taking place in the different societies, would assume different functions, according to the basis of the document for which it served as a reference content. In our western culture the scientific abstract, understood as a product of synthesis and as a transmitter of scientific communication would be socially instituted during the seventeenth century, with the appearance of modern science and the development of periodical publications. Later, with the birth of Information Science as a discipline, it would assume definitively the informative, documental function it has today. Since that time abstracting has been at the forefront, consolidating its status within the documental treatment of content.Abstract and scientific journals are two sides of the same coin, to the extent that the different types of scientific communication offered by journals (original articles, review articles, case studies, etc.), bestow different specific characteristics on the format, the content, the function and the style of the abstracts. The development of the information society with the technological advances in the communication channels and in the written culture affects not only the communication practices of contemporary science but also the reconceptualizations of the abstract as a documental and social activity. This is reflected in a strong impulse, which studies on the abstract are undergoing, with significant advances from the proto-theoretical studies (1960-1980) towards more systemic analyses of the concept of the abstract from various approaches and methodologies. This research activity bestows visibility and consolidation to the theory of the abstract and to the general abstracting process which, in its own right in the sphere of documental organization and representation of knowledge, is seeing the spread of its field of epistemological action with respect to study objectives, research models and application designs.\n2. Research perspectives: the consolidation of document abstracting studies: Until well into the 1980s research into the field of document abstracting had been basically philosophical, abstract and inductive. It was based mainly on summarizing experience and the normative prescription of the documentary process, with the focus on issues relative to the characteristics of the abstract, its types (typology of the abstract) and the basic principles of summarizing (Collison, 1971; Borko and Bernier, 1975; Cremmins, 1982; Rowley, 1982; Cleveland and Cleveland, 1983; Pinto, 1987, Moreiro Gonzalez, 1989). This is an interpretative approach, which bit by bit would move towards more systematic postulates. This evolution is influenced by the same things as other disciplines, e.g. applied linguistics, cognitive psychology, or artificial intelligence.It is during this period that fundamental questions are addressed about the nature of document abstracting, with the vindication of its textual character and the arrival of several typological proposals of the abstract. Likewise, studies appear on the summarizing process as being structured in various stages (Lancaster, 1996; Pinto, 1992, Izquierdo Arroyo, 1993; Moreiro Gonzalez, 1993, 2004) or mathematical and statistical models were applied to generate automatic (Paice, 1990; Johnson et al., 1993; Salton et al. 1997; Endres-Niggemeyer et al., 1995; Endres-Niggemeyer, 1998; Marcu, 1997, 2000; Barzilay and Elhadad, 1999; Moens et al., 2000; Teufel and Moens, 2002).These theoretical and descriptive approaches are shown to be insufficient to explain and validate abstracting in all its complexity and they move towards another type of more dynamic studies, as is seen in Izquierdo Alonso and Moreno Fernandez (2009), pp. 53-55, 63-70). Research is extended towards descriptive, applied perspectives, which are more closely related to the immediate, empirical nature of the abstract. Some studies focus on the abstract product, analysing specific cases related to its nature, to the quality of the abstract or the automation processes. Others look more at the summarizing process-action, with approaches along the lines of the cognitive and socio-cultural sciences, in the search for methods and concepts to study the general summarizing process in its various dimensions.\n3. Diversity of methodological approaches: Studies on the abstract are characterized by outlining alternative approaches to the concept itself of the abstract and the context of the abstracting. These have their origin in diverse interests and lead, in turn, to the adoption of alternative methodological approaches.Thus, the research to date has responded to four basic models: linguistic; psycho-cognitive; socio-cultural; philosophical-hermeneutical. These proposals have tended to give priority to certain elements: the abstract as a product of summarizing, the figure of the abstracter and the cognitive processes, the user within a social context, the abstract in its socio-cultural realization, etc. The problem lies in that the different models have marked their object of study on the basis of parameters and diverse, very often contradictory, techniques. On the other hand, we need to take into account that any attempt to classify the studies of document abstracting must be flexible, given the multidimensionality of the object under analysis and the polyhydric nature of its activity.From the above, and given that the abstract is a social act of communication, we can establish another more operative classification criterion on the basis of the model of communicative activity in which the abstract is generated, contextualized and disseminated. We can, therefore, establish four approaches:1. Textual: centred on the object/text.2. Psycholinguistic: centred on the process.3. Socio-cultural: centred on the user and the discursive community.4. Interactional communicative: holistic synthesis.These key nuclei need to be seen as alternative, and in many cases complementary, perspectives. In all of them we can observe different postures adopted according to predomination or the complementariness of the models adopted, to which we have already referred. We will briefly review each, highlighting the most significant contributions and their limitations in order to justify our choice of integrating approach.Thus, in Figure 1, the abstracting study is conceived as a complex prism. At the top floor the prism shows three basic approaches: user-centred, process/text-centred, communicative-interactional approach. These are interacting with several theoretical models (linguistic, psycho-cognitive, philosophical and socio-cultural models) situated at the lower floor.3.1 Focus of abstracting centred on the product/text: product approach\n4. Final considerations: Taking into account all the proposals reviewed here, in our view studies on document abstracting should move in the direction of:1. The integration of documentary abstracts studies in a broader framework of communication and activity theories, because the discourse is the common object under examination for distinct subfields of language studies. Therefore, this shared ground should be explored and applied for documentary abstract research by combining rhetorical and literary genre theories, systemic functional linguistics, pragmatics, composition studies and academic writing, discourse analysis, etc. A theoretical framework may be constructed taking into account the existing works in these disciplines that have defined the genre notion. The aim would be to identify and highlight the specific semiotic and pragmatics textual features, which might be considered to present abstracting problems so as to improve decisions in abstracting services. These genre researches would focus on discovering and investigating the conventional rhetorical structure of abstracts across disciplines in order to help documentary knowledge representation and information retrieval.2. The definition of suitable conceptual frameworks, which define and explain all the phenomena related to document abstracting, taking abstracting as a communicative documental process, which is developed within a specific social and rhetorical context.3. Incorporating the genre theory reinforces abstracting studies for LIS in terms of providing a metatheoretical frame for analysing the differences for abstracting across different scientific and professional genres, with implications for abstracting standards and an improvement in subject access in retrieval of information. As Hjorland and Kyllesbech Nielsen (2001), p. 262) explains, the abstracts are an important indicator of the relevance of a document during an information search. Thus, the research states a taxonomy of subject access point based on a taxonomy documents and document structures: \"we lack a taxonomy of document types, their composition and elements and consequently the relative contributions of subject access point\". LIS needs to develop a genre-based cross-disciplinary approach, which takes into account the dynamic aspects of disciplinary tensions, to create appropriate conditions for performing the documentary abstracting process and to meet the discursive community needs for multidisciplinary communicative expertise. According to Hjorland (1997, pp. 254, 260) \"the structures of knowledge reflect the needs and behavior of activity systems and discourse communities [...] document structures develop in response to different demands, they are also influenced by epistemological positions or paradigms\".4. There are two points in the genre theories applied to documentary abstracting. Different disciplines may need different textual representations of the same document; it depends of the several factors, as the abstract type, needs of a particular users community, etc. The abstracts also may be focused to rethorical moves of the canonical texts. Furthermore epistemological norms guide what it is considered important in abstracts. In the positivist traditions it could be the empirical methods used, the size of population investigated, experimental or other procedures used, etc. In the more hermeneutical traditions it could be that theoretical assumptions/tradition from or with which the author argues.5. In this way, a strong review of abstracting policies is necessary. The changes should have affect on abstract guidelines and abstracting standards, scientific publishers and online abstracting services.6. The description and explanation of the abstracting process from the various variables and factors which take part in its creation, searching for regularities, normative principles adapted to the new practices of social communication, and strategies which allow these practices to be learnt and improved.7. The use of various methodologies especially oriented towards empirical research with its own, representative designs and with ad hoc measuring tools which enable theoretical studies to be validated and nourished, so establishing a cyclical relation between the observation of the abstracting process and theoretical reflection so that hypotheses can be defined and then verified in the specific practice of the professional abstracting process.8. The use of validated analytical methods with results that can be generalized and replicated. The various corpus studies have been applied to different groups of abstracts, with low generalizable results regarding:* Variation of disciplines discussed.* Purpose of the analysis.* Research designs.* Selection and representative size of the sample (for example; contrastive analyses of move-structures to study the abstract genre; review of differences in rethorical-moves abstract across disciplines and subfield-specific in disciplines).* Use of homogeneous and reproducibility analysis variables such as: patterns of rhetorical-schemata distribution across disciplines, macrostructural or thematic organization, readability and successful recall, legibility, typographical presentation (layout), terminology, headings, etc. This means that one must be cautious when comparing elements of a corpus that are supposed to be variations. Hence, alongside variation in the dimensions that studies are investigated (process, product and both), there is also, of course, variation in the features that are examined and the framework in which the results are interpreted. There may be a conflict here between reliability and validity and between depth and scope, which means that different approaches must co-exist.9. The integration from an interactive perspective of analyses at the micro and macro level, which situates the individual facts of the phenomenon or its activity from a general framework (the fact of abstracting in its holistic dimension), so integrating the various contributions while not losing the general overview in a continuous ascending and descending movement.10. The consideration of the rich research tradition available within the framework of knowledge, and information retrieval, the research heritage, which we enjoy. This brings its own framework, which leads us to flee from mechanical applications and uni-directional models imported from other disciplines, which do not heed the latest teleology of the Information Sciences.In conclusion, we wish to recall the huge research potential provided by document abstracting in all its complexity. We have tried to systemize the various lines of current research possible in research models. The achievements have been many but there remain problems to be solved and new objectives to be met in terms of abstracts in specialized contexts, the different semiotic manifestations, which are an object of document representation, the automation processes or the improvement in the training and learning of document abstracting. Advances in document abstracting studies will depend on the systematic and operative responses as will our research positioning of this area of information studies.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: - The aim of this paper is to systemize and improve the scientific status of studies on document abstracting. This is a diachronic, systematic study of document abstracting studies carried out from different perspectives and models (textual, psycholinguistic, social and communicative).\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A review of the perspectives and analysis proposals which are of interest to the various theoreticians of abstracting is carried out using a variety of techniques and approaches (cognitive, linguistic, communicative-social, didactic, etc.), each with different levels of theoretical and methodological abstraction and degrees of application. The most significant contributions of each are reviewed and highlighted, along with their limitations.\nFindings: - It is found that the great challenge in abstracting is the systemization of models and conceptual apparatus, which open up this type of research to semiotic and socio-interactional perspectives. It is necessary to carry out suitable empirical research with operative designs and ad hoc measuring instruments which can measure the efficiency of the abstracting and the efficiency of a good abstract, while at the same time feeding back into the theoretical baggage of this type of study. Such research will have to explain and provide answers to all the elements and variables, which affect the realization and the reception of a quality abstract.\nOriginality/value: - The paper provides a small map of the studies on document abstracting. This shows how the conceptual and methodological framework has extended at the same time as the Science of Documentation has been evolving. All the models analysed - the communicative and interactional approach - are integrated in a new systematic framework.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Integrating ERP and enterprise social software
|
[
"China",
"Communications technology",
"Enterprise resource planning (ERP)",
"Enterprise social software"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) research can be classified into two stages. The first stage considers the ERP system as an implementation of a standard software package that entails gaining knowledge of best business practice and applying this to improving existing performance or replacing legacy practices. During this stage, most of the ERP systems were off-the-shelf software packages that dealt with the complexity of implementing the system, such as the technical and managerial choices and challenges (Markus et al., 2000; Wu and Wang, 2007). Research emphasised the selection of software vendors and system implementation (Ahn and Choi, 2008). For instance, business process redesign is commonly involved in the implementation of an ERP to redefine a firm's business processes to fit the standard model of the software (Kraemmerand et al., 2003). The second stage of ERP research considers a customised ERP system with a continuous improvement effort designed to mitigate the misalignment problem (Wei et al., 2005; Sia and Soh, 2007). The aim was to provide a dynamic, configurable system to fulfil specific needs and tasks within an organisation. Nonetheless, developing a customised ERP system and then undertaking continuous system improvements can involve high costs and long delays in using the system. In addition, customer demands continue to change ever more rapidly, and the system finds itself unable to respond flexibly to these changes (Akkermans et al., 2003).\nLiterature review: Although some research investigates the impact of the implementation process on ERP performance from a user perspective (De Toni et al., 2015) generally research in the area of ERP implementation focusses on how to increase production performance, rather than the issue of its effect on social interactions. However, there is evidence that companies suffer from rigidly designed ERP systems. For example, these systems generate production plans through a manufacturing requirements planning system, with a fixed lead time to plan for purchasing orders and production orders. This means that the company may not be able to respond flexibly to changes in lead time (Moon and Phatak, 2005) which can result in material shortage, over-ordering or over-production (Chen, 2001). On a general level every business relationship is unique with its own coordination possibilities and adaptation requirements. Given that the ERP system core is far from flexible, the extended utilisation in an interorganisational setting requires that added applications deal with this rigidity (Ekman and Windahl, 2014).\nMethodology: Due to the exploratory nature of this research, the case study method is used as it provides a rich understanding of the context of research and the processes being enacted (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007). The method particularly fits a study that asks \"how\" and \"why\" questions (Yin, 2009). The research investigates the context of companies in order to understand \"how\" multiple cases use the enterprise system differently, and \"why\" they need a hybrid system of an ERP and social technologies. To compare the different challenges and responses in multiple firms when they used an ERP system, we have developed a multi-site study (Creswell, 1998) of companies based in China. This country was chosen as the authors could gain access to companies here and the country represents a context in which the implementation of a market economy has led to an increasingly complex and turbulent business environment (Huang et al., 2012). Also the business culture of Chinese firms is shaped by personal and high-context communications, non-systemic decision making and unstructured business processes (Yeh and OuYang, 2010; Choi et al., 2013) suggesting that embedding informal processes in the ERP system may be of relevance to these firms. The study aims to compare the companies in different industries with the different working patterns they adopted when using ERP systems. Two companies used a single ERP and the other companies used a social technology in parallel with an ERP system. Table I summarises the company profiles consisting of the firms' background, ERP system usage and their management characteristics.\nCase studies and analyses: Company A\nResults and discussion: We now present a cross-case analysis which will put forward a definition of a hybrid ERP system and provide an assessment of the benefits and challenges of a hybrid ERP implementation.\nConclusion: This study has explored ERP implementations at four Chinese companies. The case study methodology has provided insightful details into the nature of hybrid ERP systems and provided an assessment of their potential benefits and challenges. We define a hybrid system as being made up of organisational members, technologies (e.g. ERP, enterprise social system), work tasks undertaken by members, work processes, and human behaviours related to work with the technologies, as well as interactions between human beings. Thus a hybrid system is thus a work system that is beyond simply a technical tool, but which highlights the context within which organisational members perform their assigned work. However in terms of the technical elements of a hybrid system these are defined as an ERP system which contains formal practices to perform regular business tasks in conjunction with an enterprise social system (ESS) that maintains informal processes with a view to providing a flexible response to business uncertainties based on human intelligence. We go on to discuss the benefits and challenges of a hybrid ERP implementation and find that:\n",
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{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a hybrid enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, combining an ERP system with enterprise social software (ESS). The study will provide a critical assessment of the implementation of this process technology.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Multiple case studies of organisations based in China were conducted to understand the use of ERP systems in different contexts. Following an evaluation of the context of each ERP implementation (within-case analysis) the research draws a cross-case conclusion that defines the nature of a hybrid ERP system and then synthesises the propositions related to the benefits and challenges of implementation.\nFindings: The authors find that a hybrid ERP system is able to support efficiency in business process management and also provide a flexible response to changes in business requirements. It does this by allowing for the continued use of informal processes that cannot be incorporated into the ERP system.\nPractical implications: This research indicates how ERP systems in conjunction with ESS can provide a flexible response to changing business requirements and increase collaboration within the organisation. Key lessons include the need to perform informal activities under the guidance of managers and provide clear boundaries for the implementation of informal activities.\nOriginality/value: This study has found that the use of case studies can provide a valuable insight into the use of a hybrid ERP system from the perspective of its use within the organisation as a work system that requires an assessment of the context within which organisational members perform their work.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Clinical pathway efficiency for elective joint replacement surgeries: a case study
|
[
"Lean",
"Efficiency",
"Elective surgery",
"Waiting lists"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Many countries, including Canada, are concerned with timely access to elective knee and hip surgeries for total joint replacements (TJR) and implemented strategies to reduce wait times. Although Canada performs relatively well in international comparisons on wait times for elective surgeries, these still represent a challenge in Canadian hospitals. Strategies to address waiting lists target demand, supply or both. Implementing cost-sharing mechanisms could reduce demand, yet such an approach is against the Canada Health Act of 1984 (Minister of Justice, 1986). In the early 2000, the federal government intended to increase the system's supply capacity by dedicating special envelopes for the reduction of waiting lists. Wait times management strategies, supplemented with those dedicated funds, were considered relatively successful at increasing volumes and reducing waiting lists in the following years (Bellan, 2008). Despite improvements at the national level, wide variations between hospitals remained (Vogel, 2015). This paper describes the case of two university hospitals in Quebec, Canada's second most populous province. After a voluntary merge, important differences in practices and performance are still observed, particularly with regards to wait times. The case focuses on the formalization and the analysis of knee and hip surgeries for TJR in an attempt to identify bottlenecks and practices that might improve the process performance.\nReview of the literature: Timely access to elective surgeries is an important issue that affects the population. While waiting for surgery, patients experience anxiety and have a lower quality of life (Carr et al., 2009; Desmeules et al., 2009; Hadjistavropoulos, 2008; Mascarenhas, 2009; Ostendorf et al., 2004). Patients who wait longer are more likely to be dissatisfied with health care services (Conner-Spady et al., 2014). In some cases, patients might even decide to go abroad to have the surgery performed instead of waiting (Crooks et al., 2012).\nMethods: For this case study, we opted for a mixed method study design combining qualitative research methods to map the clinical pathway and understand interactions between elements of the pathways (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011) and quantitative research methods to evaluate waiting time between activities related to each element of the clinical pathway. The qualitative analyses used a process for interpreting non-mathematical data in order to provide a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon (Strauss and Corbin, 2004). The analysis was based on the progressive approach, which combines the advantages of a structured approach with the richness of an exploratory one by promoting the emergence of hypotheses based on the data collected (Miles et al., 2014).\nResults: Elective hip and knee surgeries are highly codified surgeries sharing similar clinical pathways. Although these types of surgeries require different material and patient preparation, the protocols follow the same steps. The analysis of the data collected in the interviews and during on-site observation resulted in the identification of seven key steps: surgical consult, treatment of the surgery request and scheduling of surgery date, clinical evaluation of the patient file, scheduling of clinical activities (appointments with different consultants) and medical tests, patient preparation, the planning of the surgical schedule and preparation of the operating room for the surgery. The clinical pathway is illustrated in Figure 1.\nDiscussion: The results from our quantitative analysis raise more questions than they answer. In hospital B, a single variable, the delay between Step 1 and Step 2, explains all the variance in the duration of the episode of care. Orthopaedic surgeons from that unit provide consultations mostly in their private clinics, independent from the hospital. The physical separation could contribute to the delay in the information flowing from the surgeon's clinic to the hospital. Factors affecting this delay and the relationship with the overall wait time to surgery did not come out during the interview. In the other unit, about half of the variance in patient wait time is explained by the statistical model, and mainly by the delays between Step 1 and Step 2, which was the only significant variable. The fact that the model only explained 50 percent of the variance suggests that in that hospital, other non-observed factors could have a significant role. Interestingly, it is in that hospital that the protocols seemed well defined. The interpretation of the results is a challenge given the small sample size and that only two hospital units were analyzed. Each of these units has their particularities and organizational cultures that could affect the results. There is no clear pattern that can be identified from these data. However, the data from the interviews can help inform factors affecting the efficiency of the clinical pathway.\nConclusions: In this study, we identified seven steps to the clinical pathway of patients from their consultation with the orthopaedic surgeon to their surgery. Statistical analysis of delays between each step in the process indicated that the delay between the consult and the surgery request being treated was the most important predictor of the total duration of the care episode. Through interviews and observations, we identified key factors contributing to efficiency of the unit and challenges hindering it. Within the current hospital budget constraints, there are opportunities to improve efficiency and improve timely access of patients requiring a TJR surgery. The findings from this study are relevant to any hospital aiming to improve timely access to TJR elective surgeries. Hospitals involved in the present study have started to implement changes to improve access. Future work could consist of assessing the effect of such changes on total time for patients to receive their surgery.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define a clinical pathway for total joint replacement (TJR) surgery, estimate the effect of delays between steps of the pathway on wait time for surgery and to identify factors contributing to more efficient operations and challenges to their implementation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a case study with a mixed methods approach. The authors conducted interviews with hospital staff. Data collected in the interviews and through on-site observation were analyzed to map the TJR process and identify the steps of the care pathway. The authors extracted and analyzed data (time stamps) from 60 hospital patient records for each step in the pathway and ran a regression on the duration of the whole trajectory.\nFindings: There were wide variations in the delays observed between the seven steps identified. The delay between Step 1 and Step 2 was the only significant variable in predicting the total wait time to surgery. In one hospital, one delay explained 50 percent of the variation. There was misalignment between findings from the qualitative data in terms of strategies implemented to increase efficiency of the clinical pathway to the quantitative data on delays between the steps.\nResearch limitations/implications: The study identified the clinical pathway from the consultation with an orthopaedic surgeon to the surgery. However, it did not go beyond the surgery. Future research could investigate the relationship between specific processes and delays between steps of the process and patient outcomes, including length of stay, mobilization and functionality in activities of daily living, as well as potential complications from surgery, readmission and the services required after the patient was discharged.\nPractical implications: Wait times can be addressed by implementing strategies at the health system level or at the organizational level. The authors found and discuss areas where there could be efficiency gains for health care organizations.\nSocial implications: Stakeholders in care processes are diverse and they each have their preferences in how they practice (in the case of providers) and how they perceive and wish to respond adequately to patients' needs in contexts that have different norms and approaches. The approach in this study enables a better understanding of the processes, the organizational culture and how these may affect each other.\nOriginality/value: Our mixed methods enabled a process mapping and the identification of factors that significantly affected the efficiency of the TJR surgery process. It combines methods from process engineering with health services and management research. To some extent, this study demonstrates that although managers can define and enforce processes, organizational culture and practices are harder to influence.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Outsourcing and concession models as door opener for public-private partnerships in the European health sector?
|
[
"Case Studies",
"Denmark",
"Germany",
"Health care",
"Outsourcing",
"Public-private partnerships"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Different types of private sector participation such as outsourcing, concession models and various forms of public-private partnership (PPP) have been discussed worldwide since the 1980s as an instrument for improving the performance of governments in the context of new public management (NPM). PPPs can be defined as:\nInternational experience with private sector participation in the health sector: For our study, we relied on the definition that outsourcing focuses on the \"discontinuation of internal production (whether it be production of goods or services) and an initiation of procurement from outside suppliers\" (Gilley and Rasheed, 2000, p. 764) without public capital investment (English, 2004). Concession models are more far-reaching. These models \"may encompass the design and build of substantial capital assets along with the provision of a range of services and the financing of the entire service operation\" (Grimsey and Lewis, 2004, p. 346).\nPrivate sector participation in the German and Danish health care sectors: research questions and case study methodology: This qualitative study focuses on a comparison of two hospital cases, one in Denmark and the other in Germany, which represent two different paths of continental European health care management development (Oppen et al., 2005; Kristiansen, 2009). Based on the findings from our case studies, we assess the future potential of more advanced PPP models for those European countries with a highly regulated health sector and a significant share of public funding allocated to this sector.\nCase studies: findings and discussion: The Danish case Hospital: compromise between a simple service agreement and a trusted partnership\nConclusions and future research: In view of our Danish and German case study findings, the objectives associated with intensified private sector participation in European politics appear surprising. In practice, too little consideration is given to operational financial savings or improved management. In our two cases, the public partners were primarily interested in new financing options and the acquisition of competitive and technical know-how. This was basically in line with previous literature (Karre, 2011; Wollmann et al., 2011). In the literature, as well as in our case studies, an important precondition of intensified private sector participation is that the funding shortages in the health sector make public investment in infrastructure more difficult in the future (Karre, 2011). Low and high level private sector participation such as outsourcing of services, concession models and PPPs is consequently an option, in spite of the lack of other credit options, to mobilise resources for the provision of public services. It is not merely a matter of financial resources, but also of the possibility of acquiring qualifications and competition-relevant knowledge that is otherwise not available to the public health sector in the short-term. Our qualitative findings also make it clear that the objectives formulated by the public partners can be achieved in principle. However, this is bound to several prerequisites that have rarely occurred in practice in most continental European countries. In the first instance, acceptance of mutual dependence between the partners is conducive to public goal attainment. This is derived not only, or rather rarely, from the partnership itself but more often through pre-existing cooperative relationships (for example, the client principle, as in a customer relationship). Further, private partners have a great deal of interest in the long-term success of private sector participation, beyond the term of the respective project. The development of reference models for future partnerships is always an important private objective for engagement in the public health sector.\n",
"role": "user"
},
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reduce the research gap in private sector participation in the Danish and German health systems, where empirical evidence is still very scarce compared with the impressive accumulation of similar literature in Anglo-Saxon countries.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Based on the findings of two case studies - one Danish and the other, a German hospital - the paper assesses the future potential of different private sector participation strategies in health care.\nFindings: The assessment is that low-level private sector participation approaches such as outsourcing and concession models remain limited and specialised financing instruments for health care in Denmark and Germany due to legal restrictions and lesser importance being placed on operational financial savings and improved management than on achieving strategic goals. Furthermore, existing approaches do not necessarily prepare the ground for public-private partnerships.\nResearch limitations/implications: To date, longitudinal studies of private sector participation in health care are almost non-existent for continental Europe, yet critical for the assessment of the outcomes of long-term projects of ten to 40 years' duration. In addition, there is still a need for more international comparisons, especially for studies comparing more than two countries.\nOriginality/value: Case studies about private sector participation in health care with transnational European or international comparisons are very scarce. The paper, which compares two cases of a Danish and a German hospital, is therefore a contribution to reducing a relevant research gap. To date, private sector participation in the German health system, in particular, has rarely been discussed in international journal publications.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Critical literacy in #DigitalActivism: collaborative choice and action
|
[
"Digital literacy",
"Critical pedagogy",
"Critical literacy",
"Digital activism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Since the 1960s, socio-politically engaged educators have become versed in Freire's critical pedagogy, as evidenced by the 750,000 copies sold of what has become a canon for educators of critical pedagogy: Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire, 1970, original edition was published in 1968). While 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Freire's publication, and thus the birth of the critical pedagogy movement, many teachers in the USA still struggle to harness the reins of critical pedagogy, stating that Freire's theory is too radical for developed countries (Peters and Lankshear, 1996, p. 65), or that it does not fit neatly into prescribed standards (Avila and Moore, 2012). Other teachers implement critical pedagogy through critical readings, discussions and occasional actions, but still commonly take a hierarchical role of teacher-driven learning, rather than a Freirian view where learners are co-facilitators (Behrman, 2006). In an era when the answers to most questions are simply a digital inquiry away, now more than ever educators should incorporate critical literacy into the classroom. Critical literacy theories invite both students and teachers to inform themselves of injustices in their communities, empower themselves with the knowledge to make decisions, and take action.\nCritical literacy: Critical literacy practices encourage students to question power structures and societal injustices in order to take action for change. Students are taught to use texts to construct meaning by questioning the practices of the systems in which texts are embedded (Luke, 2004). The goal of critical literacy education is to foster a \"critical consciousness\" in students, or Freire's \"conscientizacao,\" that allows them to understand, produce and participate in language of larger societal systems and ultimately raise consciousness and promote action about social justice issues (Behrman, 2006; Freire, 1970). The functions and goals of critical literacy education are most concisely defined by the four dimensions of critical literacy: disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues, and taking action to promote social justice (Van Sluys et al., 2006).\nDigital activism: In 2010, Malcolm Gladwell (2010) wrote the controversial article for the New Yorker, \"Why the revolution will not be tweeted.\" The article highlights the differences between the 1960s sit-ins of the Civil Rights movement and the 2009-2010 \"Twitter Revolution\" by activists in Moldova and Iran. Gladwell argues that the sit-in movements were successful due to the face-to-face connections between the activists - a connection that, for Gladwell, cannot be mimicked through the less personal social media activism. Nearly a decade after Gladwell's article, it is clear that his claims have been invalidated by recent movements like Arab Spring, Occupy, #YesAllWomen, #BlackLivesMatter, #TakeaKnee and #MeToo (to name just a few). These online campaigns demonstrate how digital activism coupled with concrete actions contributes to tangible community connections that foster gains in social justice. This section details digital activism's advantages and disadvantages and describes examples of successful movements grounded in digital activism. It goes on to suggest a blending of digital activism and critical literacies as a framework for educators to use the online media that students already view to then promote actions for change in their communities.\nDigital literacy: a lens for practicing critical literacy and digital activism: Digital literacy serves as a means for realizing the frameworks of digital activism and critical literacy. Digital literacy refers to the ability to use digital tools to critically read online texts in different modes, interpret online media, interrogate, problem-solve and create (Leu et al., 2013). Reading online is a problem-solving inquiry process (Raes et al., 2012), and is thus the natural partner to pedagogical approaches informed by critical literacy, which attempts to uncover, address, question and solve social problems. Digital literacy increases student engagement and can thus serve as a \"gateway\" into critical literacy (Avila and Moore, 2012) in which students become experts of their own experiences by reading, interacting with and creating texts online. The non-static nature and range of digital resources available is a good match for the use of critical literacy approaches that show learners a multifaceted and multimodal picture of the world, which can in turn aid in solving instructional issues such as the need to meet standards, and then feed the desire to co-construct learning with students to cultivate critical agency and collaboration.\nTeaching critical literacy through collaborative choice and action: background: The project described in this section is an example of how digital literacy can serve as a practical framework to realize critical literacy and digital activism with the aim of promoting social justice through collaborative choice and action. The project took place over several weeks of a university course planned and facilitated by the author. Teaching about critical literacy by \"walking the walk\" through agitation and action was both a practical and strategic way for the class to conduct its own participatory action project while also learning the concepts of critical literacy.\nFacilitating collaborative choice and action: #FoodontheShelf: Finding inspiration from YPAR and the Council of Youth Research (Mirra et al., 2015; Garcia et al., 2015), Table I outlines the project's instructional sequence. The table demonstrates how pre-service and in-service teachers scaffolded their learning about critical literacy through their own collaborative choice and action project. Figure 1 illustrates how the dimensions of critical literacy (Van Sluys et al., 2006), YPAR (Mirra et al., 2015) and restorying (Thomas and Stornaiuolo, 2016) were interwoven iteratively to learn concepts of critical literacy and develop a community action project.\nConclusion: This paper reviewed relevant literature and offered an illustrative example to motivate educators to use digital literacy to create more spaces for critical literacy and digital activism in the curriculum. Doing so gives students opportunities to become experts of their own experiences by counter-narrating the often-oppressive stories told by the media regarding marginalized citizens.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection between critical literacy and digital activism. Critical literacy is a form of instruction that teaches students to question power structures and societal injustices, while digital activism introduces methods for individuals and groups to use digital tools to effect social and political change. This review argues that digital literacy is the natural partner to pedagogical approaches informed by critical literacy, which attempts to uncover, address, question and solve social problems.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An illustrative example of collaborative student choice and action is offered through a multimedia project with actionable hashtags for sharing online. The paper concludes with a discussion of how educators can foster more collaborative choice and action by intertwining critical and digital literacies at all levels of education. However, implementation and application of these ideas lies not only with educators and administrators, but most importantly, with students themselves.\nFindings: In order for students to be most prepared for meaningful interactions in the global and digital world, critical literacy, digital literacy and digital activism must become a core part of classroom instruction. Multimedia projects that are easily sharable and can track analytics are a successful way to raise consciousness and advocate for local and global action.\nOriginality/value: The powerful instructional practices that link critical and digital literacies provide students with the skills to continue questioning multiple viewpoints and promoting social justice issues within and beyond classroom walls.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Value co-creation in maintenance services: case study in the mechanical industry
|
[
"Service",
"Contracts",
"Service operations",
"Supplier relations",
"Service industries",
"Maintenance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Value co-creation in the business arena is a joint action carried out by two or more companies in order to improve products or services, reduce costs, increase competitiveness, etc. (Bolton and Saxena-Iyer, 2009; Hoyer et al., 2010). Helander and Moller (2008) postulate that the creation of value should focus on the prospects for value, on the context, and on the customer's experience. Several authors have studied the benefits of value co-creation for organizations (Franke et al., 2009; Mathwick et al., 2007; Kristensson et al., 2004; Hoyer et al., 2010) and its implications in team work (Kristensson et al., 2008). Kristensson et al. (2008) suggested strategies for involving customers in the process of co-creating new technology-based services. Barry and Terry (2008) identified three stages wherein this interaction may occur: before delivery (engineering and consulting), during the delivery process (installation and training) and after delivery (maintenance and technical assistance). Helander and Moller (2008) analyzed the requirements for a supplier of products to become a solution provider. Heinonen et al. (2010) investigated the challenges to the viability of customer-dominant (CD) logic. Hoyer et al. (2010) investigated the relationship of consumers with businesses in terms of levels of inducers and barriers. However, it should be emphasized that this issue, despite its importance to business and science, is still at an early stage of study (Hoyer et al., 2010). One of the issues not yet addressed is the sharing of gains from joint actions in a business-to-business (B2B) context. With respect to service contracts, the literature presents several studies focused on the contractual regulation of the relationship, conditions leading to termination of the relationship (Kumar and Kumar, 2004; Kumar et al., 2004; Stremersch et al., 2001) and evaluation of bids (Stremersch et al., 2001).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Co-creation of value\n3. Methodology: 3.1 Research design\n4. Research findings: 4.1 Track record of the co-creation relationship\n5. Discussion: We begin the discussion by resuming the more prominent gains observed during the research.\n6. Conclusions: This paper presented a case study on co-creation of value in the maintenance management process of the automotive industry. The main gains that the contract brought to the provider were a larger than usual revenue. The main gain the contracting part achieved was substantial energy and costs reduction in the maintenance management process in an industrial automotive manufacture plant.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze a contract-based relationship for value co-creation and gain-sharing between two companies for the purpose of industrial maintenance services. After five years of good results for both parties, the relationship was terminated, thus raising questions regarding on the actual gains shared by both partners from joint actions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The research method is the longitudinal case study. The research question is: why would a contractual relationship of co-creation of value be terminated given the fact that it yielded good financial results for both parts over the course of five years? The main research techniques were structured interviews with relevant actors and documental analysis from both parts involved in the contract.\nFindings: Even valuable contracts can be terminated if the external scenario changes significantly: it matters very little the good job done together if the result became poor due to external reasons, as buyer's sales drop in the period. In the inner scenario, mistruth can arise if the buyer maintains parallel structures for performing similar tasks to those of the service provider, showing some kind of independence from the supplier.\nResearch limitations/implications: The main limitation is that inherent to case studies: the lack of generalization.\nPractical implications: When companies decide to contract regular long-term maintenance services, preventions to revenue reductions of the main activity the must be present, for the continuity of the contract.\nOriginality/value: To the date of this research, no similar study was found, regarding the influence of the external results in the internal relationships in co-creation value contracts.\n",
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] |
Plumb Center taps into growth through apprenticeships: Enthusiastic young people will be trained the Wolseley way
|
[
"Apprenticeships",
"Training",
"Customer service",
"Distribution operations",
"Growth",
"Unemployment",
"Young people"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: One of the UK's biggest distributors of plumbing and heating supplies has turned to apprenticeships to help to safeguard its future and create growth.\nPeople with the right attitude: \"The apprenticeship program has given us the opportunity to bring in people with the right attitude, who are willing to learn and train with us,\" he explained. \"We believe this is very much the model for successful employment.\"\"The apprentices are developing skills that benefit not only themselves, but also the business. They work at ground level, receiving deliveries of goods and talking to customers. They are developing an excellent understanding of customer service and what the business needs and I know they will do good things for us.\"\"We are simply developing our talent with a view that in five years' time these young people will be in senior positions in the company, making decisions and perhaps taking charge.\"Wolseley UK decided to develop an apprenticeship program during the economic downturn as part of its preparations for the future, believing that high-quality staff deliver good customer service, which in turn generates greater profits.Frank Clayton continued: \"Intraining screened the candidates to make sure they suited our needs, and provided us with high-quality candidates for interview. It saved us a lot of time.\"\"Developing our people has been one of the key factors in our success,\" he continued. \"Training is a priority for staff at every level. We actively look to promote from within and are proud to say that we have helped countless members of the team to fulfil their ambitions.\"\"Whether fresh out of school, looking for a new challenge or nearing retirement, we ensure that our employees are always learning something new. There is a mixture of formal and on-the-job training. This can include anything from gaining a fork-lift licence, to health and safety certification, to management development.\"\"New employees can expect their colleagues to pass on plenty of their own experience, too. With so much potential to develop within the company, people really can build a career here.\"Apprentice Michael McCann, aged 19, from Killamarsh, in north-east Derbyshire, has worked at the Wolseley Plumb Center in Sheffield for 10 months. \"I feel really fortunate to have been taken on and am now almost half way through a two-year apprenticeship in customer services,\" he enthused.\"The first four months I worked in the warehouse, taking supplies in, sorting deliveries and dealing with orders. Now I am working with customers in the trade center and on the customer-service desk.\"\"I love my job and actually look forward to coming to work every day. I feel as though I have already learned so much, and am much more confident in dealing with customers. I feel extremely lucky and would recommend an apprenticeship to anyone.\"Aaron Davenport, aged 19, from Lincoln, feels extremely fortunate to have been given an apprenticeship by Wolseley UK in April 2011. He works at the city's Sunningdale trading estate branch, where he hopes to build a lasting career.After completing a college course in construction, he entered the job market, specifically hoping to get on an apprenticeship program. With more than one million young people not in work, education or training, he realizes just how lucky he was.\"I really enjoy coming to work every day and cannot believe how much I have learned since April, and how much I am continuing to learn every day,\" he said. \"My job is really varied and already I have specific responsibilities, which gives me great confidence and pride in the work that I do.\"\"I serve customers, book in orders, deal with customers on the telephone and work in the warehouse, as well as drive the forklift truck. I am treated as one of the team and am looked after extremely well by Wolseley. I see my assessor from Intraining regularly, too, so I know I have lots of support to get me through my training program.\"\"I am ambitious and would eventually like to become a supervisor and then maybe move into management. The company is very encouraging and does all it can to help me.\"\"This is definitely where I want to stay long-term.\"\nInjection of enthusiasm, dedication and fresh ideas: Intraining offers a free recruitment and matching service to make sure businesses have the right candidates for their needs, and then works with both the employer and learner to complete the apprenticeship training.Andy Hall, Intraining's national apprenticeship hub manager, said Wolseley UK was testament to how well apprenticeships could work.\"The company has done tremendously well to embrace the apprenticeship program, taking on so many talented young trainees and making it work both for them and the business,\" he said. \"The apprentices are receiving excellent on-the-job training that will set them up for life, while Wolseley UK has received an injection of enthusiasm, dedication and fresh ideas that will bring dividends to its business growth plans in the future.\"Rated grade one \"outstanding\" by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), Intraining specializes in developing, funding, delivering and evaluating work-based learning. It offers a training and development service across four key areas - consulting, managed services, employability and workforce development.Intraining is part of Newcastle College Group, a PS162 million organization that brings together more than 40,000 learners and 3,800 staff, across three divisions at over 100 sites.NCG is made up of Intraining based in Sheffield, Newcastle College, and Skelmersdale and Ormskirk College in West Lancashire.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Reveals that Wolseley UK has taken on 25 apprentices in its Plumb Center business.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Explains the reasons for the move and the outcomes the company expects.\nFindings: - Recounts how investment in apprentices will boost the company's ranks and provide a pool of people who may eventually reach senior positions in the business.\nPractical implications: - Explains that Wolseley UK decided to develop an apprenticeship program during the economic downturn as part of its preparations for the future, believing that high-quality staff deliver good customer service, which in turn generates greater profits.\nSocial implications: - Highlights the social value of employing young apprentices at a time when youth unemployment is at record levels.\nOriginality/value: - Considers how apprentices can inject enthusiasm, dedication and fresh ideas into a business.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Service capabilities within open innovation: Revisiting the applicability of capability maturity models
|
[
"Open innovation",
"Value creation",
"Capability maturity models",
"Service capabilities",
"Service capability sourcing model"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In today's service-dominant business environment, harnessing innovative applications of technology is considered one of the critical factors towards organisational sustainability (Carroll et al., 2013). In recent years there have been two major trends across the service world towards \"servitization\" (Vandermerwe and Rada, 1989; Neely, 2007, 2008) and \"openness\" (Chesbrough, 2003, 2011) of service components. There have been several attempts to define servitization. For example, Neely (2008) defines servitization as \"a business model innovation whereby existing product offerings are extended through the provision of related services\". In addition, Baines et al. (2008) defines servitization as \"the process of innovation of an organization's capabilities and processes to shift from selling products to selling integrated products and services that deliver value in use\". What these definitions have in common is the shift in focus from selling products/services to availing of service capabilities to deliver value in use from integrated products/services. Thus, service capabilities have become a central construct in management research and have played a prominent role in competitive heterogeneity (Felin et al., 2012). The service industry continues to play a critical and dominant role within the global economy (Normann, 2001; Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2004; Spohrer et al., 2007; Chesbrough, 2011). A service may be defined as \"a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve, without the ownership of specific costs and risks\" (Orand, 2010, p. 39). This is often enabled through the use of information technology (IT). Service orientation has emerged at multiple organisational levels in business to support the leveraging of technology capabilities in response to the need for greater business integration, flexibility, and agility (Saleh and Alshawi, 2005; Boh and Yellin, 2007; Demirkan et al., 2009). Nowadays, services are wrapped up in a complex business and IT environments (Carroll, 2012). For example, the internet offers a distributed platform to port services across the world and has become one of the most significant industrial drivers in recent years. The internet supports networking and connectivity of business objects though complex IT infrastructures. This captures the importance of internet tools and technologies to support computing utility. Moreover, it has also led to the realisation of new boundary-free service models such as cloud computing (e.g. Davenport and Brooks, 2004).\n2. Methodology: We present a conceptual account of our research developments (Creswell, 2013) and build on the state-of-the-art on open innovation and CMM. Considering the exploratory nature of this research, we adopted a conceptual study to build on the current body of knowledge and we discuss the need to extend our conventional understanding of service maturity. This enabled us to survey the state-of-the-art body of knowledge from published research on this specific domain. In order to broaden the scope of this research, a systematic literature review was carried out. A systematic literature search (see Figure 2) was employed which focuses on \"service capabilities\", \"open innovation\", \"CMM\" and \"methods of assessing the value of IT\". To provide a unique contribution of this research, an exploratory search was also conducted to identify weaknesses in CMMs, assessing value in service technology and outsourcing technologies, for example, cloud computing. The research question was formulated by the research problem outlined in Section 1.1 and became the starting point for our literature review and allowed us to identify the scope of this work. Our research question is:\n3. Literature review: state-of-the-art: We carried out an extensive review of the literature to support our conceptual argument and address the research question. We discuss the theoretical basis for this paper and examine service and innovation capabilities. We also explore the nature of open innovation environments and the concepts of capability maturity.\n4. Capabilities within the modern service environment: This section builds on the literature review and examines capabilities within a modern service environment and the process of value creation. Capabilities are enabled through the utilisation of resources. One of the most widely accepted definitions of resources stems from Capron and Hulland (1999, p. 42) where they define resources as \"stocks of knowledge, physical assets, human capital, and other tangible and intangible factors that a business owns or controls, which enable a firm to produce, efficiently and/or effectively, market offerings that have value for some market segments\". Additionally, Teece et al. (1997, p. 516) offer a more general definition of resources as \"the firm specific assets that are difficult, if not impossible to imitate\". These views suggest that competitive advantage and performance are a direct consequence of how organisational resources and capabilities are uniquely created, owned and/or controlled internally. Since IT resources can now be viewed as a commodity and is relatively standardised across organisations, moving away from differentiation or competitive advantage, we argue that this resource view is not necessarily accurate (Porter, 1980; Carr, 2004). Chandler (1990) defines organisational capabilities as an organisations collective physical facilities and skills of employees and the expertise of top management layers. Thus, capabilities provide a building block towards organisational core competencies (Coulter, 2002), for example, research and development. As highlighted by O'Regan and Ghobadian (2004) organisational capabilities include the organisations \"capacity for undertaking, through its employees, a particular productive activity\". This is also extended by Helfat's (2003, p. 1) descriptions as he explains that \"an organisational capability refers to an organisational ability to perform a co-ordinated task, utilising organisational resources, for the purpose of achieving a particular end result\". This suggests that there is a clear relationship between capability and performance. However, we examine this in terms of the capability being externally sourced, as in the case of open innovation. We argue that capability is no longer an internal issue as the literature might suggest (Stuart and Podolny, 1996; Teece et al., 1997; Schoenecker and Cooper, 1998; Fiol, 2001; Winter, 2003; Melville et al., 2004; Curley, 2009) to generate change and ultimately business value. Services have become more complex and dynamic which introduces the notion of dynamic capabilities. According to Winter (2003, p. 2) dynamic capabilities \"are those that operate to extend, modify or create ordinary capabilities [...] [and] involves a pattering of activity\" which is interesting when we examine the extension, modification, and co-creation of service value. We refer to value co-creation as the combining of organisational resources and capabilities between two or more organisations to create mutual value through a unified service strategy (Vargo et al., 2008; Carroll, 2012).\n5. Value creation within the modern service environment: This section argues the need to re-evaluate how we conceptualise value creation within a modern service environment. The concept of value co-creation implies that the customer plays a significant role in creating value within service systems (Carroll, 2012). Thus, understanding the complexity of network structures, process patterns, and methods to improve network performance is critical to the success of service eco-systems, for both the service provider and client, especially within a smart service network (Spohrer et al., 2007; Carroll, 2012). Thus, the process of value creation changes within modern service environment as we move away from a chain approach to a service network. We can explore alternative ways to view and understand service operations and fundamentally the capabilities which sustain a service environment. In addition, Chesbrough (2011) provides an interesting argument in the need to move from a product-based view of service (such as Porters value chain) to a service value web. We can identify how this may be applied to examine the cyclical nature of service maturity within an open service innovation environment. Within the service value web, Chesbrough (2011) explains that there is no simple linear process of material inputs being transformed into outputs, but rather comprises of an iterative process that involves the customer in the whole process experience. While the service value web undergoes a number of key phases, its relationships also creates value through external interactions with customers. Therefore, the implementation of technological innovation is often concerned with improving internal value. However the realisation of service maturity and value is a co-creation process which involves the exchange of internal and external resources. This is important in open innovation for a number of reasons. Understanding the nature of service capabilities of open innovation become increasingly important as part of organisational strategic planning.\n6. A fluid SCSM: This section supports our argument and the conceptual contribution of this research. As discussed throughout this paper, service relationships play a critical role in outsourcing newfound capabilities and the need to examine the exchange process across three macro-levels; strategy, sourcing, and governance (see Figure 5). This forms the basis of our SCSM. The data which will be gathered from this model will support open innovation and service capability decision making. The data will address four main factors within the decision-making process: volume, velocity, variety and value of the service lifecycle. For example, devising an open service innovation environment strategy in order to source external service capabilities within an agile service environment requires service analytics. This will govern the optimisation of business value within a structured environments illustrated in the SCSM. Figure 5 illustrates the structured macro levels which describes how we are interested in examining strategy, sourcing, and governing capabilities of a service environment. This forms the basis for our revised capability maturity framework to assess service environments. The structure of the model examines how behaviours, practices, and processes of a service environment are reliable and sustainable to produce specific outcomes. The organisation controls the process maturity through its internal capabilities and capabilities sourced from external parties. Similar to CMM, we incorporate the notion of maturity levels (i.e. business value and performance) but we highlight the unsuitability of \"maturity stages\", for example, moving from level one to five, where five is the ideal maturity state.\n7. Discussion: This paper highlights the difference in the traditional approach to valuing IT and the need to differentiate the value of open innovation and newfound resources and capabilities within an open service innovation environment. Our SCSM also emphasises the need to examine how we value IT resources. For example, we examine whose IT resources do we assess through cloud computing - the service provider or the service client. The SCSM demonstrates the need to access the value of IT through a wider scope as it incorporates both internal and external IT resources and the outsourcing value co-creating exchanges between parties.\n8. Conclusion: Organisations increasingly have to adapt and design new business models to retain a competitive advantage in highly networked, dynamic environments. In this respect, we agree with Trott and Hartmann (2009) work which claims that the term \"open innovation\" invites much criticism. However, radical open innovation service models can co-exist in immature ecosystems but the assessment process must evolve to develop an understanding of the potential business value of newfound service capabilities. This paper presents the SCSM. Our work offers an insight on the development of a new service maturity framework whereby maturity models can guide the development of our revised service maturity sourcing model. The benefits of the SCSM include the inclusion of open innovation logic which supports the explanation of service capability maturity within an open service innovation environment. We extend the CMM approach to examine the process of value co-creation within a modern service environment. We identify how an open service innovation environment may benefit through the adoption of the assessment of \"value-added\" benefits through a service lifecycle view of service capabilities. As part of our future work, we will implement this model to determine the key service metrics which support the assessment of service capabilities across a number of industries. We will extend theoretical developments on an open service innovation environment through our SCSM. The SCSM can support service providers in the ecosystem collaborate to create and share business value. This research has several implications for business model design for organisations in early-stage adoption of open innovation. The framework illustrates how an open service innovation environment supports a value network. It is useful for organisations to take a holistic perspective on their service provision. This work will further improve our approach to revise and refine the model. As part of our future work, we will also incorporate mechanisms to weigh risk and value-at-risk factors in the sourcing of service capabilities, for example, trust metrics. While open innovation is considered a critical part of the service environment, we identify the need to incorporate methods to assess trust and govern the exchange of innovative resources within a service ecosystem.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Open innovation is an emerging paradigm which exposes organisations to networked capabilities and competencies though collaboration relationships. The traditional view of the organisational environment raises concerns regarding the mismatch in the methods used to assess business value and understanding service process maturity. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This paper employs a systematic literature review to present a state-of-the-art literature review with particular focus on the applicability of capability maturity models (CMM) within an open innovation context.\nFindings: The authors present a conceptual account of our research developments and build on the state-of-the-art which bridges open innovation and CMM. The authors provide a comprehensive discussion on the literature and challenge the applicability of individual organisations evolving through maturity stages. The authors identify a significant gap in the emergence of open innovation and CMM and present a service capability sourcing model (SCSM) to bridge these two research areas.\nPractical implications: Unpacking the nature of service capabilities allows us to understand the primary components of value co-creation and their contribution towards service maturity within an open service innovation environment. The authors verify the explanation model using a cloud computing scenario within an open service innovation environment.\nOriginality/value: The contribution of this paper is an explanation model of an open service innovation environment through our SCSM. Though an open innovation perspective, the authors examine the nature of service capabilities and the suitability of traditional CMM in a modern service context.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Genres and situational appropriation of information: Explaining not-seeking of information
|
[
"Information seeking",
"Scaffolding",
"Information behaviour",
"Information needs",
"Genre",
"Situational appropriation",
"Information work",
"Information practices",
"Not-seeking"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: The recent decades of information science research have considerably broadened our understanding of how people seek and acquire information. Whereas much, albeit not all, of the earlier work has focused primarily on purposeful information searching, since the 1990s onwards scholars have increasingly acknowledged and emphasised the significance of serendipitous and accidental discovery (Erdelez and Makri, 2011) and the embeddedness of information work and information practices in everyday professional and leisurely activities (Huotari and Chatman, 2001) and duties (Ocepek, 2018). Conceptualisations like information practices (Cox, 2012) and literacies (Lloyd, 2011), and information in social practices (e.g. McKenzie, 2009; Cox, 2013) have been useful in widening the focus of enquiry. In spite of this broadening of focus, much of information research is still premised by the idea of the primacy of an (explicit or implicit) information need that is leading people to seek information (Case and Given, 2016). The needs can be implicit and searching accidental (Agarwal, 2015) and embedded in a certain practice (Lloyd, 2011) but there are only relatively few cases (e.g. Andersen, 2008; Huvila, 2015; Feinberg, 2017) that have focussed on situations when information use is not preceeded by satisfying a need by seeking (new) information.\nInformation interactions beyond seeking and retrieval: In spite of its apparent violence to the complexity of everyday life, the predominant perspective to information activities in information science research has been to conceptualise them as processes or practices comprising or relating to the triad of needs, seeking and use (e.g. Talja and McKenzie, 2007; Case and Given, 2016). A classical information seeking process starts with an explicit, or as more recent studies have acknowledged, often rather implicit (information) need that triggers information seeking, evaluation of sought information (cf. Case and Given, 2016) and the seldom extensively elaborated process of information use (Vakkari, 1997; Savolainen, 2009). This process is facilitated by other activities such as management (Detlor, 2011), searching, retrieval and organisation of information (Hjorland, 2012), and the sometimes mentioned but rather rarely elucidated undertaking of creating information (Trace, 2007).\nGenre approach and situational appropriation: In contrast to the earlier, primarily human-centred notions of sense making (Solomon, 1997), information bricolage (French, 2014) and information experience (Bruce et al., 2014), the present study assumes a slightly different perspective by taking Andersen's (2008) genre-based approach and the notion situational appropriation of information (Huvila, 2015) as starting points. They are both information and context centric approaches and describe interactional modalities that are fundamentally different from the conventional continuum of information seeking and use. This paper argues that these two perspectives complement each other by providing a framework for explaining what in information makes it useful in a specific situation (genre) and how the uptake happens in practice (appropriation). As illustrated by the empirical vignette, the genre approach provides a meta-perspective to shared characteristics of categories of information artefacts and their becoming, rather than focusing on particular types of information, inscriptions (Latour, 1983) or, for instance, documents (Lund, 2009). Simultaneously, the social genre theory provides an explicit link between typologies of both information and social actions. As for situational appropriation, there is a dearth of frameworks how to explain \"not-seeking\" of information.\nEmpirical vignette: In order to provide an insight into how genres and situational appropriation play out when information is made useful in a situation, we are next turning to an empirical vignette. An observation study of a group of archaeologists working on a week-long excavation in a Nordic country was conducted in Spring 2016. Observations from this empirical setting of information work are used to provide examples of how and when people appropriate information, how information influences its appropriability, and how appropriation links to accidental and purposeful seeking of information. Before embarking to the analysis of empirical data, we take a brief detour to review the literature on archaeological information work.\nMaterial and methods: This empirical material for this vignette was gathered by observing a five days long (Monday to Friday) archaeological teaching excavation. The excavation was conducted on a lithic site in a Nordic country in 2016. The excavation team (Table I, all participants were assigned false names for reporting purposes) consisted of Serendippo, the director of the excavation, senior archaeologist Tramezzino (working with the new digital documentation infrastructure on the site) and his assistant Giaffer, and another senior Armeno who worked as a finds officer being responsible for cataloguing, cleaning and processing of the finds collected at the excavation. In addition, the team consisted of 11 undergraduate and graduate archaeology students, a part of which came from the country where the excavation took place and a part from other European countries.\nDiscussion: The aim of this paper has been to open up the discussion on alternative modes of how information ends up being used by people and, in particular, to explicate and explore a specific alternative conceptualisation of how this can happen without explicit conscious or accidental discovery of new information. The recent broadening of the focus of information research to be more sensitive and analytically attentive to the diversity of approaches to information interactions evince of a need of such perspectives. At the same time, the relative straightforwardness of framing seeking as a distinct activity of consequence could also provide at least a partial explanation to why information science research has been relatively uninterested in the more Gordian questions of information use both as a concept and an empirical phenomenon (e.g. Vakkari, 1997; Wilson, 2000; Savolainen, 2009; Huvila, 2015). With some caution, the similar reasons the anthropologist Leach (2004) sees as premises to the possessive understanding of creativity in the context of knowledge making in Western imagination, could perhaps explain why it has been so long natural for Western information scientists to emphasise individual intellectual agency and thinginess of information rather than the role of objects and structures.\nConclusions: The aim of this text has been to discuss how, in addition to being sought and acquired, existing information is also made useful and taken into use in the course of information work. The present paper has proposed that this type of not-seeking of information for use can be conceptualised by building on a combination of Huvila's (2015) notion of situational appropriation and Andersen's (2008, 2017a) genre-based approach. Building on Andersen's thesis that genres determine information needs, this paper suggests that information becomes appropriable and appropriated when informational and social genres intertwine with each other in a continuous process of (re)appropriation of information where existing information scaffolds new information and the on-going process of appropriation itself. Information is stabilised only in the fleeting moments of information making and information taking (Huvila, 2018) to dissolve again. Situational appropriation does not explain all information interactions but as the empirical vignette illustrates, it provides a potentially powerful conceptualisation for explicating information interactions, which have received little attention in traditional models and theories of human information behaviour.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Information science research has begun to broaden its traditional focus on information seeking to cover other modes of acquiring information. The purpose of this paper is to move forward on this trajectory and to present a framework for explicating how in addition to being sought, existing information are made useful and taken into use.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A conceptual enquiry draws on an empirical vignette based on an observation study of an archaeological teaching excavation. The conceptual perspective builds on Andersen's genre approach and Huvila's notion of situational appropriation.\nFindings: This paper suggests that information becomes appropriable, and appropriated (i.e. taken into use), when informational and social genres intertwine with each other. This happens in a continuous process of (re)appropriation of information where existing information scaffolds new information and the on-going process of appropriation.\nOriginality/value: The approach is proposed as a potentially powerful conceptualisation for explicating information interactions when existing information is taken into use rather than sought that have received little attention in traditional models and theories of human information behaviour.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Theorizing with managers to bridge the theory-praxis gap: Foundations for a research tradition
|
[
"Theory-practice gap",
"Abductive reasoning",
"Collaborative theorizing",
"Pragmatic realism"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: The commentary articles by Ajay Kohli, Peter Leeflang and Kristian Moller raise a number of important research issues that extend and refine the ideas in our paper (Nenonen et al., 2017). In our response, we synthesize the suggestions to further refine the research agenda concerning the theory-praxis gap, and these suggestions serve as foundation to develop a research tradition. In doing so, we recognize other recent initiatives that have focused on this issue. For example, in 2010 Nick Lee and Gordon Greenley, as editors of the European Journal of Marketing, published an editorial \"The theory-practice divide: thoughts from the Editors and Senior Advisory Board of EJM\". Other more recent initiatives include the special issues in Industrial Marketing Management, \"Implementing strategies and theories of B2B marketing and sales management\" and \"Theoretical developments in industrial marketing management: Multidisciplinary perspectives\".\n1. Need for a systemic view of business practice: While our paper focuses specifically on theorizing with managers, Moller (2017) raises the deserving question:\n2. Need for innovative and meaningful theoretical understanding: Moller (2017) argues that there is a need to push theoretical boundaries and that includes publishing more speculative work and embracing scientific pluralism. We strongly agree with this; in our paper, we elaborate on methodological pluralism that is embedded in abductive reasoning. We argue that this leads to research that provides innovative and meaningful theoretical understanding. In addition, we agree with Moller that the adoption of pluralism challenges the rules of publishing because editors and reviewers for the elite journals are, perhaps, more comfortable with traditional approaches. However, we recognize there is change taking place with European journals having more eclectic editorial policies. Furthermore, these journals are starting to be ranked alongside their North American counterparts. This shift in rankings is being driven by downloads and citations rather than historical reputation, further augmented by sophisticated bibliometrics that are increasingly being used to provide measurements to indicate quality.\n3. Identifying conditions and approaches for collaborative theorizing: The Kohli (2017) and Leeflang (2017) commentaries highlight the importance of identifying conditions where collaborative theorizing is likely to be successful and more granular advice on which approach to use in various contexts. The Moller (2017) commentary adds to the discussion: we particularly see his recent paper that delivers a broader conceptualization and classification of managerial relevance (Moller and Parvinen, 2015) as a valuable one, providing also more nuanced and context-specific guidance in terms of which research approach to employ in various situations.\n4. Further defining and instructing the abductive approach: All of the commentaries recognize the need for an abductive approach based on pragmatism. Kohli (2017) recognizes that abduction may mean different things depending on what one is trying to accomplish. He goes on to say that our paper fails to provide a preferred definition and an outline of the way abduction should be used in the research process. We also see this as an important issue. Our work summarizes the current views on abduction and concludes that due to the variance in using the term, researchers should explicate in detail how and when abduction has been used in their theorizing process. It is our sincere hope that there, in the near future, would be a sufficient body of research using abduction when theorizing with managers to start building a typology and a set of prescriptions related to abduction:\n5. Pragmatic realism to ensure both practical outcomes and truthful theories: As Moller (2017) in his commentary states, heterogeneity among researchers and research methodologies should improve our collective possibilities on improving the rigor and relevance of marketing research. As we discuss in our paper, many researchers that theorize with managers or propose collaborative theorizing as a way of bridging the theory-praxis gap implicitly embrace the principles of pragmatism. However, as with abduction, there is variance in the use of the term and debate about the ontological assumptions that pragmatism is based on. While we suggest an ontological position based on a realist view of pragmatic realism (Sosa, 1993), we recognize that other managerial research has taken an alternative ontological position based on a relativist pragmatism position (Simpson, 2017).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to refine an agenda concerning the theory-praxis gap to develop a foundation for a research tradition.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper synthesizes and builds on the suggestions in commentary articles by Kohli (2017), Leeflang (2017) and Moller (2017).\nFindings: The authors develop a research agenda consisting of the following issues: the need for a systemic view of business practice; the need for innovative and meaningful theoretical understanding; the need to identify conditions and approaches for collaborative theorizing; to further define and instruct the abductive approach; and to explore pragmatic realism to ensure both practical outcomes and truthful theories.\nOriginality/value: These five issues are a step towards developing a theory-praxis research tradition.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
The impact of power on information sharing in the Finnish food industry
|
[
"Food industry",
"Finland",
"Relationship marketing",
"Management power",
"Information transfer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Changes in the business environment are redefining the characteristics of business relationships, concepts and strategic approaches. On account of this dynamism companies can no longer concentrate exclusively on dyadic relationships between buyers and suppliers and are being forced to form networks with several collaborating actors. This has extended the strategic approach from the enterprise-focused perspective to one that includes value-creating systems and networks (Parolini, 1999). Nowadays many networks are customer oriented, and a critical factor in all types of networks is the capacity to create value (Moller and Svahn, 2003). It is for this reason that networking and value creation have attracted considerable attention in current business studies.The value net approach (Allee, 2003; Bovet and Martha, 2000; Jarillo, 1998; Moller et al., 2005; Parolini, 1999) combines the network and value creation perspectives. Buyers and suppliers have different roles and capabilities in the value net, and the relationships and power positions vary. Information sharing is a joint feature of the roles, the power positions and the collaboration, and the network will influence the information sharing and market orientation of the firm (Blesa and Bigne, 2005; Siguaw et al., 1998). Moreover, relational characteristics such as trust, power and conflicts may affect the amount of information exchange and the depth of the cooperation. Active information sharing has a positive effect on the relationships between the actors in the value net (Siguaw et al., 1998). However, power imbalance may affect the information sharing and may influence the adoption of new collaborative business models. Furthermore, an actor will be less satisfied with the relationship with a partner that uses its power in a coercive way (Geyskens et al., 1999), and according to van Weele and Rozemeijer (1999), collaborative partnerships can only grow when there is a certain balance of power between the parties. It is important to understand the interrelationship between information sharing and power because both communication and governance mechanisms are elements that can be used to manage interfirm exchanges (Mohr et al., 1996). Therefore, power relations and information sharing seem to be significant factors in collaboration, requiring further investigation in the value net context.This study concerns buyer-supplier relationships in the value net context and analyses collaboration and the role of information as a source of power. Both the demand and the supply side are covered; the aim being to analyze how power affects the information sharing and collaboration between a buyer and a supplier. The value net approach is combined with the supply management and market orientation perspectives. Information sharing has been the focus of much research in the areas of relationship marketing and business-to-business marketing, for example, but the perspective should be broadened from dyads to networks. This study extends this discussion by emphasizing wider network relations and the complicated nature of collaboration.The research context\nThe influence of power on information sharing and collaboration in value nets: Traditionally, exchange relationships between companies have been studied in the context of dyadic relationships, and rather on the supply chain than on the network level. The principles of the chain perspective have also been widely utilized in studies on value creation. Since 1985, when Porter developed the value chain model, value creation has been studied from this perspective. However, many authors (Hines and Rich, 1997; Parolini, 1999; Kothandaraman and Wilson, 2001) have criticized the inadequacy of the model, mainly due to its activity structure and customer perspective. Porter (1985) separated value chain activities into primary and support activities, thereby highlighting the significance of individual companies. Kothandaraman and Wilson (2001) criticized Porter's model on the grounds that the value-adding activities are examined without exploring the links between the firms in the chain. However, collaborative relationships between actors are paramount in value creation and therefore the perspective of the individual company is too narrow. Companies cannot strategically concentrate exclusively on individual actors and should focus on the value-creating system as a whole. Instead of conceiving economic activity in terms of a set of economic players who internally perform a set of activities, value net approach considers it in terms of the set of activities that create value for final customers (Parolini, 1999).One of the main differences between the traditional value chain model and the dynamic value net model concerns the role of end customers. The former has been criticized for not considering the consumer's satisfaction its primary object, whereas the latter begins with the customer and focuses on satisfying actual demand. The value net forms itself around its customers, captures their real choices in real time, and transmits them to other net participants (Bovet and Martha, 2000). Since the net is activated by real customer demand it is capable of responding reliably and rapidly to customer preferences. This makes the final product or service more valuable to the end customer than it would otherwise have been (Hines and Rich, 1997).Because the value chain as a value-creation model is too rigid and sequential and cannot respond to changes, a more flexible and agile model has been created. The value net model was developed to facilitate the analysis, description and study of value-creating systems. It takes activities rather than companies as the key elements of strategic analysis (Parolini, 1999). Companies are regarded as complex nodes in complex interdependent value networks, where success comes through collaboration and creating a business environment in which each actor can be successful (Allee, 2003). The value net is a dynamic network of relationships and information flows in which the actors create value through collaboration. The firms concerned do not operate in isolation, but must seek to collaborate with other network actors in order to achieve their goals (Batt and Purchase, 2004). The existence of value nets is based partly on the idea that individual companies cannot internally master all the relevant value activities of the value chain and that it is not economically rational for them to try to do so (Moller et al., 2005). The network structure and position determine how the collaboration will take place and between which actors (Batt and Purchase, 2004).Information dissemination and relational characteristics in a value net\nPower and information exchange in the Finnish food industry: This case study concerns buyer-supplier relationships in a value net in the Finnish food industry and analyses the role of power in information sharing. The value net comprises several actors, and the four main ones were selected as the case companies: a manufacturer, two supplier companies and a retailer in the role of a customer company. The case value net ranges from raw materials and packaging all the way to end customers through grocery stores. These four companies were selected because they represent different nodes of a certain value net, they are all significant actors in the Finnish food industry and analysing them will produce a complete picture of the net in question. Furthermore, they have different roles and power positions in this certain value net, which was relevant to the research aim of the study.Data collection\nDiscussion and conclusions: This was a study on power relations and collaboration in the value net context, the aim being to analyze how power relations affect information sharing and collaboration between buyer and supplier. It thereby deepens understanding of information sharing and collaboration in this context. It was found in the theoretical part that the resources, competences and capabilities the firms owned were essential sources of power. Furthermore, information was regarded as one of the main resources a firm owns. As Evans and Wurster (1997) noted, for example, it can determine the power of an actor. It can therefore be argued that it is a remarkable source of power. The case study analysis produced similar findings: resources, competences and capabilities were considered essential sources of power for the buyers and suppliers, and the actors had different power positions based on their power sources.The results of the study also suggest that the power positions and relations of value net actors have an influence on their information exchange. This is visible particularly in the quality and quantity of the information disseminated, but also in the direction of the flow. It was found that the power increased as the distance from the end-markets decreased: the closer the firm was to the end customers, the more power it had and the more independent it was in market intelligence generation. Firms that communicate little with their end customers have to rely on the information they get from their partners. Powerful actors such as the case retailer and manufacturer use information as a source of power and are not willing to share it openly. The retailer thus has control over its suppliers, and the manufacturer also controls some of its suppliers. The results of the study also indicate that when an actor is in the role of a supplier and has a less powerful position than its buyers, it is willing to share information and to obtain it from the buyer, but the willingness to share decreases when it assumes the buyer role. Such a situation was evident in the case study in the manufacturer's behaviour. It stated that it needed more information from the suppliers about their products and production, but it was not willing to share its knowledge with them. Moreover, the suppliers had knowledge about the end customers on account of their interactive ways of communicating, and this information would also be valuable to the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the manufacturer was reluctant to share any other information than was necessary for its transactions. This one-way information flow was facilitated by the power imbalance to the benefit of the manufacturer, which in turn was linked to the lack of trust and commitment. Experiences of one-sided commitment and opportunistic behaviour decrease the willingness to increase information dissemination in the value net. Its development requires the willingness of all of the actors involved to invest in collaboration.The results of this study indicate that the role and power position of actors in a network determine their willingness to share information. Because power increases as the distance from the end-markets decreases, the network position is significant. The actors in the case value net that were in the buyer role dominated those in the supplier role. Powerful buyers are able to decide what kind of information to give suppliers, thus preventing them from gaining bargaining power. Power asymmetry prevents long-term collaboration and, in particular, supplier innovativeness. Further, the actors in the supplier role were willing to form collaborative relationships, but when they were buyers their willingness to commit themselves to collaboration decreased. They were anxious to sustain their power positions and therefore did not share information, which had negative effects on collaboration. For this reason the possibility to create value and to achieve competitive advantage through collaboration was not utilized efficiently. In the long run, this will reduce the competitiveness and effectiveness of the value net because it is the end customers that, through their buying and consuming activities, define the value of what it offers. The end customers and their changing and demanding preferences highlight the significance of information sharing. Information exchange enables firms to obtain more comprehensive intelligence about customers, products, and environmental changes, and hence to satisfy the needs of their end customers better.Retailers in the food sector have gained power over manufacturers and suppliers in many countries (Collins and Burt, 1999; Dunne, 2008; Hingley, 2001; Hingley and Hollingsworth, 2003; Kottila and Ronni, 2008; Kumar, 1996, 2005; Ogbonna and Wilkinson, 1996; Robson and Rawnsley, 2001). They are close to the end customers, and the end products of the industry are delivered through them. Competition among suppliers and manufacturers is intense, and it is important for them to ensure that the retailer promotes their products. One way of keeping the retailer satisfied is to provide it with information (Blesa and Bigne, 2005). The barrier to changing supplier is high if the quality of the information received is high. However, suppliers are rarely in direct interaction with end customers and have to rely to some extent on their partners in the value net. Wathne and Heide (2000) suggest that this may cause asymmetry of information that could be opportunistically used by retailers. This same phenomenon was apparent in our case study.A single case study does not purport to produce findings that are generalizable in a statistical sense, but the results may be valuable in an analytical sense if they clarify or extend understanding of existing theory (Yin, 2003). This study enhances understanding of the dynamics of the value net in relation to power relations and information sharing. It also has practical implications in terms of revealing the critical factors influencing value net collaboration, making it possible for managers to focus on relevant factors in developing business relationships and the value net as a whole. To the authors' knowledge there are no existing studies in which power relations, collaboration and information sharing are combined and discussed from the value net perspective. Furthermore, these issues are rarely examined in the context of the food industry. The study therefore contributes to the research conducted in the fields of supply management and value nets and to knowledge about power relations and the food business.Further research could be directed towards comparable studies of value nets in other fields: it would be important to find out whether power relations have the same dynamics in other industries as well. Furthermore, enhancing understanding about the influence of power on other elements of collaboration in a value net will be of particular interest in the future. Further research could also be conducted on value creation and collaboration in value nets, namely the value creation facilitated by collaboration between the actors and the role of capabilities. The role of information sharing in the development of value nets and of collaboration and capabilities in value creation are also worth further study because efficient value creation is enabled through collaboration and the combining of complementary capabilities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The paper aims to analyze power balance and collaboration in the value net context and to discuss the role of information as a source of power. The purpose is to find out how power affects information sharing and collaboration between buyers and suppliers. Both demand and supply perspectives are utilized, and the value net approach is combined with research on supply management and market orientation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The case study method was used in order to analyze relationships and information sharing in the Finnish food industry. A 29 semi-structured interviews were conducted in four case companies.\nFindings: - The results indicate that value net actors in the supplier role are willing to form collaborative relationships, but when they are in the role of the buyer the willingness to collaborate weakens. The implication is that power increases as the distance from the end-markets decreases and that power relations affect collaboration and restrict information sharing between the actors in the value net.\nResearch limitations/implications: - A single case study such as this does not purport to produce findings that can be generalized in a statistical sense, but the findings will be valuable in an analytical sense because they extend understanding of the existing theory. Further research should be directed towards comparative studies of value nets, power relations and information sharing in other countries and in other industries.\nPractical implications: - The paper sheds light on the critical factors that influence value net collaboration, making it possible for managers to focus on relevant issues when developing business relationships and the value net as a whole.\nOriginality/value: - There is a limited amount of research on value nets in the food industry, and because of the changing business environment there is an urgent need for studies focusing on the food business in the context of networks and value nets. In combining the value net approach with purchasing and supply management and market orientation perspectives the study extends the discussion on information sharing with its emphasis on network relations and the complicated nature of collaboration.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A mixed method approach to understanding brand personality
|
[
"Brand image",
"Brand identity",
"Qualitative research"
] |
[
{
"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: The scene is striking. It is dusk as a lone automobile powerfully ascends a mountain, moving toward the stately Prince of Wales Hotel, sitting atop a bluff, overlooking picturesque Waterton Lake and the town of Waterton, Alberta, Canada. Arriving at the hotel entrance, the door opens and a black-tie attired couple emerges. The advertisement drips with images of luxury, quality, and elegance - the exact images, the exact sense of personality, that Lexus hopes its audience will receive.Drawing upon the pioneering work of Aaker (1997), marketers have been intrigued by the conceptual implications and pragmatic potential of the concept of brand personality. Brand personality recognizes the symbolic and emotional meaning that taps consumer appeal and affects purchase decisions (Govers and Schoormans, 2005; McCracken, 1986; Holman, 1981). Indeed, an ever-growing and diverse range of entities has centered attention on brand personality as a means to distinguish products and services (Smith et al., 2006; Venable et al., 2005; d'Astous et al., 2006; Kumar et al., 2006; Opoku et al., 2006; Wesley et al., 2006).Although the significance of branding has been broadly recognized and well- documented, the expanding role of branding serves to underscore its topical importance. Distinguishing brands based on physical attributes and functionality have been the traditional foci. However, attention to the arena of brand personality has expanded in recent years, in part due to the difficulty of product differentiation based on functionality and quality (Veryzer, 1995).Interestingly, as one would expect in any relatively new arena of inquiry, the study of brand personality has spawned both interest and criticism. At the heart of the research reported here is recent concern about whether traditional brand personality scales adequately capture the nuanced and idiosyncratic nature of brand personality across varied contexts. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore and examine how an understanding of brand personality is affected through the utilization of a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) research design. We seek to provide a better understanding of how the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies provides richer perspectives of brand personality measurement than scale-based approaches alone.\nReview of literature: Perspectives on brand personality\nMethod: Item generation\nResults: Factor analysis of personality dimensions\nQualitative dimensions of personality: Overall personality dimensions\nSummary: In the current study, the quantitative data (rating scale) supported the five major dimensions of personality as designated by Aaker's original work. However, there was a lack of correspondence between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of personality. Here, the qualitative data provided fuller and richer perspectives than those attained through the rating scales. Largely, this enhanced view came from the narrative nature of the qualitative investigation. Respondents' (consumers) expressed their personal impressions of their usage, experiences, and feelings towards the brands being studied. In turn, the respondents' own words provided the basis for drawing brand characteristics.This study found that Nike was perceived as a reliable and trustworthy brand. However, it was also perceived as a relatively expensive brand. While these impressions appeared to be quite salient to the consumers' choice process, these items were revealed only through our qualitative assessment. The rating scales did not capture these items. In short, these items were missing from the standard quantitative analyses.Importantly though, the quantitative analysis (not shown in table form) revealed key differences in perceived personality between Nike and Adidas. For example, Nike rated statistically significantly higher than Adidas on items such as original, trendy, exciting, imaginative, and up-to-date. On the other hand, Adidas was rated significantly higher than Nike on items such as down-to-earth, family oriented and small town.Looking at the quantitative and qualitative assessments provides a broader and more complete image. The rating scales suggest that Nike has captured a more trendy, contemporary, and perhaps \"edgier\" feel than Adidas. These could be utilized to differentiate and justify the added perceived expense of Nike over Adidas. However, the qualitatively revealed themes of trustworthiness and reliability offer a different angle or means of connecting with potential consumers. The Nike brand impressions seem to indicate that consumers sense that with Nike, one \"gets what they pay for\" (presumably a consistently reliable product).In a similar manner, the rating scales revealed that Target, with statistical significance, was perceived as more of a small-town store than Wal-Mart. Additionally, Target scored significantly higher than Wal-Mart on items such as cheerful, trendy, exciting, cool, and contemporary. These appear to be dramatic differences in brand personality.However, the qualitative assessments revealed that Wal-Mart was perceived as a trustworthy and courteous brand with low prices. Further, one of the critical qualitative differentiators between Target and Wal-Mart seemed to be the contrast between the perceived relaxed atmosphere of Target and the tense atmosphere of Wal-Mart. Again, this key impression, an impression that may drive at least some patronage decisions, was not captured through the standard rating methodology.\nManagerial implications and applications: The use of computer software for analyzing the rich narratives of qualitative research is limited in academic as well as the research industry (Bezborodova and Bennett (2004). The major reasons are the time constraints - time to develop expertise in using the tools and the time requirements of the marketplace. Thus, one of the goals of this paper was to show that these tools have the potential for major contributions in research and that through the judicious use of qualitative and quantitative tools, marketers can obtain richer data than by relying on either single method.Clearly, marketers will continue to utilize quantitatively-driven data to guide and drive key decisions. Decision making which is void of such a foundation would be regressive and problematic. However, as revealed in this study, rich, meaningful, and highly relevant data can emerge from careful qualitative analysis. These data can both augment and extend that derived from more traditional scale-based approaches. Accordingly, the overall quality of the decision process can be positively enhanced.Perhaps the biggest advantage of the mixed methodology reported here comes in the area of advertising, particularly the development of creative advertising strategy. Within the context of brand personality, advertisers must help consumers associate meaning (symbolic and emotional, as well as functional) with the brand in question. Quantitative research provides an objective base for such decisions. As such, understandably, the data drive the creative appeal. However, the nuance of personality that can be exacted through careful qualitative assessment simply adds creative richness and the promise of a more accurate connection between advertising and consumers. Looking carefully at the points of similarities and differences between qualitative and quantitative assessments allows marketers to capture a more complementary and expansive brand perspective than is offered from either method in isolation.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to use a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to exploring product personality. It also aims to focus on the personality dimensions of two retails stores (Target and Wal-Mart) and two athletic brands (Adidas and Nike). While personality has been investigated in marketing settings, the focus has been limited to using quantitative scales. This approach has the potential of leaving out rich details of personality not captured by the scale, thereby offering little helpful information for advertising copy writers. While qualitative approaches may lack the formal test of hypotheses, they afford rich narrative that adds important insights about the products and practical help for advertising development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The study is based on a concurrent, two-studies design where qualitative and quantitative data are both collected and analyzed separately (concurrently or sequentially). A survey is used to measure the personality dimensions based on Aaker's five personality dimensions. In addition, various personality dimensions are explored using in-depth, one-to-one interviews; grounded theory framework; and QDA software that is especially suitable for text analysis.\nFindings: - The findings reveal lack of convergence in personality dimensions. While full convergence is not expected due to method and sample characteristics, the findings revealed important dimensions that appeared only in either the qualitative or quantitative analysis. For example, the attributes of competence, sophistication, and ruggedness failed to emerge in the qualitative analyses.\nResearch limitations/ implications: - Caution is advised in extrapolating the results beyond the issues investigated in the study.\nPractical implications: - The findings help marketers in formulating effective product design, positioning, and promotion strategies.\nOriginality/value: - Most of the research on the subject of personality has been designed around Aaker's five dimensions of personality. There has been some variation to the instrument to capture dimensions such as nurturance, and integrity, ruggedness, and sophistication. However, there is a void in qualitative research that is oriented towards discovering (rather than testing) the dimensions of personality. This paper uses qualitative research methodology, specifically a grounded theory framework, to discover the personality of products, and to compare these outcomes with Aaker's five-dimensional scale.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
On designing an oral history search system
|
[
"Information retrieval",
"User studies",
"Design",
"Information management",
"History",
"Oral history"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Oral history can be defined in a multitude of ways and holds a significant place in a variety of libraries, collections and research. According to Butler (2008) \"oral history is a recorded interview of an individual or group of individuals by a historian, researcher, or another interested individual doing the interview\" (p. 34). As an example, there are numerous famous oral history projects from around the world such as the Shoah Foundation which has over 53,000 video interviews of Holocaust survivors (USC Shoah Foundation, 2016), the Ellis Island Oral History Project which shares historical accounts of immigration to the USA (National Park Service, 2016) and Scotland's Rural Past which explores the live or rural settlements and the people that lived in them (Scotland's Rural Past, 2016). More recently, Andrew Vinales (OUPblog, 2016) highlighted in \"Oral history for youth in the age of #BlackLivesMatter\" that \"he and his students have used oral history to not only document the lives of people fighting for social justice but also as a tool to inspire young people to act\" (p. 8). These are just a sample of the substantial number of projects which portray the different uses, relevancy and diversity of oral history and how it can be used as a tool for social and political change. Oral history focusses on a variety of people from all walks of life and plays a central role in the representation of local communities, women, ethnic minorities and ordinary people. These groups were largely underrepresented in historiography until the late twentieth century and have recently come into focus. Thus, oral history focusses on social and cultural history that recognises the experiences of a wide range of people or \"history from the bottom up\" in which individuals such as workers, women and minorities take centre focus.\nLiterature review: Oral history in the digital age\nMethodology: The framework approach\nAnalysis: Transcript analysis was based on a five-step process outlined by Srivastava and Thomson (2009). The analysis began with a broad set of results from a range of stakeholders from which keywords and terminologies were identified. Subsequently, this led to the development of categories and classifications to produce important features and design recommendations. By examining the transcripts and each study repeatedly, different possible meanings and how these fit in with developing themes were considered. Transcriptions were also read \"horizontally\" which involved grouping segments of text by theme. In order to provide a sequential and logical analysis, the remainder of this section has been divided into the four key themes that emerged from the data analysis.\nDiscussion: This study has been successful in two key areas. First, it has validated previous research in relation to oral history search systems. Second, it has expanded on previous studies and offered a set of valuable design recommendations. The research extended beyond the realms of education to organisational bodies and members of the general public which makes this study original and valuable in its contributions. This study has demonstrated that technology has advanced rapidly in the last decade and the ability to design numerous search systems and techniques across multiple platforms exists. However, it has also identified that there is room for further exploration and work to be conducted in the field of study.\nDesign recommendations: The recommendations offered by this study come with significant challenges. However, irrespective of financial or other restrictions these are areas that should be considered by those seeking to design an oral history search system:\nConclusion: Overall, this study has conducted effective qualitative research with a diverse range of stakeholders to determine the most important features that should be available in any oral history search system. This study has been successful in the identification of important features and has offered a set of design recommendations. It has also established areas for future research for those interested in conducting further analysis of designing an oral history search system. This research has been particularly successful in two fundamental areas. It has been effective in building and validating previous findings in relation to the discussion surrounding \"accessibility and engagement\", \"ethical and legal considerations\", \"public, interest and awareness\" and \"innovative technologies and future opportunities\" from a UK-based perspective. It has also opened up exploration for future research in several key areas such as usability, software development and marketing. Ultimately, the potential audience will continue to grow to the seven billion living in the networked planet (Cohen, 2013). Therefore, it is appropriate to conclude by quoting the study of Gluck et al. (1999) who stated that the \"human element will always remain fundamental to the field\" which this research has effectively illuminated (p. 25).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a UK-based assessment of oral history technology and to identify the most important features that should be available in any oral history search system.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A co-design approach involving interviews and focus groups was adopted. The framework approach with elements of grounded theory was used to analyse transcripts to identify themes.\nFindings: The analysis found that \"ethics, consent and control\", \"accessibility and engagement\", \"publicity and awareness\", and \"innovative technologies\" were the four major themes identified. It was also established that there is limited understanding of oral history in the digital age, numerous interests, ethical concerns, lack of publicity and several key attributes that those designing an oral history search system or archive should strive for. The findings also identified that further exploration into sampling selected technologies on different user groups is required in order to develop software that would benefit the field.\nResearch limitations/implications: Participants were all recruited from one geographic region. The qualitative methodology utilised could be deemed to have elements of subjectivity.\nPractical implications: This study has identified important features of any oral history search system and offered design recommendations for any developer of an oral history search systems.\nOriginality/value: This research has validated some previous findings for oral history search systems from more limited user studies. New issues for consideration including usability, software development and marketing have also been identified.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
The new deflation and housing market bubbles in the USA and UK: a monetary policy dilemma
|
[
"Keynes",
"Bubbles",
"Deflation",
"Disinflation",
"Veblen"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Since the early 2000s, two complex economic phenomena - a shadowy new deflation and housing market bubbles - have assumed a seemingly improbable relationship in both the USA and UK. In this paper, we examine the dilemma that has posed for monetary policymakers at the Federal Reserve and Bank of England, namely, that their policies aimed at countering the risk of deflation through stimulating aggregate demand have contributed to the housing market bubbles. But we also find that the dilemma runs deeper. Monetary policymakers focus on short-run macroeconomic cyclical fluctuations and rely on policies aimed at aggregate demand management through changes in short-term interest rates and the money supply. Theoretical guidance for their policy analyses is provided by economic theories that explain cyclical fluctuations, including deflation, as caused by short-run changes in aggregate demand. The connection between the new deflation and housing market bubbles is explained as arising from a failure of policymakers at the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to recognize that the deflationary forces stem from a long-run trend driven by aggregate supply forces. Consequently, short-run conventional and unconventional policies aimed at stimulating aggregate demand have failed to eliminate the deflation risk while contributing to housing market bubbles.\n2. Housing market bubbles since 2000: Housing markets are subject to a complex of local, national, and international factors that are subject to change either in the short run or the long run, e.g., population growth; economic development, growth, and cycles; government policies and financial innovations; and cultural changes. In 1999, at the height of the boom driven by a surging stock market and record low unemployment rate without inflation, Alan Greenspan summarized the Federal Reserve's assessment of housing markets. Sales of new homes are driven by growth in population or more closely by household formation. Given the current birthrate and state of immigration, the number of new US households was being projected as flat at best, with little upside potential. Sales of existing homes would dominate as homeowners would seek to extract built-up equity, but this rate would be slower. Almost as an after-thought, Greenspan stated that a protracted fall in prices would be \"unpleasant\" but also a wholly unlikely scenario.\n3. Policies driven by fears of a new deflation: In late 2002, Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Ben Bernanke as a Member of the Board acknowledged a fear that the collapse of the dot.com stock market bubble had exposed the economy to the risk of deflationary forces. For the next several years, those warnings continued (e.g. Bernanke, 2003). Greenspan responded to the perceived threat of deflation by lowering the federal funds rate to a historical low. But he went further, defending lax lending standards in the mortgage banking sector and encouraging homeowners to refinance at low interest rates and spend the \"extracted\" equity. In 2003, Greenspan began praising the benefits that rapidly rising prices in the US housing markets were provided by stimulating aggregate demand through the wealth effect on consumption spending. In July 2004, Greenspan told the US Congress that \"the concerns about the remote possibility of deflation that had been critical in the deliberations of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) last year can now be safely set aside.\" Similarly, Bernanke (2004, 2006) was now hailing the benefits of price stability, termed \"the new moderation.\"\n4. Central bankers perceived a Keynesian short-run aggregate demand deflation: From their comments in speeches and testimonies, it is clear that policymakers at the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England (as well as the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) have perceived the risk of the type of inflation explained by John Maynard Keynes (1936, pp. 292-309) in \"The General Theory\". Within the short-run theoretical framework of an upward sloping aggregate supply curve based on the current state of industrial technology and existing social institutions, shifts in the aggregate demand curve occur when changes in money supply (broadly defined) occur. If the money supply is sufficient to support a full employment level of effective aggregate demand, price stability is achieved. But if the money supply is reduced, either by central bank policies or the hoarding of cash by the private sector, the aggregate demand curve shifts downward, and the general price level falls along with a decrease in employment. The appropriate policy solution is to stimulate the level of aggregate demand through lower interest rates and increases in the money supply.\n5. A Veblenian \"chronic\" aggregate-supply-driven deflation: The extraordinary use of conventional and unconventional monetary policies that were implemented in 2008-2009 should have effectively countered any risk of a Keynesian-type deflation caused by a short-run deficiency in aggregate demand.\n6. Concluding statement: In the \"Introduction\", we noted that both deflation and bubbles in housing markets are complex economic phenomena. Within the limited space and scope of this paper, we have focused narrowly on the importance of monetary authorities at the Federal Reserve and Bank of England having perceived the risk of deflation as a short-run deficiency in aggregate demand triggered by a financial crisis. As a consequence, the policy responses have failed to counter the long-run aggregate-supply-driven forces of a \"chronic\" deflation, while contributing to housing market bubbles as those enjoying higher and rising incomes can obtain mortgages at low interest rates. The complexity of the new deflation is shown in terms of the structural effects on employment and income distribution, complicated by the policies aimed at stimulating aggregate demand. It is to be hoped that recognition of the true nature of the new deflation and its socio-economic consequences will lead to further search for more effective policy approaches.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an analysis of the improbable events of housing market bubbles occurring in a period when US and UK central bankers were responding to perceived risks of a new deflation.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The methodology focuses on how the anti-deflation policies implemented by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England contributed to the housing market bubbles. The central bankers perceived the deflation as a Keynesian short-run deficiency in aggregate demand, triggered by a financial crisis. Indications are that the deflation is in the nature of long-run aggregate-supply-driven trend as explained in Veblen's theory of \"chronic\" deflation driven by cost-reducing advances in technology and globalization.\nFindings: The Keynesian anti-deflation policies of the Federal Reserve and Bank of England failed to counter the deflation risks while contributing to housing market bubbles. Moreover, the policies failed to address the structural problems of unemployment and income inequality associated with long-run aggregate supply deflation.\nOriginality/value: Effective policies must be based on a correct theoretical understanding of the problems. The chronic nature of the new deflation points to the need for new approaches to deal with the negative income and employment effects that exclude an increasing number from the housing markets.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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Leadership in a humane organization
|
[
"Leadership",
"HRD",
"Hospitality",
"National culture",
"Humane organization"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nPurpose statement and research question: The purpose of this manuscript is to lay the foundation of a research stream attempting to establish how leadership behaviors should be conceptualized in humane organizations (HOs). The research question is: What are the expectations of employees regarding the behavior of leaders in a humane organization? In addition, the expectations of the behavior requisite for effective leaders will be reviewed through the prism of participants' scores of individualistic and collectivistic values as intended by the original study (Dimitrov, 2010).\nBackground and significance to the field of HRD: Little research exists on the concept of the HO, and none is found in the extant leadership theories. Thus, the study of leadership behaviors, as perceived by employees from different cultural backgrounds in a hospitality organization, will inform the practice of Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals responsible for leadership development programs and cultural change interventions. In addition, a review of employees' perceptions of how leadership should model behavior in an HO will contribute to better understanding of what it means to lead in an HO across cultures. The study of expected and existing leadership behaviors, such as should exist in a humane organization, is also significant for HRD because it will provide information about the sources of engagement for the workforce in the workplace. This will strengthen the suggestion of previous studies on the HO that employee engagement is an outcome of the humane organization in action; that is, an HO is the place where workforce engagement is augmented. Furthermore, leadership is distinct in those organizations that are humane, just like all other characteristics of such organizations stand out in comparison with other company cultures (see Chalofsky, 2008 and Dimitrov, 2009 for a detailed list of the features of the HO).\nConceptual framework: Humane organization\nMethodology summary: The method of data gathering, processing and analysis of the case study was summarized by Dimitrov (2010, 2012). Triangulation of data was achieved through, interviews, written personal reflections, organizational documentary analyses and observations. Dimitrov (2009) interviewed 17 hospitality employees from different management levels and administrative positions, as well as from different cultural backgrounds (for details about the sample choice see Dimitrov, 2009 or Dimitrov, 2012). Seven participants were determined as representatives of horizontal collectivism (HC) and ten as representatives of horizontal individualism (HI), using SINDCOL; there were seven countries representing the national cultural backgrounds of all participants (Dimitrov, 2010). A profile of the 17 participants can be found in Table I.\nSummary of findings: Based on all data, five themes emerged that classified the findings of the study in the categories and sub-categories illustrated by Dimitrov (2012). Among these categories, the theme of \"Setting the Example,\" contained five sub-themes relevant to the impact of leadership on employees' perceptions of meaningfulness and humanness of their workplace. This theme also includes all ideas referring to the leadership style and values of corporate executives, local higher-level management (General Manager and Executive Committee), and middle hotel management (direct supervisors). Under this broad category, five sub-themes were formed, as presented in Table II:\nDiscussion: setting the example: Company values for leadership styles and employee treatment\nConclusions: Caring leadership makes organizations humane\nRecommendations for future research: It would be a worthwhile ambition for a future HRD study to involve the characteristic features of the humane organization into the search for effective leaders. In other words, being \"cognizant and understanding of individuals as human beings, not just as employees\" (Dimitrov, 2012, p. 362) could be included as a new success factor for leaders. The contribution to the leadership body of knowledge and the new linkages with leadership theory that this study examined need to be further pursued as well. A future study of the correlation of concepts such as authentic, transformational, ethical charismatic and humane leadership needs to be undertaken. This will lead to the formation of an HO leadership (humane leadership) framework that could be applicable to different (by industry, scope, ownership and size) types of organizations. Furthermore, HRD research will benefit from a clearer description of the role of leadership, as one of the identified features of an HO (Chalofsky, 2008; Dimitrov, 2009), in the development of culturally diverse humane organizations. Finally, a more extensive literature review and comparison with past cross-cultural studies on leadership could be undertaken to place the culturally relevant information from this study into a broader and more comprehensive context.\nRecommendations for practical application: Organizations and HRD practitioners are encouraged to invest more time, efforts and resources into leadership development programs that create such leadership skills and prepare such quality leaders who are well-perceived and trusted by their culturally diverse workforce. These effective leaders should exhibit humane features (affect, emotion, social intelligence and personable disposition) and actions (care, empathy, encouragement, flexibility and cooperation), demonstrating concurrence with the maximum that organizations are only profitable when their employees are. HRD practitioners need to emphasize the traits of a good coach, friend and facilitator in organizational trainings; whereas, organizations should support this image by the maintenance of an appropriate organizational culture (a humane organizational culture). Employee participation in building healthy relationships and truly open communication between leaders and followers should be considered a mandatory part of this process. Family-friendly and flexible policies should be abundant and modeled by all levels of leadership in organizations that are on their path of becoming humane. In addition, leadership development programs should be strategic tools for organizational change and for the conversion of organizational characteristics into HO features where humane leadership grows. Furthermore, how the humane concept differs in the perceptions of people from different cultural backgrounds will also determine the level and extent of HRD intervention into the leadership context of an organization.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the way leadership influences an organization to become humane through its features and behaviors; as well as the organizational circumstances in which humane leadership can be nurtured. The first empirical case study, in the fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and hospitality management, to explore the way employees from different national cultures (as measured by their individualistic/collectivistic values), in a US-based hotel, perceive their workplace to be a humane organization (HO), as defined by Chalofsky (2008), was the one made by Dimitrov (2009, 2010). More specifically, the example set by leadership in the studied hospitality organization is the focus of the present descriptive manuscript. The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The exploratory research mentioned above used a single embedded case study with 17 participants, selected via purposeful convenience sampling, who represented management, supervisory and professional line-level employees from a culturally diverse full-service hotel in a major metropolitan area. The instrument of Singelis et al. (1995) for horizontal and vertical individualism (I) and collectivism (C), as well as the instrument of Triandis and Singelis (1998) for I and C, was applied to every respondent to determine their cultural belonging. One-on-one interviews, written reflections and documentary analysis, as well as observations of the social and physical aspects of the participants' workplace, were conducted.\nFindings: Five leadership sub-themes were observed to the general theme \"Setting the Example\" of the study's findings: company values for leadership styles and employee treatment; the legacy of one charismatic leader (the previous general manager); leader-follower communication; how the workplace feels intrinsically; and how the work environment becomes negative. The study led to the formation of two new characteristics of the HO (Dimitrov, 2009), of which one could be recommended as the main focus of leadership in an HO: being cognizant and understanding of individuals as human beings, not just as employees. The traits and behaviors of some modern leadership theories such as authentic leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership were combined under the concept - humane leadership.\nResearch limitations/implications: The research of more culturally diverse organizations in different counties, brand cultures and economic sectors, under various research methodologies, and in the context of classical and recent leadership theories, was recommended to establish further weather I and C employees' expectations of their leadership would make a difference for the sustenance of an HO.\nPractical implications: Furthermore, organizations and HRD practitioners are encouraged to invest more time, efforts and resources into leadership development programs that create such humane leadership skills and prepare quality leaders who are well-perceived and trusted by their culturally diverse workforce.\nOriginality/value: The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace. Humane leaders can be nurtured in a humane organizational culture.\n",
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Organizational emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value and third-party response to sexual harassment
|
[
"Inclusion",
"Organizational culture",
"Sexual harassment",
"Third-party observer"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Despite decades of laws prohibiting it, sexual harassment (SH) remains a serious problem at work. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently resolved roughly 7,000 SH charges, at a cost of nearly $35m in payouts (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2017). The EEOC's numbers likely understate the extent to which SH occurs in U.S. workplaces because SH is underreported (Bowes-Sperry and O'Leary-Kelly, 2005; McDonald, 2012). SH harms its (mainly female) victims (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2017) by increasing absenteeism, lowering job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and reducing mental and physical health (Willness et al., 2007). What is more, SH investigations are among the most sensitive (Dorfman et al., 2000) while SH lawsuits are reputation-damaging (James and Wooten, 2006; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2010) and expensive. Understandably, employers and Human Resource (HR) officers are eager to eliminate SH.\nThe unintended consequences of workplace cultures that emphasize inclusion: Not all organizational efforts to improve inclusion and equity have accomplished this goal. Castilla and Benard (2010) described why efforts to promote inclusion may have the opposite result. In one of the first empirical analyses of the effects of organizational culture on organizational decision-making - in their case, a culture of meritocracy - they demonstrated the \"unintended\" consequences of an organizational cultural emphasis on meritocracy. The culture actually encouraged biased decision-making with regard the rewarding of a yearly bonus to women. Specifically, individuals in managerial positions gave men higher bonuses than women when their organizational culture emphasized meritocracy than those in an organization that did not (see also Castilla, 2008). Castilla and Benard (2010) drew on the concept of \"moral credentialing,\" the idea that individuals' past moral behavior allows them to act immorally without concern for their actions. That is, individuals who feel that they have established \"credentials\" as being unbiased feel that any biased behavior they exhibit is not due to their own prejudiced attitudes (Merritt et al., 2010). While \"moral credentialing\" occurs at the individual-level, settings that emphasize egalitarian values may also facilitate its effects (Bradley-Geist et al., 2010). Thus, workplace settings that emphasize inclusion may enable a worker to act in biased ways. Indeed, Castilla and Benard (2010) demonstrated that an organization can actually establish an individuals' \"credentials\" as unbiased; in their study, the organization itself justified the managerial decision-makers' gender-biased behaviors.\nAdditional factors shaping labeling of and response to SH: Additional factors shape the ability to perceive and respond to workplace SH. Women are more likely than men to perceive an act as SH, partly from women's greater likelihood of being the victims of workplace harassment (Chamberlain et al., 2008). Moreover, age matters: younger individuals tend to experience, perceive, and be more intolerant of SH (McCabe and Hardman, 2005). Full-time employees might have greater knowledge about discrimination and workplace policies regulating it (Adams-Roy and Barling, 1998). In theory, managers are responsible for knowing employment rules, including those related to illegal acts of discrimination, and are likely to have been trained in detecting these behaviors. Indeed, when managers receive SH training, the likelihood of employees perceiving SH or filing a claim decreases (Hirsh and Kmec, 2009).\nMethodology: An online survey-experiment was conducted in which participants evaluated a scenario between two fictional employees in a fictional company, Hubbard Services. The experiment involved the manipulation of the fictional company's formal, written organizational culture.\nResults: Table I summarizes the descriptive statistics for the variables used in analyses as well as mean differences across manipulated organizational culture. In the overall sample, roughly 51 percent of the participants perceived the interaction between the worker and manager to be SH. In total, 44 percent indicated they would be a witness for the female subordinate in a SH claim. On average participants scored 4.46 on the ten-point indicator (0=justified to 10=overreaction) denoting a respondent perceives the female subordinate's contemplation of filing a SH claim lean toward being justified rather than an overreaction.\nMultivariate models: Labeling the interaction and female subordinate's response\nDiscussion: This study explored whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value was associated with third-party observer's labeling of and reaction to an interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate. An emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is unrelated to the labeling of the act as SH. Yet culture shapes the labeling of the female subordinate's reaction to the interaction. Specifically, participants assigned to the inclusion cultural condition were more likely than those in the control condition to view the female subordinate's consideration of filing a SH claim against her male manager (in response to his repeated comments on her appearance) as an overreaction. Finally, a workplace setting that emphasizes inclusion as a cultural value is associated with a greater willingness of a third-party observer to serve as the female subordinate's witness in a SH claim than those in a setting that emphasized individual achievement, even net of seeing the act as SH. WE observed no difference in participant willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim across workplace conditions. Finding that inclusive cultures are not associated with a respondent's capacity to label an act as SH but that they are associated with a heightened notion that a female subordinate who wishes to file a SH claim against her male manager is over-reacting suggests that a workplace emphasis on inclusion may \"blind\" third-party observers to wrongdoing, a finding that corroborates what some have called the \"unintended\" consequences of organizational emphasis on diversity and inclusion.\nStudy implications, limitations and future research: This experimental study investigated whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value was related to third-party labeling of and response to repeated, public interactions between a male manager and his female subordinate. In this section we discuss the research implications of our findings for organizational scholars and the practical and social implications of findings for employers and HR managers. We conclude by describing steps for future research.\n",
"role": "user"
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"content": "Purpose: Reliance on third-party judgments are common in efforts to identify and reduce workplace sexual harassment (SH). The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is related to third-party labeling of and response to an exchange between a male manager and his female subordinate.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Participants (n=308) in an online survey experiment were randomly assigned to a workplace that emphasized inclusion or one that emphasized individual achievement as a cultural value. They read a vignette describing a workplace interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate and responded to a series of questions.\nFindings: Organizational emphasis on inclusion is unrelated to third-party labeling of the interaction as SH, but positively associated with labeling the female's intention to pursue harassment charges as an overreaction, and support for the female subordinate in a claim of SH against her manager. Culture is unassociated with willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim.\nPractical implications: Identifying how workplace culture shapes third-party reaction to harassment can help employers use third-party witnesses and cultural value statements as tools to reduce SH.\nSocial implications: A workplace's cultural emphasis on inclusion is positively related to third-party support for SH victims implying the importance of workplace context in the fight against workplace SH.\nOriginality/value: The paper presents the first experimental analysis of how a workplace cultural emphasis on inclusion affects the third-party observers' reactions to SH.\n",
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] |
Lessons in learning from the Academy of Rock
|
[
"Learning methods",
"Project management",
"Leadership",
"Management strategy",
"Music industry"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nLearning and reinvention reviewed: Type in the words \"learning organisation\" into a search engine and you will probably turn up references to Peter Senge, Chris Argyris et al. in the results. Much less likely that you will find the pop artist Britney Spears. Yet, Britney unwittingly \"hit the learning nail on the head\" just as well as the world's greatest management thinkers in her song Oops I Did It Again (see Figure 1).We are creatures of habit as individuals and are prone to doing things over and over long after their purpose has ceased to be relevant. When this tendency is multiplied many times over in an organisational culture, it is all too easy for businesses to repeat the same behaviours, long after they have ceased to be useful for colleagues, customers and clients. Just think about how long it took Kodak to spot the switch to digital film and Marks & Spencer to notice dramatic buying changes in its customer base. In both cases, these examples of \"corporate myopia\" had significant consequences for the performance of the business. This raises the point that \"unlearning\" is much harder than \"learning\". Unlearning requires a conscious recognition that existing patterns of behaviour are insufficient or inappropriate to address a particular task. Strong corporate cultures tend to exacerbate the need for unlearning, as they develop blind spots as a by-product of the benefits a strong culture delivers in terms of focus and commitment to particular goals and directions. Peter Senge and Chris Argyris would have pointed out the need to recognise systemic patterns of unhealthy behaviours and the need for organisational learning. Britney might have sung \"Oops, I did it differently\". In this article we will look at a real life project from the music business, where there was a real need for rapid learning and some significant unlearning to bring some of the ideas alive.\nLessons from failure: It is often easier to learn from mistakes, especially if other people made them! One such example of a \"glorious project failure\" is that of the John Otway World Tour, which I was able to study at close range as part of the \"fieldwork\" for the book Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll (Cook, 2006)[1]. As John Otway is not as well known as Mick Jagger, some background is necessary. John Otway is a 50 something cult punk rocker, with two hits to his name across a 30-year career in the music business - see the fact file in the Appendix.Otway's great strength is his staying power in an industry where career longevity is more usually measured in months. His inventive powers have however meant that many of his ideas to extend his career have failed, sometimes with dramatic effect. Indeed, he has had such a reliable track record of failure to make it as a rock star that he was able to capitalise on this \"core incompetence\" by writing a self-effacing humorous biography with the subtitle \"Rock'n'Roll's greatest failure\". This helped him develop a cult following who put him into the UK music charts at No. 9 for his 50th birthday with a comic remake of the hit Disco Inferno entitled Bunsen Burner. This boosted John Otway's confidence to take on something much bigger which became the idea to circumnavigate the world with his cult following.The business concept behind the World Tour may be expressed as a formula: Equation 1 In this case, the big idea was to charter an A340 Airbus, fill it with adventurers and take them on a once in a lifetime trip round the world, performing at the Sydney Opera House, Caesar's Palace, Madison Square Gardens and visiting China and the seven-star Madinet Hotel in Dubai. At the same time to make a comic film \"rockumentary\" to rival classic spoof movies such as This is Spinal Tap, Wayne's World and The Blues Brothers. This was to be the real Spinal Tap tour for 300 thrillseekers who wanted to live the Rock'n'Roll dream on a record breaking two week circumnavigation of the world. The project had a budget of PS1.5 million and promised to deliver nearly twice this investment for those involved. So far, so good, however, like so many entrepreneurial projects, the venture failed with less than half the seats sold by departure date. Hindsight is a great teacher, and there were a number of turning points that could have transformed the fortunes of the tour. Some of those turning points are explored here, with the implications for learning and unlearning drawn out.\nLesson 1 - hire capable people who are committed to the cause: The tour team engaged a specialist travel agent to handle these aspects of the tour. When I commenced the field work, it became apparent that no tickets had been sold for nine months in the run up to the tour and that the jet was less than 25 per cent full with less than six months to go until take off. On further investigation, the travel agent lost a large number of paid up passengers immediately when they took the project on. A previous incumbent had managed to half fill the Airbus. When the travel agent and charter jet operator entered the scene, they decided they wanted to take a greater level of profit and there had been a rise in the price of aircraft fuel following Hurricane Katrina. Existing passengers were e-mailed asking them to pay an extra PS1,000 with no real explanation as to why. This relationship management error lost approximately 25 per cent of the passengers, a critical incident which it would prove impossible to recover from (see Figure 2). On meeting the various people involved in the team, it became apparent that the travel agent boss was privately uncommitted to the project. The travel agent took the tour on as a niche product to help protect the business from the internet invasion, but later realised just how difficult and different from their existing business it was to sell a PS4,000/PS7,000 round the world ticket to a cult following. This lack of commitment revealed itself on an everyday basis in the following ways:* Travel agent staff waited passively for potential passengers to contact them to buy seats rather than having an active selling approach to the database of fans and potential contacts.* Interviews with front-line travel staff showed that they had no idea of the tour concept and the ethos of \"John Otway\" and his cult fanbase - in short, they had not been engaged or enabled to sell the world tour concept.What would you do with this diagnosis? Train the front-line staff? Confront senior management's lack of commitment? Bypass the problem by installing staff who could relate to the star's fanbase? Engage another travel agent? Time was short, the travel agent management were unwilling to provide staff with the time to learn, but also unwilling to see the project pass to a more able and willing travel agent. The tour team was not keen to start over at such a late stage, so the options narrowed. Eventually an unemployed drummer with a good understanding of the John Otway fanbase and with excellent telephone sales skills was engaged to bypass the problem, bringing sales back up to nearly 50 per cent of that required within two months and rejuvenating faith in the tour concept with the tour team, but exhausting any remaining passengers in the fanbase in the process. If John Otway was to succeed with the venture, we would have to look elsewhere for people who wanted to live the Rock'n'Roll dream.\nLesson 2 - stand on the shoulders of giants: Six months before departure it had become obvious to most of the project team that there were insufficient John Otway fans to fill the Airbus. At this point, the team had the choice of finding other ways to finance the venture, e.g. through sponsorship or underwriting the risk or to increase the attractiveness of the tour by bringing on a well-known rock act to the tour. As the old adage goes \"If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants\". In spite of several attractive offers from well-known acts young and old, it seemed that John Otway was unwilling to contemplate having someone more famous on the tour. No amount of \"executive coaching\" suitably disguised was able to change his mindset, which was reinforced by many previous experiences of John having been \"rescued\" by his fanbase. For example, when he had his second hit for his 50th birthday, the fans responded by buying 29,000 copies of the single. However, there is a vast difference in spending PS2.99 for a CD and up to PS7,000 for a two-week trip round the world. Like some small (and large) business owners John attempted to use the same strategy for a major project as he had used many times for a small enterprise. Despite intensive attempts to address the need for some unlearning, the belief that he would be rescued prevailed. The addition of a young well-known rock act would have simultaneously solved the seat sales deficit and made the tour more attractive to large corporate sponsors, all of whom liked the \"Spinal Tap\" concept but wanted a young well known act to meet their sponsorship criteria. This was a nettle which John, supported by some of the project team, found impossible to grasp.\nLesson 3 - appeal to the customers rather than pleasing yourself: It sounds simple when looking at this venture from a distance after the event, but I noticed that much of the marketing for the tour had adopted a \"star-centric\" rather than a \"customer-centric\" approach. One example of this was the panic production of a large number of tour leaflets for the Edinburgh Festival by John Otway and the travel agent just three months away from take off. The leaflet did not mention the itinerary at all, nor the \"world tour passenger experience\", which might have attracted people who were unfamiliar /uninterested about John Otway but who might have empathised with the Monty Pythonesque idea of the \"real Spinal Tap tour\". This was echoed in the media with four out of fve pages of an article in the Independent newspaper devoted to John's glorious past with only a brief mention of the future. No sales emanated from this large opportunity. John's performance did improve to some degree when we got a slot on BBC Radio 2's Jonathan Ross Show. To circumvent John's natural inclination to talk about his past career to the exclusion of the world tour and the once in a lifetime passenger experience, we enlisted the help of celebrities Mark Lamarr and Dale Winton, who did a superb job in making John explain the concept from the potential passenger's perspective and summarising the tour concept in terms which were accessible to the \"all round thrillseeker\". This immediately boosted passenger numbers, although by this time it was sadly too late to rescue the project.Needless to say, the tour eventually collapsed. Although the venture had a profitable profile in the medium term, like so many other entrepreneurial ventures, a lack of cash became critical. As the electro-pop group Buggles might have sung \"Cashflow killed the Punk Rock Star\". The Rolling Stones start out with the balance sheet and work backwards from that.\nLessons learned: The basic design fault in the \"formula\" is that of executing the strategy well. Certainly the idea was well-conceived and, had the tour happened, would have rejuvenated John Otway's career many times over. John admitted that he had surrounded himself with a dysfunctional tour team and that his over optimism was probably a hindrance to making the tough decisions which were needed early on in the venture, and which subsequently caused the downfall of the project. In the event, the very strength that had kept John's career going, in his own words, his single mindedness, became the weakness of blindness under the immense pressure that the project produced. This also applies to organisations under pressure.The lessons from the tour are as relevant to a business as they are to the crazy world of Rock'n'Roll:* Hire people who are able and willing - no amount of training will solve the problem of hiring the wrong raw materials in the first place.* Continuous creativity is fine, but unless backed by rigorous execution, will not lead to successful innovation.* Any project organiser needs to ensure that people feel it legitimate to ask the question why from time to time to identify questionable assumptions before they become part of groupthink.* A constant focus on the end consumer experience or outcome is necessary when working with people who are self obsessed.* A lifetime's experience is a big barrier to learning when the circumstances demand it. There is a tendency to ignore compelling evidence of the need to adopt a different posture. The skills of coaching are valuable here, but the messages must come from a messenger who will be heard and listened to.\n",
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},
{
"content": "Purpose: - This paper aims to explore the challenge of learning and reinvention from the twin perspectives of academia and the earthy pragmatism of popular culture. It provides a set of lessons to assist organisations to learn and, more importantly, unlearn, so that they can stay ahead.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The paper starts with a brief review of some of the more important ideas around learning. It is followed by a case study of a \"glorious failure\", taken from the music business using action research as the methodology.\nFindings: - The main findings may be summarised are: selected people who are able and willing rather than simply putting up with what you have available at the time; if your project is much bigger scale/different than that attempted previously to recognise this and act accordingly; when working with highly creative people, ensure that there is sufficient focus on end customer requirements to avoid the project becoming too self-obsessed. These findings are highly transferable from the original field of the music industry to other environments.\nOriginality/value: - Some principles for commencing the processes required to encourage learning and unlearning are developed for adaptation to particular organisations in the paper. These will be of value to anyone who seeks to introduce adaptive or transformative change in their organisation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Antagonistic framing of sustainability by energy suppliers: Dissecting corporate CSR messages in a cross-cultural comparison
|
[
"CSR communication",
"Framing",
"Energy suppliers",
"Sustainability"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Today, energy transition is one of the key claims in nearly any political strategy and related agenda - not only by green parties. A transition is seen as a process evolving over time and is characterized by structural changes and non-linearity (Geels and Schot, 2010, p. 99). It can be defined as long-term shift from an economic system to another and is dependent on a specific set of resources (Carley et al., 2018). Transitions are highly complex and comprehensive phenomena, as they are multi-layered and inevitably embedded in society and culture, respectively, their structures and practices (Grin et al., 2010, p. 3; Loorbach and Wijsman, 2013, p. 22). This complexity stems from the fact that transitions are related to a multitude of factors that play a critical role in the process itself, such as technology, politics, science and consumer preferences. Consequently, change must take place in all these areas in order to achieve a transitory process (Geels, 2011). In addition, transitions are performed by different social groups, whose actors can change their interests and preference perceptions during the process (Geels and Schot, 2010, p. 95). Thus, the reasons behind this shift, the objectives, the drivers as well as the management, governance and the voices heard in the public can be quite diverse. Nevertheless, it is perceived as fact that there is an intense and continuous media interest with a high number of voices and opinions engaging in the media debate on energy transition (Philo and Happer, 2013).\nCommunicating (for) sustainability: corporate communicative responsibility: From a public perspective, \"green\" corporate behavior on behalf of enterprises receives often negative media coverage. Stories are usually negatively framed, thematising corporate or managerial misconduct. Hardly, positive contributions are put at the center, making accusations of \"greenwashing\" or \"whitewashing\" sound rather warranted and legitimate (Elving et al., 2015). Thus, energy suppliers, as any other corporation, have to face the paradox of CSR: the more you do and the more you communicate about your CSR activities, the more closely you are watched and criticized for any (even minor) misconduct. The media logic of only bad news being good news is not to be underestimated. Thus, the challenge for corporations is not their CSR strategy itself, but rather CSR communication, which can be perceived as a \"process of anticipation stakeholder's expectations, articulation of CSR policy and managing different [...] tools designed to provide true and transparent information about a company's or a brand's integration of its business operations, social and environmental concerns, and interactions with stakeholders\" (Podnar, 2008, p. 85). This definition also includes how these stakeholders contribute to define CSR (Morsing, 2017). Thus, CSR communication is more than the company's disclosure of \"responsible action\" toward their stakeholders (European Commission, 2001; Breitbarth et al., 2009, p. 251), demonstrating to the outside world that economic success and social well-being do not have to exclude each other (Etter and Fieseler, 2011) but could be a competitive advantage (Rasche et al., 2017; Gardberg and Fombrun, 2006).\nFraming CSR messages: Several studies of environmental communication have analyzed frameworks of interpretation and media frames (e.g. see Matz and Renfrew, 2015; Plec and Pettenger, 2012; Waller and Conaway, 2011; Nilsson and Biel, 2008; Davis, 1995), as well as framing of energy supply and the process of transition to renewable energy (Bigl, 2016; Djerf-Pierre et al., 2015). The standard works of framing research (Entman, 1993, 2004; Semetko and Valkenburg, 2000; Gamson et al., 1992; Iyengar, 1991; Tankard, 2001; Gamson and Modigliani, 1987, 1989; Gitlin, 1980; Goffman, 1977/1980) point out that there are two forms of frame definitions that can be distinguished with regard to their level of abstraction (Matthes, 2009, p. 350).\nOnline CSR communication: Energy communication captures all communicative activities by energy suppliers, whereby it is predominantly concerned with the issues of energy production and energy supply. Energy communication has been seen as one of the most important research areas of environmental communication for the last four decades (Hay, 1979; Cox, 2013). Companies operating in the energy sector heavily depend on communication; the continuous fragmentation of the media landscape, which leads to a new \"media manifold\" (Couldry, 2012) in today's network society (Castells, 2000) is marked by emotion, insecurity and an increasing complexity (Stehle and Krueger, 2010). As described above, not only CSR has risen in importance over the past years, but also communication in the energy sector. On a positive note, the internet changes the communication patterns from a traditional one-to-one or one-to-many communication to any-to-any and many-to-many communication (Cho et al., 2017, p. 55), which implies \"new opportunities for symmetric communication and for relationship management online\" (Etter, 2014, p. 323; Neuman et al., 2014).\nMethod: Generally, frame analyses focus on visual and written forms of text. Frame analyses are a specific form of content analyses that seek to explore content in terms of predetermined categories and in a systematic manner. Here, text elements on websites are used as material (Beullens and Schepers, 2013), aiming at making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified message characteristics (Holsti, 1969, p. 14; Bryman, 2016, p. 283ff). In order to provide answers to the research questions, a detailed website analysis was conducted (Burgess and Bingley, 2007; Parker et al., 2010) in selected countries. The companies, included in this analysis, were picked in a research-led teaching project; the corporations were chosen related to the accessibility of their online and offline material in particular, and, related to the criteria of centrality and size. A mix between domestically and internationally operating firms was chosen together with firms who have a very progressive take on energy (e.g. the \"green\" energy supplier Lichtblick, which exclusively relies on renewable energy). The rationale for such a heterogeneous sample can be explained as follows: we wanted to find out whether it is worthwhile to also make size and nationality a criterion in future investigations.\nFindings: In the upcoming section, 12 case studies will be presented. These are dedicated to the analysis of online and offline CSR activities by energy suppliers operating internationally and domestically. Their activities will be investigated along the same scheme of analysis in order to guarantee the comparability of results.\nClassification of CSR positioning: As described in the introduction, the deployment of renewable energy should contribute to the slowing growth of CO2 emissions. However, while environmentally beneficial, the emerging transition to renewable energy creates winners and losers around the globe (Kelsey and Meckling, 2018). More and more independent power producers join the market, which also challenges established firms navigating through political strategies and stakeholder communication. The process of energy transition highlights conflicts between incumbent and competing firms as a defining feature of the transformational technological change within this specific industry (Sterling, 2014; Geels and Schot, 2007). After having discussed online website content as well as information for download as pertaining to corporate social engagements, the individual companies will now be allocated according to their respective positions in the previously introduced framework (see Figure 1).\nConclusion and discussion: In order to gain recognition as responsible and sustainable actors, corporate enterprises depend on their stakeholders' trust, which is hard-gained. For this reason, firms operating in the energy sector are called upon to repeatedly stress their contribution to sustainable developments in their communications. In order to appear authentic, initiatives have to be aligned with their core business practices and made transparent in order to counteract distrust and accusations of unsound business practices. Nevertheless, even if the Paris accords have shown that we need to phase out fossil fuels by 2050 in order to stop global warming and climate change, energy suppliers have to present critical perspectives on how they position themselves communicatively in the era of transition; and not only frame their acceptance of responsibility as compliance with political strategies.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine inasmuch energy suppliers dedicate communicative resources toward sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR), also paying attention to how they frame it, and if they manage to achieve consistency in their communication or fall victim to contradictions.\nDesign/methodology/approach: By use of a qualitative content analysis, online communication tools (information on corporate websites) as well as content for download were examined in detail. The present study sample comprised of 12 case studies from selected countries (Austria, Russia, Germany, the USA, France and Korea).\nFindings: Overall, findings indicate that CSR has already been implemented in most energy and energy-related industries; however, it is put forward with varying degrees of attention and intensity, depending on which topics energy companies choose to address communicatively (results were classified according to a frame positioning scheme by Weder, 2012, 2018). Results underscore the fact that, at times, companies are struggling to link their CSR projects back to their core businesses. Yet, a clear trend to politicization can be described as a strong correlation of communication strategies of energy suppliers and political programs of the respective country becomes obvious.\nResearch limitations/implications: Limited research as to how CSR topics are framed in different branches has been conducted to date; likewise, the energy sector, whose motives has been often subject to public questioning, has received little attention in CSR communication research to date. Hence, ambiguities were presumed to exist.\nOriginality/value: The present study examines the relevance and framing of CSR in a highly competitive, centralized industry that is challenged by a global process of transition to renewable energy. The results show that the analyzed energy suppliers offer only a limited variety of issue-specific frames; instead CSR as well as sustainability are (ab)used as master frames or \"buzz words\" in a fairly shallow economic or socio-political argumentation.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
How do career satisfaction and life satisfaction associate?
|
[
"Employee well-being",
"Structural equation modelling",
"Work-life issues"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Life satisfaction, defined as the overall cognitive judgement of one's life (Diener et al., 1985), is an ultimate goal in human existence and has a number of further positive concomitants, e.g., having more friends and being healthier (Diener and Biswas-Diener, 2008). Work and organizational psychologists are recognizing that life satisfaction might also be an important issue in their field (Abele et al., 2016; Erdogan et al., 2012) as it is positively related to job performance (Jones, 2006) and to lower turnover intentions (Rode et al., 2007). As a consequence, life satisfaction is a desirable goal for both an individual and the organization. It is therefore important to know how working conditions and the subjective experience of one's work and career affect an individual's life satisfaction.\nTheoretical background and hypothesis development: The theoretical framework developed by Campbell et al. (1976) states that an individual's perceived level of satisfaction with life in general is related to levels of satisfaction in various life domains, such as work, family, community, health, and so on. Whereas some studies (Rode, 2004; Near and Rechner, 1993) suggest that the effect of work domain on life satisfaction is weak compared to non-work domains, a review by Erdogan et al. (2012) revealed that the relatively weak association of work domain satisfaction with life satisfaction might be a result in former studies of biased samples. These authors found that out of 6,160 journal articles dealing with life satisfaction and the work domain, only 193 (3.13 percent) of them examined working adults for whom the work domain was an essential part of their life.\nStudy 1: Method\nStudy 2: Study 2 was again a three-wave longitudinal research, but now with four-week time intervals between measures. The aim of Study 2 was twofold. First, we wanted to test the longitudinal association of career satisfaction and life satisfaction within a shorter time period. It may be that bottom-up influences of career satisfaction on life satisfaction will be more easily detected, if studied within a shorter time period than the one analyzed in Study 1. This reasoning can be based on set-point theory according to which positive and negative experiences do have an influence on life satisfaction. However, in many cases, this influence is short-lived and life satisfaction will soon adapt to an individual's usual level of satisfaction (Fujita and Diener, 2005; Lucas, 2007). It may be that changes in career satisfaction have a short-term influence on life satisfaction, but this influence will disappear after a while, e.g., a person might get a bonus for his or her work and this spills over to his or her life satisfaction for a short time.\nDiscussion: Knowing that life satisfaction is a desired goal for individuals and knowing that life satisfaction has a number of positive consequences also in the field of work and organizations, our studies aimed at investigating the association between career and life satisfaction. Previous cross-sectional studies suggested that career satisfaction and life satisfaction are positively related (cf. Erdogan et al., 2012; Lounsbury et al., 2004). Our findings support and extend these studies by showing that career satisfaction and life satisfaction are not only related within but also across time. The results of our two longitudinal studies with different samples of participants and with different time intervals between measures revealed within time and across time correlations between career satisfaction and life satisfaction that varied between r=0.29 and r=0.65. The explained variances in career satisfaction (varying between 36 and 79 percent) were smaller in Study 1 than in Study 2, which is probably due to the longer time intervals between measures in Study 1. Further, both studies found that a test of different models on the directional association between life satisfaction and career satisfaction always favored the top-down approach and - somewhat less - the interactionist approach.\nConclusion: Although life satisfaction is a major life goal and although adults spend a majority of their lifetime working, work and organizational psychology have only recently recognized that life satisfaction may be an important factor in the domain of work. The current longitudinal studies enrich our understanding of how life satisfaction and career satisfaction develop and how they are related over time.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Life satisfaction is an ultimate goal in human existence, and it is also an important factor in the work domain. It may both trigger work-related outcomes and be influenced by work-related factors. The authors are here concerned with career satisfaction and its association with life satisfaction. From a bottom-up perspective, career satisfaction should enhance life satisfaction; from a top-down perspective, the influence should work in the reverse direction; and from an interactionist perspective reciprocal influences are conceivable. The paper aims to discuss these issues.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors tested these perspectives in two longitudinal studies with three points of measurement each. Study 1 (n=517) covered a period of five years and Study 2 an eight-week period (n=99). The authors analyzed the data by means of latent growth curve modeling and cross-lagged analysis.\nFindings: Both studies revealed that life satisfaction and career satisfaction are positively associated both within and across time. The directional association between both constructs is well-represented by a top-down model; further, by a reciprocal influence model. The bottom-up model received least support. Study 2 additionally showed that work centrality is a moderator.\nResearch limitations/implications: The authors discuss these findings with respect to both the relevance of life satisfaction in the work domain and the relationship between global and domain-specific life satisfaction.\nOriginality/value: The present research is the first one that investigates the association between career satisfaction and life satisfaction using two longitudinal studies.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Workers age 50 and over in the Brazilian labor market: is there ageism?
|
[
"Ageing",
"Labour market"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Brazil, long regarded as having a relatively young population, is quietly expanding the participation of older people in the labor market. In human resources management (HRM) in Brazil, themes such as generations X, Y and Millennials still predominate, with a focus on the young and their perceptions and desires about work. In contrast, the position and opinion of the older age groups within the labor market are scarcely known. The way that these workers are hired, either in collective bargaining (with unions) or individually by companies, is also unknown (Cordeiro, Freitag, Fischer, & Albuquerque, 2013). However, population aging and the labor market are processes that are being increasingly studied in Brazil (Carvalho & Wong, 2010). This paper deals with the inclusion of workers age 50 and over in the Brazilian labor market. The delimitation of this group as older workers is aligned with Parry and Harris (2011) and Weiss and Bass (2002).\n2. Ageing and the labor market: Despite all the economic instabilities experienced in recent decades, it has become clear that technological advances on issues related to health and basic sanitation, among others, have enabled a continuous improvement in people's living conditions. One of the consequences of this advance is population aging, one of the most important contemporary phenomena.\n3. Methodology: The study applied quantitative and qualitative approaches. The analysis of the participation of the older population in the Brazilian labor market applied a quantitative approach in order to classify, rank, or measure variables by comparing groups and establishing comparisons (Vieira, 2009). Secondary data from the RAIS's databases at the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE [by its Portuguese acronym]) were used for this purpose. The RAIS data are collected annually by the MTE, coming from all establishments with or without formal employees, whether statutory (public servants) or private organizations. The collection of RAIS data may be considered a census of the organizations in Brazil (around 4.5m) and the information from the workers and their workplaces refer to December 31 of the year in question. This information represents the demand of the established organizations in the formal labor market in Brazil. This paper was prepared using the database available for 2015.\n4. Data analysis: Results related to the RAIS and also to the MEPT - PROGEP/FIA database are presented in the following topics.\n5. Final considerations: After analyzing the data presented, the paper identifies the characteristics of the participation of workers age 50 and over in the formal labor market, based on the RAIS data for the period 2011 to 2015. One-third of these workers are in the public sector, one-third in services and one-third in other sectors. On the basis of workers employed in private and mixed capital companies, it was identified that the group of workers age 50 and over has a growing participation in the labor market. The profile of this worker is predominantly male, schooling above the market average and employment with formal contracts that are longer lasting compared to all workers as a whole.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper deals with the insertion of workers aged 50 years or more in the Brazilian labor market. Considering this question, the purpose of this paper is to raise evidence about the existence of ageism - prejudice against that age range. The paper identifies the characteristics of participation by workers age 50 or older in Brazil's formal labor market. The paper also identifies whether and how the specific issues of these workers are handled in the individual employment contract, with the human resources management (HRM) policies and practices of a group of companies.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The study applied a quantitative approach in an analysis of the older population in the Brazilian labor market (Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) database and \"MEPT\" survey database - 2011/2016). The RAIS data are collected annually by the Ministerio do Trabalho e Emprego - MTE, coming from all establishments with or without formal employees, whether statutory (public servants) or private organizations. MEPT survey is an annual study focused on quality of the organizational environment and HRM practices (organizations participate voluntarily). A qualitative approach was applied also in a document content analysis on information about HRM policies and practices based on MEPT companies' research evidence reports.\nFindings: There is evidence of ageism among private companies in Brazil with better HRM. These companies hire proportionally less old workers than the market and their HRM policies and practices scarcely handle with employees. The workers age 50 and over among the workers employed (private and mixed capital companies) have growing participation in the labor market. The profile of these workers is predominantly male, higher level education considering the market average, and working under longer lasting formal contracts comparing all workers combined. People involved in the individual hiring of workers from this age group do not even give this subject much attention.\nResearch limitations/implications: The specific objective of verifying if and how the specific issues that workers of 50 years and older are dealing; in the individual hiring for work, encountered limitations based on the restricted character of the data presented. In particular, the information related to the best companies (MEPT) is representative only of its own group and thus is restricted to the private sector. Although this cannot be generalized, they offer support for reflections on the subject.\nPractical implications: This paper shows how companies with advanced HRM handle with older workers in their policies and practices.\nSocial implications: This work points out that that the aging of workers will be a problem to be discussed by the companies HRM in the future.\nOriginality/value: This paper identifies the need to study how companies will deal with the increasing number of older workers.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Optimizing KBART guidelines to restore perpetual access
|
[
"Licensing",
"Electronic journals",
"KBART",
"Perpetual access",
"Post-cancellation",
"Serials management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Perpetual access is essential - especially for libraries with dwindling funds - as it directly correlates to long-term collection investments. Perpetual access should be initiated at the beginning of a new licensing agreement with the negotiation of a specific clause, which is especially important when licensing bundled electronic journals in the \"Big Deal\". Such a clause will state that, in the event of a cancellation or non-renewal, the licensee will retain access to previously subscribed content.\nBackground: Queens College\nLiterature review: When the Electronic Resources Librarian decided to derive a workflow from processes used at Springer, it was, in part, due to limitations of software available at the library, and, in part, due to a lack of library literature documenting post-cancellation workflows. Numerous search queries for literature on serials management and post-cancellation workflows were conducted, with most relevant results received from the following three queries:\nThe process: Once potential Big Deals were identified for cancellation, the library moved forward to determine which titles would be eligible for perpetual access. Perpetual access titles were reviewed before assessing any alternative renewal options, as any restored titles will have a long-term affect on the library's collection and, thus, influence future subscription decisions.\nConclusion: Though there are numerous variations on perpetual access rights across hundreds of vendors, it is important to try to negotiate rights specific to your library's collection needs. It is also important to communicate the value of KBART compliance, as increased vendor adoption allows for the library to access better data for increasingly efficient and proactive workflows. With that said, it is good practice to verify all holdings customizations with a vendor representative before communicating changes to a knowledge base.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This case study aims to demonstrate how proactive use of KBART guidelines can assist librarians in the analysis and restoration of journal titles with post-cancellation perpetual access.\nDesign/methodology/approach: After experiencing a 25-per cent decrease in the collection budget, the Queens College Libraries (QCL) faced losing electronic journal content with cancellations to Big Deal licensing agreements. By using tools such as Serials Solutions, Ex Libris SFX and Microsoft Excel, the library was able to optimize KBART guidelines to analyze and restore journal titles under perpetual access licensing clauses. The implemented workflow mirrored the process to create \"Big Deal\" renewal spreadsheets at Springer Science + Business Media.\nFindings: By using KBART guidelines to manipulate and analyze data, the library was efficiently able to identify journal titles for perpetual access. Because the resulting data were formatted within KBART guidelines, it could then be transferred to a knowledge base for enhanced content discovery.\nPractical implications: While there are numerous variations on perpetual access rights across hundreds of vendors, the workflow developed at QCL can be replicated, or altered on a case-by-case basis. By highlighting the work necessary to implement perpetual access clauses, this article makes a case for both standardizing licensing clauses as well as increased vendor adoption of KBART guidelines.\nOriginality/value: This case study examines the workflow of an Electronic Resources librarian with vendor experience, the overlap of concerns between librarians and vendors, and the ways in which to analyze journal holdings without an automated system.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Are we in this together? Knowledge hiding in teams, collective prosocial motivation and leader-member exchange
|
[
"(Collective) Prosocial motivation",
"Knowledge hiding in teams",
"Social and economic leader-member exchange"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Knowledge hiding, defined as an intentional attempt, by an individual, to conceal knowledge or information that has been requested by another person, regularly occurs in the workplace (Connelly et al., 2012). Much of the existing research on knowledge hiding has focused on interpersonal factors, such as distrust, that predict this behavior (Connelly et al., 2012; Cerne et al., 2014). There seems to be an underlying assumption that employees hide knowledge from individuals who are distant or separate from them within the organization because they have not established a social exchange relationship (Blau, 1964), which must be long-term, trust-based, reciprocal and interdependent. Teams have become the basic organizational working unit (Chen et al., 2013) and over 80 per cent of the work conducted in Fortune 1000 companies is based on teamwork (Hollenbeck et al., 2012). Many discussions and interactions take place in teams, and individual employees are frequently grouped into a team to work together (Barrick et al., 1998; Hu and Liden, 2015). Nonetheless, knowledge hiding may, in fact, occur among members of the same team. Each team member has individual goals, which he or she may value more highly than the team's goals (Heidemeier and Bittner, 2012; Knight et al., 2001). Indeed, there is some evidence that competition can exacerbate the effect of distrust on hiding (Cerne et al., 2014; Hernaus et al., 2019; Khumar Jha and Varkkey, 2018). When employees feel compelled to compete with each other, it may prompt them to hide knowledge to maximize their competitive advantage. Knowledge, embedded in the interactions of people, tools, and tasks, provides a basis for competitive advantage in firms (Argote and Ingram, 2000). Further, individuals' self-interested behaviors can be contagious (Contractor et al., 2006). As a result, when individuals hide knowledge from fellow team members, it may elicit a reciprocal response from team members (Cerne et al., 2014), thereby prompting even more knowledge hiding in teams. This study proposes that prosocial motivation, defined as the desire to protect and promote the well-being of others (Grant and Berg, 2011), reduces these effects. According to Bolino and Grant (2016), prosocially motivated employees care about the well-being of others. Prosocially motivated employees are therefore likelier to be concerned about establishing and maintaining the social-exchange relationships within their team (Bernerth et al., 2007); this in turn makes them likely to refrain from hiding knowledge from their team members. This may, however, be dependent on the team context, which is inherently shaped by leadership. Leaders play an important role in shaping a team's collective understanding of how workplace interactions should unfold (Hollander, 1980; Shore et al., 2009). When leaders signal employees that knowledge hiding is practiced, tolerated and expected, it further encourages the signaled employees to continue pursuing that course of action (Offergelt et al., 2019). The relationships that develop between team members and their immediate supervisors set the stage for how team members respond to requests and interact with one another (Boies and Howell, 2006). Accordingly, this paper examines the role of leader-member exchange (LMX), i.e. a relationship-based approach to leadership that focuses on the dyadic relationship between leaders and each of their followers (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995) in shaping team members' knowledge hiding. Two facets of LMX in teams are considered: social (SLMX) and economic (ELMX; Kuvaas et al., 2012). Both impact the interpersonal dynamics of the employee-leader relationship. ELMX, not only the broader construct of LMX which only encompasses social relationships (corresponding to SLMX), is particularly interesting. ELMX does not entail a lack of leadership, but rather a specific pattern of interactions among leaders and followers directed toward a more transactional and calculative nature of exchange (Buch, 2015). Social LMX corresponds to the traditional notion of LMX (Graen and Schiemann, 1978; Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995) and represents the quality of social and relational interaction between the leader and followers (Kuvaas et al., 2012). The main research question of this paper is as follows: what is the predictive role of team-level prosocial motivation and both forms of LMX, and their interplay, in explaining knowledge hiding among team members? The first intended contribution of our research is to establish whether knowledge hiding occurs between members of the same team, who are assumed to have shared goals. This paper draws on existing research on knowledge hiding among individuals (usually in dyadic interactions; Connelly et al., 2012; Cerne et al., 2014) who work together closely, and conceptualizes this phenomenon in the context of same-team membership. While Babic et al. (2018) and Skerlavaj et al. (2018) tested the role of individuals' prosocial motivation in preventing their own knowledge hiding, their conducted studies that examined knowledge sharing without a clear target (a field study) and in dyadic exchanges (an experiment). By contrast, the present paper focuses specifically on knowledge hiding among team members. The second potential contribution of this research is to extend our knowledge of the antecedents of knowledge hiding (Peng, 2013; Serenko and Bontis, 2016; Stenius et al., 2016). This paper draws on social exchange theory as a framework to understand how team-level prosocial motivation and LMX predict knowledge hiding among team members. In so doing, this study complements the recent studies of Zhao et al. (2019) and Offergelt et al. (2019) on the role of leadership in knowledge hiding, extends this research to a multi-level domain, and differentiates between SLMX and ELMX, two qualitatively different facets of LMX. This cross-level framework contributes to the understanding of how and why knowledge hiding among the members of the same team occurs and provides practical guidance for managers and organizations on minimizing such behavior. To achieve these aims, two studies were conducted: an experiment and a field study. Study 1 tests the direct effects of prosocial motivation and manipulated LMX on knowledge hiding in teams. An experimental design is used in Study 1 to allow for inferences to be made about the causality of the proposed relationships, to rule out the possibility of other variables influencing the results, and to alleviate concerns of reverse causality. Study 2 aims to replicate and provide external validity for those findings, disentangle the disparate effects of ELMX and SLMX, and examine their interplay with prosocial motivation.\n2. Theory and hypotheses: Knowledge hiding consists of three related behaviors: playing dumb, where an individual pretends not to know the relevant information; evasive hiding, where an individual pretends that the information will be forthcoming, even though he or she intends to conceal it; and rationalized hiding, where an individual provides an accurate explanation of the reasons why the information is not forthcoming (Connelly et al., 2012). Knowledge hiding explicitly excludes cases in which employees fail to share knowledge due to ignorance or unintentional error (Connelly et al., 2012). Consider the following example of knowledge hiding: An employee receives a request for knowledge and engages in activities designed to conceal the requested knowledge (e.g. pretending to not know the relevant information). Although the concept of knowledge hiding is still novel, several important findings are available. Connelly et al. (2012) first defined knowledge hiding in an organizational realm and crafted an initial nomological network of its antecedents, consequences, and contingencies. Cerne et al. (2014) explored creativity, as its consequence. Based on a social exchange perspective, they found a negative relationship between knowledge hiding and the knowledge hider's creativity, as well as a moderating role of a mastery motivational climate. Subsequently, additional research by Connelly and Zweig (2015) highlighted some additional consequences of knowledge hiding at work, such as interpersonal distrust and the infliction of harm on interpersonal relationships. Zhao et al. (2019) extended the line of knowledge hiding antecedents into leadership and found that LMX promotes organizational identification, thereby reducing levels of employees' knowledge hiding. However, none of the existing studies have specifically examined knowledge hiding in the context of work teams. In contemporary organizations, many tasks, obligations and work activities are completed by teams of employees, working, with mutually dependence and mutual responsibility, toward the attainment of common goals (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993; Wenger and Snyder, 2000). Accordingly, team members are generally expected to share knowledge and help each other (Foss et al., 2013; Gagne, 2009; Hansen, 2002; Hansen et al., 2005), and knowledge sharing is influenced by the extent to which hiders and targets have a personal relationship (Zhang and Jiang, 2015). However, this study does not focus on the lack of knowledge sharing in teams. Because knowledge hiding is, by definition, an intentional act, its antecedents are different from these of a mere lack of knowledge sharing (Connelly et al., 2012). Because teams are composed of individuals with diverse knowledge, strengths and weaknesses, knowledge hiding in a team setting may also have significant consequences. This paper is therefore interested in the extent to which team members actively conceal information from each other, when such information has been specifically requested. 2.1 Team prosocial motivation\n3. Study 1: Methods: 3.1 Sample\n4. Study 1: Results: Means and standard deviations, for each condition and for all study variables, are shown in Table I. Between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed the expected main effects of the LMX manipulation on LMX ratings (F = 129.389, p < 0.01), serving as a manipulation check, as well as the expected main effect of self-reported team prosocial motivation (using the mean splits approach) on knowledge hiding in teams (F = 66.610, p < 0.01), supporting H1. H3, that LMX is negatively related to knowledge hiding in teams, is also supported, because the ANOVA revealed a significant effect of the LMX manipulation on knowledge hiding in teams (F = 120.018, p < 0.01). Finally, the ANOVA revealed a significant interaction effect of the LMX manipulation and prosocial motivation (F = 5.384, p < 0.05), supporting H4. The plot of this interaction is shown in Figure 2.\n5. Study 1: Discussion: The results of Study 1 support the direct influence of both LMX (manipulated) and team prosocial motivation (measured) on knowledge hiding in teams, as well as their interaction. However, given the experimental nature of this study, additional support is needed to establish the external validity of these relationships. Study 1 has also failed to distinguish between the two types of LMX relationships (ELMX and SLMX), which were hypothesized to have different effects. A second study was therefore conducted, in a field setting.\n6. Study 2: Methods: 6.1 Sample\n7. General discussion: Experimental Study 1 showed that team prosocial motivation reduced knowledge hiding in teams, supporting the first hypothesis. High levels of LMX inhibited the emergence of knowledge hiding behavior among employees, and an interaction existed between collective prosocial motivation and LMX. In Study 2, some of these results were replicated in a field setting. Specifically, a marginally significant direct relationship between SLMX and knowledge hiding was found. Field Study 2 also showed that only high-quality LMX, operationalized in the form of high SLMX, interacts with collective prosocial motivation in the prediction of knowledge hiding in teams. A specific area of focus consisted of low levels of collective prosocial motivation, where high SLMX acts to reduce the level of knowledge hiding in teams. 7.1 Theoretical contributions\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: Although organizations expect employees to share knowledge with each other, knowledge hiding has been documented among coworker dyads. This paper aims to draw on social exchange theory to examine if and why knowledge hiding also occurs in teams.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Two studies, using experimental (115 student participants on 29 teams) and field (309 employees on 92 teams) data, explore the influence of leader-member exchange (LMX) on knowledge hiding in teams, as well as the moderating role of collective (team-level) prosocial motivation.\nFindings: The results of experimental Study 1 showed that collective prosocial motivation and LMX reduce knowledge hiding in teams. Field Study 2 further examined LMX, through its distinctive economic and social facets, and revealed the interaction effect of team prosocial motivation and social LMX on knowledge hiding.\nOriginality/value: This study complements existing research on knowledge hiding by focusing specifically on the incidence of this phenomenon among members of the same team. This paper presents a multi-level model that explores collective prosocial motivation as a cross-level predictor of knowledge hiding in teams, and examines economic LMX and social LMX as two facets of LMX.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Understanding non-work relationships in developmental networks
|
[
"Employee relations",
"Interpersonal relations",
"Career development",
"Part time students",
"Social networks",
"United States of America"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Developmental relationships have been a topic of interest for both scholars and practitioners for 25 years. Interest in this topic persists because relationships with mentors may be especially crucial in the turbulent, changing career environment of the twenty-first century (Allen et al., 2004; DeLong et al., 2008; Kram, 1996). Recent mentoring research has broadened the inquiry to include multiple relationships that comprise one's developmental network as the source of support for an individual's career (Higgins and Kram, 2001; Molloy, 2005). This study extends our understanding of how work and non-work relationships that individuals include in their developmental networks differentially affect important career outcomes. We use a mixed method approach to examine support provided by developmental network relationships both within and beyond the context of work organizations, extending previous research on alternative sources of developmental support (Allen and Finkelstein, 2003; Eby, 1997) and external mentors (Baugh and Fagensen-Eland, 2005). In addition, we answer the calls for empirical work linking developmental relationships to outcomes that bridge the work-life interface, such as life satisfaction (Dougherty and Dreher, 2007; Greenhaus and Singh, 2007).Several scholars suggest that developmental relationships are likely to exist both within and outside work organizations (Baugh and Fagenson-Eland, 2005; Higgins and Kram, 2001). Research on developmental networks has demonstrated that individuals receive support from relationships in both their professional and personal social arenas among others (Higgins, 2000; Higgins and Thomas, 2001; Cummings and Higgins, 2006). Empirical studies indicate that mentors most often provide assistance in the forms of career (or vocational) and psychosocial support (Allen et al., 2004; Kram, 1985). Similarly, developers who comprise an individual's developmental network combine to provide both career and psychosocial support (Higgins, 2000; Higgins and Kram, 2001)[1]. Recent developmental network studies suggest that network composition and structure will shape which career outcomes are realized (Dobrow and Higgins, 2005; van Emmerik, 2004). Despite this accumulated knowledge, we still lack an empirical understanding of how work developers and non-work developers in an individual's network may offer distinctive types of support and differentially affect career success. Formally, the research questions that define this study are:RQ1. What are the contributions of both work and non-work developmental relationships to individual career outcomes, including salary level, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction?RQ2. How do support functions from non-work relationships differ from work relationships in developmental networks?First, we review the conceptual underpinnings that guided our mixed method empirical study. We then present quantitative data that links both work and non-work developmental support to important career outcomes, and qualitative data that highlight the most salient functions provided by developers from different domains. Our findings indicate that non-work relationships are a critical part of developmental networks, offering unique support functions that contribute to individuals' career success. We end with suggestions for future research in this arena, and some practical implications for individuals and human resources professionals as they strive to foster learning and career development in organizations.\nDevelopmental networks: Developmental networks are conceptualized as a set of relationships that offer mentoring assistance including senior colleagues, peers, family, and community members (Higgins and Kram, 2001; Molloy, 2005). A developmental network is an ego-centered network; its structure includes all of the relationships an individual identifies in which the other takes a special interest in his or her development and career-related issues are discussed. Developmental relationships are a type of high quality connection with theoretical roots in adult development, social exchange theory, social networks, and identity (Dutton and Heaphy, 2003; Levinson, 1978; Ragins and Kram, 2007). High quality connections allow co-construction of identities or relational identification, which in the context of careers suggests that support from developers enable a positive evaluation of one's work role, performance, and well-being (Sluss and Ashforth, 2007).The recent emergence of research on positive organizational psychology (Cameron et al., 2003) has called attention to the critical role that work relationships, particularly developmental relationships, have in producing positive individual and organizational outcomes (Dutton and Heaphy, 2003; Dutton and Ragins, 2007). The few studies using a network approach indicate that an individual's developmental network explains greater variance in career outcomes than simply examining traditional mentoring relationships, the supervisor-subordinate relationship, or coworker relationships (Higgins and Thomas, 2001; Ibarra, 1992, 1995). Yet, to date, there has been very little attention to how non-work developmental relationships may contribute to positive career outcomes. Here, we review what we know thus far about the contributions of both work and non-work developmental relationships to valued individual outcomes.Work developmental relationships\nMethodology: This study uses a multi-method design, which began with the collection of quantitative data followed by the collection of qualitative data. We conducted a survey in the summer of 2006. The questionnaire included demographic information and a series of previously validated scales to measure variables of interest. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis. We conducted 37 follow-up interviews over the winter and spring of 2007 in order to enhance our understanding of the statistical findings.Sample\nResults: Developmental network data used for this analysis includes 887 relationships reported by 242 participants, 12 participants reported no developers. Developmental support was reported from both work and non-work relationships for 85 percent of participants. For most participants (58 percent), the primary developer, defined as the person listed first in the developmental network (Higgins and Thomas, 2001), was a family member, either a spouse/partner or parent. While 50 percent of secondary or tertiary developers were from work and a vast majority (71 percent) were relationships with direct supervisors or upper level managers. Peer relationships accounted for 19 percent of all developers, including coworkers, friends, classmates, and neighbors. The number of developers and mean developmental support provided by relationships from each social arena (work versus non-work) are reported in Table II. From the work domain, developers primarily included supervisors, upper managers, and coworkers. From the non-work domain, developers primarily included parents, spouse/partner, friends, and others.The means, standard deviations, and correlations of the variables included in this study are reported in Table III. The correlation between salary and career satisfaction was low (.18), while salary and life satisfaction were not significantly correlated. The correlation between career satisfaction and life satisfaction was not as low (.40) indicating some overlap. In preliminary analyses, the correlations among support functions (career support, psychosocial support, and role modeling) were all greater than 0.80, signaling a potential multicollinearity issue for regression analysis. Regression analysis confirmed a collinearity problem among these functions with tolerance scores below 0.10 (0.05-0.09) and VIF scores greater than 10 (10.7-22.3) (Allison, 1999). Principal component analysis using Varimax rotation revealed six factors accounting for 86 percent of the variance with components distinguishable by developer rather than by developmental support function as expected. Thus, we created variables to assess average overall developmental support from work and non-work domains. Results indicate a significant difference in the average overall support received from work developers (M=3.64) compared with non-work developers (M = 3.92), t(254) = -5.54, p< 0.001.The results for hypothesis testing are shown in Table IV. Several control variables including age, ethnicity, tenure in field, and organization size were significantly associated with salary. Age was also significantly associated with both career satisfaction and life satisfaction. In addition, developmental network size was positively associated with life satisfaction. Support from work developers is positively related to both salary (b=0.14, p< 0.01) and career satisfaction(b=0.18, p< 0.01), supporting H1a and H1b. Support from non-work developers is positively associated with both life satisfaction (b=0.15, p< 0.05) and career satisfaction (b=0.11, p< 0.05), supporting H2a and H2b. However, support from non-work developers is not significantly associated with salary, thus, H2c is not supported.In exploratory post-hoc analysis, we examined the contributions of specific developmental relationships to all three outcome variables. Specific relationships were included if the total number of developers was reasonably high enough for regression analysis (refer to Table II); this included three work developers (supervisors, upper managers, coworkers) and three non-work developers (parent, spouse/partner, friend). Results indicate that support from parents is positively associated with salary (b=0.17, p< 0.01) and support from friends is positively associated with life satisfaction (b=0.16, p< 0.01).Qualitative patterns of developmental support\nDiscussion: Theoretical contributions\nConclusion: The opportunities for further research on developmental networks and their potential contributions to a wide range of career and personal outcomes are great. Similarly, the opportunities to apply this knowledge to development practices in organizations are perhaps greater than ever before due to the growing need to develop individuals at every career stage effectively, and with limited financial resources. This study highlights the distinctive contributions of both work and non-work relationships to salary, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction. As a consequence individuals can be more mindful of the individuals who they enlist in their developmental networks to support their goals, success and well-being. Similarly, organizations can create opportunities for individuals to learn how to enlist appropriate developers in to their non-work networks, and to encourage access to potential developers inside and outside the organization through appropriate human resources practices. As organizations start to experiment with initiatives to foster strong developmental networks, it will be useful for researchers to assess their impact on a wide range of both short and long-term attitudes and behaviors so that we can continue to enhance our collective understanding of developmental networks and their potential impact. Clearly, there is still work to be done to realize these possibilities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to explore the different contributions of work and non-work relationships that comprise individuals' developmental networks to career success.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - A multi-method approach provides a rich understanding of how work and non-work developmental relationships combine to support individuals' careers. Survey data were analyzed from 254 working adults who were also part-time MBA students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 participants.\nFindings: - Quantitative results indicate that non-work developers provide more overall support than work developers. Support from non-work developers is positively associated with career satisfaction and life satisfaction. In contrast, support from work developers is positively associated with salary level and career satisfaction. Qualitative data indicate differences in the sub-functions and quality of support offered by work versus non-work relationships, particularly in terms of role modeling.\nResearch limitations/implications: - Developmental relationships from different domains emphasize different sub-functions of support and differentially affect career outcomes. While broad functions - career support, psychosocial support, and role modeling - are identifiable across domains, non-work relationships provide some distinct sub-functions from work relationships.\nPractical implications: - Practicing managers should develop and maintain developmental networks that extend beyond the boundaries of their current organization. Human resource professionals will want to consider how well their initiatives encourage individuals to enlist a variety of potential developers into their networks.\nOriginality/value: - The findings indicate that non-work relationships are a critical part of developmental networks and individuals' career success.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Mood crossover and relational reciprocity
|
[
"Family",
"Marriage",
"Social norms",
"Social networks",
"Individual psychology"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Researchers have made significant advances in understanding how the domains of work and family influence one another (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000). This work primarily has emphasized the dysfunctional antecedents and consequences of work-to-family or family-to-work interactions (see Eby et al., 2005, for a review). Recently, however, attention has shifted to the role of affect transfer between the domains of work and family, highlighting the important and pervasive function of affect as an influence on employee attitudes and performance (Song et al., 2008). In particular, interest in affect transfer has spawned new theoretical models that seek to explain its effects between work and home domains and on the individuals within those domains (e.g. Demerouti et al., 2004; Heller and Watson, 2005; Judge et al., 2006; Takeuchi et al., 2002).\nTheoretical foundations: Spillover influences individuals by transmitting either stressors, affect, or buffering resources between domains (e.g. Heller and Watson, 2005; Powell and Greenhaus, 2006). Meanwhile, crossover occurs when individuals (receivers) react to the psychological well-being, stress, or affect experienced by others (senders) with who they share close relationships (e.g. Bakker et al., 2008; Westman, 2001). The basic assumption guiding crossover research is that individuals' experiences impact their exchanges with other individuals in separate domains.This begs the question of how moods crossover from one partner to another. We propose that generalized reciprocity is an appropriate complement to crossover theory that can describe the inter-individual transmission of moods. Reciprocity is a universal social norm of exchange in proximal and distal relationships (Gouldner, 1960) based on several key assumptions applicable to the current discussion. First, parties exchange inputs of differential value in a system of mutual dependence (Molm et al., 2007). This implies that changes in inputs by one partner require a recalibration of inputs by another in a form of social exchange (Blau, 1964). Second, partners negotiate, explicitly or implicitly, the nature of their relationship and exchanges (e.g. Liden et al., 1997). Thus, relational inputs are gauged against the negotiated expectations of another partner. Next, partners may reciprocate positively or negatively with one another. Finally, generalized reciprocity assumes that partners have a genuine interest in the well-being of the other individual (Liden et al., 1997).Mood crossover modifies the relational equilibrium between two parties. Positive mood crossover, or the positive transmission of mood from a sender's work to a receiver at home, results in an inequity that benefits the receiver. Thus, a receiver may benefit from the crossover of positive moods from the sender's work environment (see Bakker et al., 2005). Because of the mutual dependence of the parties (Molm et al., 2007), there is an incentive for this party to respond by transmitting positive crossover to the family unit, resulting in reciprocity that benefits both parties. Unfortunately, the crossover of negative moods may result in relational inequity that threatens the nature of exchanges.Recent research on dual-earner families suggests that crossover operates similarly for men and women (Barnett et al., 1995; Mauno and Kinnunen, 2002). However, the norm of reciprocity may differ from positive mood crossover to negative mood crossover. In the following section, we consider specific reciprocal responses to the transmission of positive and negative mood crossover.Positive crossover\nMethod: Participants and procedures\nResults: Factor analyses of crossover items\nDiscussion: Our study explored reciprocal mood crossover effects in dual-career couples through social exchange and crossover theoretical lenses. As hypothesized, both husbands and wives reciprocated for the receipt of positive and negative mood crossover from their spouses by transmitting their own positive and negative moods, respectively, to their partners. Thus, mood crossover seems to operate similarly for husbands and wives in dual-career situations. Our discussion addresses contributions to research and theory, strengths and limitations, practical implications, and future research directions.Contributions and theoretical implications\nConclusion: This study examined how individuals in a dual-partner reciprocate the negative and positive crossover of moods of their partner from work to home. Our findings suggest that receivers of positive and negative moods reciprocate in kind by transmitting their own positive and negative moods. This crossover effect has implications for relationship quality and work family balance.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - Building on reciprocity and crossover theory, this paper aims to examine how mood crossover from one partner in a relational dyad influences the likelihood of reciprocal mood crossover from the other partner.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - Using a survey sample of 180 dual-career married couples, the paper explores this phenomenon for both positive and negative mood crossover from husbands to wives and wives to husbands.\nFindings: - The data supported the paper's four hypotheses. Mood crossover was found to operate in a similar fashion for both husbands and wives after controlling for negative and positive affectivity, work and home demands, work autonomy, and support from the organization, non-work friends, and spouse. Specifically, when wives (husbands) reported positive (negative) mood crossover from their husbands (wives), their husbands (wives) also reported positive (negative) mood crossover from them.\nResearch implications/limitations: - The findings suggest positive and negative mood crossover is reciprocated among individuals in a dual-career marriage context. This implies that the effects of positive and negative crossover may be magnified through relational interactions at home. However, the design of this study is not sufficient to determine the causality of this relationship.\nPractical implications: - The findings suggest that the positive and negative work experiences of one partner in a relationship affect the well being and moods of their partner at home. Consequently, organizations may consider wellness or positive reinforcement programs to encourage positive crossover between the domains of work and home.\nOriginality/value: - This study examines how individuals in a dual-partner reciprocate the negative and positive crossover of moods of their partner from work to home.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Assessing the risk of non-compliance in UK organic agriculture: An econometric analysis
|
[
"UK",
"Organic food",
"Certification",
"Risk-based inspection",
"ZIP count data models"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The competitiveness of organic farming depends on products' diversification and quality in comparison with conventional farming. Certification is a crucial element in the organic system to assure and maintain the required standards for organic production, and to guarantee the quality of organic products to consumers. In the European Union certification through an accredited body is required by Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (EC, 2007). Through direct and indirect costs of certification procedure affects relative profitability of organic operators (Stolze et al., 2012). A more efficient certification system may contribute to reduce transaction costs (Zorn et al., 2012), and to increase organic system competitiveness while still maintaining the benefits of trustworthy organic labelling. This goal can be achieved by developing a cost-effective inspection programme that provides assurance of acceptable integrity and reliability, hence shifting the organic certification system more towards a risk-based strategy. Risk-based inspections systems use the findings from a formal risk analysis - according to defined criteria - to guide the direction and emphasis of the inspection planning and the physical inspection procedures. The potentials for a risk-based inspection system in organic certification have been recently discussed in Padel (2010) and Dabbert (2011). In the context of a risk-based inspection system, the evaluation of risk is directly dependent on the definition of risk that is assumed. Two regulations can be considered for what concerns the definition of the risk of non-compliance. The European food law laying down general principles and requirements of food law defines risk as \"a function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the severity of that effect, consequential to a hazard\" (Art 3(9) of Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002) (EC, 2002). A more specific reference to risk (Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007) (EC, 2007) refers to the probability that non-compliance with the organic regulation occurs, irrespective of the magnitude of the direct social damage potentially associated with it. In this paper we have considered the latter definition. See van Asselt et al. (2012) for a discussion on methodological aspects of risk-based controls in the food sector, and Hutter and Amodu (2008) for an analysis of risk management in food safety in UK. Gambelli et al. (2012a, b) and Zonoli et al. (2014), provide an analysis of the determinants of non-compliance in Italy, while Zorn et al. (2013), provide an analogous study for the German organic sector; Gambelli et al. (2014b) provide a comparison of the certification systems as well as an analysis of the main risk factors of non-compliance in Germany and Italy. Finally, Gambelli et al. (2014a) consider the issue of feasibility of risk based controls in organic farming across selected European countries.\n2. The organic certification system in the UK: Organic agriculture in the UK has long history, dating back to Lady Eve Balfour who founded the Soil Association in 1946 with the first standard published in 1967, their structure serving as an example for other standards, followed by a first governmental standards (UKORFS) published in 1987. The number of farms has increased from approximately 300 holdings in 1985 to nearly 5,000 by 2009. The UK is an important producer of organic in terms of land area (738,709 ha, 4,946 producers) and was in 2009 the third largest market in Europe terms of retail sales value after Germany and France (Willer and Kilcher, 2010). The largest land area is found in England (50.2 per cent), followed by Scotland (33.8 per cent) and Wales (14.3 per cent), with the remainder in Northern Ireland (1.7 per cent). Important land use categories are grassland, both temporary pasture/clover (17.2 per cent of organic and in-conversion) and permanent pasture including rough grazing (67.1 per cent), followed by cereals and other arable crops (9.6 per cent) and fresh vegetable including potatoes (2.5 per cent). Important species livestock are dairy cow, beef and sheep for meat production and poultry. In Table I these are shown compared to the annual June Survey of Agriculture data (DEFRA, 2012).\n3. Data description: The data used in this research have been extracted from an anonymised version of the archives of Soil Association[4] on inspections and controls on organic operators licensed with them. The data set consists of a panel of 5,912 observations referring to 2,346 farms observed over the 2007-2009 period and represents about 44 per cent of total UK organic farms (Lampkin et al., 2011). The panel is unbalanced, i.e. not all the farms are recorded for the same number of years. However, it is quite homogeneous, as 1,516 farms (64.6 per cent of the sample) were observed over all time periods and 518 farms (22.1 per cent of the sample) were observed for two consecutive years. The data are collected by the control body for the purpose of client administration and to provide various statistical data to the competent authority. The data set provides information at the farm level on structural-managerial characteristics and detected non-compliance. Inspection visits are distinguished into mandatory annual inspections, follow-up inspections in case of previous non-compliance, and unannounced inspections. Non-mandatory inspections are on average 5.8 per cent of total inspections in the three years considered. Information about non-compliances originates from the inspectors report that is filled in during the visit by the inspector who can issue three categories of non-compliances (see Table II). Information about the reasons causing the non-compliance was only available from a free text source and could not be used in the analysis. All cases of critical non-compliance are referred to the certification department, where decisions about manifest non-compliances and sanctions and/or termination of licences are taken. This information was not re-entered into the client database and could therefore not be used for this analysis.\n4. Model specification: A discrete count data model was used to measure the marginal contribution of each risk factor on the probability of a higher number of non-compliance occurrences. Standard count data models like Poisson or negative binomial models in our case are most likely misspecified since the large share of zeroes would violate the distributional requirements of those models. The reason for the large share of zeroes in non-compliance records could be due mainly to two reasons. The first one is that organic farmers are ethically involved and therefore \"normally compliant\". Some studies concerning motivations to conversion in UK (Rigby et al., 2001; Padel 2001, 2008) show how personal motivations, like ethical, social and environmental concerns, play an important role in the decision for conversion. We therefore expect that as a general rule organic farmers tend to actively comply with the regulations, as indicated from data shown in Table II. However, non-compliance can occur due to: managerial faults, e.g. due to lack of knowledge standards or to structural and managerial characteristics of the farm; intentional frauds due to opportunistic behaviours.\n5. Results and discussion: Both Models 1 and 2 have been formalised on the basis of the following hypothesis: need for a panel model estimation due to the relevance of farmers-specific individual effects; the individual effects are distributed randomly (random-effect model specification); need for a zero-inflated count models due to the large share of zeros in the dependent variables. Table V shows results for Models 1 and 2, and for the test of the hypothesis used for the models' specification. For both models, the LR test for panel vs pooled models confirms the requirement for the panel specification. A Hausman test for random vs fixed effects models could not be computed due to the extremely low time-variation of most of the explanatory variables, which causes singularity in the covariance matrix of the fixed effects estimator. However, under such conditions the choice of the random effect option cannot be rejected (Greene, 2008). These results are relevant as in our model individual random effects are considered as a proxy for the under-reporting effect of non-compliance. Finally the Vuong test for ZIP vs standard Poisson model confirms the requirement for a ZIP specification for a better fit of the zero-biased distribution of the dependent variables.\n6. Concluding remarks: The real causes of non-compliance are obviously latent, and the data available restricts our analysis to inferences referring to structural and managerial risk factors of a farm.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the risk factors influencing non-compliance in UK organic farming.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper uses a formal econometric model of risk analysis to provide empirical evidence on the determinants of non-compliance in organic farming. A panel of data from the archives of the largest control body in the UK for 2007-2009 is used, and specific analyses are performed for two types of non-compliances. A zero inflated count data model is used for the estimation, taking into account the fact that the occurrences of non-compliance are very sparse.\nFindings: Results show the existence of strong co-dependence of non-compliant behaviours (i.e. the occurrence of major and critical non-compliance increases the probability of occurrence of the minor one; similarly the probability of occurrence of major non-compliance increases when minor non-compliance occur). Besides, livestock production and farm size are relevant risk factors.\nResearch limitations/implications: Albeit highly representative, the findings are based on Soil Association data only and not on all UK organic farms.\nPractical implications: The paper provides practical indications for control bodies, concerning aspects that could be strengthened for more efficient risk-based inspections. The paper advocates the use of financial information like turnover or capital stock, and of data concerning the characteristics of the farmers, that could substantially improve the probability of detecting the most severe non-compliances.\nSocial implications: Certification is essential for organic farming, and an improvement of inspection procedures through a risk-based approach could add efficiency and effectiveness to the whole organic food system, with obvious advantages for consumers and the society as a whole.\nOriginality/value: This paper provides for the first time empirical evidence concerning the implementation of the organic certification system in the UK.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Threshold effects in pricing of high-involvement services
|
[
"Pricing",
"Services marketing",
"Conjoint analysis",
"Demand analysis",
"Hierarchical Bayes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The successful setting of prices is one of the most important functions of a product or brand manager. Much has been written on this subject, including a well-developed body of academic literature on the strong influence that specific price endings (or so-called threshold effects) exert on product demand. This study extends this previous literature by illustrating that price endings can have a strong impact on the demand for high-involvement services, using bundled telecommunications services as an example. The specific research question motivating this study is: Do threshold effects exist for nine-ending or zero-ending prices of high-involvement services, and if so, what is the demand impact of pricing \"on-the-nines\" or \"on-the-zeroes\" among small businesses?[1]\n2. Model development: 2.1 Prior research on price endings\n3. Empirical study: The main objective of this research is to test whether on-nines or on-zeroes prices have a significant impact on the demand a small business may exhibit when faced with a purchase decision on a high-involvement service (such as telecommunications). A priori, should we expect to see threshold effects because they have been demonstrated for other, dissimilar products? Up to a point, yes -- there is one thing all prices have in common: they are all interpreted by the human mind. Beyond that, it is an empirical issue.\n4. Discussion and contributions: This paper explores the impact of price endings on the demand for high-involvement, highly-priced, and complex high-technology services. For such services, customers have imperfect information at point-of-purchase, and because the prices are relatively high, there is rarely a true left-digit effect.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this research is to test for price threshold effects in the demand for high-involvement services for small businesses.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The authors use a stated preference choice-based conjoint study of small business telecommunications demand. Using survey data, individual-level parameter estimates for a demand model are achieved via the Hierarchical Bayes method of estimation.\nFindings: For demand for small business telecommunications services, the authors find very strong positive impacts of nine-ending and zero-ending prices on the demand for a common bundle of telecommunications services (wired telephone service, broadband internet, and cellular telephone service), even at prices so high a shift in the left-most digit does not occur.\nPractical implications: The advertising, brand, or product manager or statistician who assumes threshold effects are not extant in high-involvement service demand may find conventional demand estimation methods lead to erroneous conclusions and less effective pricing strategies.\nOriginality/value: In the statistical literature on price-ending effects on product demand, most products for which demand is modelled are low-involvement consumer products priced at less than ten monetary units per unit of product. There is a lacuna in this price-ending effects literature regarding small businesses and high-involvement services offered at three-digit prices via monthly subscription. This research indicates that testing for threshold effects should be de rigeur in the methodology of demand estimation for telecommunications or other high-involvement services.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
"Life-changing things happen": The role of residential education in the transformation of adults' learning and lives
|
[
"Learning",
"Transformation",
"Residential",
"Adult",
"Acceleration",
"Sanctuary"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nCurrent status of adult education: Adult education, at its best, provides not only improved professional skills and training for employability, or just better cultural habits, but also intellectual growth, transformation and change. It often involves \"putting right what went wrong in schools\" as well as skills acquisition; developing new skills, in turn, creates \"more fulfilled employees and citizens who are less reliant on state support and leads to the bonus of improved productivity and a more competitive and successful economy\". Such \"second chance\" education remains necessary for many today. However, many of the barriers to their learning are not associated with their individual effort or agency but are connected with societal and familial issues which disrupt compulsory schooling. These include, for instance, growing up as a looked-after child, early drug use, family break up and having an undiagnosed mental health issue or learning disability. There is a ruthlessness about the speed and pace of life today which many people feel leaves them behind. Mental health-related issues are a growing concern across further education. An Association of Colleges' (AoC) (2015) survey found that in 66 per cent of respondent colleges \"the number of students with mental health difficulties had 'significantly increased' in the previous three years with a further 20% saying they had 'slightly increased'\". In addition, \"75% felt that their college had 'significant numbers' of students who had undisclosed mental health difficulties\", while all reported having students with depression, anxiety or who were self-harming (Association of Colleges, 2015).\nMethodology and theory: During May 2017, we undertook a series of interviews with current and former students and staff across all four colleges. All the 41 interviews were recorded digitally at the time and later transcribed. Most of the interviews took place face to face, though a few (at Hillcroft) were undertaken by telephone (and recorded simultaneously). The majority of the interviews were one-to-one in nature, though each College made focus groups of multiple students - and also staff - available. Each interviewee or focus group participant was issued with a description of the project which outlined the key questions to be covered, as well as the context of the research. All were read and each person completed an informed consent form, which outlined the ethical parameters for the research and allowed for total anonymisation. The interviews were of no more than an hour's duration. Each interview examined the following key areas:\nFindings: The value of place/space/community\nConclusions: It is clear that residential education plays a powerful role in, and accelerates and deepens, learning experiences for adults. The experience seems particularly valuable for those who have faced extraordinary personal and societal challenges, such as ADHD, epilepsy, dyslexia, mental health or anxiety issues, often undiagnosed at school. Residential second chance learning opportunities are a unique and invaluable social resource for such people. The financial cost - a minute element of the educational budget - is overwhelming valuable in the lives of individuals and communities across the country, and maintains a unique and innovative educational tradition.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications for adults of learning in a residential context and whether the residential aspect intensifies the learning process, and can lead to enhanced personal transformation, moving beyond professional skills and training for employability.\nDesign/methodology/approach: The paper reports on research, conducted in 2017, with 41 current and former staff and students (on both short courses and longer access courses) in four residential colleges for adults: Ruskin, Northern, Fircroft and Hillcroft Colleges.\nFindings: Key findings include the powerful role residential education plays in accelerating and deepening learning experiences, particularly for adults who have faced extraordinary personal and societal challenges and are second chance learners. The colleges, all in historic settings, confer feelings of worth, security and sanctuary and the staff support - pastoral and academic, bespoke facilities and private rooms are vital enabling mechanisms. Seminar-style learning creates opportunity for experiential group learning, helping to foster critical thinking and challenge to mainstream views.\nSocial implications: The colleges' ethos, curricula and traditions foster among students an \"ethic of service\" and a desire to offer \"emotional labour\" to their own communities, through working for instance in health and social care or the voluntary sector.\nOriginality/value: Little research has been undertaken in contemporary settings on the impact of learning in a residential environment, particularly for second chance learners and vulnerable adults. Still less research has examined the wider implications of learning in a historic building setting and of learning which extends into critical thinking, intellectual growth, transformation and change.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Impact of programs on competency, career, and income on management graduates
|
[
"Competencies",
"Career",
"Graduate",
"Income"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The twentieth century was characterized by intense social, political and economic transformations, which changed the basis of relations among capitalist organizations, workers, who are then seen as a source of intellectual capital, and educational institutions, which develop this human capital (Bartlett and Goshal, 1997).\n2. Theoretical framework: 2.1 Competencies\n3. Methodological procedures: This is a descriptive and quantitative (survey) research. A composed structured questionnaire was developed, displaying five parts: general impact; competencies; career; income; and sociodemographic data.\n4. Analysis and discussion: The main information relating to the characteristics of the sample according to gender, age, education and professional business sector is as follows:\n5. Conclusions: From the results found in the general questions about the impact of the programs on the evaluated dimensions, as well as those found in specific questions of these three dimensions, it was observed that there is a perception on the part of graduates of the development of their competencies, career and income after participating in the stricto sensu Administration graduate programs at UFBA.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the impact of Federal University of Bahia's Business Administration graduate programs on graduates' competency, career and income development.\nDesign/methodology/approach: It is a descriptive study, for which a survey was applied and the data were analyzed using quantitative techniques (descriptive analysis, factorial analysis, t-test, Mann-Whitney test and regression analysis). Data collection was conducted through an electronic questionnaire sent to the graduates in the period between 1998 and 2012.\nFindings: The results show that in general, the research participants perceive competency, career and income development after the course. At the same time, a comparison between the graduates of academic and professional axes (courses) was carried out, and in general, there is a certain similarity between perceptions.\nOriginality/value: This research contributes to the theoretical field on evaluation of graduates, both from a methodological point of view, because of conducted statistical analysis that is complementary to other methods used, and from a practical point of view, as it offers redesign and improvement elements to the program's curricula and teaching-learning methodologies so that it can maximize competency development, career and income of graduates.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
A framework to enhance agile manufacturing system: A total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach
|
[
"Interaction",
"Agility",
"Total interpretive structural modelling (TISM)",
"Ranking",
"MICMAC analysis",
"Agile manufacturing system (AMS)"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: Agile manufacturing is a new way that is used to represent the ability of producing goods and services in a continuous changing environment (Gunasekaran, 1999). Agile manufacturing is an emerging concept in industry that aims at achieving flexibility and responsiveness to the changing market needs. Implementation of agile manufacturing paradigm has been a major objective of many companies (Gunasekaran et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 1999). Agile manufacturing can be defined as the capability of surviving and prospering in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively in changing markets, driven by \"customer-defined\" products and services (Pandey and Pattanaik, 2014; Cho et al., 1996).\n2. Enablers of AMS: Based on the literature survey, discussion and brainstorming with industry and academia experts 11 enablers were identified, as shown in Table I.\n3. Overview of TISM: ISM is a methodology that gives relationships between elements among specific criteria that constitute problem related to the system and helps in identifying the contextual relationship among the various elements of the system which defines the issues. It is interpretive because judgment of the group decides; whether and how the elements are related (Mittal and Sangwan, 2011; Jain and Raj, 2015). Matawale et al. (2013) developed a relationship among enablers for a lean, agile and le-agile manufacturing system with ISM. Hasan et al. (2007) identified various barriers for agile manufacturing and establish a relationship among the dimensions of barriers through the ISM. Hasan et al. (2009) also introduced the enablers for an agile manufacturing system and developed a systematic relationship among these enablers with ISM. But ISM is not able to explain the interpretation of structural links and it is not completely transparent in the above cases. So, to overcome the limitations of ISM methodology, it is extended to TISM.\n4. Modeling of an agile manufacturing system: The various steps, which lead to the development of a model, are illustrated below:\n5. Conclusion: The contribution of this research paper is to identify the 11 key enablers which affect the modeling of AMS. The present model identifies the influence of enabler, mutual relationship, relative importance and interdependence of enablers with the help of TISM and MICMAC analysis. ISM is not able to identify the mutual relation between enablers, so in this paper the TISM model is used to identify the mutual relationship. Finally, an integrated model of AMS has been developed by using TISM and MICMAC analysis. This mathematical model can be used as an aid to develop a suitable strategy for the designing and implementing AMS in any organization. This finding will allow management to efficiently utilize their resources to focus attention on the most significant enablers. These results will provide insight into the enablers that influence the choice of agile manufacturing system. The organization will also achieve the competitiveness, customer satisfaction and environmental concern from the above findings which will help in moving toward advanced manufacturing practices.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the interactions among different enablers of agile manufacturing system (AMS). The existing enablers available in the past literature are scattered and not able to meet specific requirements of the customers. So, it becomes a necessity to encapsulate these enablers in appropriate proportions to enable traditional organizations to AMS. To fill this gap total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and MICMAC analysis-based framework model have been developed to understand the mutual interactions between among the enablers.\nDesign/methodology/approach: Identification of enablers followed by application of TISM, which is an innovative version of ISM and MICMAC analysis, is used to study and analyze the mutual interactions between identified enablers.\nFindings: The result reveals that top management support, organizational structure and information technology integration have strong driving power and weak dependence power and are at the lowest level in the TISM model hierarchy, while the outcome enablers of AMS have low-driving power but have high-dependence power.\nResearch limitations/implications: This model is developed on the basis of inputs from few experts and may not reflect the opinion of whole industry community.\nPractical implications: Top management must stress on enablers having strong driving power for efficient implementation of AMS. Managers in the area of manufacturing may drive useful insights from the empirical study presented in this paper. Managers should plan an effective strategy for proper implementation of AMS which makes organization more agile, productive, competitive and profitable.\nOriginality/value: TISM-based framework structural model has been proposed for industry or organization which is a new effort for implementation of AMS.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Personal characteristics, business relationships and entrepreneurial performance: Some empirical evidence
|
[
"Personal characteristics",
"Business relationships",
"Institutional support",
"Entrepreneurial performance"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: The importance of entrepreneurship for modern societies has been widely highlighted (Grebel et al., 2003; Carree and Thurik, 2003). Some new ventures are able to make higher contributions to job creation and generate and commercialise higher quality innovations in relation to their incumbent counterparts (Praag and Versloot, 2007) and when based on innovation, the entrepreneurial activity is proven to be positively related to economic growth (Acs et al., 2008; Salgado-Banda, 2007; Acs, 2006; Wong et al., 2005). The significance of entrepreneurship has captured interest from policy makers and academics alike. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 1998) stresses the role of entrepreneurship in addressing unemployment and poverty, and in raising the level of competitiveness in different sectors. Similarly, the European Commission (2006) admits that entrepreneurship and small businesses that result from it are particularly important for the European Union's economy, since they are a prime source of jobs, business dynamism and innovation. From the academic perspective, such growing interest is reflected in the exponential increase in the number of courses, programs, conferences, journals and research centres that are dedicated to the area (Cooper, 2003).\n2. Literature review: 2.1 The role of public and institutional support\n3. Method: 3.1 Research method\n4. Findings: Results from this study lead us to conclude that of the four hypotheses proposed three were partially supported while one was fully supported. Concerning the items that assume major importance for the sampled new ventures, particular emphasis goes to the availability of entrepreneur's collaborators to support the project (M=4.07; SD=1.07); the entrepreneurs personal qualities, way of being, thinking and acting, (M=4.03; SD=0.86); the entrepreneurs intuition that he/she was in the presence of an innovative and unique business (M=3.95; SD=0.86) and entrepreneurs need for self-achievement (M=3.88; SD=0.92). The lowest important item is support from local government (M=1.62; SD=1.10) (Table I). This last result seems quite interesting, particularly when compared to the support of central government.\n5. Conclusions: One the major conclusion of the present study relates to the fact that entrepreneurial performance cannot be solely explained by a single set of entrepreneurial personal characteristics neither a set of more or less institutional relationships. Instead, the explanation of entrepreneurial performance is the result of a combination of personal and context-based items.\n6. Implications and future research directions of the study: The findings of the present study provide valuable insights for policy-makers, researchers and entrepreneurs. It is generally recognised that entrepreneurial activities are important drivers of a country's economic development and growth. Thus, it is to be hoped that governments will put in place suitable policies and incentives for developing an entrepreneurial culture and reduce the burden of bureaucracy for new ventures. It could be relevant to examine, in future studies, which specific types of support from central government and from sectorial associations should be given particular attention to stimulate entrepreneurial performance, since these two stakeholders showed particular importance in the present research. Similarly, developing relationships with both financial institutions and university research centres was found to contribute to reinforce growth and the success of new ventures. This finding address the importance of Portuguese universities to be more entrepreneurial, either through collaborative research projects with industry or through educational programs involving real situations within new ventures.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of individual and relational factors on new ventures' performance. Particular emphasis is given to entrepreneurs' personal attributes and business relationships (both social and institutional).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Drawn upon a quantitative methodological approach, the current study relies on a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of entrepreneurial firms which were set up in the last four to five years in different industries.\nFindings: This study found that support from central government, from sector associations and from a financial institution evidenced a difference of means along three categories of entrepreneurial performance (low, moderate and high). The same result was found in the case of the entrepreneur's family support, previous knowledge about potential customers and previous experience in business. Influence from entrepreneur's personal characteristics, such as personal qualities; intuition that he/she is in the presence of an innovative and unique business and need for self-achievement, was also observed.\nPractical implications: Since entrepreneurial activity is considered an important driver of a country's economic development and growth, it is hoped that governments and sector associations put in place suitable policies and incentives to develop an entrepreneurial culture and mainly reduce the burden of bureaucracy for new ventures.\nOriginality/value: The present study suggests that entrepreneurial performance is the result of a combination of personal and context-based factors and neither can be explained by a single set of entrepreneurial personal characteristics nor a set of more or less institutional relationships.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Intra-industry strategic alliances for managing sustainability-related supplier risks: Motivation and outcome
|
[
"Sustainability",
"Organizational information processing theory",
"Case study",
"Strategic alliance",
"Strategic collaboration",
"Supplier assessment",
"Supplier risk management",
"Sustainability standard"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Driven by increasing outsourcing activities and the high environmental and social expectations of various stakeholder groups, sustainability has become an integral part of supply chain management (SCM) routines (Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen, 2009; Gimenez and Sierra, 2013). In this context, primary and secondary stakeholders assign responsibility to focal companies for the malpractices of their suppliers (Carter and Jennings, 2004; Hofmann et al., 2014). This means that unsustainable business practices of suppliers entail a significant potential for operational and reputational risks for a company, which is why there is a need to integrate sustainability into firms' supply chain risk management (Hallikas and Lintukangas, 2016; Handfield et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2014). Taking this into account, sustainability-related supplier risk management (SSRM) has a strategic importance within sustainable SCM (Foerstl et al., 2010; Matook et al., 2009). In this context, the sustainability-related supplier risk assessment (SSRA), consisting of the evaluation of suppliers' risk potential by one or more evaluation approaches or tools, plays a central role when it comes to an effective SSRM.\nLiterature review and conceptual background: SSRM\nMethodology: Research design\nAnalysis and discussion: Before analyzing how the intra-industry SA work affects the participating companies' SSRM, this particular single case is introduced by describing the alliance's structure and routines and by analyzing the motives to form or join the alliance. For all considerations, Table III, which was deduced from the interviews, provides an overview of the case companies' characteristics and their SSRM practices.\nConclusion, implications and further research: Built on an embedded single case study, our research aimed at investigating SAs for SSRM from an OIPT perspective, as they gain increasing importance in business practice. For doing so, a selected SA for joint SSRAs in the chemical industry was examined to gain insights on the motives of single members to form or join such an initiative and the effects of the SA's work. Since such phenomena are still underexplored, our findings are valuable for both scholars and practitioners.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how intra-industry strategic alliances (SAs) seek to assess supplier risk related to sustainability, what motivation drives single members to form or join such an SA, and how such a joint endeavor affects supplier risk management.\nDesign/methodology/approach: An embedded single case study with multiple units of analysis was conducted. The main data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key respondents from seven leading chemical companies, three of which were founding members of the SA, while four were new members.\nFindings: This paper shows that forming/joining an SA concerning sustainability-related supplier risk assessment, results in the reduction of task uncertainty and equivocality as well as the increase of information processing capacities. Based on the implemented sharing routines, a higher overall efficiency can be achieved. Moreover, the members benefit from an enhanced identification of varying stakeholder expectations, a facilitated capability building and a more comprehensive supplier risk assessment. In particular, the joint endeavors result in assessment processes of higher robustness, which provide outcomes of higher quality.\nOriginality/value: This paper is the first to investigate companies' efforts toward improving their supplier risk management in the area of sustainability by establishing/joining an intra-industry SA. By providing insights into the motivation to form or join such a collaborative platform and illustrating the effects that arise from the SA's work from an organizational information processing perspective, it provides a contribution to both academics and managerial practice.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Key organizational commitment antecedents for nurses, paramedical professionals and non-clinical staff
|
[
"Job satisfaction",
"Health services"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: In recent decades, healthcare delivery systems in developed nations have been reorganized in response to changes in their demographics (aging population), increased medical costs, and medical staff shortages (Buchan, 1999; Duffield and O'Brien-Pallas, 2002; Leurer et al., 2007). These organizational changes have significantly affected hospital employees' work environments (Gifford et al., 2002). In particular, hospital restructuring, increased performance expectations, and organizational culture change have led to concerns regarding declining morale and organizational commitment of healthcare employees (Acker, 2004; Borrill et al., 2001, 2005; Gillilan, 1997; Lacey and Beck-Warden, 1998; Lu et al., 2005; McNeese-Smith, 2001). These issues become especially important when we consider the significant relationship between healthcare employees' morale and the quality of patient services (Borrill et al., 2001; Humphreys et al., 2005). As a result, there has been increased research and managerial interest in discovering ways to improve healthcare employees' organizational commitment levels.Despite substantial research on organizational commitment in various sectors, this literature still lacks an overarching casual model that could help future researchers and practitioners to build on. According to Reichers (1985), the organizational commitment literature has been characterized by a \"laundry list\" of organizational commitment antecedents that have varied and inconsistent relationships with identified outcomes (i.e. decreased turnover and other forms of employee withdrawal). More recent research suggests that one reason may be the cross-sectional designs employed in the majority of studies of organizational commitment (e.g. Gifford et al., 2002; Gowen et al., 2006; McNeese-Smith, 1996, 2001). Rather than continue to identify new antecedents of organizational commitment, there is a need to test the causal relationships of antecedents on organizational commitment.The aim of this paper is to develop a causal model that explains the antecedents and mediating factors predicting the organizational commitment of healthcare employees in different work roles. To achieve this objective, we use longitudinal panel data collected from nurses, paramedical professionals, and non-clinical staff employed in a large hospital in a major Canadian city. While these three employee groups work in the same organizational environment, they have different job responsibilities and tasks. This is in contrast to the majority of previous studies that have been cross-sectional examinations of organizational commitment for homogenous employee groups (Gifford et al., 2002; Gowen et al., 2006, Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; McNeese-Smith, 1996, 2001). Overlooking variability between employee groups can hinder efforts towards developing a general causal commitment model that could be used by both academics and practitioners. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to determine the extent to which there are commonalities and/or differences in the antecedents of organizational commitment across different health care employee groups and over time.\n2. Causal model: For several decades, the topic of organizational commitment has received a great deal of interest in the research literature (e.g. Bateman and Strasser, 1984; Blegen, 1993; Borrill et al., 2005; Iverson and Roy, 1994; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; McNeese-Smith, 2001; Meyer and Allen, 1997; Mowday et al., 1982; Price and Mueller, 1986). This interest in the determinants of organizational commitment is driven by several reasons. Organizational commitment is a relatively stable construct over time (Porter et al., 1974), and previous studies have consistently found that organizational commitment is negatively related to employee turnover, absenteeism, and positively related to job performance (Griffeth et al., 2000; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Riketta, 2002; Steers, 1977) and organizational performance (Benkoff, 1997; Maiga and Jacobs, 2004).Previous research has also found organizational commitment to be positively related to job satisfaction, job involvement, and coping with job tension (e.g. Blegen, 1993; Lu et al., 2005; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; McFadzean and McFadzean, 2005; Meyer and Allen, 1997; Porter et al., 1974). Organizational commitment has been related to work role, job characteristics, and demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and job tenure (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Steers, 1977). Together, this research indicates that organizational commitment is in the centre of a web comprised of attitudes and behaviours that can have positive or negative effects on organizational outcomes.Meyer and Allen's (1991, 1997) multidimensional conceptualization of organizational commitment identifies three components: affective, continuance, and normative. Affective commitment relates to employees' emotional attachment to, and identification with an organization. Continuance commitment relates to the perceived cost of leaving an organization. Normative commitment relates to the obligation employees feel about staying with an organization. Although the nature of these three components of organizational commitment may differ, they have a similar impact on an employee's decision to continue or discontinue their employment with an organization. Since employees can experience each of these psychological states simultaneously to varying degrees, affective, continuance, and normative commitment could be seen as discernible forms rather than types of commitment (Wasti, 2005). Given the high positive correlations among these three components of organizational commitment (Wasti, 2005), our model will consider organizational commitment as a unitary construct.Selection of the antecedents of organizational commitment to include in our causal model was based on the following criteria:* empirical support in the literature;* theoretical relevance; and* relevance to the sample studied.Our review of the literature revealed several key common antecedents of organizational commitment (Baba and Jamal, 1991; Baker and Baker, 1999 Iverson and Roy, 1994; Laschinger et al., 2001; Lum et al., 1998; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; Price and Mueller, 1986). These include job satisfaction, employee empowerment, job motivating potential, acceptance by co-workers, consideration leadership behaviours, initiating structure leadership behaviours, role ambiguity, and role conflict. In the remainder of this section, we develop hypotheses regarding the relationships between these antecedents and organizational commitment.2.1 Job satisfaction\n3 Methods: 3.1 Sample and data collection\n4. Results: The descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and correlations) for the study variables are presented in Table II for the 1995 data and in Table III for 1998 data. Correlation results for both years indicate significant relationships among organizational commitment, facets of job satisfaction, employee empowerment, job motivating potential, consideration leadership behaviours, initiating structure leadership behaviours, acceptance by co-workers, role ambiguity, and role conflict.As expected, the mediating variables of satisfaction with career advancement, satisfaction with supervisor, and satisfaction with co-workers had significant positive correlations with organizational commitment both in 1995 (r=0.41, r=0.31, r=0.21, respectively) and in 1998 (r=0.46, r=0.36, r=0.22, respectively). Consideration as well as initiating structure leadership behaviours were significantly and positively correlated with satisfaction with supervisor for both the 1995 data (r=0.53 and r=0.72, respectively) and the 1998 data (r=0.54 and r=0.74, respectively). Further, acceptance by co-workers and satisfaction with co-workers were positively correlated (1995 data r=0.57, and 1998 data r=0.56).Respondent age was only consistently related to organizational commitment (1995 data: r=0.15; 1998 data: r=0.15), job motivating potential (1995 data: r=0.13; 1998 data: r=0.08) and role ambiguity (1995 data: r=-0.15; 1998 data: r=-0.13). The other demographic variables of education level, gender, and work status did not have consistent significant relationships with the majority of organizational commitment antecedents.4.1 Testing the model\n5. Discussion and conclusions: The study results indicate strong support for the proposed causal model of organizational commitment model and showed that this causal model is not limited to a specific healthcare employee group or to a particular time frame. Our findings also revealed variation in the influence of different facets of job satisfaction as antecedents of organizational commitment levels.An important aim of this study was to determine whether different facets of job satisfaction should be examined separately when ascertaining their influence on organizational commitment. Consistent with previous research (e.g. Snipes et al., 2005; Tett and Meyer, 1993), job satisfaction had distinctly different facets and these facets played important mediating roles for other antecedents of organizational commitment. The two job satisfaction facets of satisfaction with career advancement and satisfaction with supervisor were positively related to organizational commitment (Macky and Boxall, 2007; Snipes et al., 2005). Our analyses also confirmed that these two job satisfaction facets mediated relationships between organizational commitment and other antecedents. Organizational efforts to motivate employees by enhancing their empowerment levels and job design (i.e. job motivating potential) contributed to one's career satisfaction as well as one's satisfaction with their supervisor (e.g. Hackman and Oldham, 1980; Iverson and Roy, 1994; Laschinger et al., 2004; Leurer et al., 2007; Tummers et al., 2006).As expected, when supervisors showed interest in their subordinates' concerns to develop supportive relationships, employees were more satisfied with their supervisors (Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe, 2005; Alimo-Metcalfe et al., 2008; Judge et al., 2004). We also found that task-oriented leadership behaviours influenced employee satisfaction with one's supervisor for the paramedical professional and non-clinical employee groups to a lesser extent (Judge et al., 2004) and was not an influential factor for nurses. One interpretation of this finding is that nurses may be more self-managing in terms of timely task accomplishment and hence such direction from their supervisors may be redundant (Fairfield, 2004; Landeweerd and Boumans, 1994).Further, our post hoc analyses did not support other studies that have found leadership style directly influences organizational commitment (e.g. Alimo-Metcalfe et al., 2008; Dale and Fox, 2008). These study findings lend further support to the theory that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between other antecedents and organizational commitment (e.g. Iverson and Roy, 1994; Lok and Crawford, 2001; Lum et al., 1998).Contrary to expectations, satisfaction with co-workers did not directly influence organizational commitment levels (Snipes et al., 2005). Instead, we found that satisfaction with one's co-workers indirectly influences organizational commitment through employee satisfaction with their career advancement as well as satisfaction with their supervisors. These results suggest that developing supportive co-worker relationships is an important contributing factor in enhancing one's satisfaction with organizational leadership and career opportunities, and subsequently, organizational commitment. One implication is that quality of peer working relationships is the precursor to efforts by organizational leadership to motivate employees. For example, our findings suggest that if one has poor peer working relationships, then these may counteract efforts by the organization to enhance employee organizational commitment (Borrill et al., 2001). In sum, this study's findings support calls to disentangle the multi-faceted job satisfaction construct rather than using global measures of job satisfaction (e.g. Ironson et al., 1989; Tett and Meyer, 1993). As demonstrated in this study, doing so will improve the accuracy and explanatory power of causal models of organizational commitment.Finally, our findings confirm that healthcare employees who experience higher levels of role ambiguity and role conflict have lower levels of organizational commitment (Baba and Jamal, 1991; Bacharach et al., 1991; Borrill et al., 2001; Chiu et al., 1998; Lu et al., 2005). In addition, the relationships that role ambiguity and role conflict have with various facets of job satisfaction and organizational commitment are particularly interesting. Specifically, we found that role ambiguity and role conflict was related to satisfaction with career advancement (Lu et al., 2005) but not to satisfaction with one's supervisor (Acker, 2004). One implication is that a lack of clarity about one's current work role has a negative impact on envisioning future career roles in an organization. These findings also suggest that organizational efforts to reduce role conflict (e.g. work-life balance programs) are especially influential in engendering employee satisfaction with their long-term career opportunities in an organization.5.1 Limitations and directions for future research\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to develop a causal model that explains the antecedents and mediating factors predicting the organizational commitment of healthcare employees in different work roles.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - This study tests an integrative causal model that consists of a number of direct and indirect relationships for antecedents of organizational commitment. It is proposed that the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is best understood by focusing on the three interrelated facets of job satisfaction, i.e. satisfaction with career advancement, satisfaction with supervisor, and satisfaction with co-workers. However, the model also advances that these job satisfaction facets have different mediating effects for other antecedents of organizational commitment.\nFindings: - The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) path analysis showed that the job satisfaction facets of career advancement and satisfaction with supervisor had a direct impact on organizational commitment. Employee empowerment, job-motivating potential, effective leadership, acceptance by co-workers, role ambiguity and role conflict were also important determinants of organizational commitment. Interestingly, post hoc analyses showed that satisfaction with co-workers only had an indirect impact on organizational commitment.\nOriginality/value: - While there has been extensive research on organizational commitment and its antecedents in healthcare organizations, most previous studies have been limited either to a single employee group or to a single time frame. This study proposes a practical causal model of antecedents of organizational commitment that tests relationships across time and across different healthcare employee groups.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Knowledge about sport and exercise science: A cross-sectional survey among health professionals in Brazil
|
[
"Professionals",
"Exercise",
"Physical activity",
"Policy",
"Education",
"Health"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: Sport and exercise science is an academic area that has grown rapidly, partly as a result of the large number of scientific studies on the beneficial effects of regular physical exercise on health status and sport performance (Hupin et al., 2015; McGuigan et al., 2012; World Health Organization, 2016; Zhao et al., 2015). According to Morton et al. (2008, p. 142), sport and exercise science \"is primarily concerned with the scientific study of sporting performance or that of how regular exercise can promote health and well-being.\"\nMethods: Participants\nResults: Tables I-III show the questions posed and answers given by the health professionals.\nDiscussion: The purpose of the present study was to identify the presence of misconceptions about sport and exercise among Brazilian health professionals (physical educators, nutritionists and physiotherapists).\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to assess the knowledge on sport and exercise science held by a sample of Brazilian physiotherapists, nutritionists and physical educators.\nDesign/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional research design was used. The answers given by 1,147 professionals (300 physiotherapists, 705 physical educators and 142 nutritionists) who participated in a qualifying process for a specialization course on exercise physiology were analyzed. Questions were analyzed on maximal oxygen uptake (four questions), physical fitness assessment (three questions), physical training (two questions), bioenergetics (one question) and exercise in extreme environments (one question).\nFindings: The results revealed misconceptions held by Brazilian health professionals on a number of concepts related to sport and exercise science, such as maximal oxygen uptake.\nPractical implications: These results reinforce the need for continuing education programs to maximize the quality of the service provided by sport and exercise science professionals in Brazil. Improvements in the undergraduate courses curriculum are also recommended.\nOriginality/value: This is the first study to assess misconceptions about sport and exercise science among Brazilian health professionals.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Building the research culture in an African business school: An intervention model and a research agenda
|
[
"Africa",
"Organisational culture",
"Business schools",
"Management research",
"Research culture"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction and background: In the past few years, some international scholarly journals have focussed their attention on the dearth of management research, scholarship and literature in and on Africa (calls for papers for various special issues: Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 2011; Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2013; Journal of African Business, 2013). This problem of poor research output has been noted by management scholars, such as Zoogah and Nkomo (2013), who lament the weak showing of African management faculty in reputable journals.\nTheoretical position - organisational culture and organisational outcomes: Brown (1995, p. 8) defines an organisation's culture as:\nResearch methods: This research is an organisational intervention (Fryer and Feather, 1994) designed as qualitative and phenomenological (Finlay, 2009). It reports a focussed organisational development (OD) effort. OD is a planned process of improving the effectiveness and capacity of an organisation through a series of interrelated interventions (Oswick and Grant, 1996). These interventions draw on behavioural science knowledge (such as knowledge of the underpinning values which influence behaviour) and methods (such as action research). Methodologically, such interventions proceed by first obtaining information relating to the relevant issues of concern within the organisation, that is, the research data collection phase and is often referred to as organisational diagnosis or diagnostics - following a medical metaphor - (Popper, 1997). The diagnosis process is an essential prerequisite of OD, as it provides the informational basis for why change is necessary. It generates information that results in a better understanding of the situation, thus offering the opportunity to tailor interventions or solutions to the organisation's condition rather than one that is imposed or contrived (Popper, 1997).\nFindings: This being an intervention, the findings do not present as a \"neat\" set of results. Four sets of findings are presented below. These are appropriately labelled and also numbered. First, the questionnaire findings are presented as descriptive frequencies and percentages derived from the open-ended questionnaires. Second, the summary of opinions expressed during the two School-wide open forums is also presented. In keeping with descriptive phenomenology (Finlay, 2009), the summary descriptions remain rather close to the opinions and views expressed by faculty members who were sampled. Third, the interventions which were derived from the descriptive diagnostic data are also presented as organisational interventions. Finally, the limited evidences of change are also presented.\nDiscussions - towards an intervention model and a research framework: Based on the activities, interventions and events from 2011 to 2014, a number of lessons may be learned as to how this Business School is slowly reinventing itself - outstanding issues notwithstanding. These lessons and pointers are summarised below and set the scene for a conceptual discussion. To aid in this, further details of the rather similar New Zealand example of Pratt et al. are also provided.\nConclusions: Both scholarly and anecdotal evidences suggest that many business schools in Africa struggle with the issue of faculty research capacity and output. We argue here that this cannot be resolved without a focussed attention to the underlying institutional dynamics behind the weak showing of African scholarship in the area of management. We argue that the default reaction - blaming resource constraints - will not resolve the problem. Instead, this paper proposes that attention must shift to examining the leadership and organisational culture imperatives which give context to research and scholarly effort and productivity. As noted by Balthazard et al. (2006, p. 727):\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to report the efforts to reverse a dire research output trend at a Ghanaian Business School, following a similar effort at a business school in New Zealand in the 1990s. African universities are often challenged by resource constraints, ageing faculty and low compensation regimes. The consequences of these challenges are particularly felt in the area of the research output of faculty members in the business and management area. The problem of low research output has been written about by management scholars who lament the weak showing of African management faculty in reputable journals and top-notch conference presentations.\nDesign/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative and phenomenological study of an applied intervention. Using a combination of open-ended questionnaires as well as open forums attended by faculty members of the business school, views, perceptions and opinions on factors mitigating research and issues on research culture were collected and analysed. Descriptive analyses were used to collate the dominant views and frequency of mention of such views.\nFindings: Using the descriptive accounts of faculty of the Business School, the research finds that a research-oriented culture expressed through factors such as leadership, institutional support, articulation or otherwise of relevant values have significant impacts on research output.\nResearch limitations/implications: Based on the impacts reported here, this paper advances an intervention model to assist efforts towards improving the research culture and scholarly outputs in business schools in Africa. The paper also proposes a conceptual and research framework for examining and influencing the organisational and research culture of universities in Africa.\nOriginality/value: This paper is perhaps the only attempt to examine research culture in an African business school. It suggests that the research culture in a business school or faculty can be developed, reinvented or influenced and that research in African universities will not \"just happen\", it has to be carefully planned for, nurtured and built into the fabric of university culture. This has significant implications for the growing effort to bring African scholarship in the management areas up to the point where it can more directly impact management thinking.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Professional development through social media applications: a study of female librarians in Pakistan
|
[
"Social media",
"Social computing",
"Professional development",
"Capacity building",
"Social networking",
"Facebooking",
"Women librarians"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\nIntroduction: With the increased use and broad utilization of the Web in recent years, the traditional function of the libraries as a physical accumulation of research material is experiencing a paradigm shift.\nSocial media landscape in Pakistan: Many women in third world countries are hesitant to join social media after considering the issues of safety, security and self-disclosure. Anti-social media cases have been reported in other parts of the world (Cleaver, 2013). For example, Martin (2011) suggests that connections with other people improve more when we do not use social media. Claiming that social media gratifies narcissistic needs and promotes superficial behaviour. Similarly, Tudge (2011) and Jacobs (2011) present similar views from different parts of the world. However, with the introduction of the 3G mobile network, social media tools are becoming popular. The online global survey entitled \"Digital in 2016 - We are Social: comprehensive study of digital, social and mobile usage around the world\" (Kemp, 2016) reports about 19.3 million active mobile social users out of 29.13 active internet users in Pakistan. Similarly, the same survey reports that there are 23 million active social media users and 126.3 million mobile subscribers with 7 per cent annual growth. Importantly, 70 per cent of social media users are below the age of 25 years; half of them come from the richest 10 per cent of households, resulting in a highly concentrated social media audience of young, affluent consumers in Pakistan (Saeed, 2013).\nProblem statement and research questions: The librarian community is actively re-learning and keeping pace with the ever-changing world of information technology. Female librarians are known to seek PD through activities such as attending workshops, conferences, seminars and participating in conferences. Notwithstanding the fact that the Web has brought revolutionary changes and social networking is welcomed by librarians as a way to grow professionally, the extent to which female librarians in Pakistan are availing themselves of such opportunities for PD remains unknown. It is in view of this uncertainty that the present study investigates Pakistani female librarians' use of social media for PD. Thus, this study attempts to find answers to the following research questions:\nLiterature review: There is massive literature available on the transformation of librarianship with newly emerged technologies, especially Web 2.0. These studies focus on the impact, use, practices, perceptions and implementation of Web 2.0 tools in libraries and highlight the changes in librarianship. While searching for relevant literature, we came across many articles on PD and social media. However, we selected 46 peer-reviewed research studies which were conducted on social media in the context of PD and were available through Library and Information Science Technology Abstracts (LISTA), SpringerLink, Google Scholar and ProQuest.\nMethodology: We have adopted a mixed-methods approach for conducting this study. A qualitative approach has been used to enrich the quantitative analysis. Quantitative data were collected using an online survey (a self-administered structured questionnaire) to gather data regarding usage frequency, perception, choice of librarianship as a profession and perceived benefits of social media. Later on, online interviews (using Facebook Chat) were conducted with key informants. Qualitative data were collected regarding the participants' opinions on how female librarians relate PD with using social media.\nFindings and discussion: PD is no doubt an integral part of a career that includes many facets of self-learning, personal networking, skills improvement and knowledge acquisition along with expertise and enhancement of competencies. Female librarians in Pakistan have infrequent opportunities for PD owing to many factors such as limited resources, reduced mobility and finances. In this context, the female librarians' only hope to have PD opportunities is using a social media platform.\nConclusion: This study concludes that the majority of Pakistani female librarians are well aware of social media and are using it for both personal and professional activities.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: This paper aims to explore the extent of use of social media by Pakistani female librarians for professional development and their perception of its usefulness. The paper also attempts to find out social characteristics that influence the use of social media among female librarians for career and professional development (PD).\nDesign/methodology/approach: Data were collected through an online survey (using self-administered structured questionnaire) from 102 female librarians in Pakistan regarding usage frequency, perception, choice of librarianship as a profession and perceived benefits of social media. The list of participants was obtained from the Directory of Pakistani Library Professionals compiled by Sada-e-Librarian (a non-profit LIS professional organization). Data collections also include online interviews through Facebook chat with 20 key informants selected from the participants of the questionnaire survey.\nFindings: The study reveals that the majority of Pakistani female librarians is well aware of social media and uses it frequently. They are found to make extensive use of social media for PD and perceive social media as a useful tool for PD. However, social media is judged to be less helpful in acquiring technical skills. The study found a number of factors affecting the use of social media for PD among female librarians in Pakistan. These factors include social characteristics such as privacy, parent's years of schooling, marital status and family support.\nOriginality/value: This study is among the first attempts to discover social characteristics, the use of social media and its relationship with PD among female librarians in Pakistan.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Examining the impact of negative, user-generated content on stakeholders
|
[
"Corporate social responsibility",
"Social media",
"Facebook",
"Inoculation",
"Organization – public relationships",
"Organizational attitudes"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n__NO_TITLE__: Social media \"has become a fundamental\" form of communication between organizations and stakeholders. As Hart (2011) states, \"people can connect with organizations and each other in ways that were limited or not possible before\" (p. 114). Consumers often use social media to gain attention when they become dissatisfied with an organization's actions, products, or policies. Stross (2011) has described the process as \"consumer complaints made easy. Maybe too easy\" (p. BU3).\nLiterature review: User-generated content\nMethod: Pretest\nResults: This study examines how negative, user-generated content impacts stakeholders' perceptions of the organization. It also examined if organizations could protect against this backlash by employing inoculation to bolster stakeholders' attitudes.\nDiscussion: The current study explores the impact of negative, user-generated content. Previous research examined the impact of consumer-produced product reviews on others and organization-produced Facebook information on others, but there has been little research examining how user-generated comments on Facebook impact others. The study also examines inoculation's effectiveness in preventing against the backlash negative posts can have on stakeholders' attitudes.\nConclusion: This study adds to the literature on user-generated content. Specifically, it extends the knowledge about the impact of negative, user-generated content on organizations' stakeholders. Negative, user-generated content impacts stakeholders' attitudes toward the organization, perceptions of the relationship, perceptions of corporate social responsibility, and an organization's reputation. All of these variables are eroded by negative, user-generated content; therefore, organizations must have a plan for handling negative, user-generated comments.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to (n=472) examine how negative, user-generated content on Facebook impacts stakeholders' perceptions of the organization.\nDesign/methodology/approach: At Phase 1, stakeholders' perceptions about the organization - public relationship, corporate social responsibility, attitude toward the organization, and reputation of the organization were assessed. A week later, at Phase 2, participants were exposed to negative Facebook comments. This study employed the theory of inoculation as a way to bolster stakeholders' attitudes to protect against attitude shift following exposure to negative, user-generated comments.\nFindings: Paired sample t-tests indicate stakeholders' perceptions of the organization - public relationship and corporate social responsibility significantly decrease after stakeholders read negative, user-generated content. The pattern of means supports the idea inoculation can prevent against attitude shift.\nPractical implications: Strategic communication professionals should be aware of the impact negative posts can have and develop a strategy to respond to negative comments on Facebook.\nOriginality/value: There is limited experimental research examining the impact of negative Facebook posts on stakeholders. It extends current literature and provides practitioners with some guidance on the impact of negative, user-generated content.\n",
"role": "assistant"
}
] |
Risks affecting ERP post-implementation: Insights from a large Chinese manufacturing group
|
[
"China",
"Manufacturing resource planning",
"Large enterprises",
"Resource management"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1. Introduction: It is widely recognised that China has experienced remarkable economic growth during the last three decades (Keng, 2006), and has now become the world's third-largest economy behind the USA and Japan. In fact, China's large-sized corporations have been playing an extremely crucial role in sustaining this continuous national economic development. Specifically, and according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the country had 2,387 large-sized companies in total by 2006. However, this represents only 0.9 per cent of all industrial enterprises in China. Nonetheless, these large companies contributed to 41.2 per cent of total sales revenue of the industry in 2006, and continue to hold more than 42 per cent of the total industrial assets of the country (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2007).In order to improve business competitiveness and retain leading market positions, China's large corporations have consistently invested heavily in information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS). Supporting this view, a prominent Chinese consulting firm, CCW Research (2005), reports that IT/IS investments of large Chinese firms exceeded RMB 12 billion in 2004. Moreover, a substantial amount of this IS investment has been spent on the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (Wang, 2006).ERPs are enterprise-wide IS packages that consist of a number of software modules aimed at supporting and integrating all business processes across functional divisions of an organisation. Traditionally, ERP systems attempt to help user companies to achieve seamless data and process integration in their back offices (Kumar and Hillegersberg, 2000). Nowadays, ERP systems can also act as platforms or backbone systems to link the company's back office with its front office, by integrating with other enterprise applications, e.g. supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems (Kalakota and Robinson, 2000). Owing to these potential benefits, large Chinese companies commonly set ERP at the centre of their IS development strategy, and perceive successful ERP implementation as a prerequisite for future adoption of SCMs and CRMs (Wang, 2006; CCW Research, 2008). Consequently, under such business and organisational context, the majority of large companies in China have already implemented ERP systems by 2007 (CCW Research, 2008). The large enterprise market for ERP has thus become saturated in China in recent years.However, as pointed out by Willis and Willis-Brown (2002), even if the ERP system is successfully implemented, the \"go-live\" point of the system is not the end of the ERP journey. Very often, the system post-implementation or exploitation stage is where the real challenges begin (Willis and Willis-Brown, 2002). In a related study on the electronic and telecommunication sector in the Guangdong region, Peng and Nunes (2009a) confirmed that user companies will often encounter a wide range of risks when using, maintaining and enhancing ERP systems at the post-implementation phase.These risks are not only localised around technical aspects, but more importantly can also be found in diverse operational, management and strategic thinking areas (Peng and Nunes, 2009a). The occurrence of undesirable risk events in ERP exploitation may not just affect ERP viability, but may also lead to significant decreases in business efficiency. Therefore, ERP post-implementation emerges as an increasingly important research topic, and is adequately considered by IS researchers (Yu, 2005) as the direction of the second wave ERP research. However, despite the need for research in this area, current studies on ERPs focus mainly on system preparation (Baki and Cakar, 2005; Deep et al., 2008) and implementation phase (Gupta et al., 2004; Ehie and Madsen, 2005; Kim et al., 2005; Woo, 2007). In contrast, studies addressing the organisational exploitation of ERPs after the implementation stage have been very limited (Peng and Nunes, 2009a).Furthermore, it is clear that risks originating from both the implementation and installation stages (pre-implementation) could have important impact in post-implementation. For instance, deficient specification of organisational needs may have impact on usage of the system, or deficient documentation of the programming (euphemistically renamed configuration in some cases) can create severe problems of maintenance of the system in the future. However, in this research we are interested in studying risks that organisations face once the implementation is completed. In fact, the majority of manufacturing companies today face risks posed by implementation processes that occurred many years ago and have no longer control over past deficiencies, errors or misjudgements. Nonetheless, these companies need to devise mitigation and contingency plans to deal with the emergence of such risks. Therefore, although acknowledging the close link between some pre-implementation and post-implementation risks, this research focused on the current situation in organisations.In order to contribute to the research gap identified above, the research reported in this paper aimed at investigating ERP post-implementation risks in the context of large companies in China. In response to this research aim, a case study approach was adopted. In order to provide a first theoretical frame for the study, a ERP risk ontology was used, which was established and proposed by previous research by the same research group (Peng and Nunes, 2009a, b). Two questionnaires, which were constructed based on this theoretical risk ontology, were administered to seek managers' and information and communication technology (ICT) experts' perceptions of ERP exploitation risks in the selected case company. The remainder of this paper presents and discusses the research question, research design and findings of the study.\n2. Research methodology: 2.1 Research question\n3 Data analysis and findings: 3.1 General findings\n4. Conclusions: This paper reported on an exploratory study, which investigated potential ERP exploitation risks in a large corporation in China at the post-implementation phase. The study used a deductive questionnaire survey approach developed from an existing theoretical risk ontology. The study identified 37 ERP exploitation risks, of which seven were identified as extremely critical to the case company. These critical ERP risks for Sha Steel Group have elements of Chinese business culture and management style, but also some others that have been reported in Western literature. Finally, the findings of the study showed that the majority of the critical ERP risks identified (six out of seven) were rooted in organisational culture and business aspects of the corporation, rather than on the technical areas. This suggests that, like in many other large corporations, investing further millions of RMB in further technological solutions, may not be the solutions for Sha's current problems with their ERP system. In fact, the study suggests that Sha Steel Group needs to invest in organisational changes and human resource policies that enable the mitigation of the critical risks identified.The results of this study have important practical and research implications. Specifically, the identified ERP risk ontology in general and the seven critical risks in particular, should be used immediately by managers and IT experts of the case company, as a checklist for managing and preventing potential ERP post-implementation risks and associated causes and consequences. In addition, the findings of this study may also be useful and transferable to other Chinese and Western large companies, which may currently be confronted with similar ERP exploitation challenges.It, however, should be acknowledged that since this research emerges from an in-depth single-case study, the ability to generalise the findings is limited. The findings of the study are expected to be more transferable within the context of the Chinese manufacturing sectors and large companies in general. Nevertheless, this study will contribute to the knowledge of ERP in general, and is expected to provide valuable insights into ERP exploitation issues in large companies. Further research studies in this field are strongly recommended in order to explore the findings derived from this case study in other contexts, as well as to establish strategies to address and mitigate the critical risks identified.\n",
"role": "user"
},
{
"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess and explore potential risks that can affect long-term viability of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post-implementation and exploitation phase.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research took a large Chinese private group as a case study. A theoretical ERP risk ontology, which was adopted from the literature, was used to frame the study and generate data collection tools. Two questionnaires were thus designed and used to explore ERP post-implementation risks in the case company.\nFindings: - The study identified 37 risk events, of which seven were identified as the most critical for ERP exploitation in the case company. The findings show that organisational and human-related risks are the crucial factors for potential ERP failure and not the usually suspect technical risks.\nResearch limitations/implications: - This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP in general, and provides valuable insights into ERP post-implementation risks in large companies in particular.\nPractical implications: - The findings will not just be useful in supporting ERP risk identification and management in the large Chinese companies, but will also be beneficial to other large companies in general, which may be confronted with similar ERP exploitation challenges.\nOriginality/value: - The majority of large companies in China and in the West have implemented ERP systems and engaged in the system post-implementation phase. Most of the existing literature in the field focuses on the process of implementation. This paper looks forward to the risks involved in the post-implementation phase. Understanding potential risks that may occur during ERP exploitation is vital for these large firms to achieve and sustain business success through their ERP systems.\n",
"role": "assistant"
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] |
Detecting risk transmission from futures to spot markets without data stationarity: Evidence from Turkey's markets
|
[
"Futures markets",
"Emerging markets",
"Foreign exchange",
"Risk analysis",
"Turkey"
] |
[
{
"content": "Summarize the following paper into structured abstract.\n\n1 Introduction: In a simple context, the future price of a financial instrument is calculated by adding the cost of carry to its spot price. Early research on the relationship between spot and future prices relied mainly on the cost of carry model (Gibson and Schwartz, 1990; Wahab and Lashgari, 1993; Brenner and Kroner, 1995; Amin et al., 1995; Clewlow and Strickland, 2000).However, financial markets are dynamic organisms reflecting the perceptions and behaviors of their participants towards the risk factors underlying the instruments traded. In this sense, futures markets reflect expectations of the market participants, in addition to the interest-rate cost to carry their positions. The dynamic mechanism of the markets might create cointegration among the prices. For cointegration analysis between spot and futures markets, the basic methodology is to use the mean-reverting cointegration vector (MacDonald and Taylor, 1988; Bessler and Covey, 1991).In this paper, we use the Bounds test (Pesaran et al., 2001) to examine cointegration, and the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) test to analyze causality between spot and futures markets. In the Bounds test, the existence of cointegration between spot and futures prices can be captured regardless of their stationarity levels. In that sense, it has superiority over the cointegration tests performed by Engle and Granger (1987), Johansen (1988) and Johansen and Juselius (1990). In addition, Tang (2003) states that the Bounds test produces more reliable results in small samples. On the other hand, if the series are cointegrated, traditional F-test statistics used for testing the Granger causality may not be valid because they do not fit into the standard distribution (Toda and Yamamoto, 1995; Giles and Mizra, 1998; Giles and Williams, 1999). In the causality test with modified Wald method developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), a cointegration relationship between the series is not important and it is enough to determine the right model and to know the maximum cointegration level of the variables in the model (Erbaykal, 2008).Turkish futures market opened in 2005 and has recently shown a dramatically improvement in volume. As the Turkish futures markets are among the emerging markets, their price patterns might show stationarities or non-linearity. Under methodological concerns described above, we choose Bounds, and Toda and Yamamoto tests to examine cointegration and causality between spot and futures prices in foreign-exchange markets. In this sense, the paper presents also a guide on how to analyze interaction between spot and futures markets, especially in emerging markets without stationarity in time series data. Empirical findings suggest that there is a statistically significant unidirectional causality running from future market to spot market. As the tests give successful results in detecting causality and cointegration between the spot and futures markets, they can be employed for other financial time series in emerging markets where non-linear behaviors in price patterns might be observed.In the next part, we survey recent research on the causality and cointegration analysis between spot and futures markets. In the third part, we present descriptive statistics and unit root tests for the price series in Turkish spot and futures exchange-rate markets. In the same part, we introduce basic algorithms of the Bounds test and the Toda and Yamamoto test and explain how to use those tests for studying cointegration and causality relationships between spot and futures markets. In the fourth part, we discuss empirical findings in terms of both methodological and investment or practical perspective. The paper ends with a conclusion including suggestions for future research.\n2 Literature survey and problem definition: As suggested by empirical studies, generally time series data are not stationary. There are certain methods to tackle this problem of non-stationarity. One of them is taking the differences of the series before including them in the regression analysis. However, in this case we are confronted with another obstacle stemming from the loss of information that is crucial in examining the long-run equilibrium. Determining a potential long run relationship between these variables becomes impossible as long as the first differences of the variables are used. This is where cointegration analysis comes in handy. In the standard cointegration analysis, the aim is to find out the stationary linear combinations of integrated series that define the long-run equilibrium relationships between the time series under examination (Erbaykal and Okuyan, 2008).According to Engle and Granger (1987), whose approach overcame the problem defined above, time series that are not stationary at levels but stationary in the first differences are modeled with their level states. This method can prevent the loss of information in the long run yet it becomes invalid if there is more than one cointegration vector. Moving from this point, with the help of the approach developed by Johansen (1988), it is possible to test how many cointegration vectors there are among the variables by using the vector autoregression (VAR) model in which all the variables are accepted as endogenous. Therefore, unlike the Engle-Granger method, a more realistic examination is provided without limiting the test in one cointegration vector expectation. On the other hand, the condition that all series are not stationary at levels and become stationary when the same differences are taken must be met in order to perform these tests developed by Engle and Granger (1987), Johansen (1988) and Johansen and Juselius (1990). If one or more of the series are stationary at levels, that is to say I(0), these tests may not be helpful in examining the cointegration relationship. The Bounds test approach developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) eliminates this problem. We can name two main advantages of this approach as follows. First, it can be applied irrespective of whether the regressors are I(0), I(1), or even integrated of the same order. Second, the Bounds test procedure is robust for cointegration analysis with a small sample study (Erbaykal and Okuyan, 2008).From a causality aspect, a thorough examination of the methodology suggests that the causality test developed by Granger (1969) is performed if the series are stationary in their level conditions. The vector error correction (VEC) model developed by Engle and Granger (1987) is used widely if cointegration occurs between series that become stationary when the same difference is taken. In the VEC model, which is a limited VAR model, F-test is used for testing the causality. However, traditional F-test statistics used for testing the Granger causality may not be valid in the case of co-integrated series, because it does not fit into the standard distribution (Toda and Yamamoto, 1995; Giles and Mizra, 1998; Giles and Williams, 1999). During the implementation of modified Wald method developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), cointegration relationship between the series lacks importance as it is enough to determine the right model and to know the maximum cointegration level of the variables in the model.In literature, cointegration analysis is commonly used to detect market integration among international foreign-exchange and equity markets. Goodhart (1988), MacDonald and Taylor (1994) and Nieuwland et al. (1994) employ this methodology for cointegration among exchange-rate markets. Corhay et al. (1993), Alexander and Wyeth (1994) and Masih (1997) find cointegration among equity and bond markets. Empirical evidence suggests that spot and futures markets are co-integrated implying that markets have informational efficiency. In addition, research results suggest that the prediction success of non-linear models is better than linear ones (Nugent, 1990; Chowdhury, 1991; Schwartz and Laatsch, 1991; Schwartz and Szakmary, 1994; Alexander, 1999). As far as we know, the Bounds cointegration test and the Toda-Yamamoto causality test have not been used to analyze the cointegration and causality relationship between spot and futures markets, respectively.Before concluding the survey, it should be emphasized that academic research on the price patterns of futures markets in Turkey is small as it is a newly growing market that opened in 2005. Baklaci (2007) examines the volatility effects of futures prices of exchange rates on spot prices and concludes that futures prices have structural change effects on spot markets. Baklaci (2007) argues that as the information is reflected on futures prices more rapidly, the futures markets maintain a leading role in the price dynamics within the exchange-rate markets. Ozun and Turk (2008a, b) successfully implemented a stochastic process model set up by Borovkova and Geman (2006) to analyze the futures prices in Turkish stock and exchange-rate markets. In addition, the authors also examined factor components of the futures prices by principal component analysis factor loadings. The research of Ozun and Turk (2008a, b) states that futures markets in Turkey do not follow a random walk process and have informational inefficiency as there are arbitrage opportunities in the markets. There is empirical evidence that stochastic volatility and chaotic patterns are dominant in Turkish financial markets. Ozun and Turk (2008a, b) argue that Turkish exchange-rate markets show regime switches and are inefficient as they can be predicted by Kalman and Hamilton filtering methodologies. Hanias et al. (2008) empirically state that Turkish equity markets show chaotic stochastic volatility patterns and are inefficient.\n3 Data: We use daily time series of spot and futures prices of the US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate from January 2, 2006 to March 25, 2008 for empirical analysis. Though the futures markets started functioning in the beginning of 2005, we start our study from the beginning of 2006 since there is missing data and inconsistency in price settlements arising from thin trading before that date. Future prices are derived from the futures contracts that have the closest settlement date. There are also futures contracts for the EUR/Turkish lira exchange rate. However, as their low trading volume leads to thin trading, we are not able to examine the time series of that contract. The graphical representation of the original time and logarithmic return series of the variables are in Figures 1 and 2 and Figures 3 and 4, respectively.Table I shows descriptive statistics for the data. The volatility in futures market is higher than the volatility in the spot market. The distributions of the returns are positively skewed and have excess kurtosis relative to a normal distribution.Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) t-tests (Dickey and Fuller, 1981) and Phillips and Perron (PP) (1988) tests are employed for unit root analysis.Test results indicate that the series are first difference stationary. However, it should be emphasized that the stationarity level does not make any difference for the methodology employed in this paper.\n4 Methodology: The bounds test approach to cointegration\n5 Empirical evidence: We use the Bounds test to examine if there is any cointegration between returns in spot and futures markets. The Bound test results are given in Table II.In Table III, we can see that there is a cointegration relationship between spot and futures returns as F-statistics is higher than the top critical value of Pesaran et al. (2001). After determining the cointegration, we can set up an ARDL model to detect long- and short-term relationships, if any (Table IV).The maximum cointegration levels of the variables is found as dmax=1. To determine the number of delays in the VAR model, we choose maximum duration of lag as 12. Duration of lag minimizing the critical values of likelihood ratio (LR), final prediction error (FPE), Akaike (AIC), Schwarz (SC) and Hannan Quinn (HQ) is shown in Table V.As Table V indicates, we should choose three lags, and duration of delay is three. A causality analysis is performed for a VAR model k+dmax =(3+1)=4 level by adding the maximum cointegration level of 1 to this number of lags. Seemingly, unrelated regression is used for the analysis.According to the results presented in Table VI, there is no causality relationship from spot market to futures market while a unidirectional causality runs from future market to spot market. Empirical results imply that the returns in spot and futures markets are in interaction. As the futures market affects the price behaviors in the spot markets, the futures market is able to fulfill its function in directing the spot markets. In addition, and more importantly, as a causality relationship exists between the two markets, we can conclude that although the Turkish futures foreign-exchange market is newly emerging, there is informational efficiency in Turkish foreign-exchange markets.\n6 Conclusions: Financial time series from emerging economies might involve stationarity problems due to the existence of thin trading and non-linearity in returns. Classical analysis of cointegration and causality between time series that have stationarity problems might not give proper empirical results. In this paper, we use the Bounds cointegration test (Pesaran et al., 2001) and Toda and Yamamoto (1995) causality test to examine cointegration and causality relationship between Turkish spot and futures exchange-rate markets, respectively.Using time series of Turkish spot and futures foreign-exchange markets from January 2, 2006 to March 25, 2008 on a daily basis, empirical research suggests that there is unidirectional causality running from the futures market to spot market. On the empirical side, the results indicate that the foreign-exchange markets in Turkey have informational efficiency. In terms of methodology, we show how Bound and Toda-Yamamoto tests are applied on spot and futures markets interactions without restricting the analysis since there are data-stationarity problems.There exist alternative models to examine the relationship between spot and futures markets in emerging economies. The asymmetric cointegration test developed by Enders and Siklos (2001) is a proper method to examine the price transmissions between spot and futures especially if the price transmissions are asymmetric. As a second alternative, the Kalman filter can be combined with maximum likelihood estimation called expectation maximization to derive futures prices from spot prices. Expectation maximization minimizes variance in predicted unobservable regression (Arnold et al., 2008). In addition, future research might focus on wavelets or wavelet networks to examine the time-scale effects of one market (spot or futures) on the other in order to show the scale of the causality.\n",
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"content": "Purpose: - The purpose of this paper is to analyze cointegration and causality relationships between spot and futures markets in Turkish foreign-exchange markets.\nDesign/methodology/approach: - The research employs Bounds cointegration test and Toda-Yamamoto causality test to detect a possible risk transmission between spot and futures markets. Time series of Turkish spot and futures foreign-exchange markets from January 2, 2006 to March 25, 2008 on a daily basis are used for empirical analysis.\nFindings: - The empirical tests suggest that there is unidirectional causality running from future exchange-rate market to spot market implying that foreign-exchange markets have informational efficiency in Turkey.\nOriginality/value: - The paper has originality in both employing Bounds test and Toda-Yamamoto test to examine the relationship between spots and derivative markets, and in being one of the first empirical papers examining Turkish futures markets. In addition, the paper presents a guide on how Bounds and Toda-Yamamoto tests can be applied to detect interactions among markets without data stationarity.\n",
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